I have just been informed that Boghan now has a sister, and that Seth will be keeping Ellie. Must run in the family. But really, once a dog chooses you, what are you supposed to do?
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by John Cole| 96 Comments
This post is in: Dog Blogging, hoocoodanode
I have just been informed that Boghan now has a sister, and that Seth will be keeping Ellie. Must run in the family. But really, once a dog chooses you, what are you supposed to do?
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Yutsano
Heh. Knew it.
Elizabelle
At least your title refers to Cole family members with unexpected dogs.
And not to dogs out in the middle of the road.
Because you have saved Rosie and Ellie from that fate.
Good on the Cole family.
I wish your ethics could be grafted onto the spineless Democratic party.
kommrade reproductive vigor
Buy bigger bags of dog food.
Chat Noir
Excellent news. So how many animals does that make in the entire Cole family? Look forward to the pix and the stories of the newest Cole dog.
TaMara (BHF)
Okay, everyone who knew Seth would succumb to Ellie’s charms, raise your hand. 1, 2, 3,….12….55…76….109…210. Yup, pretty sure we all knew the outcome was ordained the moment she jumped in the car.
Jane2
What TaMara said. And a designer dog and a rescue are the perfect mix.
John Cole
@Chat Noir: My parents have the two JRT, Ginny and Guesly.
Devon has Huck.
Anne has Kuma and a cat whose name I can not remember.
I have Rosie, Lily, and Tunch.
Set now has Ellie and Boghan, and his cats (brother and sister) named Speak and Whisper.
So twelve.
South of I-10
Hey John, I just saw what seems to be the entire WVU band at the Mall of Louisiana in Baton Rouge. I spoke with some of them, welcomed them to LA and told them I hoped they had a good game. I figured they will get enough tiger-baiting around the stadium. I still hope you lose though.
burnspbesq
This is a reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeal surprise.
“You are the woman that I’ve always dreamed of,
I knew it from the start,
I saw your face and that’s the last I’ve seen of my heart.”
maye
I can’t tell you how much I enjoy clicking over here and finding happy animal news. It’s a bright spot in an otherwise dismal Internet experience.
Thank you.
JPL
Congrats to your brother, Boghan and Ellie. Ellie is short for Luella, if memory serves me. How did he come up with the name Luella? For such a beautiful girl, it was an odd name.
Loneoak
We almost got another dog last night, a goofy lab. But happily/sadly we found the owner immediately.
quaint irene
C’mon. When you put up the first post, we all knew the inevitable.
comrade scott's agenda of rage
Good on all of you. Funny how you never see Rethug blogs glory in their pets. Oh, that would mean they have empathy, compassion and humanity. Nevermind.
Get back to me when you have 12 in one household. :)
eemom
so far so good, but you still need The Jack of Hearts.
Frank
congrats
two dogs make a better home than one dog.
JimPortlandOR
Mankind and dogkind took a long time to get together in tight bondage to each other. It still staggers me that all the hundreds of dog breeds are still sub-species of one lineage (they can interbreed) directly decended from the wolf. That mirrors mankind: one species that interbreeds but still has major diversity.
Somewhere along the way, both species cultivated or evolved genes that make each irresistable to the other.
It is an amazing story – that is genetically proven.
stuckinred
@JimPortlandOR: We had a dna test on one of our rescues. My wife believes the results but I am sceptical.
Betsy
@eemom:
I guess then you’d also need a Big Jim.
eemom
@comrade scott’s agenda of rage:
heh. That reminds me of an older lady I did voter registration with back in ’08, a longtime veteran of campaign work. She was actually a real independent too, not any kind of professional leftie — and she mentioned how she had noticed, when working polling places on Election Day, that Republicans were never ones to help disabled or elderly people, or otherwise to demonstrate any inclination towards general public decency.
The way she put it, most succinctly, was “Republicans — they’re not nice people.”
Loneoak
@JimPortlandOR:
Yeah, buddy, hate to burst your bubble, but there’s no such thing as a gene in dogs and humans that make us love each other. Biological causation doesn’t work that way.
