Humph's Hallowe'en House o' Horrors

Boo!

Humphrey got a pre-Hallowe'en surprise in the form of a squeaky jack o'lantern!

It's that time of year again - and rather than jolly tricks and treats with cute costumes like last year, Humph has decided to have a scaaaaary celebration! To set up his house of horrors, he decided to display the most terrifying things known to dogs!


All the things you need to create a terrifying house of horrors

Next, he had to choose a costume. He first considered disguising himself as a ghost...

...but he was mistaken for an adorable lamb-bat. So he thought he'd better get a scarier costume.

After thinking and thinking and thinking some more, he came to a decision. What's the scariest thing you can think of?

A zombie? Not quite. Too much over-exposure in the mainstream media.
A vampire? No, they're actually desirable these days thanks to R-Pat.

What could he be????

Here comes Glitzy, tiara and all, ready to scare passers-by. But despite all the "scary" that comes with this costume, there's also a positive spin! Inclusive attitudes towards difference (including LGBT), a surprisingly supportive family environment, and an absense of some of the damaging body image discourses present in so many other reality shows (Humph's looking at your, Kardashians!).

Happy Hallowe'en everyone! Holla for a dolla, yo!

Parasocial Pups!

Zelig hangs out with Woody Allen and Scarlett Johansen on the beach! (Maybe)

A strange thing seems to be happening – many people and dogs (like Zelig and Humphrey) form attachments to media personalities as a substitute for “real” inter-personal relationships. These so-called “parasocial relationships” occur when people feel as though they know their favorite television characters or celebrities – and sometimes take on a bigger part of life than the real relationships. It’s the way Humphrey hangs on every word television dog Wilfred said during the program’s debut season. It's like Humphrey knows him! He is sure to never miss an episode.

Humphrey meets Santa Claus *and* George Clooney! (Or did he?)

The concept of parasocial relationships is used to describe the way that people attach themselves to celebrities in modern times. In his article, “Identification as a Mediator of Celebrity Effects” (Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 40 no. 4), Michael Basil discusses how celebrity endorsers establish credibility for consumer products (as the likes of Cesar Millan, Ellen DeGeneres and Rachel Ray attempt to do with their lines of dog food!). This strategy, Basil argues, is effective because of parasocial relationships. In other words, late modern diaspora leads people to have a sense of “knowing” celebrities and relating to them as if they were friends. Research suggests that (in humans, anyway) this is a function of people’s need for belonging in a culture where ties to others are very much diminished (see, for example, the synthesis of research by Wendi Gardner and Megan Knowles in their 2008 article, “Love Makes You Real: Favorite Television Characters Are Perceived As “Real” In A Social Facilitation Paradigm” in the journal Social Cognition, 26, no. 2).

Think about it – families are less connected, intensification of work and 24/7 use of technology means fewer “in person” relationships. These parasocial relationships are simpler than “real” ones, especially when you’re a dog! Parasocial relationships require no obligation, effort, or responsibility on the part of the spectator, and can be cancelled at any time. Yet, they can be very powerful in influencing people. 

These parasocial relationships have an interesting connection to dogs. Philsopher Donna Haraway and cultural critic Heidi Nast argue (in various places) that dogs fulfill a similar relationship functions for humans in that they also compensate for people’s increasing isolation from other people. Maybe even blog readers feel a parasocial connection to Humphrey! You never know....

Stephen Colbert's canine friend, the late Finnegan, several Christmases ago.

 

Epicurean Adventures

Epicurus said, “when I live on bread and water, I spit upon luxurious pleasures not for their own sake, but because of the inconveniences that follow them.”

Zelig knows what Epicurus was talking about! Civilized coffee breaks are a simple pleasure for him.



Cake is a form of bread, right?

