Dogs In Popular Culture - Day 2: Beloved Dogs in Literature

Continuing with our 'Dogs In Popular Culture' series, who better to celebrate these dog days of summer with than some of the 'Most Beloved Dogs in Literature'?

Here's my list - see if you agree! And if I've missed your favourite(s), then throw him or her a bone in the comments...

Argos, The Odyssey - he waited 20 years for his master to return!

Toto, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz - yup, this was a book first! Dorothy's favourite little black dog and favourite sluggish companion.

Lassie, Lassie Come Home - also a book first, and a feature story in the Saturday Evening Post before that! Do I really need to elaborate on this one?

Old Yeller, Old Yeller - yet another 'book before it was a big screen hit'! From rascal to lifesaver, this story sure gave me some first big cries of childhood!

Bodger and Luath, The Incredible Journey - one more 'book before it was a big screen hit'! (N.B. Chance only joined in the movie version.) What a ragtag duo. My affinity for Labs may have its origins in this adventure series.

Buck, The Call of the Wild - a riches to rags story and a testament to the loyal bond between a man and his canine companion.

Clifford, Clifford the Big Red Dog - now I'm not sure this children's series can be classified as 'literature', but the shenanigans of this big, red, affable canine lulled me to pleasant sleep on more than one night as a little girl!

Snowy, The Adventures of Tintin - the fluffy, adorable, cynical foil to Tintin's eternal optimism.

Agree? Think I missed anyone?

Image from here

Dog In Popular Culture - Day 1: Idioms

Have you ever thought about how often we use dog-related expressions in everyday conversation?

Well, here's a preview - and it's a pretty long list! Has our art of conversation just about gone to the dogs?!

Bark up the wrong tree
A barking dog never bites
Better be the head of a dog than the tail of a lion
Big dog
Bird dog
Call off the dogs
Crooked as a dog's hind leg
Dirty dog
Dog and pony show
The dog ate my homework
A dog's breakfast
Dog days of summer
Dog does not eat dog
Dog eat dog world
Dog in the manger
Dog it
Dog-faced liar
A dog's life

Dogged me
Dog-tired
Done up or dressed up like a dog's dinner
Every dog has its day
Fight like cat and dog
Give a dog a bad name
Go to the dogs
Hair of the dog that bit you
Happy as a flea in a doghouse
Have a bone to pick
Hot dog!
Hounds of hell
If you lie down with dogs, you will get up with fleas
In the dog house
Let sleeping dogs lie

Like a blind dog in a meat market
Like a dog with a bone
Like a dog with two tails
Like dog's breath
Love me, love my dog
Lucky dog
Meaner than a junkyard dog
My dogs are barking
Not have a dog's chance
Put a dog off the scent
Put on the dog
Quick as a dog can lick a dish
Raining cats and dogs
Sad as a hound dog's eye
See a man about a dog
Shaggy dog story
Shouldn't happen to a dog
Sick as a dog
Tail wagging the dog
There's life in the old dog yet
Throw you a bone
Throw someone to the dogs
Top dog
Two (or three) dog night
Wag the dog
Went off with his tail between his legs
Why keep a dog and bark yourself?
Work like a dog
You can't teach an old dog new tricks

If you're curious, and looking for the meanings and origins of this particular list of expressions, check out the post on Dog Idioms, over at Cesar's Way.

Throwing you a bone,
Danielle

Swimmer's Tail in Dogs

Ok, so I didn't think this was real. It is.

Swimmer's tail in dogs happens when the water they swim in is either too warm or too cold or they've been swimming for a long time and aren't properly conditioned for the activity.

Juno got swimmer's tail.

We don't know if it was because the water in our pool was, in fact, too cold for her at the beginning of the season (our first year with a pool), or because she got too excited and swam too darn hard for her first time in. She loves swimming, so she knows how to do it, and we know how to read her signals for when she's getting too tired, but she got it anyway.

Luckily, Juno's swimmer's tail only lasted 3 days and didn't seem to bother her too much - we could still touch and lift her tail, and she wasn't in any visible pain. She did chase her tail more than usual, and was a bit lethargic, but for our dog, lethargy is a relative state - she still had a lot of energy for a dog, just maybe a little less than 'her normal'.

