origin stories

New York Times: New findings put origins of dogs in Middle East...

The Onion: Yes, but dogs were first turned into surrogate children in the Western Hemisphere during the mid-20th century.

transience

I.  Shanty town in Shenyang, Liaoning Province, China
(Source: image / article)

II. Tent city on a golf course in Pétionville, Haiti
(Source: image / article)

dog tree of life

Why is it a circle?  I don't really understand this but I'm mesmerized.

Cross-posted at tumblr (sort of)

skunk & cat

... sharing a free meal and the suburban ecosystem:

(Screen shot from Is That Skunk?)

russian dogs from Pavlov to now

It's been months since I've posted anything here! In the interim, it has belatedly dawned on me that Russia is where it's at with dog studies.  Duh.

First there's the fascinating case of post-Soviet subway dogs...

(image from English Russia)

... whose increasing detachment from human homes (though not from human-built environments) seems to suggest some kind of cosmic reversal of Russian scientist Dmitri Belyaev's Cold-war era silver fox domestication experiment...

(image from Thoughtful Animal)

... Around the same time that Belayev's foxes were being aggressively selected for tameness, Laika was being immortalized (and mortalized) as the first dog in space...

(image from Wikimedia Commons)

... And of course, before Belayev, there was Pavlov and his salivating dogs:

(image from Wikimedia Commons)

... one of whom is seen here at the Pavlov Museum, borg-like with surgical implant - and stuffed.