Thursday, May 31, 2007

Edward Hooper at Museum of Fine Arts, Boston


"Edward Hopper” opens on Sunday and runs through Aug. 19 at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 465 Huntington Avenue; mfa.org. The exhibition travels to the National Gallery of Art in Washington (Sept. 16 through Jan. 21, 2008) and the Art Institute of Chicago (Feb. 16 through May 11, 2008)."

Friday, May 25, 2007

Hairless Breed Shines at World Dog Show



MEXICO CITY (AP) -- The star of the World Dog Show is not the soulful Labrador, the bulldog with attitude or even the manic Chihuahua. This year, the hairless Xoloitzcuintles (show-low-ee-SQUINT-lees) are stealing the show in their native Mexico.

Sleek with bat-like ears, the rare breed looks more like a cartoon character than a canine. But its history dates back to the Aztecs, and it has a special allure for asthmatics or those who just don't like cleaning up after a shedding dog.

Nicknamed ''Xolos'' by breeders and known in Mexico as ''Itzcuintles,'' the breed has yet to come into its own. But the dogs are becoming more popular around the world. They can sell for up to $2,500 for a show dog, and past owners have included the Mexican artists Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo.

Breeders say Xolos were on their way to extinction in the 1940s when a group of Mexicans began searching for the dogs in remote, mountain villages and forgotten desert outposts, building a breed that numbers around 5,000 worldwide today.

Patty Hoover, a breeder from Selah, Wash., said she began breeding Xolos almost 20 years ago because she ''married a man who didn't like dog hair on the floor.''

There weren't many other Xolo owners around when she started, but that is changing.

''They are getting a lot more recognition,'' she said, videotaping Xolos as they pranced by at a Mexico City convention center. ''The breeders are working really hard to promote them.''

Stephanie Mazzarella, an asthmatic 44-year-old from Loxahatchee, Fla., began breeding them after her doctor told her she could never have a pet -- unless it had no hair. Now, she spends her free time trying to get others interested in her dogs.

''I put them in a puppy stroller and take them to the mall to try to get the public interested,'' she said as her 9-month-old puppy, Chabella, watched his competitors.

Xolos were common throughout Mexico at the time of the Spanish Conquest. They were considered sacred by the Aztecs, who sometimes ate their meat as a cure-all for illness or buried the dogs with their owners to help guide the human spirit to the afterlife. The dogs are still believed by many to have healing qualities.

Brenda Armstrong, who has four Xolos at home in Vancouver, British Columbia, said she had a friend whose Xolo was trained to wake her up if her diabetic husband's blood sugar fell in the night.

''Mayan women still hold the dogs up to their stomachs to cure cramps,'' she said, playing with the leash of her friend's Xolo at the show.

Some 70 Xolos are competing in this weekend's World Dog Show. It remains to be seen whether the Xolo selected as best of breed can hold its own against the more than 5,000 dogs and 300 breeds competing Sunday for ''best of show.''

Even if they don't win, the Xolos have taken center stage in a sea of Great Danes, German Shepherds and fluffy lap dogs.

The dogs have long been popular in rare-breed dog shows, and can be found as pets around the world. Russians dress them in special down coats, while Mexicans slather light-skinned Xolos in sunscreen.

The dogs have warm, soft skin, and keep their coat oiled with glands found between their toes.

Some have a wiry shock of hair at the top of their head, and about 25 percent are actually born with a thick coat of fur, a genetic quirk.

Xolos range in weight from 10 to 50 pounds and come in three different sizes: mini, a little larger than a Chihuahau; intermediate, about the size of a beagle; and standard, roughly the size of a Labrador.

Armstrong says the breed is hearty, having survived thousands of years in Mexico. Once, her dog ate two barrel cactuses.

''I thought, 'Oh, this is going to be expensive,' '' she said. ''But somehow she didn't have one spine in her mouth, and an hour later she coughed up all the spines and she had no trouble digesting the cactus.''

Gotta Love Pop Art

Amazing...

2 of my favorite things!

No More Vacations to Florida for me!

Wednesday, May 23, 2007

Do Dogs Feel Love?

We feel tremendous love for our dogs, and our dogs sure seem to love us. But is a dog really capable of emotions? Or are we just projecting our feelings onto our dogs?

Scientists avoid the subject because part of what sets humans apart from the animals is our ability to experience feelings. To say that animals actually have feelings, in the same way we do, would change everything – perhaps disrupt our entire position and standing in the animal kingdom.

However, any dog owner knows that dogs love completely and have a greater capacity for love than most people. If one were to describe the main characteristics of a dog, they would have to be:
1. strong affection
2. warm attachment
3. unselfish loyalty and benevolent concern for others

Wait a minute – those are the Merriam-Webster Dictionary definitions of love. Probably why the author of Dogs Never Lie About Love, Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson writes, “dogs are love.” So there isn’t a question of whether dogs love, the mystery is how they have such an enormous capacity for it. Dogs who are neglected or abused still show love for their human and wag their tails in hope of a little affection.

Dogs taken from abusive situations hold no grudges toward the human race. A half an ounce of kindness from a new person results in an abundance of affection from the formerly mistreated dog. Humans rarely have the capacity to so completely forgive and love under those circumstances.

Probably the biggest reason the dog has become man’s best friend is because we know that when it comes to love, a dog can always outdo us. The highest form of love, agape love, which is completely unconditional, is something that people often have to work at or grow into. Agape love seems to come naturally between parent and child, but it’s more difficult between husband and wife, and harder still between friends. To love someone regardless of what wrongs they have done you is very difficult for humans.

A dog, however, is born with an endless capacity for agape love, and doesn’t even have to work at it. You can be a complete grouch, ignore your dog, and refuse him your love. When you decide you’re ready to be sociable again, your dog doesn’t pay you back by ignoring you too. He’s just happy you’re there. More amazing still, is that the love that dogs and owners feel for each other lasts a lifetime. This is the ideal love humans strive for, but often fail at.

As Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson so beautifully writes in Dogs Never Lie About Love, “Learning to know somebody intimately is often the beginnings of dislike, sometimes even of contempt. Among humans, love often does not survive a growing acquaintance, but in a dog, love seems to grow with acquaintance, to get stronger, deeper. Even when fully acquainted with all our weaknesses, our treachery, our unkindness, the dog seems to love strongly – and this love is returned by most dog-loving humans. We, too, seem to love our dogs the more we get to know them. The bond grows between us and our dogs.”

This is why we need dogs. They do something for us that rarely a human companion can do. No matter how much you mess up your life, or how much wrong you do, no matter how many mistakes you make or how often you make them, regardless of your looks, income or social standing, your dog never judges you. He always thinks you are wonderful and loves you with all his heart.

Friday, May 18, 2007

Polar Allegra

What would Mel do?

May 2007 Dog of the Month



Boo Boo

Sponsored: May 7, 2007

If you care about animals like my angel does, you'll want to help WHS put an end to puppy mills. Puppy mills are terrible places!