Caturday Supplement: Ocelot!

Posted on October 1, 2011 by Adam Lang

Adorable! She totally looks like a humongous 80-lb housecat.

Sorry for the late post, but Autumn and I were out at a sea music festival, where Autumn did three performances. And sounded awesome.

Ocelot

I will probably reiterate this several times, but I cannot get over the adorable pink nose!

Ocelot

Unlike the Geoffrey's kitten, this much larger cat required no protective equipment.

Ocelot

The face and attitude were totally housecat, except at five times the length. Me-YOW.

Ocelot

The flopped paw. So cute!

Ocelot

Brave woman. Apparently no permanent mangling, though, or at least none visible, so I guess she knew what she was doing.

Ocelot

Those claws do look just the teensiest bit... terrifying.

Ocelot

That boot makes the cat look smaller than she is. That's a BIG boot.

Ocelot

Eee! (I told you I'd be mentioning that adorable nose again.)

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Dog of the Day: Jake the Drooly St. Bernard (and Friend)

Posted on September 30, 2011 by Adam Lang

As mentioned yesterday, here is Jake, the 6-year-old St. Bernard! His friend is Marley the Lab mix, who I will be featuring separately, since there are just too many good pictures of each of them to fit in one day.

St. Bernard

How can you tell the street is level? The St. Bernard is drooling out of both sides of his mouth! (Actually the street is sharply slanted here. I don't care, it's still a good joke.)

St. Bernard and Lab Mix

Look at the feet on that dog.

St. Bernard and Lab Mix

Is it just me, or does Marley look distinctly disgruntled in this picture? Don't worry, pup, we'll post some pictures of you soon enough.

St. Bernard

That tongue is the size of my entire hand. And his head is ginormous!

St. Bernard

While I was taking pictures of Marley, Jake rolled onto his back with his feet in the air. And then, when I tried to take pictures of that, he rolled back again. Hmf.

St. Bernard

Dogs sure do stand up funny sometimes.

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Dog of the Day: Petunia the European Staffordshire Bull Terrier

Posted on September 29, 2011 by Adam Lang

I would have sworn Petunia was a puppy, she was so little. But apparently European Staffordshires are built small, since she’s 5 years old. (I ran into her on 9/11, at the San Francisco Ghirardelli Chocolate Festival. And no, I didn’t give her any of my chocolate.)

Petunia is affiliated in some way with a Toronto dog charity called ‘Paws 4 the Cause‘, which helps dog owners with high veterinary bills.

I’ve got a treat that I’m going to try to post tomorrow or Saturday: a super-drooly St. Bernard named Jake. I may have gotten too many pictures of him… it’s taking quite a long time to sort through them all, find the decent ones, and then edit them. Hey, there are worse problems for an artist to have than ‘too much material’.

European Staffordshire Bull Terrier

Pretty collar! Petunia is every inch the lady.

European Staffordshire Bull Terrier

I think Petunia was a teensy bit overwhelmed by all the noise and people. Which is fair enough: so was I.

European Staffordshire Bull Terrier

Aww. Don't worry, pup, you'll be going home soon.

European Staffordshire Bull Terrier

I think this is someone's 'I need a tummyrub' expression. Or, at least, that's the effect it had on me.

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Dog of the Day: Sophie the Short-Haired Brussels Griffon Puppy

Posted on September 28, 2011 by Adam Lang

A puppy, in celebration of Autumn’s triumphant return to San Francisco! Sophie’s 11 weeks old, and quite a squirmy handful.

Short-Haired Brussels Griffon

Apparently short-haired Brussels griffons are the result of a cross with pugs. I can see that.

Short-Haired Brussels Griffon

I can't tell whether that face looks grumpy or whether there's a little smile in there somewhere.

Short-Haired Brussels Griffon

Now *that's* grumpy.

Short-Haired Brussels Griffon

PUPPY BELLY!

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Dog of the Day: Charlie the Pug

Posted on September 27, 2011 by Adam Lang

Headline: A Pug Is Goofy. Details At Eleven.

Pug

Charlie's 7, but, as with most pugs, tends to act like he's about 7 months, at least around people.

Pug

Judging from this expression, the word 'pugnacious' was derived from... well, from this expression.

Pug

Is anyone else reminded of a frog?

Pug

He's curly at both ends!

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Dog Nose of the Day: LabraSchnozzola.