The evolution of modern dogs started with wolves with reduced fear responses living around the edges of human junkyards, not the spontaneous generation of a love gene. From there you can start to think about the canine’s slightly altered neurological responses to new experiences, the down regulation of adult wolf features so we don’t find them scary, and new social habits that allow cohabitation. Biochemistry is rather non-sentimental.
eemom
@Betsy:
and a hangin’ judge. Preferably a drunk one.
Loneoak
@stuckinred:
You should be very skeptical, as you should be very skeptical of human genetic tests that purport to show genealogical origins. In both cases, these companies are selling you identity-formation hobbies, not peer-reviewed science. These tests can only tell you that you have a distribution of non-coding sequences that is common to a certain region. But these variations are always spread throughout the human species — they can never tell you what you are not, they only tell you what group has similar distributions of non-coding regions. Furthermore, you can take tests from multiple companies and get contradictory responses because the test criteria are considered proprietary and not available for third party review.
Dogs are an interesting case because most of their changes have been regulatory — there’s no way you get a great dane and a pekingese in the same species with ‘genetic’ variation (changes in the ACTG’s of the DNA). It’s almost all a matter of regulatory changes — genes get turned on, turned off, turned up, turned down. These changes are heritable but not tested for in those kits.
JimPortlandOR
@Loneoak:
I agree that evolution generally is unsentimental. But we really don’t know how the ‘altruism’ thingy works yet.
I’m a firm Richard Dawkins kinda guy, but some things remain very cloudy – particularly in social relationships that surely have survival and reproductive value. But we don’t know how.
General Stuck
@Loneoak: Yes, love is mysterious and there has been no “love gene” found, but the dog genome folks did find a set shared core of DNA.
I choose to believe there is a connection with shared DNA and emotion, though it can’t be proven as yet. And I am certain there is a deep bond between humans and dogs that cannot be explained away from lack of conclusive science, or any other purely pragmatic theory.
Betsy
@eemom:
Hee!! Although while I can easily picture Jack and Big Jim as names for pets, “Hanging Judge” just doesn’t have the same effect when you yell it at the dog park.
Cain
Excellent! I knew this would end well. :)
General Stuck
I have Charlie curled up in my lap right now, and looking at me with what can only be described as love of a sort, that goes beyond me just being the guy with the Puppy Chow.
Skepticat
I’m shocked I tell you, shocked.
All three of my cats chose me, and now that two of them are gone, I find myself wanting another cat. I rationalize that by saying that the Maine coon is lonely. However, I’m not longer in an environment in which there are stray cats (you can’t get here from there without a lot of time and effort), so it seems that I’ll have to seek out a new feline on my own. I’m afraid that I’ll end up trying to take in whole shelters full of beguiling animals. Have you found it true that the right animal in a shelter (or, as JC says, kitty prison) still finds a way to choose you?
Loneoak
@General Stuck:
We have a shared set of DNA with fruit flies too, so until geneticists actually understand the causality between a gene, a protein, a system, and a phenotype, it’s pretty ridiculous to believe there’s an emotional relationship contained within that gene. But believe what you want, whatevs.
I think our deep bond with dogs has far, far more to do with sociality/history than genes. Genes make it possible, but genes make *many* kinds of sociality possible and its our history and culture that makes *this* one actual.
stuckinred
@Loneoak: Damn! I don’t think I’m going to share this with my bride. The bohdisattva was a little white furball when we found him so the samoyed-siberian husky fit but the cocker component seemed like it was designed to pull at her heartstrings!
Here’s a doggie dna site for your amusement.
stuckinred
@General Stuck: So the doggie dna tests relate to that genome project?
General Stuck
@Loneoak:
Don’t bring progressives into this.
Glenndacious Greenwaldian (formerly tim)
Hey John, maybe you should adopt one of the legless Iraq War veterans you helped put in that condition!
He or she, limbless as he or she would be, could tuck nicely into another corner of your bed, yes?
Just keepin’ it real and in perspective here, among all the doggie and kittie sweetness and light fantasies.
stuckinred
Arkansas goes 80 yards in 2 plays against the greatest team that ever played the game!
