So far we’ve only had two cavaliers, and both of them were ruby (solid red) in color. Here’s one of the more common Blenheim (red on white) coloration.
A second picture after the break.
Jersey cow! Also, cavaliers always seem to look disgruntled, don't they?
Another unknown mix. He looks pretty corgi-ish, though, and pretty Rottie-ish as well. Who knows?
Another couple pictures after the break.
Puppydog eyes are always enhanced by strange eyebrows.
This pit bull puppy is sad, because you haven’t been petting him. It is all your fault, and I hope and expect that the next time you see him you will do the right thing and give him plenty of attention to make up for it.
Poor little guy. He's even got a bit of a hot spot on his leg. And look at that expression.
Ran into these guys right near my home. And what a pair they are… they must be a real handful. After we were introduced, though, they were as polite as could be to me.
Unfortunately, I only got close-ups of one of the two, the one with the sharper muzzle. He was a real camera-hound. Two more pictures of him after the break.
The difference in their expressions is awesome in this picture.
Another new breed for us. Apparently Briards are known as ‘hearts of gold wrapped in fur’. Which for some reason reminds me of the Douglas Adams quote about a drink that was like ‘having your brain smashed out by a slice of lemon wrapped around a large gold brick.’
Man, Briards are large. Also, they look like muppets.
This guy is a study in ‘why Adam needs a new camera’. The first set of pictures I took of him were all ruined by my having the macro lens thingie that’s part of my iPhone case in the wrong position, so he was a giant black blob. And then, lo and behold, I ran into him again! This time it was 8:15 AM, and cloudy, and perfect for photography. You’d think. Except that the iPhone can’t take pictures of things that move around any, unless they’re in direct sunlight. Except that in direct sunlight, it washes out the highlights and blots out the shadows. I just can’t win.
Sadly, I don’t have the money for a new camera right at the moment, so y’all will just have to suffer along with me until I can get one.
This is the one picture of Tai that came out nearly okay.
Tai is super-gangly and cute. It's a pity he's so skittish. He gave my hand a sniff, but wouldn't let me pet him at all.
Autumn and I were sitting out in front of one of the many sidewalk cafes in our neighborhood, minding our own business, when we were assaulted by this vicious fellow. Look into his eyes! Can’t you just see his feral nature?
Okay, okay. He licked us. Repeatedly. And also attempted to get his nose into my backpack, and borrow some of our brunch. And when his mom wanted to leave, he wanted to stay with us. Super-sweet pup.
Three more pictures, including one super-goofy (if slightly out of focus) pic, after the break.
Oooh, man, this guy would be a handful. Totally hyper. But he loves everyone, including other dogs, and is happy to share that love, so I'm sure he's well worth the effort.
So, I’m considering getting a new camera, in my tireless search for better dog pictures for YOU, THE READER! The iPhone camera has a lot of shortcomings, not the least of which is that it sucks. (In fairness, its main sucking point is low-light, or medium-low-light with rapidly moving targets… I guess it’s not the iPhone’s fault that dogs move around a lot.)
The camera I’m looking at is the Fujifilm FinePix F300exr. From what I can see, it has pretty good low-light performance (not the best, but in the top 1/4), plus a really versatile lens (that is potentially long enough for me to take sea otter pictures with, but is also perfectly good for everyday dog pictures) whose quality is, again, if not the best, then certainly in the top 1/4. (And a high enough resolution to crop out the outer 1/8 or so of the image and still have plenty to work with, which means that the worst problems with the lens (softness in the corners) aren’t too big an issue.) This combination (really long lens, decent quality lens, decent low-light performance) seems essentially unique to this camera.
I know I don’t have a whole lot of regular readers, but there are a few of you: does anyone have any experience with this camera? If so, how easy is it to use? How fast does it start up when you pull it out of your pocket? Is it reasonably well-built? I.e., if I drop it after an overly enthusiastic greeting from a Shetland-pony-sized dog, how likely is it to still be in one piece when I retrieve it?
Anyway, a French bulldog for y’all. Got a picture of this guy/gal at our Cloudmark company picnic. If I knew who belonged to him/her, I’d get a name and some details, but I’m afraid that if I ever found that out, I’ve forgotten by now.
Edit: Apparently it’s Enzo, the dog of Doug! Thanks, Danielle.
Frenchies have the most amazingly expressive ears. I'm not sure what 'one straight back, one straight up' means, aside from perhaps 'I'm a goofball.'
Autumn is currently visiting Boston, after being at St. Lucia and Barbados for a week and a half or so. And she seems to be coming down with something, which may or may not be some exotic tropical mosquito-bourne illness. Send her some good thoughts, if you have any to spare in the current economy.
Let me tell you, trying to figure out how to get a sick someone three thousand miles away set up in a hotel in Boston in late September, somewhere where they can easily get to a doctor? Quite a challenge. Finding a damn hotel room in Boston at all in late September is bad enough.
We ran into this guy at a street fair on Union Street in the Marina/Cow Hollow area. There was a lot of noise and a lot of hustle and bustle, and I think he got a little overwhelmed by it all. Nevertheless, he did give Autumn and me puppy smooches.
Two more powerfully cute pictures after the break.
That may actually be the cutest picture we've had on this blog so far.