On the Subject of: Black and White

Look into my eyes, listen only to the sound of my Bark

Not everything in the world is in Color, and on the other hand not everything is black and white either, physically or metaphorically.  It has been said that some people look through rose colored glasses and others only see what they want to see, but the burning question today is “Do Dogs only see in Black and white?”  I am going to shed a little light on this curious subject (no pun intended).

Ok, humans, sit down for this answer:  Contrary to popular belief dogs do see color and not just shades of grey.  Now I know that all of you dog owners, out there, have just fainted, another myth bites the dust, so let me clarify.  Dogs are colorblind, but that does not mean they do not see any color any more than a human that is color bind, only sees in black and white.  It is a common misunderstanding.  I can see color but not as rich or as many as you do.

My family Heritage originates in Yorkshire, England and they probably studied next to their masters at Oxford University, a little farther south.  I guess that’s where I get my smarts so I will attempt to explain, without a lot of scientific mumbo jumbo. 

Anatomy of a dogs eye

In the retina of the eye of both humans and dogs there are special light sensitive cells call “Rods” and “Cones”.  No, silly not fishing rods and Ice Cream Cones but special living cells.  Rods are responsible for low light vision and Cones are sensitive to color.  There are 3 different types of cones that are sensitive to the short, medium and long wave lengths of light and therefore color.  I have fewer cones than a human which suggests my vision is not as good as humans, and that I don’t have the rich range of color that you do.  The thing with color is not just cones but the different types of cones each tuned to different wavelengths of light.  Human colorblindness comes about because the person is missing one of the three kinds of cones. With only two cones, the individual can still see colors, but not as many as someone with normal color vision. Dogs also have only two kinds of cones, so their vision, also, is not as vibrant.

Do you see my Tapetum Lucidum?

Dogs see better in the dark than humans, partly because a dog's retina is dominated by rods which are sensitive to low light, and partly because of the tapetum lucidum  ( this word comes from the human language called Latin and it means  "bright tapestry")  which lies underneath the rod cells and reflects "concentrated" light back through them. This is a help to wild dogs who are likely to be hunting in poor lighting conditions. As an additional aid to hunting, dogs are particularly sensitive to seeing movement in the distance. They perceive stationary objects relatively poorly, though, which makes some seem clumsy. 

Something very interesting is that a lot of popular colors for dog toys are red or orange.  However red is very difficult for a dog to see.  It probably appears to be very dark brown or gray or maybe even black.  When you toss that ball in the grass and your dog runs past the toy you just tossed she might not be able to see the difference between the ball and the grass and it is not because she is stupid or stubborn.  It’s your fault human for choosing a toy with a color that is hard to tell the difference on your lawn.

Dog and Human color perspective

Here is a little color chart of how dogs and Humans probably see color.  This will help you choose our toys more intelligently. Yellow and Blue are good choices. 

There you have it, the real story and that’s the truth, cross my paws 

 

Now let me see..... Where did I put that ball.... I might have to use my nose.

On the Subject of: Peaches

Now I don’t know if every dog likes a good peach, like I do,  but I think they are Barkolicious.  How did I come to enjoy a good Peach, you ask.  Well, everyday if I eat all of my food, my “D” gives me a treat.  Fresh fruit is good for everyone so one day he gave me a luscious, beautiful, barkolicious, succulent, mouth watering ripe piece of peach and it was love at first sniff.  Ever since that day I have loved peaches.  I just get a few small pieces so as not to upset my stomach and it is really a nice treat.  My  First Birthday is on Tuesday and I really want to get a peach Birthday Cake.  (If my “D” reads my blog, I hope he takes the hint).

Flat or Donut Peach

Now here is something I bet you didn’t know:  Peaches (Prunus persica) are native to China.  I bet you thought New Jersey, WOL.  There are a lot of varieties of Peaches and it would take a long time to tell you about them all, so I won’t in this blog. 

