Dogburger

Many people are not aware that the Boston terrier is a hibernatory animal. 

It goes to sleep in mid-December and wakes only to eat, tussle, tear stuff up and do its business until the weather warms again in April.

Its gentle rolling snore may be heard in many households across the world.

The Boston terrier seeks out the softest habitat it can find. It is attracted to down and fleece, for it seeks warmth above all else.

However, it may sometimes be found positioning itself over furnace registers or next to space heaters, much the way Florida manatees gather at power plant outflow vents for life-sustaining heat.

Please turn it up to High. 

Its underparts are very sparsely furred, such that the skin may be seen right through its hair. It hates coming into contact with snow especially.

An unusual and somewhat unexpected adaptation to heat-seeking in the Boston terrier is tool-using. In this behavior, the animal creates a sandwich of two or more beds, and instead of sleeping atop it, crawls in between the layers. This allows the animal to get up and stretch or get a drink of water and cover itself back up without waking its caretaker. That is a maladaptive behavior, and the Boston terrier innovates in order to avoid it.

This behavior and configuration of bedding is called Dogburger.

From mid-December on, only small bits of the hibernating animal are usually seen.

In response to hearing its name, the Boston terrier may briefly expose its kissable bits, but they are quickly withdrawn back into Dogburger, lest they lose heat.

A Dog's Birthday

 Musing tonight on Pet Value. Chet Baker is sitting at my feet, watching a rabbit under the feeders. He's stuck to me like glue today, occasionally launching himself up into my lap for a seriously good cuddle. How did he know I needed that? He just did, that's all.

I really had to have a dog like Chet to appreciate true Pet Value. An interactive dog. The kind of dog you can bake a cake for. Who gets it, and behaves perfectly appropriately.

Phoebe baked the cake, and she was feeling experimental, so she mixed blue and red food coloring and got a perfect Eighties mauve in the almond buttercream frosting. You know, the kind of mauve that is paired with gray and teal in older motels. Gag.  If you haven't already gathered by the peeks into our house that this blog affords, color is Very Important to us here on Indigo Hill. Yes, even the name of the place is a color.

Despite appearances, the cake was absolutely delicious. And it was also for Wendy, a December baby, and vocalist/keyboardist/arranger in The Raincrows, our new acousticky band. Both she and Chet Baker are Sagittarians. I get along very well with Sagittarians, even if I cannot spell it to save my life.

Miss Wendy, will you help me blow out the candles on our cake? My lips are not very cooperative.

I purely love this photo.  

He showered her with kisses, of course, for helping him get his birthday wish.

Which was a Gummy Bone. We wrapped it in brown paper and put it on the table, and Chet took over from there. He catpawed it but couldn't pull it close enough to him to pick it up.

A Boston terrier's reaction to nearly everything: Lick it. Oooh, I want that little present soooo badly!

Finally, Chet climbed up on the table (where you can see the last snowstorm that covered the midsection of the country on Intellicast radar!) and claimed the prize for his own.

                                                                              

I used to buy Chet the hard white Nylabones until KatDoc warned us that they can cause shear fractures of teeth. Nobody needs a split tooth! So now he gets the rubbery ones. And his crounching is much quieter.

I didn't realize until I got this photo up on the screen that there is a rather strange image on our TV of a chimp doing something to a child; being told to act solicitous, I suppose. Eek. I'm thinking Travis...I love this photo for that, for the live rosemary topiary Christmas tree, newly lit and decorated; for Chet's wonderful hands. And all the colors.

And I love this photo, of a sweet boy (growing up so fast!) and his  beloved dog. Our lives are so much richer for having three boys in the family. Please note tool-using behavior in a canid; Chet uses the couch cushions as a kind of vise for his big chewbones. So we must redefine tool-using, or redefine man,* or simply accept that this sleek little animal is much, much more than just a dog.

*a rawther obscure reference to Louis S. B. Leakey's reaction to Jane Goodall's revelation that she had documented tool-using in wild chimpanzees.