His Majesty Mingus

foto: Jonas Mårtensson

I visited Jonas the other day for a photo shoot, and my human called me "His Majesty Mingus" when she saw this shot. Must say I do look kind of aloof and grown-up here, don't I.

After a few days of melting snow and dripping roofs, winter has returned with a vengeance - it's cold with every surface slippery, but the sky is blue and the sun back. And our blackbird is singing, clinging to his intimations of spring.

How did the poet put it? Oh wind, if winter comes, can spring be far behind?

My credo exactly.

Of wolf and man - or who's afraid of the big bad wolf

foto: Staffan Widstrand

 Spent the morning in our favorite woods, tracking scents in the snow, then chasing the ghosts of these scents with my nose to the wind. Howl! I'm free, stripped off my veneer of civilization for the moment, forgetting everything except the the wind in my face and the snow under my feet and the sheer happiness of being alive. And running.

Not far from here close relatives live in the wild, the wolves of Riala, with four pups to carry on the legacy. If they live, because the hunt is on, both legally and illegally. Wolves, it seems, are fair game. Wolves, it seems, bring out the worst in man. Wolves, like man, are great hunters, at the top of the food chain. Wolves, like man, live in close-knit family groups, depending on family structures for survival. Wolves, like man, kill. Wolves, unlike man, kill for food and survival. Man, we know, kills because he can.

wolf in setter's clothing

Under the title "Wolf to Woof: The Evolution of Dogs," National Geographic Magazine informs us that "about 12,000 years ago hunter-gatherers in what is now Israel placed a body in a grave with its hand cradling a pup. Whether it was a dog or a wolf can’t be known. Either way, the burial is among the earliest fossil evidence of the dog’s domestication. Scientists know the process was under way by about 14,000 years ago but do not agree on why. Some argue that humans adopted wolf pups and that natural selection favored those less aggressive and better at begging for food. Others say dogs domesticated themselves by adapting to a new niche—human refuse dumps. Scavenging canids that were less likely to flee from people survived in this niche, and succeeding generations became increasingly tame. According to biologist Raymond Coppinger: “All that was selected for was that one trait—the ability to eat in proximity to people.” At the molecular level not much changed at all: The DNA makeup of wolves and dogs is almost identical. In the words of National Geographic.

Identical enough for wolves and dogs to produce fertile offspring, maybe too close for comfort. Having wolves around again, after having hunted them nearly into extinction, reminds us that our dogs are wolves in disguise, and ancient illogical fears rear their ugly heads. Once upon a time ... wolves changed into werewolves at night, abducting and eating babies, hence were the epitome of evil, or the devil incorporate. Now hunters mourn their beloved dogs falling prey to wolves, clamoring for revenge. "A dead wolf is a good wolf," as someone put it, uncomfortably reminiscent of "the only good injun is a dead injun." Exterminate all the brutes! right, reliving the heart of darkness, again. Conveniently forgetting that far more dogs are killed by cars and trigger-happy hunters' bullets than by wolves, but here we go. Were wolves are concerned, logic falls by the wayside.

The Swedish government may cave in to the pressure from hunters' interest (because at the heart of the wolf controversy is, along with irrational fears, the question of who has the right to the game), but wolves are here to stay. If only in the DNA of man's best friend. Howlllllllllllllll!

Crescent sun

This morning the light was special, and the sun looked more like the moon than anything. My human explained it as a partial eclipse of the sun by the moon, and it was just magical - the snow glowed and the sun was moon but what a bright one! We couldn't get a picture of the sun, but look at the way it gilded my fur...

I spent some time at Sign's while my human worked, and back home again we went for a long walk along the frozen waterfront, all the way to the ducks (we fed them bread) and back again. It's the new year's resolution, you know, being taken for walks by the dog.

Human animals

Today I got lucky - on our walk we ran into Signe and her humans, and walked together all the way through our local jungle to the marina, and back. As our humans mainly stuck to the footpath (too much snow for two-legged animals off-path) Signe and I ran along the waterfront making the snow whirl around us. Sheer happiness for a setter and a retriever, and winter is heaven on earth. Back home I snuggled into my very own pillow, off limits to cats, humans, and visitors.

Meanwhile my human was busy scouting out info about cameras on the internet. She has sold off all her fancy Nikons and makes do with one of those aim-and-shoot thingies, but I know she is lusting for the real thing. Again. She used to be a photographer, but traded in images for words (or so the story goes). This change of heart is your fault, Lotta, and in particular that lovely shot of our Agapanthus with snowcap, and the magical lighting in it. Beautiful, isn't it.

So I fear there will be an end to my unsupervised days, with a camera on its way in documenting my every move. But until then, zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

Superdog

Today was my romping-in-the-snow-with Signe day, and I got to try out my new dress designed to keep the snowballs out of the silky hair on my legs and chest. It's VERY tight, keeps me dry and works well enough with the everyday stuff (peeing and crapping, for those of you without imagination) and, best of all, I look like Mingus the Superdog in it.

Now I'm resting at home in my biabed, but watch out, soon I'm flying again!

Academic dog

Accompanied my human to work today and enjoyed myself running around the corridors and most of her colleagues liked my greeting them (read jumping up to lick their face), but Sean was less enthusiastic. Adnan was cool, but then again he's a writer and knows what's what (setters rule!).

He's my role model and instead of a critic like my human I want to be a writer. I'll write about whatever comes into my head. Mostly birds, I expect, and not just game birds but also the garden birds like the blackbird we feed. He looks adorable in the snow, a black blob with his yellow beak in all that whiteness. Snow, snow, everywhere I look, snow. Today the snow has millions of black spots in it, probably stuff from the blasting at the new building site. Not very tasty either so I obey my human when she commands me to spit, I spit.

Show dog

Time flies when you're having fun! Lots has happened since my last entry, but I've been busy - staying with Amir at Långtora while my human was in Giessen with her doctoral students, and with Amy while she was busy in Brussels and Hong Kong. I missed her, naturally, but had too much fun to pine.  Nough said (I know she reads my pages).

I have also made my mark as this years's SISK dog at the annual Stockholm Dog Fair.  I dogged the SISK (that's an acronym for Swedish setter association) stall and got to kiss many children and adults, managed to steal a few of the specially designed setter gingerbreads in our Christmas tree (thank you Anna, they were delicious). I met a couple of vey handsome setters, and like Arthur in particular. He's a show dog which means he's bigger and much darker in color and has lovely long fur, but knows little about finding and setting birds. But he's smart and I will teach him, I'll persuade my human to visit with his family, and then we'll go bird hunting, oh yeah...

Met Signe (in case you haven't caught on, she's the queen of my heart) on Christmas Eve and both of us were very well-behaved whiled our humans ate their food. Our reward was a sampling of everything, including Christmas ham (my human is rarely this generous, she eats the special food and leaves me with DOGCHOW).

But that's ungenerous of me, because on Christmas day I was served turkey with stuffing, so I decided that from this day on I am a TURKEY DOG.