Happy happy joy joy!

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I’m so happy it’s Friday – life has just been too busy lately!  I plan to spend some time this weekend catching on the blogging world.  Right now, however, it’s time for your weekly dose of Friday randomness (extra random this week, in fact):

  1. This week’s punny pet names are inspired by the deep thoughts Bella plagiarized from an old Saved by the Bell episode (by now, you may have realized that I’m a tad obsessed):  Zack Roarris and Kelly Ka-meowski.  I’ll leave it to you, dear reader, to come up with a good pun for A.C. Slater and Jessie Spano.  No changes needed to Lisa Turtle or Screech Powers!
  2. Ah, the television of my youth.  I’m sure by now you’ve figured out I’m quite nostalgic on that front.  So you can imagine my excitement when I read that TeenNick has dusted off some classic shows from the 90s and will be re-airing them.  Life was always so much better when Clarissa explained it all.  However, one complaint – where’s Hey Dude?
  3. Putting nostalgia aside for a moment, let’s enjoy some cute!  Check out these adorable maned wolf pups at the Houston Zoo.
  4. Feel like doing some baking this weekend?  Try to do better than the decorators who created these animal-themed cake wrecks.  If you need to cleanse your palate after the wreckage, I recommend checking out these amazing Dr. Seuss-themed cakes.  I want.
  5. Does your dog wish he was a fashion plate?  If so, these photos of 20 dogs (plus one kitten) wearing bow ties will help your dog navigate the tricky world of canine couture.  (I adore these photo collections from Doggie Stylish – Bella even made a cameo in one of them!)

Okay, apparently I had more linkage for you today than I realized.  It’s not over yet.  I hope you can handle one more dose of Nickelodeon randomness from the 90s…

I am amazed that I was able to easily find a video combining puppies and the scattered nostalgia of today’s post.  The Internet really does have everything.  Happy weekend!

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B is for Bear

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I’m not aiming for an alphabet series here (although I do have alphabet soup on the brain courtesy of To Dog With Love)… however, the video below was begging me to title my blog post this way.  This Thursday, a show called Polar Bear: Spy on the Ice will debut on Animal Planet.  Apparently filming polar bears in the wild is not that easy – luckily, a British filmmaker named John Downer spent the last two years using cleverly-disguised hidden cameras to get some footage of these amazing animals.  (Check out this 60 Minutes segment for more details.)

This video clip from 60 Minutes is the one that caught my attention (it’s seriously adorable).  However, a little searching revealed this gem from BBC One involving more polar bears and spy cams.  Holy cuteness, Batman:

Fascinating.  (I found some additional info from BBC One that’s also worth a read.)  I will definitely be setting the DVR.

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Take a look, it’s in a book…

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… it’s Reading Raindog!  (Reading Rainbone?  Reading Great Danebow?  Help me, LeVar Burton!)

Check out Monday’s post for more info about the book seen here.

You had to know I couldn’t resist the urge to post the following video…

Yeah… I went there.  You can thank me later, after your brain plays this on repeat for the rest of the day.

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To Bella from To Dog With Love

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Apparently Bella and I are on a hot streak.  First, she won a collar from Doggie Stylish.  Then, I won a really cool book called  For the Love of Dogs: an A-to-Z Primer for Dog Lovers of All Ages thanks to the wonderful Cosmo Havanese from To Dog With Love.  (Go ahead and check out that awesome blog… I’ll wait.)  Anyway, To Dog With Love gave away a copy of the book, and I won!  (We should enter the lottery, right?  Third time’s a charm, they say.)

The book, written by Allison Weiss Entrekin, is full of whimsical illustrations by Mark Anderson.  It uses all 26 letters of the alphabet (even X) to present fun facts and wonderful info about our beloved pups.  To give you a little taste, I selected a few letters at random. (As you’ll see, it wasn’t really that random.)

B is for Beagles
E is for English Foxhounds
L is for Labradors
L is still for Labradors
A is for Adoption

C is for Cavaliers
O is for Obedience
S is for Shih Tzus
M is for Mascots
O is still for Obedience

Here are some photos of Bella enjoying her new reading material.

Thanks again to Diane and Cosmo from To Dog With Love!

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And the award goes to…

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As you may know, I love awards shows.  Therefore, there could only be one theme to this week’s No Frown Friday: the Academy Awards!

  1. Your punny pet names are based on some of this year’s nominees:  Jesse Eisenbark, Colin Furth, Bark Ruffalo, Catalie Portman, and Helena Bone-ham Carter.
  2. Not sure the Oscars are for you?  There’s always the Dogscars instead.  What do you think are the best dog movies of all time? (You know I like to be inclusive, so here’s a quiz about movie cats and a movie filmed by cats.  Yup, you read that right.)
  3. Speaking of favorite dog movies and favorite dogs in movies, here are a few lists of dog movies to get you started.  Some of my favorites?  Best in Show, Lady and the Tramp, and The Fox and the Hound.  That’s by no means an exhaustive list of my favorites, however.  Put your thinking cap on and  tell me yours in the comments – I’ll meet you there!
  4. There have been some great movies featuring animals over the years.  How much do you know about them?  Take this quiz, and then learn more about animal stars, including shelter animals who ended up in show business.
  5. The American Humane Association makes sure that onscreen animals are kept safe and treated well.  AHA publishes some interesting behind the scenes stories on its website, like this one about the horses on the set of one of this year’s Best Picture nominees, True Grit.  AHA also publishes reviews regarding how each movie performs on AHA’s rating scale.  I looked up two more of this year’s Best Picture nominees, both of which received an outstanding rating: The Fighter and The Social Network.

So, which film do you think should win Best Picture?  I’m pulling for The King’s Speech – I promise it’s not just because there were Corgi cameos throughout.

Interesting note: apparently the AHA was very unhappy that The King’s Speech used its trademarked phrase, “No Animals Were Harmed” because the AHA was not involved in monitoring or rating this British production.  However, the issue was resolved – sounds like the real problem was use of the trademarked phrase, and all animals were treated humanely.

Serious interlude over… let the debate about the best dog movies ever begin!

 

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Daily Bella #464

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Yesterday’s Daily Shoot assignment:  Make a photograph today that illustrates the act of waiting.

This one was pretty easy for Ms. Bella.  She’s always sitting around with a hopeful look on her face as if perhaps food will fall from the sky.  I ended up with two shots I really liked.  I chose the one on the left for my official entry.  Which one do you like better?

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Thank you, Doggie Stylish!

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As you know, Bella has been rocking her Christmas collar for far too long.  She was wearing it on this blog as recently as last week, in fact.  Well, no more.  Thanks to Doggie Stylish, Bella has finally accepted that the holiday season is over.  During the Magical Mystery Mutt Tour, Karen from Doggie Stylish gave away a collar on her blog.  Somehow, I won!

I chose this sassy little number:

Isn’t her new collar the cutest?  Thanks again to Doggie Stylish!

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Happy Presi-Pets Day!

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If you’ve been studying your presidential pets, you probably know that President Franklin D. Roosevelt had a Scottish Terrier named Fala.  By all accounts, FDR and Fala were inseparable.  (In fact, Fala even appears next to his master at the FDR Memorial in DC.)  At one point, there were rumors that FDR accidentally left Fala behind during a trip to the Aleuitian Islands.  During the 1944 presidential campaign, Republicans contended that FDR had spent taxpayer money to send a destroyer back to retrieve Fala.  These accusations resulted in the famous “Fala speech” – you can read the full text here, but I’ve found a clip of the portion dealing with Fala and I thought it would be perfect to share with you today. 

Happy Presidents’ Day!

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