My pups.

No, not my pups. But some wonderful dog faces, just the same. Music from one of Johnny Rivers’ “Live at the Whiskey A Go Go” albums:

Posted at 9:57 am in Detroit life, Video |
 

37 responses to “My pups.”

  1. Connie said on March 4, 2008 at 10:23 am

    That was fun, thank you.

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  2. Mrs. Tarquin Biscuitbarrel said on March 4, 2008 at 10:33 am

    Yes, thank you, Nancy.

    I’m a newbie who came because of all the recent excitement at your place, and certainly will be back often. I’ve sent some links from here regarding the Apple-Cheeked Hoosier to my oldest son, who is managing editor of a major university daily; I especially appreciated your thoughts on what makes a plagiarist tick.

    Best to you. Mrs. B

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  3. del said on March 4, 2008 at 10:33 am

    OUR dog is named Buttercup too! (1:33 into video) It seemed like a strange choice at the time (made by 7-year old daughter) but maybe Buttercup is the new IN name for dogs.

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  4. nancy said on March 4, 2008 at 10:37 am

    The one next door was named Peanut. Peanut and Buttercup.

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  5. Kafkaz said on March 4, 2008 at 10:53 am

    Love the tail wagging ending.

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  6. 4dbirds said on March 4, 2008 at 11:10 am

    Loved the army dog.

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  7. Dorothy said on March 4, 2008 at 11:16 am

    I had a Peanut for 14 years, a sweet Cocker Spaniel. Buttercup makes me think of “The Princess Bride.” Dogs make everything all right again, doncha think??

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  8. LAMary said on March 4, 2008 at 11:57 am

    The sweet Golden looked a lot like my Poppy, and the Chessies looked like my brother’s dogs. Dogs are really such remarkable creatures. Pains in the ass sometimes, but mostly really great.

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  9. nancy said on March 4, 2008 at 12:20 pm

    The army dog was a Chesapeake Bay retriever, so I think the camo was supposed to suggest duck-huntin’ dog.

    Those little border terriers, about 2 seconds before I got my camera fumbled into position, had their heads up that lady’s dress and were giving her total fits. Cute little bastards.

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  10. Sue said on March 4, 2008 at 12:46 pm

    I love dogs, but it’s getting harder and harder to say goodbye. So I think I am probably going to remain dogless. Plus, after seeing it happen to too many of my elderly friends, I have a real fear of my pets surviving me. One day when I have more time I may become a foster mom with the humane society, so that I at least have the contact.

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  11. Dexter said on March 4, 2008 at 1:37 pm

    Thanks! My Jack Russell and my Black Labbie are bookending me right now, awaiting their walk in City Park.
    My brother and his wife have a pug and an English Bulldog, my neighbor an English Mastiff. My daughters have Weimaraners and Aussie Cattle Dogs. We love out pups!
    And that music? I bought that vinyl …when? maybe 1965? I still have it, I bet, in a milk crate in a closet.
    On it is written something like , Johnny Rivers, from Memphis, Tennessee—22 years old and GREAT!

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  12. derwood said on March 4, 2008 at 1:52 pm

    Doggie video…..yeah!

    1965…hell I was born in 1965!

    6 cats and a bunny named Killer. Dogless in Indy.

    d

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  13. nancy said on March 4, 2008 at 4:25 pm

    I have several Johnny Rivers songs from those two Whiskey records on my iPod, and every time they come up, I notice how loud the crowd noise is on them. At first I thought the show was mic’d imperfectly, and somehow picked up a table full of drunk chicks at ringside. Then I heard them on headphones and realized, no, those are the background singers. Or maybe they’re not — maybe the drunk chicks were just doing the background vocals for fun. Whatever. The whole effect is of a very rowdy, fun nightclub show. The best kind.

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  14. Dorothy said on March 4, 2008 at 4:44 pm

    Oh Sue, unless I’m suffering from several debilitating conditions, I’ll have a dog until I die. My kids are also dog lovers, and hopefully when they have kids, THEY will be dog lovers. I know if I go before my last dog does, someone in my family will take the dog.

    Right now we are looking at the possibility of taking our former South Carolina neighbor’s Huskie, and having our son raise him. Because they are moving to LA and don’t want to go to the expense of shipping him. He gets along famously with our Augie. So having him in the family would be terrific.