Loneoak
@stuckinred:
Well, it all depends on what you want the tests for. If it’s for entertainment, then go for it and pay for the fun with a wink and a little skepticism. But the hard science is pretty wobbly on those consumer tests.
stuckinred
@Glenndacious Greenwaldian (formerly tim): What the fuck kind of bullshit is that? What a scumbag.
stuckinred
@Loneoak: We won it at our vet. It is fun to bandy about!
something fabulous
@Skepticat: Yes!! I volunteer at a rescue and I am here to tell you, it happens all the time! Nothing more touching than when one of our shy/nervous/picky cats walks right up to a person who says they are “just looking” and claims them.
Our friendlier or better adjusted little kittens tend to get snapped up pretty quickly and end up happy most anywhere a loving family wants them, but sometimes you can just see those older ones making a conscious choice. Totally happens. Make a few visits; it may take a few tries, but it really works!!!
General Stuck
@stuckinred:
The most likely interpretation is — I am Tim the troll and am drunk and fallen down, and can’ get up.
stuckinred
@General Stuck: I’ll help get his punk ass get up.
licensed to kill time
@Skepticat:
We have adopted from a shelter twice in the past, and both times were “chosen” . Once we went looking for a cat and the shelter had them all in a room together, with cat trees and ledges where they were all lounging about. One gorgeous jet black cat with golden eyes saw us the minute we walked in. He jumped down from the ledge and trotted right up to the viewing window, put his paws on the edge of the sill and his nose to the glass and looked right into our eyes.
That was it. The time it took us to decide? About 10 seconds.
I know what you mean about wanting to adopt every animal you see, but in my experience there is always “that one” who somehow makes it known that you are destined to be together. Good luck with your search!
bemused
@eemom: My husband’s Hungarian Jewish grandma said it best: “Republicans — they’re for themselves.”
Glenndacious Greenwaldian (formerly tim)
@General Stuck:
No, numb nuts, haven’t had a drink in ten years. Don’t need to be drunk to speak the truth or call attention to deeply underlying bullshit: that John the Emperor is not only grumpy and occasionally funny, but stark naked and really soiled as well.
It seems endlessly weird to me that all this BJ love goes out to homeless and unfortunate animals, while there is ne’r a mention of the plight of homeless and maimed vets, made so by an illegal and stupid war which John cheered on.
And of course, as soon as one speaks a truth or asks a question which makes the BJ regulars uncomfy, General Stunk lashes out with…stupidness.
General Stuck
@Glenndacious Greenwaldian (formerly tim):
LOL, always a pleasure to tweak you Mr. Greenwaldo.
ruemara
@Glenndacious Greenwaldian (formerly tim):
Fuck you.
John, it just happens like that. We have the advanced senior cat who we received just because, and he is well loved. The apple of my eye is my little fluffy ball, who wandered over to me during one of my “just playing with the kitties” days at the cat rescue. He adored the cuddles, gave me the roughest tongued kiss I’ve ever had and promptly fell asleep in my arms with his paws stretched out to claim my bf. Instantly knew just then.
These guys know an instant sucker the minute we get in view.
South of I-10
@stuckinred: That was pretty sweet, wasn’t it?
stuckinred
@Glenndacious Greenwaldian (formerly tim): No but you are a low-life cocksucker now aren’t you?
stuckinred
@South of I-10: Make’s Georgia’s D look a bit better! UAB is in double OT with the Vols!
Rats!
Linda Featheringill
@General Stuck:
Hi, General. Glad to see your charming face today. ;-)
licensed to kill time
formerly tim ought to do something about that lemon he’s always sucking on or his mouth is gonna get stuck like that :-C
SIA
Way to go Ellie! HIP HIP HOORAY!
South of I-10
@stuckinred: That was not cool. Freakin Bama!
stuckinred
@South of I-10: The Vols escape!
Glenndacious Greenwaldian (formerly tim)
@licensed to kill time:
Yeah, I imagine those damaged vets wasting away in treatment centers and hospitals at this very minute look kind of sour in the face too…maybe if you drop by to tell them some BJ cutesy pie animal stories they’ll perk right up and forget about their missing limbs and organs and lives.
Glenndacious Greenwaldian (formerly tim)
@stuckinred:
Yeah, you’re right…I’m the problem around here. Absolutely.
