The Dogs of Italy

When I saw how welcome dogs are in restaurants and hotels, I was sorry we hadn't considered bringing Molly along. But not sure I could deal with a dog's jet lag as well as my own. "Sally, It's 2 am! Time for our walk!"



This ancient Roman dog is making the same gesture Molly makes when we're driving in the car and she sees a dog on the street. Dogs have been helping humans back to the earliest days and many artists honored them. This was in the Etruscan Museum in Rome. Now when Jon and I are driving in the car and we see a dog, we make the gesture too.

Most of the dogs in Italian art look like Italian greyhounds. Surprise!



This old dog lived in the Cinqueterre on the Italian Riviera.

I'm surprised dogs don't smoke cigarettes in Italy. Everyone else does.

CIAO!

So the day is finally almost here. We leave for New York in the morning and then for Italy on Friday.

We have to take Molly to the kennel this afternoon. She senses something's up. It's a nice place where she's staying, but it's the hardest thing about traveling for us.

I posted a silly storyboard for my section of Toons x 9 here. The illustration above is from the storyboard. Just something to keep you laughing. It was a peculiar project- 9 animators retelling Faust.

I opted for a soap opera approach to hell- at the time airlines weren't as nasty as they are now and computers weren't part of most people's lives. I didn't ever color it in and got rushed to even scan this and put it on line. I never saw what any of the other animators did. In fact I don't even know who they were. Marv Newland (Bambi Meets Godzilla) paid us to do it. Faust is no treat to read, let me tell you! The link is slow to load even though I broke it into segments, and you'll see a white screen before the loading symbol kicks in.

One more thing about the toons project. Aloosha was based on a woman I met the last time I was in New York, 22 years ago! Her name was Lizzie Borden and she was a filmmaker who hoped we'd collaborate on something. She had that "I work out all day" look. I forget if she was a kleptomaniac or not!

I had insane good luck at the track last week and will buy a new tablet computer when I get back, and I guarantee no way in hell will it be a Mac.

Don't even get me started on Steve Job's arrogance re Flash, when you can read it in the paper anyway!

Have fun while I'm away, and hope to check up on you all from an internet cafe in Italy.

Her Inner Rin Tin Tin

When I was walking Molly this morning I came upon a trainer and his student. He was a boxing trainer and they were exchanging fake blows and doing the boxing dance in the grass. Molly did NOT like this at all. Her parents are both working police dogs.

I could barely pull her past these two guys. She wasn't growling but she was really concerned, as if she felt somebody needed to step in and handle this disorderly situation. "Woof, I mean What seems to be the problem here?"

I got a new camera, Sony's latest Cyber-shot, and am trying to make sense of it. It seems easier to understand than other Sony's I've had and dropped. It actually has a pet setting! That's what I used for this photo. No idea what it's doing for pets. It also has a smile detector.

Swim Party at Molly's House

Only in Southern California can dogs have a swim party in mid February. You can't tell from this picture but Molly's friend is about the best looking German Shepherd I've ever seen, a red and black long hair named Tilden.

His owner my pal Calone (ipetsitla) and I were pressed against the fence because the dogs were maniacs running around with no consideration of party hosts. "Hey don't you know you're not supposed to run around a pool?"

Look at all the water spilled. They looked more like otters than like dogs swimming around.



Unfortunately Molly still stands to learn some social skills. (above)

Got the camera out only at the end of a very funny dog swim party, alas, and the battery was nearly dead.

Molly at Corriganville

We took a hike in the hills of Corriganville yesterday, where many B Westerns were shot over the years. What I saw on my dog walk today was like a cheap movie.

I was walking Molly across CSUN to the post office on this hot hot afternoon. I tried to stay on the shady side of the street. As we were getting near Reseda Blvd. I saw two guys punching each other in the middle of the street and yelling at each other, as cars zipped around them. I've never seen people punch each other before. It's not the sound you hear in the movies.

I moved into a shadier area thinking I wanted to be out of any line of fire. But I kept watching. There were two other guys also watching the action, one on a skateboard, one with a backpack.

A car drove up really fast and a second guy jumped out and joined in the fight, then two of them got in the car and drove off really fast on the wrong side of the street, straight through two stop signs, heading into the campus, with cars slamming on brakes all around them.