Peach Blossom

The flowers on a peach tree are produced in early spring before the leaves; they are solitary or paired, pink, with five petals. The fruit has yellow or whitish flesh, a delicate aroma, and a skin that is either velvety (peaches) or smooth (nectarines).  The Peach, along with cherries, plums and apricots are stone fruits.  In the human study of plants and flowers, botany, these are called drupes.  Cultivated peaches are divided into clingstone and freestone depending on whether the flesh sticks to the stone or not; both can have either white or yellow flesh. Peaches with white flesh typically are very sweet with little acidity and they are my “D” and my favorite.

The scientific name persica, along with the word "peach" itself, derives from an early European belief that peaches were native to Persia (Iran), however they really came from China and were probably introduced to Persia and the Mediterranean along the silk route before Christian times.  Peaches were mentioned in Chinese writings as far back as the 10th century BC and were a favorite fruit of kings and emperors.  Alexander the Great introduced the fruit to Europe after his conquest of Persia.  United States farmers did not begin commercial production until the 19th century, and the peach was eventually introduced into New Jersey agriculture.   New Jersey State (Jersey Peaches) is the 4th largest peach producer in the country.  The peach season is July to September, unfortunately all the White peaches are gone by September.

Finally, as with many other members of the rose family (yes you heard me bark correctly, the peach belongs to the same botanical family as the rose), peach seeds contain poisonous gynogenic glycosides, which is capable of decomposing into a sugar molecule and hydrogen cyanide gas. While peach seeds are not the most toxic within the rose family, that honor belongs to the bitter almond,  large doses of these chemicals from any source are hazardous to human health and can be fatal to us dogs, so keep the pits in the trash.

There you have it, all about the peach, my favorite treat, and that’s the truth, cross my paws.

On the Subject of: “The Dog Days of Summer”

Whew!

The Dog days of Summer

Why, I ask you do they blame these hot days on dogs?  I say it’s unfair, discriminatory, anecdotal and prejudicial and when we have a Dog as president, (oh wait! Dolly should be good now, and bite my tongue), we will do away with “The Dog days of Summer”. 

The constellation Canis Major

So by now you know how much I like history, and in actuality, this is something else we can blame on the Romans.  The Ancient Romans called this period of the year “Dies Caniculares”.  This is from the Ancient human language called Latin and means, you guessed it “Dog Days”, but why?  Glad you asked me because I am going to tell you.  Back in Ancient times, there were no big city lights to obscure the night sky, so lacking anything better to do at night, they began studying the night sky, looking at the stars and connecting the dots, while creating myths about what they perceived they saw, today we call these constellations. 

Ancient Egyptians and the rise of Sirius

The Romans associated the hot weather with the star Sirius.  They painted the dots to resemble a Dog and considered Sirius to be the “Dog Star”, because it is the brightest star in the constellation Canis Major (Big Dog).  In fact, it is so bright that the ancient Romans thought that the earth received heat from it. Regardless of its brightness, however, the heat of summer is a direct result of the earth's tilt. Look for it in the southern sky (if you live in northern latitudes) during January.  In the summer, however, Sirius, the “dog star,” rises and sets with the sun.  The heliacal rising of Sirius marked the flooding of the Nile in Ancient Egypt and the "dog days" of summer for the ancient Greeks, but for this story we will blame it on the Romans because it’s their language that we title the time period as “Dog Days”. 
I am a smart little Bitch and for the record, what the naked eye perceives as a single star is actually a binary star system, consisting of a white main star, termed Sirius A, and a faint white dwarf companion, termed Sirius B. Sirius appears bright because of both its intrinsic luminosity and its proximity to Earth. At a distance of 2.6 parsecs( for you humans that don’t watch Star Trek, that’s about 19 Trillion miles and the Sirius system is one of Earth's near neighbors.) Sirius A is about twice as massive as the Sun and has an absolute visual magnitude of 1.42. It is 25 times more luminous than the Sun. 