Barb (formerly Gex)
When Casey picked me out I was just out shopping for cat treats. I didn’t want a dog Mrs. Barb didn’t want a dog either. But when we saw Casey it took about 0.00001 seconds to fall in love with him.
Casey
When Abigail picked us out, she did so by sinking a claw into Mrs. Barb’s sleeve as we walked by.
Abigail
So as far as I can tell, animal adoption is when an animal adopts a family.
stuckinred
@Glenndacious Greenwaldian (formerly tim): And I bet they are helped greatly by a punk like you writing on a blog about them.
WyldPirate
General Stuck at
Of course we share common DNA because we share common mammalian ancestors. Big fucking deal. We have genes that we have in common with a banana tree as well. The sentimental chickenshit you post afterwards is meaningless.
I bet you believe in fairy tales, the tooth fairy and a big old cloud ridin’ Sky Daddy who takes care of us all, too.
Self-delusion. No wonder our country is in such a fucking mess when an otherwise reasonable poster says something like that.
/shaking head in bewilderment
licensed to kill time
@Glenndacious Greenwaldian (formerly tim):
Does this little hissy fit of yours make you feel superior in some way? I think it makes you look pathetic and lonely and starved for attention.
Done with you.
SIA
Kuma (bear) is a great name. When I was a toddler in Germany my father had a boxer named Kuma, who (whom?) I rode around on like a horse.
stuckinred
@SIA: that
Barb (formerly Gex)
@General Stuck:
Inside of a Dog is a really interesting book.
Myself, I think since we’ve been with dogs since pre-agricultural times. We’ve certainly evolved together, certainly affecting the evolution and advancement of the other.
What I found most interesting in that book is that on certain intelligence tests, dogs test higher than the primates we often compare to humans. The hypothesis is that dogs evolved to be adept at reading or anticipating us.
I certainly think our attraction to dogs is genetic. It is very easy to see, on farms even today, how dogs help us. Very early after domestication, having a dog would have been a tremendous advantage.
scav
@Glenndacious Greenwaldian (formerly tim):
Seconded. Can somebody check Robert’s rules so we can double-check on how to bring this to a general vote?
Because it clearly cannot be allowed that there is anything, not a single smidgeon of comfort or good or barely tolerable in this sublunar existence for any single individual until every single possible microbe is operating at maximum happiness: wounded vets at the front of the line, presumably ‘mercan ones at the very very absoluteishish front. ‘n I don’t even have pets, well, dust-bunnies, I do have a breeding population of those.
Glenndacious Greenwaldian (formerly tim)
@licensed to kill time:
touch a nerve?
Jane2
@Glenndacious Greenwaldian (formerly tim): Oy, another outraged keyboard activist. I’ll bet all the wounded vets are thrilled you’re spewing on the internet on their behalf rather than actually shutting your gob and lifting a finger yourself.
licensed to kill time
Yawn.
Glenndacious Greenwaldian (formerly tim)
@scav:
My comments are offered in a specific context: the blog, now quite prominent, of a person who constantly writes about himself and his aches and pains, his animals and their eccentricities (many of which are quite charming and wonderful, of course), the plight of abandoned animals, etc., but rarely if ever mentions the desperate plight of thousands of american wounded and hundreds of thousands of Iraqi wounded, you know, actual HUMANS; said collective plight which hangs over this blog like a pall because its proprietor aggressively and joyfully and sneeringly HELPED MAKE IT HAPPEN.
So I just ask, from time to time, what John is doing for these damaged people, along with the damaged animals he’s so concerned about. Maybe John is doing WONDERFUL things about it, but if he doesn’t tell us we can’t know.
And it seems that as this is now a prominent, national blog, maybe John could throw his voice and maybe some money the vets’ way, you know, in the same loud and public way he uses his megaphone here to trash anyone who finds Obama lacking.
You know, I’m really just asking questions. If they’re of no value or relevance, why do so many here get so stirred up, you know, in between kitty and doggie-baby posts?
Glenndacious Greenwaldian (formerly tim)
@Jane2:
Interesting. How do you know I’m not, you know, lifting a finger? How do you know that, just maybe, my involvement with them isn’t why I bring this up from time to time?