The guy who was still on foot was catching his breath curbside. He looked like his name could be Duane: good looking skinny guy with sideburns and a Western shirt, sleeves rolled up. He said, "God damn they stole from my store." He worked, or managed Rite Aid on the corner. No sooner had he said this than cops converged from all directions. Only a beat after that and there was a helicopter over head!

The victim held his hand out for the cops as they pulled up to show them the license number he'd written on his palm! The guy on the skateboard said, "It was a 1992 4 door Toyota Corolla heading east and they drove through two stop signs. " The guy with the backpack was the one who'd dialed 911. I was just the ninny with the police dog who watched from the bushes.

The first wave of cop cars was off after them.

Another cop car pulled up and the nervous looking officers jumped out convinced that the victim was the criminal. Everyone had to put hands up. (Well, I didn't.) They couldn't decide if the story was true or not. I said to one cop, "It's true what they're saying." I was amazed how detailed the description was that the skateboard guy gave. He had long dark hair and sunglasses, with a funny hat on.

The backpack guy said to Duane, "Hey man, you should have told me you were p.a." What does that mean? The backpack guy had picked up the stuff that was dropped by the thieves and gave it back to the guy.

As I was walking back a CSUN professor on a bicycle stopped to admire Molly and I told her what had just happened. "Citizenry in action" she declared, and said she was going to tell the whole story to her students.

We stopped so Molly could take a swim in the koi pond, then headed home.

Another tough dog from long ago

As I was looking through the giant pile of cd-roms to find replacement software for my old computer, I came upon a cd of this photograph.

I sold this on ebay about six years ago. A bidding war ensued and it sold for more than $700. It wasn't much bigger than a postcard. Two women who both loved pitbulls were battling. You may not be able to tell, but the girl's holding a pistol and the pitbull has his, uh, lipstick showing.

While trying to revive my laptop I've come upon all sorts of weird solutions that people say work, like "Turn it on, put it in a plastic bag, then cover it with several towels. Wait 45 minutes, turn it off, then turn it on again and hold down the j-k-l keys." Not the h-e-l-p keys?

It didn't work. People are trying to put together a class action suit for this particular hp tablet laptop.

Been a while

Yeah, holiday spirit. I've been trying to put my computer back together again and I came upon this picture Dinah created about 8 years ago. That's our old dog Lulu on the front porch in Colorado.

On the Road Again

We're leaving in the morning, heading back to California. It will take two days, and we're planning on staying in Flagstaff tomorrow night, an old railroad town that still has some charm.



Molly spent the day hovering around the car. The Chows used to lie right in front of it when they got a whiff of suitcase action. At least she has the sense to lie behind it! Dogs get freaked out when suitcases get put into action.

Gray Jay

We went on a lovely hike today near Lizard Head. There was snow under all the pines but the trail was clear and we'd never hiked it before. No human prints on the trail, and no one passed us in either direction. It wasn't a huff and puff trail. There were so many hawks flying. They may have been golden eagles. Also we were stalked by a number of gray jays, like this cutey above.



That's Lizard Head behind me.

Molly gets really crazy when she encounters piles of snow but I didn't get any photos of her in the act.



Last night we put some spaghetti and garlic bread in the upstairs bird pan for the magpies and stellar jays. In the middle of the night Molly started barking frantically. It was serious enough for us to get up and find the big flashlight. Right outside the house a herd of maybe a dozen mule deer ran off in all directions. Mule deer don't usually move in herds.

Was the upstairs smell of garlic bread and spaghetti so enticing?

A very good dog

Tonight I was making lasagna, and the recipe was on the the laptop, on the couch. I'd put one layer down and couldn't remember whether you put sauce next or cheese next. I left the square dish on the counter, on top of a dishtowel, and walked over to the computer.

CRASH! Our counter slants about 15 degrees and the pyrex dish took a slide and a fracture. On the floor were shattered glass fragments, red sauce and noodles. It looked like the scene of a crime. It was meat sauce on the floor. Now our old Chows would have been fighting with me to let them at it even though it was laced with glass, but Molly just watched from her bed. Our downstairs is an open floor plan so there aren't any doors you can close off.

I spent the next 45 minutes on cleanup, and got the remaining lasagna into a bread pan, which is enough for two peeps for dinner.

