Wordless Wednesday 016: Curious Joe

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Mellow Yellow Monday 002: Max and the gasoline boy

Okay, we are back for this week's Mellow Yellow Monday. Today we feature Max. Photo was taken in one of our weekend drives out of the city.


Max is keeping an eye on the gasoline boy.

Ey, yu! Look at me eyes. No ripping us off, okay? I ar watching yu.

Mellow Yellow 001: Yellow stairs

Here come's Joe...



What a fitting entry for our debut here at Mellow Yellow Monday. That's Joe trying to go down our yellow stairs. He was scared at that time when I took the photo, but now that he is older (at 4months) and bigger, he just zooms up and down without the slightest hesitation, even racing against Max. Good boy, Joe!

Wordless Wednesday 015: How much is that doggy on the window?

Arf! Arf!

Wordless Wednesday 0014: Camera-shy

My dear friends, I'd like you to meet the newest family member. He is Jo---


Joe... where are you?
Come out and show your face...
We are waiting...


Ahh, he's still a bit shy.
He'll be more comfortable in front of the camera next time, so do come back and say hi :)

I love Sundays!

Mum and dad played with me today. And how I love it! I hope we do this more often.

Wordless Wednesday 0013: Poor Max!

Mum and Dad are very busy at work, even extending up to weekends. We have not gone out for my favorite long drives because of that, and now, my nails are longer and screaming for attention. This is how I look every morning before Dad goes to work. Nobody seemed to notice :(

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Max is back!

Great news, indeed! This is Max talking.
Actually I didn't go away but my mum and dad did. I was sad to see them leave but at the same time I welcomed the care and attention given to me by our landlord. They cared for me so well that 10days went by unnoticed.

So here's my dad and me. We went to our favorite weekend getaway in Kep. The guest-house where we stayed in was a beautiful bungalow in the middle of a lush vegetation on the hillside. He had this crazy idea to go hiking with me, a city dog!



We passed along an area with lots of durian trees. It was a nice sight, and a scary one, at the same time. Looking at the spiky durian fruits hanging perilously on the branches was a terrifying sight I had goosebumps! Imagine that falling and impaling me... acckk! Plus, I was so terrified of snakes, insects and ants, red ants, lurking in the grass, trees and leaves. I dreaded walking on red ants and provoke them into attacking me with their ferocious bites. I had to stop and shake my nerves off several times. Haha. Luckily, I survived the one-hour hike.

Happy now that mum and dad are here. Looking forward to more adventures together with them.

Dear Cats and Dogs*

The following was found posted very low on a refrigerator door.

Dear Dogs and Cats : The dishes with the paw prints are yours and contain your food. The other dishes are mine and contain my food. Placing a paw print in the middle of my plate and food does not stake a claim for it becoming your food and dish, nor do I find that aesthetically pleasing in the slightest.

The stairway was not designed by NASCAR and is not a racetrack. Racing me to the bottom is not the object. Tripping me doesn't help because I fall faster than you can run.

I cannot buy anything bigger than a king size bed. I am very sorry about this. Do not think I will continue sleeping on the couch to ensure your comfort, however. Dogs and cats can actually curl up in a ball when they sleep. It is not necessary to sleep perpendicular to each other, stretched out to the fullest extent possible. I also know that sticking tails straight out and having tongues hanging out on the other end to maximize space is nothing but sarcasm.

For the last time, there is no secret exit from the bathroom! If, by some miracle, I beat you there and manage to get the door shut, it is not necessary to claw, whine, meow, try to turn the knob or get your paw under the edge in an attempt to open the door. I must exit through the same door I entered. Also, I have been using the bathroom for years - canine/feline attendance is not required.

The proper order for kissing is: Kiss me first, then go smell the other dog or cat's butt. I cannot stress this enough.

Finally, in fairness, dear pets, I have posted the following message on the front door:

TO ALL NON-PET OWNERS WHO VISIT AND LIKE TO COMPLAIN ABOUT OUR PETS:

(1) They live here. You don't.
(2) If you don't want their hair on your clothes, stay off the furniture. That's why they call it 'fur'-niture.
(3) I like my pets a lot better than I like most people.
(4) To you, they are animals. To me, they are adopted sons/daughters who are short, hairy, walk on all fours and don't speak clearly.

