Watermark

Sadie & PeeWee

Remember PeeWee? Cousin Sue just sent some new photos, of PeeWee playing with her best buddy, the hardened cow dog, Sadie [click the photos to see big ones.] I can't help but wonder if Blue Heelers are soft-mouthed dogs, or if Sadie is just soft on PeeWee.

Interspecies cuddling isn't as unusual as we might think -- my friend Cindy sent me this one about a baby squirrel and an adoptive Papillon mother, which is quite wonderful. Be sure to scroll through all the photos.

Dave at How To Save The World talks about the importance of us remembering our own connections to the other animals:

Artist Andrew Campbell recently referred me to some new work being done in the study of animal communications. He pointed out the Interspecies.com site that has been tracking developments in this area for over a decade. If you've never had an extended first-hand experience with an animal in the wild, the article by this site's author Jim Nollman titled What the Raven Said will give you a taste of what you're missing.

This is a stunning, wonderful story. It takes me back to Juneau and my many conversations with ravens there -- none so deep or marvelous as this.

Dave again:

Studying 'animal' and inter-species communication is one area to which, if I had a bit more competency and a lot more courage, I could see myself devoting my life. But trying to teach other animals our language seems to me to get it backwards, so I'm intrigued at the efforts of those who are trying to learn other species' 'languages', starting with trying to learn what needs to be learned to even begin to understand means of communication that at first we find unfathomable.

Other places to explore interspecies attachments and communication include zoosemiotics; All My Relations; Koko.org; Artful Dolphin; the flickr group zoophilia; and the above mentioned Interspecies.com.

And, of course:

Friday Ark
I and the Bird 
Carnival of the Dogs
Carnival of the Cats: Part 1; Part 2; Part 3

Just as I finished this post, a new story came up on Salon, Cat Show Plans Memorial Service for Dog:

A schnauzer-Siberian husky mix named Ginny will be eulogized Nov. 19 at the Westchester Cat Show, where she was named Cat of the Year in 1998 for her uncanny skill and bravery in finding and rescuing endangered tabbies.

Here is Ginny's Fan Club.

Keep squawking, rasping, hissing, knocking on wood.

Montana Website Awards

Happy Birthday Montana!

November 8, 1889 - November 8, 2005

I missed this when it happened, but The Last Best Place blog notes that Tuesday was Montana's Birthday. And in a serendipitous coincidence, Wulfgar inaugurated the first annual Montana Website Awards.

So, in keeping with the reflective and elective mood of November, I offer the first annual Montana websphere polling. This is low-tech stuff, with no polling software, no Diebold machines, and no possessive centralization required. Here’s what I propose. I will offer several categories for voting, with no established candidates.

He has lots of categories, and lots of ways to vote. He even started us off with his own ballot, which has Watermark votes in two categories!!

You have until November 19th to vote, so go to it. This is probably the most complete list of candidates: Big Sky Bloggers -- but we grow daily, so don't feel constrained to the list. If you haven't yet discovered or explored our cowpoke/ townie / mountain/ prairie blogosphere, this is a good time to start.

Blocked

It's snapshot poem day. Am I writing? Am I brilliant and inspired?

No.

[This charming little gif, known as Deadline, is circulating through various newsrooms in the Bay Area. Reporter Janis Mara sent it to me, in a timely fashion.]

First Snow

A snow-bright morning. Crows, ducks, kingfishers. Glowing spots on the mountains where the sun shines through brilliant clouds. All this on a day that our leaders discuss whether or not we, Americans, will give ourselves permission to torture. Whether we will step even further from the international community.

These ducks passed over the guns of hunters. Now they settle together on this river in the center of the city. They will be fed through the winter by the river and human children bringing bread and popcorn. The crows circle and argue for the leftovers. Bird feeders, put away from bears in the summer, reappear for all the backyard birds.

As our president flies back from a South American summit, his plane crosses the paths of migrating flocks going south. Our soldiers come home in pieces. They leave behind them enemies and friends; the guilty and the innocent dead.

Around the world, birds are slaughtered and tested for plague.  Birds acknowledge no boundaries, not those of nations or geography. Plague ignores even the boundaries of species. All are at risk -- our wild birds, our domesticated pets, and our cruel and untamed selves. 

Autumn Rose & Rosehips

blog!

I am reading -- and enjoying -- this book. I'm also participating in a conversation with David Kline at The Well, on an open forum called Inkwell.vue; you needn't belong to The Well to participate, and may find the discussion interesting even if you haven't read the book. This conversation will continue for the next two weeks; come join in!

David also has a blog that I follow: BlogRevolt.com, where he talks about blogging, politics, technology, and whatever else catches his eye (note to David: you need to activate your Categories.)

Orange Cats

[This has been reposted here:  Orange Cats | Popular Cats | Facebook Cats with a winnowing of dead links, and a few additions -- including a talking orange cat. See also: Orange Cat Inca[n]tation.]

 

Everyone knows that orange cats rule. Just ask an orange cat. Or a ginger cat, a marmalade cat, a tangerine cat, a red cat.

But there may be some things you don't know about these kingly cats. For example, did you know that most orange cats are male?

Like humans, cats have one pair of sex chromosomes. These are the ones that make them male or female and they play an essential role in determining a cat’s colour. In females, both sex chromosomes are X making girl kitties XX. Males are XY, the Y making them male. A kitten gets one chromosome from Mom and one from Dad. Moms only have X’s so the variable is given by the Dad, if he gives his X, the kitten is a girl, if he gives his Y, it is a boy.

The gene which makes a cat ginger (orange) is located on the X chromosome. The gene for ginger will override all other colours. Since males have only one X, they either are or aren’t ginger - no halfway about it. Girl cats have two X’s in each cell. As far as the cells are concerned two X’s is one too many, so each cell deactivates one of the X chromosomes in a fairly random fashion . . .

Since males only need to have the orange gene on one chromosome to become ginger, and females have to have it on two, ginger males outnumber females 3 to 1.

And, from the same source, the explanation for why we have so many orange and white cats:

. . . Because white isn’t a colour but the absence of colour. The genes that cause the suppression of colour are stronger than the genes for any colour including the mighty orange. Since white isn’t a colour and is merely hiding the genes for colour, white cats often produce coloured kittens.

Thursday Squirrel Blogging

The Day of the Dead 1 November 02005

This morning I woke to the smell of winter,
thinking of you searching for hope. Where
are you looking? In the bodies of women
who are strangers to you. In rice fields
and temples; in classrooms and markets;
in the dangerous sea. Though this valley
is bare, the mountains hide in a thin veil
of snow. If I set a place at my table for all
my dead, will they come? I am waiting
for hope. I know you are there, but you
are well out of sight.

New West Awards

I'm a bit late with this, but still pleased to see that:

New West Wins Two Online Journalism Awards

By Jonathan Weber, 10-29-05

We're thrilled to report that New West was named the winner of two Online Journalism Awards at a ceremony in New York on Saturday. Hal Herring's gripping six-part series Sex, Money and Meth Addiction: Inside the World of the Dasen Girls was the winner in the Enterprise Journalism category for small publications, and New West was the winner for General Excellence among small publications. We're in good company - the other big winners tonight were the New York Times and Slate . . .

I've been very impressed with this project since its beginning; I think it's a model for the potentials of serious, journalistic blogging.

And then there is non-serious, personal blogging:

My blog is worth $231,461.40.
How much is your blog worth?

Via as i live a few more questions. scribblingwoman is worth $159,764.82; she is considering serious offers only. Hmmm, if she gets some, I might consider . . .

Nah.