Here's the lake where she took a sudden swim last week



I bet that water was really cold!

Acrophobia?

Our neighbors told us about a hike they like to take for picnics, so we followed their directions. Maybe we should have remembered that she jogs uphill and he races bicycles.

It was an exciting trail if you like them skinny with cliffs and wide space with nothing to catch you if you roll and big horn sheep scat and slick surfaces, but I ran into some psychological difficulties on the way down. (Notice how I'm leaning even above.)



The butt hike helps when the acrophobia kicks in. My astrological sign is cancer the crab.



This bull mastiff knew better than to hike on such scary trails. "I'm not going!"

This wolfhound pup just joined his athletic family's pack yesterday. His tail was so long he looked like a mountain lion. He was a very mellow pup. He's going back with his new family to Arizona on Thursday. When I see him next he'll be a giant.

Hope Lake

"Hey, where's Sally?"



"I'm coming, I'm coming."



Hope Lake above treeline, around 12,500 feet. Huff, puff. Our neighbors ride a tandem bicycle over the highest mountain passes. They put up with us today. They're fun and are getting a wolfhound puppy tomorrow.



Trying to hitch a ride back. No luck. Smoke from the California fires tints the skies here.

Light in August

Stay in a Line

For years I thought the Bee Gees were singing "Stay in a Line" and thought it was a silly concept for a song. It was really "Staying Alive." These horses are doing a good job staying in a line, and better behaved than some of my mother's meal mates.

Yesterday we went to the dump in Ridgway. We're quite chummy with the lady who runs it. The white truck in front of us had a bumper sticker that said "I want my country back." I wasn't sure if it was talking about race or music, but Jon thought it was race.

We asked our friend what the sticker meant when it was our turn to show her the trash we brought. She said, "Oh, that poor family. Their daughter killed her husband and is serving 50 years in jail. So they have two teenage kids to raise, just when they thought they were going to tour the country. He's a retired chef. They just moved here." woah.... and woes...

We drove on to Ouray (rhymes with hooray, you-ray) past the field of yaks. I'm still determined to get a picture of them but there's no turn off on the skinny road. We went to the little farmers' market there and got peaches, melon, and a loaf of bread with whole baked garlic cloves inside.

Incredibly delicious. I also bought a small goat cheese rolled in thyme and lavender. I sampled it first. I couldn't wait to get home and eat it smeared on that garlic bread. But strangely, when we got home, it was nowhere to be found. I felt so badly, sure I'd dropped it in the street getting in the car. But when Molly had to go outside at 4 am I think I solved the mystery: CHEESE DOG ATE GOAT CHEESE!

Gateway, CO

Yesterday we went to Gateway, Colorado, a former Uranium mill town that's been bought up by Discovery Channel mogul John Hendricks . The town now has a hotel, a restaurant, and a vintage car museum. The highlight of the museum is the Oldsmobile F 88, which he bought for more than 3 million dollars! The architecture of the new town is incredibly boring though intended to be sensitive to the surroundings. It's corporation speak buildings.



I actually didn't like the Oldsmobile 88 as much as some of the older ones, but then I grew up with classic cars and have bias. I always enjoy vintage car museums. Some of those old dinosaurs seem like the apex of industrial design.



This is a spot called The Plume. You might be able to see a few cars down near the river that went over. It was a palm sweat-er to look over

We went with two friends who drove the windy red canyons with rock formations that are almost as stunning as Monument Valley. A car followed us with four more people they knew. They were from Richistan. We all went for a hike in the desert hills right at noon. (Talk about timing.)



One member of the group, a naughty former Eagle Scout, scrambled up the sandy hills and out of sight all alone. He was headed up this precipice. (Last one in picture above.)



We were told he had no fear of heights. We couldn't see him, we couldn't hear him, we didn't know what to do. This was some dangerous hiking. Also prime snake country. His wife was furious, and everyone else was worried. Of course we found him back at the car where he had that Cheshire cat look but said he was sorry.

Molly spent the day at a cage free kennel that didn't inspire much confidence on the outside. In fact something about it brought "Texas Chain Saw Massacre" to mind. But inside it turned out to be a nifty, if eccentric, day care playground. About 20 dogs played cage free, really experiencing that trailer life, and they could also go outside and play on gym equipment.