Roman Mosaic depicting Dog Sacrifice

Originally the dog days were the time when Sirius rose just before sunrise (this is no longer true because of the procession of the earth’s rotation on its axis.)  Today the Old farmer’s almanac defines it as the period of July 3rd and ending August 11th, coinciding with the ancient heliacal (at sunrise) rising of the Dog Star, Sirius. These are the days of the year when rainfall is at its lowest levels.  The Romans believed the days to be an evil time "when the seas boiled, wine turned sour, Quinto raged in anger, dogs grew mad, and all creatures became languid, causing to man burning fevers, hysterics, and phrensies", according to Brady’s Clavis Calendarium, 1813.  The Ancient Romans sacrificed a brown dog at the beginning of the Dog Days to appease the rage of Sirius, believing that the star was the cause of the hot, Humid weather (What barbarians they were, and I always thought they were civilized).  When we get our first Dog for president, I think we should sacrifice humans, for a while as an act of contrition.

  

If you ask around, many humans believe the phrase is in reference to the conspicuous laziness of domesticated dogs (we’re not lazy, just in danger of overheating with too much exercise) during the hottest days of the summer. When speaking of "Dog Days" there seems to be a connotation of lying or "dogging" around, or being "dog tired" on these hot and humid days. A similar myth asserts that the time is so-named because rabid dogs are supposed to be the most common then. Although these meanings have nothing to do with the original source of the phrase, (as I have already told you where the term came from), however, they may have been attached to the phrase in recent years due to common usage or a misunderstanding of the origin of the phrase.

Nurse Dolly

When humans overheat they are able to sweat in order to cool down. However, your dog cannot sweat as easily; he or she must rely on panting to cool down. Dogs breathe in through the nose and out through the mouth, directing the air over the mucous membranes of the tongue, throat and trachea to facilitate cooling by evaporation of fluid. Your dog also dissipates heat by dilation of the blood vessels in the surface of the skin in the face, ears and feet. When these mechanisms are overwhelmed, hyperthermia and heat stroke usually develop. I like to keep cool, by staying in the air-conditioning in the summer or rolling on the wet grass.

A good cool roll in the wet grass on a hot day

According to petplace.com  “Working up a good sweat in the hot summer months may be good for you, but it can lead to heat stroke in your dog and kill him in a matter of minutes. Heat stroke is a dangerous condition that takes the lives of many animals every year. Your dog's normal body temperature is 100.5 to 102.5 degrees Fahrenheit. If it rises to 105 or 106 degrees, the dog is at risk for developing heat exhaustion. If the body temperature rises to 107 degrees, your dog has entered the dangerous zone of heat stroke. With heat stroke, irreversible damage and death can occur.”

“If your dog is overheating, he will appear sluggish and unresponsive. He may appear disorientated. The gums, tongue and conjunctiva of the eyes may be bright red and he will probably be panting hard. He may even start vomiting. Eventually he will collapse, seizure and may go into a coma.”

“If your dog exhibits any of these signs, treat it as an emergency and call your veterinarian immediately. On the way to your veterinary hospital, you can cool your pet with wet towels, spray with cool water from a hose or by providing ice chips for your dog to chew (providing he is conscious).”

Keep Cool like me, have a Limesicle and stay in the shade

Well I hope I have cleared up the subject of “The Dog days of Summer”. Keep cool like me and safely enjoy your and your dog’s summer. That’s the truth, cross my paws.