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  15. Sue said on March 4, 2008 at 5:15 pm

    Dorothy, I wish I was in your situation. However, I’m the dog lover in an otherwise noncommitted family. I always said my husband likes dogs in theory but not in practice. We’ve had several wonderful dogs, but family members can’t get their heads around the idea that more dogs are like Baron (lovable doofus but had bad (read: dog) habits) than like Jack (lovable doofus, the most perfect dog ever, never a problem in his 9 short years with us). And my fear of leaving my pets without anyone to care for them stems mostly from the fact that the last two dogs I had (Ginger and Baby, serious head cases) came from an elderly woman who had literally devoted her life to animals, running a humane society, doing rescue work, with a huge network of contacts in her prime. I was the only one left of her friends and acquaintances able to take the dogs when she went into a nursing home. One cat went with her niece. Her other pets had to be euthanized. I saw this happen on a lesser scale with some other older friends. It’s one of those things that gets burned into your emotional core. I just can’t leave my pets like that. I figure the cats I have will be with me until I’m in my mid sixties, and then I’m done.

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  16. Kafkaz said on March 4, 2008 at 5:18 pm

    Sue–I can relate. Lost Dickens the Wonder Mutt two years ago, and just can’t imagine ever replacing him. He lived to be 18, probably a few years longer than he should have, but I kept making him promise never to leave me, so I think he lasted those few extra years out of pity. (Bless the hybrid hardiness, too.)

    I have this fantasy that the perfect dog will materialize on my doorstep someday, but to go shopping for one seems too hard. How to choose? I want them all; none of them are Dickens.

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  17. Sue said on March 4, 2008 at 5:22 pm

    Anyone got a kleenex? I think I’m starting to cry.

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  18. Dorothy said on March 4, 2008 at 5:37 pm

    Gosh I feel like crying, too! I sure hope that my future works out the way I’d hope it to. And the only concession I think I might have to make will be the size of a dog I’d have when I’m elderly. There’s no way I could handle a dog the size of a Golden Retriever, although those types are my favorite. But I am sure I’ll be happy just to have the comfort of one to pet, and talk to, and spoil a little. Being without Augie for one month when I first moved here to Ohio (my son kept him for me) was just so depressing. That’s why I’m so determined to have one until my last day on earth. After that, I hope I’ll be reunited with the souls of Dublin, Peanut, Atticus, Domino, Augie, and all their future sibs!

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  19. Connie said on March 4, 2008 at 5:40 pm

    Kafkaz, all of our dogs have to come us in that sort of showing up on your door step kind of way. Our old man Shih Tzu had had five homes by the age of 4 and was on his way to the pound. That was 10 years ago. He’s not got much time left, he is suffering from and taking his pills for congestive heart failure. I do look occasionally at http://petfinder.com , where there are lots of dogs rescued from puppy mills, or left by the proverbial little old lady going to the nursing home. I think my next dog will come from there.

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  20. LAMary said on March 4, 2008 at 5:52 pm

    Local shelters here have websites too, and all my dogs and cats came to me from the local city and county shelters. Smokey, the Lab, was five bucks plus five bucks for his license, and he’s tied with the late , great, Charlie as the best dog I’ve ever owned. He shadows me around the house without being underfoot, doesn’t bark much, gives as much affection as he gets and is just generally a great companion. I swear he has a vocabulary of at least 500 words he understands. Brilliant dog. Poppy and Max are none too shabby either, but Smokey is the one who can read people and act accordingly. He sits in the back seat of my Beetle and rests his head on my shoulder occasionally. He just exudes peace.

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  21. del said on March 4, 2008 at 7:36 pm

    Connie, We got our Buttercup (now 6 mos. old) from a breeder in Fenwick, MI (3 hours from us but not far from you). She’s a Goldendoodle — beautiful temperament. Great with kids.

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  22. del said on March 4, 2008 at 7:37 pm

    I believe it was an Amish family farm . . . can check with Pam.