The original Epicureans, readers probably know, were a group of Greek philosophers. Led by Epicurus and his teachings, they were concerned with trying to understand the good life. Epicurus taught the importance of being frugal about things external to the individual (knowing your “point of enough”), providing for the necessities of life (food to eliminate hunger and bring enjoyment, shelter, and companionship), putting inner happiness in the center of life, and working daily to overcome fears and unnecessary desires. Despite their beliefs about frugality, Epicureans believed that occasional luxuries should be appreciated to the fullest. They also placed a lot emphasis on inter-personal relationships above those luxuries.

In other words, Epicurus believed that an individual should live a happy, self-sufficient life surrounded by friends. He recommended the path of the small pleasure: “Send me a small piece of cheese, so that I may indulge myself whenever I wish.”

Humphrey is especially fond of this philosophy. Epicurus had him at “small piece of cheese,” and Humph was beyond convinced when he heard “surrounded by friends.”

As a puppy, Humphrey was faced with a seemingly insurmountable assortment of food intolerances. In fact, he was a vegetarian for quite some time. The day he arrived in his new home five years ago, the humans made a roast beef dinner for everyone, reasoning that it would be a pleasing aroma and a nice welcome for any dog. “It will smell homey,” they reasoned. 

The humans quickly noticed something unusual. Upon receiving his first meal, Humphrey picked at some roasted sweet potatoes, and skipped the meat altogether. Puzzling, they thought. Is this little fellow a vegetarian?

The next day, he refused all the food they offered him. Late in the day, he expressed interest in some baked potato chips and milk, but that was it.

The humans waited and waited for him to eat the high-end, organic, meat-based dog food purchased from the local pet shop . Humph waited until he was so hungry he couldn’t stand it any longer, then reluctantly consumed the dog food. What followed was an offending odor from his hindquarters, uncontrollable heaving, and all sorts of other awful things during the late hours.

Most days of his puppyhood, Humphrey had no desire to eat. He couldn’t even imagine Epicurus’ piece of cheese being anything but a source of great discomfort! When it came to meal time, he would usually hide under the big bed.

After months of trial and error (more error than anyone can possibly imagine) and in consultation with the vet, he was put on a home-cooked diet that did not include meat. His people produced all kinds of nutritional charts, and had to work around a very limited range of ingredients (strawberries, spinach, sweet potatoes, apples, cottage cheese, yogurt, milk, and fish).

Humphrey’s requirements were triangulated among his veterinarian, the Subcommittee on Dog and Cat Nutrition, the Committee on Animal Nutrition, National Research Council’s book, Nutrient Requirements of Dogs and Cats (The National Academies Press, Washington, DC, 2006) and David Basin, Jennifer Ashton and Grant Nixon’s Better Food For Dogs: A complete cookbook and nutrition guide (Robert Rose Inc., Toronto, 2002). Human nutritional requirements were triangulated using the Council for Responsible Nutrition: Recommended Intakes of Vitamins and Essential Minerals (Annette Dickinson, 2002) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and World Health Organization (FAO/WHO) Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA) guidelines.

 

Over time, Humphrey's range of food tolerance increased, and all of a sudden his people were eating home-cooked “dog food”!  This is the resulting cookbook that Humphrey put together ...
 

Who's that wiggling in my kitchen? by Laura Elizabeth Pinto | Make Your Own Book

Fall days at Don Mills

Humphrey was delighted to have a return to summer temperatures in late October! To mark the occasion, he visited Shops at Don Mills and made some new friends! The shops are all dog-friendly, so he had a good browse, though nobody gave him any recycling which was the single disappointment of the day.

Elections already?

Humph's friends to the south are in the midst of election season, so he is pleased to share a favorite tale about those with tails to mark the occasion. It's based on a story told by Tommy Douglas - legendary Canadian politician and grandfather of 24 actor Kiefer Sutherland.