But then, considering that possibility would abort your impulse to lash out at me, I suppose…
Mnemosyne
@Glenndacious Greenwaldian (formerly tim):
Yep, you’re JAQing off, all right.
I especially love the mock-innocent pose of not understand why people think you’re an asshole. I’m assuming you also stand up in the middle of a christening and scream, “Why did you burden the planet with your spawn when there are millions of orphans who need homes, you selfish bastards?!”
JPL
I don’t need DNA tests. Miss Moxie looks like a miniature deer hound and who needs to pay for tests to verify this.
General Stuck
@WyldPirate: Don’t be such a fruit fly
jayboat
@eemom and betsy:
Don’t pay any mind to that drillin’ in the wall. 8-]
And… you Coles are alright in my book
General Stuck
@Barb (formerly Gex): Sounds interesting , bookmarked the Amazon page. And i agree with you fully about our best friends.
scav
@Mnemosyne: The quickly assumed pseudo-reasonableness once he gets a hit after his aggressive sneering is also a tell that he’s in it for public emotional masturbation rather than the good of anyone anywhere.
Violet
Late to the thread, but good for your brother. Ellie looks like a real sweetheart.
stuckinred
@scav: cut the head off the snake
LiberalTarian
Yay. Need more pictures. :)
greennotGreen
@something fabulous:
I work in dog rescue, and there does seem to be something going on sometimes about the dog just *knowing* who’s right. I once fostered a plain little brown dog, sweet but shy, not terribly cute. The woman who ran the rescue said she’d talked to someone, the assistant to a man with disabilities, and she thought little brown dog might be right for the disabled person. I got to the adoption event just about the same time as the potential adopter who obviously had cerebral palsy. Although many other people were around, shy little brown dog whipped the leash out of my hands and went flying into the lap of this man and covered him in kisses. Adoption done.
Dogs are very astute readers of body language, that of other dogs and of humans. Perhaps they read in the stance and movement of certain humans kindred spirits.
Skepticat
Thanks for the answers re: being The Chosen One. The good thing is that it encourages me to adopt, but the bad thing is that I probably ought to postpone this til spring, as I’m moving to winter quarters in about a month and things will be pretty hectic. All my cats have been unbelievably good travelers, but it doesn’t seem fair to subject a new cat to a new human and new pseudo-sibling and then haul hir all over the place via boat, car, and plane over the course of a month or so. Sigh. I really have feline fever.
suzanne
@Glenndacious Greenwaldian (formerly tim): Typical bullshit argument. Why are you worried about X when Y is so much more important?! John’s doing good for the world. So go take a laxative and have a martini and calm the fuck down.
bemused
There was no use in resisting. Two dogs playing and hanging out together is a hoot to watch while at the same time tiring the maniacs out faster and their human gets a little more time to do people stuff.
Kristine
@eemom:
Most of the Republicans I know at the day job have a mean streak. They’re also very much “you made your bed, so lie in it” when it comes to helping others. Even the churchgoers. The line about ‘my brother’s keeper’ apparently never made an impression.
Glad to hear about Ellie. Now Boghan has a lively sister to run his feet off.
Kristine
@Loneoak: There was an interesting NATURE episode last week about dogs. They brought up the Russian experiment with foxes from several years ago, which suggested that more puppy-like physical characteristics–curly tail, larger eyes, more playful nature, coloration, etc–were linked with the docility gene (my term–likely wrong), the characteristics of wolves that responded most positively to humans and decided to unpack their bags and stay.
Glenndacious Greenwaldian (formerly tim)
@scav:
Analyze and abuse me all you want, that’s cool; and yet…the vets and the dead remain unaddressed by this blog or its proprietor. He’s got too many cute animals and alcoholic drinks to divert him.
Interesting and telling.
cckids
@greennotGreen: True for us as well. We found our Pom one hellishly hot day here in Vegas, I was getting a bag out of our van, felt a touch on my calf, and there he was, dancing on his hind legs behind me. Took him into the house & he trotted straight to my son (then 15, & uses a wheelchair). He jumped onto the footrest, scrambled up to Mike’s lap, stood on the hind legs to look him in the face, then settled down on his lap with a big sigh. He was home. We’ve never before or since met a small dog who wasn’t afraid of the wheelchair at first sight.