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  23. basset said on March 4, 2008 at 7:48 pm

    rescueagolden.org – Middle Tennessee Golden Retriever Rescue, that’s us.

    if you like being around dogs but can’t keep one, try searching “Canine Underground Railroad” and following some of those links… network of volunteers who get rescue dogs to new homes across the country by driving them for a few hours and handing off to another volunteer who keeps the chain going.

    rescueagolden was involved in one of those a few years ago which got a golden from Greensboro, NC to Denver on the ground, then to Walla Walla, WA by air freight.

    longest one I’ve ever personally done was a couple of basset hounds, one from Columbus and the other from Pittsburgh. volunteers brought them to Cincinnati, then the pair went to Elizabethtown, Kentucky, just this side of Louisville… I picked up there and took them to Nashville, handed off to the next leg which ended in Memphis, on from there till one landed in Austin and the other in San Antonio.

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  24. michaelj said on March 4, 2008 at 7:53 pm

    That bit of Johnny Rivers made my day.

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  25. LAMary said on March 4, 2008 at 8:05 pm

    basset, my brother does that with Brittany Spaniels. He recently picked one up in North Carolina and drove it to Connecticut.

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  26. nancy said on March 4, 2008 at 10:56 pm

    Don’t trust Amish family farms unequivocally, Del. I’ve heard some are your basic puppy mills.

    If you had a good experience, good for you. Just know that buggies in the driveway ≠ careful husbanding of good bloodlines. Some see dogs as just another cash crop, like any other rural livestock.

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  27. joodyb said on March 4, 2008 at 11:25 pm

    dorothy, i feel that. dog in my deathbed. much to my husband’s growing chagrin. he was down for one but 2 is pushing his daily limits. i work nights, so he’s stuck. they’re such nutburgers, those weimies. and one’s a rescue, my little headcase savant.
    i won’t be able to deal with the sheer horsepower in another decade, either. i hate to think of going smaller as i grow feebler, but then it’s always been a secret wish to have a dachshund. cats are fine, too, but it’s not the same.

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  28. Harl Delos said on March 4, 2008 at 11:36 pm

    basset said:

    longest one I’ve ever personally done was a couple of basset hounds, one from Columbus and the other from Pittsburgh.

    Hush Puppies just had an anniversary a couple of weeks ago – their 50th? – and a couple of basset hounds from here in Lancaster, PA were at the NYSE to ring the closing bell.

    They were rescue dogs.

    The lady who manages “my” Waffle House (there are two here in Lancaster) is involved in basset rescue. Nancy (don’t know her last name) helped rescue an entire litter; the others will be used later in Hush Puppy advertising.

    When I went a day or two later, she plopped down an electronic brag book on my table, so I could see her pics of it. There’s also a video on the Hush Puppy website.

    I never go anywhere without Marie. I visit Waffle House often, and get pork chops, so Marie can have the bones. The waitresses all know about Marie; Nancy even went out one day to pet her. She also turned me on to “Farley and Me”.

    Marie came from the Humane League, but she came with papers. I can’t imagine how anyone could possibly have this wonderful dog for four years, and then give her up. In any case, thank you, Ellwood and Michelle Keller. The former “Tanya vom hohlen Hugel” is happy, healthy, and highly treasured in her new home.

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  29. sue said on March 4, 2008 at 11:43 pm

    A few months back one of the local Milwaukee channels did an expose on puppy mills. In one segment, the reporter followed an Amish family a la Dateline trying to get them to talk about their mill. It was a real eye opener; I never expected that. The news report either started or highlighted a movement in Wisconsin to ban puppy mills. There are enough around the State that most humane societies and shelters in Wisconsin have to deal, on an every-few-years basis, with the sad and disgusting results when a puppy mill is discovered.

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  30. Mouse said on March 5, 2008 at 1:28 am

    One would think the Amish,with all the animals they breed ,care for ,and keep,would be expert at dog breeding.In northern Ind.many are pretty shaky operations.I prefer a farm or rural breeder that has been in business for a while.They will show you all their dogs and tell you ,honestly,what you’re getting yourself into.Bought a female Min Pin(Nikki)from people around New Haven last year—said she’d be a handfull for a year or so–boy were they right.Delightful dog tho & healty as hell.I think I would have a problem buying dogs from the ams,they are really tightfisted & cut alot of corners with the vet & stuff.

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  31. Mouse said on March 5, 2008 at 1:46 am

    Saw Steppinwolf at the Wiskey about 1967 or 68 when I was wating to catch a ship to the war zone.The club sounded pretty much like it was on the Jonny Rivers’ record except it was louder & drunker!!