The picture doesn't do it justice! It looked much worse! Molly seemed pretty spaced out when she got home but she didn't ask for a beer and her coat was clean and shiny.

Dinah comes tomorrow for a few days. She hasn't been here since the day after I broke my ankle at Blaine Basin several years ago. If we'd thought of it sooner, we would have gotten outfits together to make it look like we'd become old bikers to surprise her at the airport.

I was going to do a Photoshop comp of it for your amusement but ran out of time.

Cattlemens Days Pt 2

The actual rodeo in Gunnison is a big affair, three nights of rodeos, with riders who have competed and won at the National in Las Vegas. They were earning points for that here. The announcer kept a constant patter going and there was never any down time...



except for the riders coming off!



I enjoyed the Tie Down Roping the best this time- just one guy, a calf, and the guy's horse. He chases out after the running calf, ropes it, then ties it down while his horse steadily holds the line, keeping a balance to the rope.

But what I liked the best was this: they let us bring Molly into the grandstand. We sat on the top row.



At intermission Jon went out to get a beer- it was the clown act which is usually horrible. But this time the clown brought about five ducks out and a herding dog, and did an act that involved the dog herding the ducks.

Molly got really intent on the act even though we were seated so far away. She started shaking all over, and when the clown said, "Go By", a herding term Molly knows, she started this weird howling that caused a lot of people in front of us to turn around and stare. It was hysterical. She's never herded ducks but she knew exactly what it was about. And the sound she was making!!

We left during the bull riding, and were glad we did because it sounded as if somebody got hurt as we were walking out.

Cattlemens Days Pt 1

We drove over to Gunnison on Friday for Cattlemens Days. We wanted to see what a Gunnison rodeo is like.

But before we went to the rodeo we went to the restaurant we'd been told was the best place to eat in Gunnison: the Trough.

The Trough sits lower than the highway and right next to the river. I thought it looked like an abandoned railroad car or a giant dumpster, but inside it was a different story. It had an amazing interior, which I should have taken a picture of. Slats of wood were assembled to form curving walls with much drama, almost Gaudi like, probably from the early 70's. Very experimental interior.

And a very cornball menu!



It's a special occasion restaurant, and there were big family parties filling the place. The food was delicious and it was a very nice place for prime rib, baked potato, and a glorious salad bowl served at each table.

I wrapped up two small chunks of prime rib to take to Molly, who was waiting in the car. That's why I didn't get a picture of what happened next!

As I was feeding Molly, a Paris Hilton wannabe in a pink string bikini appeared in the parking lot carrying her big inner tube. She'd been traveling on the river. She was also covered with tattoos. She propped her inner tube beside the front door and then went into the restaurant. I just wonder what happened in there next! As we were driving away she came back out of the restaurant.

This isn't the bikini girl, but a soul sister.



Rodeo story tomorrow!

The Money Tree

When Molly Met Bear

We headed out later than usual on our loop walk, which starts up the road past the survivalist's shack. (He's been away for a while.)

Just as we passed his shack Molly took off, and we could see she was after a cinnamon BEAR that was heading in the reverse direction a bit farther downhill from the road. We could see the bear really clearly, not just some orange blob and then gone.

We called her back repeatedly. She kept running until she was only fifty feet away from the bear and then she turned back and ran to us. Never once did she make a sound. The bear, an adult, just kept on walking the way it was walking, headed down the hill towards our house. There were no cubs following the bear.

If I didn't know that black bears can be cinnamon color I would be mighty scared it was a griz, but there are no grizzly bears in Colorado. We'd always wondered what Molly would do if she encountered a bear. We were SO PROUD of her.

Later on the same hike we saw some elk and a fox skull (I think). It was still too fresh to bring home. I hadn't brought my camera today, but even if I had I was way too busy getting excited about the bear to think of taking a picture.

Do you think it might be a bear that's been eating our hollyhock blossoms?

Mule Ears

About fifteen minutes after we took this picture a monster thunderstorm hit and outdoor chairs went sailing. We got back just in time. These beautiful big yellow flowers are mule ears.

Whenever the weather gets wild here we lose our internet connection, but give it half an hour and the sun's back out.

Without using google, would you know what a big sign at City Market advertising "French Rabbit" means? Just curious. (I know the answer now.)