Remember, dogs and cats are better than kids because they (1) eat less, (2) don't ask for money all the time, (3) are easier to train, (4) normally come when called, (5) never ask to drive the car, (6) don't hang out with drug-using people; (7) don't smoke or drink, (8) don't want to wear your clothes, (9) don't have to buy the latest fashions, (10) don't need a gazillion dollars for college and (11) if they get pregnant, you can sell their children ...

***
From an email.

Wordless Wednesday #012: Happy-head

... Bleh! Today is my day out!

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Wordless Wednesday #011: I like...

... munching on this crisply leaf.

Wordless Wednesday #0010: This is how I go around...

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Wordless Wednesday #0009 : I are da bos hir

.... jazz so you kno (nuffing personal)...

This is for the Tuesday-Wednesday edition of Wordless Wednesday.

Wordless Wednesday #0008: Smooching with Miss Igorota*

Sharing the luuuuurve!

My entry for this week's Tuesday-Wednesday edition. Check out other Wordless entries.

*Know more about Miss Igorota at Postcards from Miss Igorota.

Wordless Wednesday #0007: Sun-worshipper

This is for the Tuesday-Wednesday edition of Wordless Wednesday.

Dogs Chase Efficiently, But Cats Skulk Counterintuitively

Here's an interesting story about dog-cat differences from the Science Daily:

Dogs Chase Efficiently, But Cats Skulk Counterintuitively

ScienceDaily (Dec. 4, 2008) — A Duke University study suggests that evolution can behave as differently as dogs and cats. While the dogs depend on an energy-efficient style of four-footed running over long distances to catch their prey, cats seem to have evolved a profoundly inefficient gait, tailor-made to creep up on a mouse or bird in slow motion.

"It is usually assumed that efficiency is what matters in evolution," said Daniel Schmitt, a Duke associate professor of evolutionary anthropology. "We've found that's too simple a way of looking at evolution, because there are some animals that need to operate at high energy cost and low efficiency."

Namely cats.

In a report published online Nov. 26 in the research journal Public Library of Science (PLoS), Schmitt and two former Duke co-researchers followed up on a scientific hunch by measuring and videotaping how six housecats moved along a 6 yard-long runway in pursuit of food treats or feline toys.

Long-distance chase predators like dogs can reduce their muscular work needed to move forward by as much as 70 percent by allowing their body to rise and fall and exchanging potential and kinetic energy with each step. In contrast, the maximum for cats is about 37 percent and much lower than that in a stalking posture, the report found.

"An important implication of these results is the possibility of a tradeoff between stealthy walking and economy of locomotion," the three researchers wrote in PLoS. "These data show a previously unrecognized mechanical relationship in which crouched postures are associated with changes in footfall pattern, which are in turn related
to reduced mechanical energy recovery."

In other words, they found that when cats slink close to the ground they walk in a way that "the movements of their front and back ends cancel each other out," Schmitt said. While that's not good for energy efficiency "the total movement of their bodies is going to be even and they'll be flowing along," he added

"If they're creeping, they're going to put this foot down, and then that foot down and then that one in an even fashion. We think it has to do with stability and caution, Schmitt said."

Walking humans recover as much energy as dogs, said Schmitt, who studies gaits of various mammals. "Our centers of mass rise and fall when we walk. And when we do that, humans and other animals exchange potential and kinetic energy. It's an evolutionary miracle in my view.

"But cats need to creep up on their prey. Most scientists think that energetic efficiency is the currency of natural selection. Here we've shown that some animals make compromises when they have to choose between competing demands."

The study was supported by the National Science Foundation. Kristin Bishop, a former postdoctoral researcher at Duke, was the lead researcher and first author. Another author was Anita Pai, a former Duke undergraduate who is now a medical student at Vanderbilt University.

Duke University (2008, December 4). Dogs Chase Efficiently, But Cats Skulk Counterintuitively. ScienceDaily. Retrieved January 10, 2009, from http://www.sciencedaily.com /releases/2008/12/081203184533.htm

Wordless Wednesday #0006: Dog-tired

My entry for the Tuesday-Wednesday edition of Wordless Wednesday.