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  32. Mouse said on March 5, 2008 at 1:55 am

    Talking Heads doing the music for Down & Out In Beverly Hills–Two of my all time favorite things.

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  33. Harl Delos said on March 5, 2008 at 7:52 am

    Mouse said:

    One would think the Amish, with all the animals they breed, care for, and keep, would be expert at dog breeding.

    An IRS auditor told me that he has *never* run into a non-Amish tax return showing dog breeding returning a profit. The Amish look at a dog as an economic asset. If it costs $1500 to treat a sick or injured animal, and you can buy another one for $300, they won’t spend the $1500. They give God and the dog a chance at a miracle, then put the animal down.

    One problem with amateur breeders is that the animals get left home alone while the kids are at school and the parents are working, and and if an injury occurs, the animal can suffer for hours before it’s discovered. And amateur breeders don’t know how to care for animals.

    It’s not clear cut, one way or another.

    The local Humane League doesn’t take good care of the animals they have. Every so often, they shut down adoptions because they have an epidemic raging that kills a lot of animals. Both times we’ve gotten dogs from the Humane League, they ate ravenously for a month or two, as if they’d been starved, and then they settle down, and stop eating so much, ending up weighing about 10% more than when they were adopted. I think the dogs are getting too little food and poor quality.

    And they are pretty picky about who they allow to adopt. They’d rather kill a dog than let it go to a family that would love to care well for it, but doesn’t have a fenced yard.

    If you’re supposed to spay/neuter because there are too many dogs and cats, why are we deliberately breeding dogs? If we made selling dogs as illegal as selling babies, wouldn’t that put an end to puppy mills?

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  34. Kafkaz said on March 5, 2008 at 11:00 am

    Dickens the Wonder Mutt I found at a little run down pet store next to the pizza parlor we used to frequent when we first got married. He grew. His cage didn’t. I visited and visited him. Finally dragged my husband in to visit him, too. Had to have that dog, but knew that spousal bless off would be needed. Dickens was a blue light special. Cage, leash, dish, food, collar, and dog himself for under forty bucks. Uncertain heritage. Terrier mix is what they called him, but every vet saw different breeds in him. His paws had pushed against the cage as he grew, so he had boils between his foot pads when I brought him home. Had to soak his feet in epsom salts for weeks. We got wet together, and bonded. For some months, he was afraid of every single thing that might at all be construed as a weapon. Brooms, mops, golf clubs, baseball bats–pretty much anything longer than it is wide set him to quivering. Grass also panicked him. He had to be carried outside, and then carried back in. Somehow, though, he was just the best dog ever. My shadow and my best buddy. Face only a mother could love. He accepted the kids with grace, and especially appreciated their high chair, food flinging, “look, ma, I discovered gravity again” stages. Still strange, even after all this time, to function without him. He’s not under the desk, not pressing his nose into me in the morning so I’ll let him out, not barking when some non-pack entity has entered the property, not warmly there when I reach for him. Not there. Sometimes, I think dogs are designed all wrong. Wish we could be issued one at birth, and then keep that one until the very end. Selfish, but there it is.

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  35. nancy said on March 5, 2008 at 12:52 pm

    You guys are making me cry. As my own dog wobbles through his 17th year, I see the inevitable a little closer every day.

    One of the best dogs I ever knew in the Not Mine division was bought at a pet store. My friend had just smoked a joint and walked past a strip-mall place, and had one of those how-much-is-that-doggy-in-the-window moments. She was $300, which he didn’t have, so he put her on his MasterCard. A collie puppy. She was an absolute dream — good-tempered, healthy, smart, beautiful. Some things are just meant to be.

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  36. sue said on March 5, 2008 at 2:05 pm

    Oh, Nancy, I forgot you have an old dog. Give him a kiss for me, on his nose (my favorite pet-kissing spot).

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  37. Cara said on March 5, 2008 at 11:14 pm

    In my family, we have “god-dogs”, like godchildren, but with shorter years of committments. 😉 Presently I am down to only three, but if Eddy, Aubry or Harley, one or all, ever need a new home and care, I’m there for them. That way, even our older family members can enjoy their dogs, knowing that a good home waits them in case of emergency. Just a thought.

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