But the tell-tale signs were there; a tail that shoots straight out about 3 inches, then hangs limp to the base, even when she's happy or excited. It was sad - and we felt so badly!

Juno's tail hasn't been plagued by swimmer's tail since - our pool water has warmed up and she's building up something of a swimmer's physique (!), so she can now easily out-swim her previously un-swim-conditioned self from earlier in the season. Here she is in better form:

 She has to wait for her 'swim word' first...

But check it out, for any dog's sake. You can read more (it's also referred to as limber tail syndrome, broken wag, etc.) here - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limber_tail_syndrome

and you can see it in action below - (we didn't have the heart to capture Juno's particular experience on camera or on video):

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"Text From Dog"

Maybe this is old news to some, but I've come across what I think might be one of the funniest dog-related sites on the whole inter webs!

http://www.textfromdog.tumblr.com

Warnings for what I'll call 'adult language', but if you can get past that part, it's very funny!

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Oh good, it only started in April - that's only three months of hilarity to go through!

Enjoy and happy Friday, everyone!

Dynamic Duo

So Juno has a name twin. Which may not sound exciting, but, this is the first time we've met another dog with the name Juno - spelled the same way...and with the personality to match!

So, little Wheaten Terrier named Juno, who we met at the dog park and who played so match-ed-ly with our Juno, we salute you!

It was the funniest thing to see these two running around, rolling in thick mud, darting up and down hills, duelling over sticks, and teasing and feeding off each other's energy levels so well. And both looking up when one or the other was being called was just the funniest thing! They could have kept going for a lot longer than any of us had time for!

Mutt and Jeff I tell you. Our Juno towered over this guy!

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(not the actual name twin)

We hope to see you again, name twin!

'Easy' Peasy

Happy Friday everyone!

We've been doing some computer editing and came across these old gems - videos of Juno, making it all look pretty 'easy'!

Enjoy and see you next week!

Recipe Share

Cake? I think I will! For more about my thoughts on cake, click here.

Today, I'll be sharing the recipe for this beauty:

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Banana Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
From Food.com, with modifications and notes from Jane at This Week for Dinner
- 1 1/2 cups ripe bananas, mashed (Jane note: mash the bananas REALLY WELL...no lumps!) - 2 teaspoons lemon juice
- 3 cups flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 cup butter, softened
- 2 1/8 cups sugar
- 3 large eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 1 1/2 cups buttermilk
Frosting
- 3/4 cup butter, softened
- 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened - 1 teaspoon vanilla
- ~3 1/2 – 4 cups powdered sugar


Preheat oven to 300°
Grease and flour a 9 x 13 pan or two 9-inch round pans. (Jane note: For the round pans, I actually had some leftover batter – you want to fill the pans up about halfway – the cake grows when cooking)
In a small bowl, mix mashed banana with the lemon juice; set aside. In a medium bowl, mix flour, baking soda and salt; set aside.
In a large bowl, cream 3/4 cup butter and 2 1/8 cups sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time, then stir in 2 tsp vanilla. Beat in the flour mixture alternately with the buttermilk. Stir in banana mixture.
Pour batter into prepared pan(s) and bake in preheated oven for about 45 minutes, until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean and cakes are lightly browned.
Remove from oven and place directly into the freezer for 45 minutes. (Jane note: if you are making two rounds, let them cool in the pan 5-10 minutes, pop them out of the pan onto cooling racks, THEN put in the freezer. The original recipe claims this immediate freezing step will make the cake very moist...I also like doing this because then my cake is ready to be frosted more quickly.)
For the frosting, cream the butter and cream cheese until smooth. Beat in 1 teaspoon
vanilla. Add powdered sugar and beat on low speed until combined, then on high speed until frosting is smooth. (Jane note: the recipe calls for 3 1/2 cups of powdered sugar...I used a bit more butter and I didn’t measure the sugar as I added it – just kept adding until it was the right consistency.) Spread on cooled cake. 
Enjoy!