Humphland was a place where all the little white dogs like Humphrey, Marbles[1], Bijoux, Chakra and Bija lived and played, were born and died, and lived pretty much like you and I do. They even had a Parliament. And every four years they had an election. They used to walk to the polls and cast their ballots. Some of them even got a ride to the polls, because everyone knows how much dogs love their rides. And every time on election day, all the little white dogs used to go to the ballot box and they used to elect a government. A government made up of Big Fat Black Cats. Those cats were big – much larger than the little white dogs!

Now if you think it's strange that the little white dogs would elect a government made up of cats, just look at North American political history, and maybe you'll see that they weren't any stupider than we are. Now I'm not saying anything against the cats. They were nice fellows, they conducted the government with dignity. They passed good laws…that is laws that were good for cats. But the laws that were good for cats weren't especially good for little white dogs. One of the laws said that the doggie-doors on dogs’ houses had to be big enough for the cats to enter. Another law said that little white dogs had to travel at certain speeds, so cats could catch up with them without too much physical effort. All the laws were good laws for cats. But they were hard on the little white dogs, and life was getting harder and harder.

When the little white dogs couldn't take it anymore, they decided that something had to be done about it. So they went en masse to the polls. They voted the Black cats out, and put in the White cats.

The White cats had put up a terrific campaign. All that Humphland needed was more vision! They said, "The trouble with Humphland is all those round doggie-doors. If you put us in, we'll give you square doggie-doors!" And they did. But the problem was that the square doors were twice as large as the round ones, so now several cats could get into the dogs’ houses at once and eat all the dogs’ food. The Big Fat White Cats boasted about how they used binders full of puppies to solve problems of dog under-representation in government! For the dogs’ own good, they mandated invasive dog ultrasound tests!

And life was tougher than ever. When the little white dogs couldn't take that anymore, they voted the White cats out and put the Black ones in again. Then they went back to the White cats, and back to the Black cats, they even tried half Black cats and half White cats. They called it a coalition. They even got one government made up of cats with spots on them. These were cats who tried to bark like the dogs, but they still behaved like cats.

The trouble wasn't the colour of the cats, but the fact that they were cats. And since they were cats, they naturally looked after the cats, instead of little white dogs. Along came a little white dog named Harpo. Harpo had an idea!

Tommy Douglas reminds us to watch out for a little fellow with an idea.

Harpo went to the other dogs and said, "My friends, why do we keep on electing a government made up of cats, why don't we elect a government made up of little white dogs?"

"Oh!" said the little white dogs, "He's a Bolshevik!" So they put him in Jail.

You can lock up a dog or a man, but you cannot lock up an idea!

---

[1] Marbles, of course, has a colorful coat. But close enough.

Zelig's look-a-like

Willowdale Dog Zelig, a very gentle sheltie, enjoys a disguise now and then - especially when it's a chance to look like a brooding Hollywood actor.

 

 Of course, Zelig is practically unrecognizable when he's not incognito!

 

 

 

Ricky, the black lab who recently visited Willowdale, found Zelig's glasses hilarious.



"Zelig, you are a card!"

 

"Yes, Ricky, he ought to be dealt with."

 

 

 



Binders full of puppies

When a recent candidate for canine political office discussed his experience in acquiring "binders full of puppies," Humphrey got to thinking. What was he talking about? And, what could possibly be in those binders?

A recent study published in the scholarly journal PLOS found that looking at images of cute animals made people more careful and focused in their work! Humphrey is also fascinated by the (unrelated) research of Dr. Irene Blair of the University of Colorado suggesting that exposure to counter-stereotypes can reduce certain kinds of bias and discrimination.

So, if someone were to combine these findings, is there something that can be done in the workplace to help with productivity and equity simultaneously? Humphrey thinks so! Here is his idea that involves cute animals *and* gender-atypical achievement...

If viewed by workers at their desks, this photograph of Marie Curie holding baby Humphrey will:
(a) Increase productivity?
(b) Decrease gender and species bias?
(c) All of the above?

Humphrey hopes to make a binder full of images like this some day.