On the Subject of … Wet Grass and Pine Cones:

Every morning, at 6:00am, when I take my walk with “D”, down to the lake, I can’t help but just admire the Wet Grass and Pine Cones, especially after a good rain.  So I decided to do a little research about the subjects:

Wet Grass from the morning dew

Wet Grass:  is a Monocot (a scientific classification) with narrow blade leaves growing from its base.  It can get wet a lot of ways, the rain, from sprinklers and hoses, the morning dew or sometimes I just pee on it. There are a lot of types of grass but only a few types grow in my neighborhood, because it is very sandy and poor soil.  Some of the types that will grow in New Jersey are: Kentucky bluegrass (This is very pretty but does not tolerate heat very well and requires a lot of care), Perennial rye grasses (This is good in heat but grows in clumps and isn’t very pretty), Tall fescue grass (This can even grow in salty soil, has deep roots and tolerates heat, but it grows in clumps too.), and Zoysia grass (This will grow anywhere and is good for beach homes, but it turns brown in winter)  “D” says, there is even Art’s Facial Grass (This grows in ball parks and is green even in winter), I have some on my front porch and when it’s raining hard I poop and pee on it.

My Uncle Bob (I call him that because he is nice to me), has the best grass in the neighborhood.  I am not sure what kind it is, probably Kentucky Blue Grass, but it is always beautiful and I love to roll in it when it’s wet.  Sometimes I have even pee’d on it but don’t tell him.  My “D” has corrected me from doing that, as he says it’s not good for the grass.  I would never poop on Uncle Bob’s grass, because it’s too beautiful.  He is always taking good care of it; sprinkling when it’s hot, raking, cutting and fartalizing (I think that’s the correct term). 

Grass is beautiful, especially when it’s wet.  I chew on a piece occasionally if I have an upset stomach, but, mostly like to roll on it. 

If you want to learn more about grass, you can look here, and if you want to know how to mow wet grass look here.

A lovely pine cone Specimen

Pine Cones:  There is just something exotic about a round, firm, aromatic, rough, wrinkly, delicious and lovely pine cone that is most irresistible.  I can’t pass by one without sniffing and taking a bite. I do this to see if I have one already, among my extensive collection, that I keep near my precious twigs.

In the scientific world (I am a well read little Yorkshire terrier), Pine cones belong to the Division of Pinophyta, in the class of Pinopsida of the Plant Kingdom.  Pine Cones are “gymnosperms” (This comes from a human language called Greek, and means, “naked seed”).  They grow on trees, mostly, and you know how much a dog loves a good tree, I’m no exception.  Some of the trees they grow on are cedars, Douglas firs, cypresses, junipers, kauris (a southern hemisphere evergreen), larches (a conifer that grows a lot in Canada and Russia), pines, hemlocks, redwoods, spruces and yews (but not the southern, variety “yews all”).   It seems, sometimes that New Jersey is the Scrub Pine Capitol of the world, because of its poor soil, and this is where I see the most pine cones come from, in my own neighborhood.

Beside being great collectables, they make good Christmas gifts

Did you know that pines have both male and female cones on the same tree?  The male cones are small, (don’t let on I know that, because they will get, “in fear of sorority complex”) and are only present for a short period, usually in the spring, (typical male), falling as soon as they have shed their pollen (I am too young and not suppose to know this but I do, anyway I always say what goes on in the trees is their business). The female cones mature after pollination, with actual fertilization delayed one year.  At maturity, the cones usually open to release the seeds, but in some of the bird-dispersed species, like the white bark pine, the seeds are only released by the bird breaking the cones open. In some others, the seeds are stored in closed cones for many years until a forest fire kills the parent tree; the cones are also opened by the heat and the stored seeds are then released in huge numbers to repopulate the Forrest.

Frogs like Pine Cones too.

Pine Cones are very important to the ecology.  The seeds are commonly eaten by birds and squirrels.  I like birds and squirrels and there are a lot at my house. On another subject, pine needles, are also, sometimes eaten by some butterflies, moths and goats.  “I never met a goat I didn’t like” (drum roll). 

If you want to know more about pine cones go here.

Me, just after a roll in the wet grass

I just know that the best time to roll in the wet grass and sniff out the pine cones is just after my “D” has me dried off from a bath.  (This is also the best time to roll on dead frogs, but I’ve told you this before). There you have it, wet grass and pine cones and that’s the truth, cross my paws.