Posted on September 26, 2011 by Adam Lang

I probably post way too many goofy dog nose pictures. I can’t help it: they make me smile. (A little short on time today, but there’ll be more of this fine fellow coming up sooner or later.)

Labrador Retriever Nose

So ridiculous.

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Dog of the Day: Labrador Retriever Mix

Posted on September 25, 2011 by Adam Lang

Ran into this guy down at the Ferry Plaza. He’s got to be a mix: his fur was a gorgeous mahogany, which I’ve never seen on a Lab, and was also slightly variegated. Plus his ears were a lot more ‘up’ than you see on Labs, and he had a little patch of white fur.

He also had the most amazing whine that I’ve ever heard. This didn’t sound like a dog whine at all… it was more like a human crying. And he was doing it a lot… seemed like he wasn’t sure whether his person was going to come back out of the Ferry Building for him or not. He only stopped whining when someone stopped to pet him, and then only for as long as the petting lasted. It was devastating. If that were my dog, I’m not sure I would have been able to leave him. Which probably means that I’m too much of a sucker to have a dog.

Labrador Retriever Mix

The color in the picture really doesn't do him justice... his fur was this beautiful variegated brown-shading-to-almost-black color. I should have looked closer: it could even have been brown fur with darker-brown tips.

Labrador Retriever Mix

There's one 'up ear'.

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Caturday Supplement: Geoffrey’s Cat

Posted on September 24, 2011 by Adam Lang

No, this isn’t the cat of a guy named Geoffrey… it’s kitten of a species of South American feline. And it is adorable, and tiny (the adults only get up to 10 lbs or so), and utterly fearless. The lady, part of an educational group called “Classroom Safari” (or, sometimes, “Birthday Safari”) that brings wild animals to classrooms and events for kids, definitely has her hands full with this kitten.

Not to say that I wouldn’t fill my hands with this kitten in an instant, if it didn’t require quitting my job and hand-raising it full time for a couple of months. But I would probably put on oven mitts first.

Geoffrey's Cat (South American Wild Cat)

Not going to apologize for image quality this time: it was way too dark in there, and the animals moved fast and didn't like flashes. I'm lucky I got anything!

Geoffrey's Cat (South American Wild Cat)

A little blurry, but I love the 'vicious kitty' posture!

Geoffrey's Cat (South American Wild Cat)

Faster picture, underexposed and then compensated for. Looks pretty bad, but actually I'm shocked it came out this good. In the exposure, the dynamic range of the picture is around 1/20th of the possible range for the camera, all at the low end.

Geoffrey's Cat (South American Wild Cat)

Spent around an hour on this in Photoshop. Still not great, but at least it's no longer covered with pink and purple splotches. Looked like the woman had some terrible virulent skin condition.

Geoffrey's Cat (South American Wild Cat)

One of a few flash photos. Didn't want to flash him right in the eyes.

Geoffrey's Cat (South American Wild Cat)

This one, now. This one I blame myself for. Dammit, best pose of the lot, and I cut the head off.

Geoffrey's Cat (South American Wild Cat)

This woman is a lot braver than I am. With teeth and claws like that? Yeah. I'd be wearing oven mitts, if not an entire space suit.

 

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Event: Animapalooza!

Posted on September 23, 2011 by Adam Lang

This looks kind of interesting. If you have kids, sounds like it might be fun. Hands on with some kinds of animals, and a bunch of awfully cute-sounding animals in attendance too. (Fennec fox, ocelot, etc.) Can’t bring your dogs, but hey, you can’t have everything.

$10 for adults, $8 for kids, or, if you order in advance, $2 off with the super-special secret code ‘AOB’.

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Double Dog Day: Missie and Raven the German Shepherds

Posted on September 23, 2011 by Adam Lang

Another set of pictures from ‘Bay to Barkers.’ Perhaps unsurprisingly, Missie is the white one and Raven is the very dark (for a shepherd) one. These two were very clearly old friends, in the ‘us against the world’ vein.

(I think they’re winning.)

German Shepherds

I just heard someone complaining about German shepherds yesterday, so I had to post a couple awesome ones in their defense.

German Shepherd

Looks like of like one of the varieties of Belgian shepherds, but given that (as you can see in the background) his mom and dad were German shepherd specialists, I suspect they knew what they were talking about.

German Shepherds

Never seen a white dog colored quite that way before, with the cream about the ears.

German Shepherds

You can tell the white one is a real character.

German Shepherds

I rest my case.

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