We went through the requisite motions looking for an owner, sure that someone must be heartbroken, but no one was looking for him. The vet said it tends to happen when they blow their puppy coat & are working on the adult one–they are as homely as a Pomeranian is going to get for a few months. He’s been with us 10 years now & is a joy every day.
SiubhanDuinne
@Glenndacious Greenwaldian (formerly tim)
There are thousands of issues, both serious and trivial, that John doesn’t address on this blog. And why in the world should he? It’s his blog, so he gets to post about whatever things are uppermost in his mind at any given moment. (I haven’t done an archive search, but it wouldn’t surprise me to find that he actually has mentioned the plight of vets in the past, if not recently or frequently enough for your liking.)
Your aggrieved tone would be better suited to Fox News or talk radio. If you don’t want to read about rescue pets, skip the damn threads that talk about pets. And if you feel that the plight of wounded vets is an important topic that should be discussed more extensively than it has been, you are free as a commenter to post your views and hope to engage other commenters in discussion and maybe some worthwhile activism on their behalf. In fact, lots of topics start out as a random comment and later get front-paged. But it’s not gonna happen if you begin by attacking the host, his family and friends, and his readers by stating or implying that *their* values are worthless. That’s no way to persuade people to your point of view, but it’s an excellent way to piss them off, so they call you names, so you can feel all hurt and martyred and righteous and belligerent. .
You really care about wounded vets? Wait for an Open Thread opportunity — they’re usually not that scarce around here — and post a thoughtful comment about the care our vets are or are not getting, the funds that VA hospitals are or are not receiving, what you are doing to address problems/scandals/outrages, what kinds of things we as Balloon-Juicers might also choose to do, and where to go for more information or to volunteer.
There. Was that so hard?
Glenndacious Greenwaldian (formerly tim)
@scav: @scav:
The quickly assumed pseudo-reasonableness once he gets a hit after his aggressive sneering is also a tell that he’s in it for public emotional masturbation rather than the good of anyone anywhere.
So…when JC posts one of his “Just shoot me,” hyperbolic, name-calling, belligerent, insulting, cranky rants and then watches the comments pile up in the thread, is that also “public emotional masturbation?”
Is your comment accusing me of emotional masturbation, in which you insult me without addressing any of the points I raised, ALSO a form of emotional masturbation?
CynDee
@General Stuck: The GodDoggie (GoodDoggie) is takin’ good care of you . . .
Please give him a pat for me . . .
General Stuck
@CynDee: done
asiangrrlMN
Holy shit! Color me surprised that your brother is keeping Ellie! I never imagined–oh, hell. I knew from the minute I saw her sweet, happy face that she was home.
My boys chose me online. One look into Shadow’s eyes, and I just knew. Once I held Raven in my arms, I was sure. They are both snuggling on my lap as I type.
burnspbesq
@Glenndacious Greenwaldian (formerly tim):
There are dozens of posts a week here where you could drop this and it would be on-topic and highly relevant. But no – you have to go out of your way to drop a turd in a pet thread. On Saturday, no less.
What the fuck is wrong with you?
Glenndacious Greenwaldian (formerly tim)
@burnspbesq:
oh please. blog etiquette on BJ. uh huh…
I have brought up this topic in numerous other threads over the YEARS I’ve been dropping by here, threads of all kinds. The response is always the same, regardless of the thread’s “topic:” STFU!
Besides where would a turd of reality be more appropriate than in a thread about dogs? :)
Yutsano
@burnspbesq:
I already done figured this out. Poor Timmeh didn’t get laid cruising the clubs last night so he’s trying to goad his wild crush John Cole into reacting so he can fap later. Best way to do that is to shit all over whatever comment JC makes to get a reaction out of him. This is a win for Timmeh because “ZOMG HE’S PAYING ATTENTION TO ME!!” and he can indulge his fantasies further. I went to college with that sort, the Monday mornings are never pretty.
Glenndacious Greenwaldian (formerly tim)
@Yutsano:
You’re projecting.
Skepticat
@SiubhanDuinne: This.