PoochA couple of days ago, Joe Hyam posted a photo of a soulful looking dog on his blog, Now's the Time. I half-remembered a quote I read several years ago and attributed it to William Faulkner.
...
In fact, it was John Steinbeck who wrote the following: "I've seen the look in dog's eyes, a quickly vanishing look of amazed contempt, and I am convinced that dogs think humans are nuts."
......
I used to catch our family dog staring at me, and he'd quickly look away. Just before he did, though, I'd have sworn there was a look of bemused puzzlement in his eyes...not exactly contempt, but edging up on it.
...
A friend said one time that the only thing worse than a grandparent who bores you stupid with wonderous tales of his/her grandchild is the idiot who does the same with stories about their dog.
...
So, I'll stop here.
20 comments:
Now the distinction is made I think I can see that the quote wasn't from the Sage of Yoknapatawpha County. I mean the punctuation is coherent. Time to try Faulkner again. Oh those Snopes!
Sometimes Moby gives us a look that says, "You People are freaks."
But, more often the look says, "You are a lunatic, but I love you regardless."
Awwww - go on! Really! Go on!
Oh, dear, I wonder if that thought applies to cat owners, also!!
BB, I think it helps to understand Faulkner if one is a Southerner. (Might work if you are a Southern Brit, I s'pose...then, again, maybe not.)
Y'see we write the way we speak and we don't speak with any punctuation
And all us Southern folk are related in one way or another to the Snopeses even if only in the fact that we be Southerners
One of my favorite of his stories is "As I Lay Dying."
:)
Zhoen: I know that look, too...get it all the time from our cats.
Hope Moby is over his trauma from a couple of days ago. (Forgot to leave a stone when I came by.)
:)
e:
Aha! I thought so!
:)
Lisa, if I get started on animal stories, I will be run out of Blogtown, for sure.
Maybe I can sneak one in as part of another subject. Time to plot.
:)
Cat:
Probably so, because I used to bore her with both.
Or, maybe she was already stupid for some other reason...and it wasn't my stories, after all.
Yeah, I can live with that.
:)
Well, we lovers of DogPeople understand, and won't be bored. The philosopher Donna Haraway has written some good stuff about dogs (cf. Companion Animal Manifesto)--I like her insights into the coevolved relationship between the Human- and DogPeople, and what DPs have to teach us about our nature.
My mother used to look at me with that look. Like a dog or wolf is how I saw it. Feral and frightening that contempt.
My friends tell me my dogs watch me with a look of adoration. I'm not so sure they do. But I am the woman who fixes dinner. As long as I keep providing lovely meals in a timely fashion I think they'll let me live among them.
Ha ha, well, I may bore people with 'Tales of the Granddaughter' but I haven't graduated to 'Tales of the Pet'
Yet.
I tried, Dear Crow, to say how much I enjoyed your last posting about skywalker and how you came to adopt the soubriquet, but I must have forgotten to click something. What a poweful logo goes with it! We have junior crows now hereabouts and there is an unusual volume of crow noises. Yesterday a Macaw escaped and hid in the square cropped rhododendron in the garden of the house opposite. It seems to me that only very small babies rival the sense of superior wisdom that you see sometimes in the eyes of dogs when they are in a commanding rather than their usual subordinate mood.
ER: Every dog I've been lucky to know has been a friend in the most unexpected way. (Same with the cats, in a different manner.) Too much time has passed since I last had a dog-friend.
:)
Utah: I think your friends are right.
Cats do not adore because the roles would be reversed. In the past, my cats have referred to me as Our Lady of the Foodjar. I used to think it was an honor, until I realized it was just a job title.
:)
John/AWB: You do not bore with stories of Granddaughter. I find them heart-warming, funny and a delight.
Anyone who thinks otherwise can just kiss off!
:)
Hello, Dear Joe:
I'm betting the crows were up in arms about the macaw in the shrub. Either that, or they were so stunned at the sight of it, this strange feathered, earthbound rainbow, that they were speechless.
What I've found disconcerting when being scrutinized by babes and dogs is when their eyebrows meet, quizzically, in the middle of their faces...did I pass muster, or not?
:)
A creature that's able to understand human language is no animal and must have reasons and motivations all its own.
Susan:
I would agree that they are not dumb animals, but we humans are animals, too, of course.
Also agree with the second half of your sentence, having been lucky to live with many animals over the years. I can't say for certain I knew what their reasons and motivations were, but I sure enjoyed watching them.
:)
Post a Comment