I’m still reveling in a holiday break. Seeing friends, working Maggie, learning about writing fiction, cooking, eating . . . Even organized my massive collection of recipes:
I also have file as big as your arm of “recipes that I should try sometime.” There are so many that I’d have to do little but cook for months to try them all out. Worse things could happen.
I thought a fun way to end the year is to list some of my favorites in hopes that they add to your life as they have to mine. I’m counting on you all to add your own and enrich our lives even more.
I’m interspersing my list of favorites with some of the favorite photographs that I’ve taken, not just from 2019, but from years past. I hope you enjoy them.
My favorite FACEBOOK PAGE is far and away Frans de Waal’s public page. He has permission to post the work of some of the most amazing wildlife photographers imaginable. (I wish I could show you some, but alas, I don’t have permission.) I visit his page several times a week, and I’m always happier after I do. Also included are some great videos, including those of dogs and cats. Check it out if you haven’t already.
Scarlet Macaws playing/fighting/courting(?) outside of Lapa Rios, Costa Rica, February 2019
My favorite INSTAGRAM poster is The Dogist. Here’s the description from the website. “The Dogist was created in 2013 by Elias Weiss Friedman, whose goal was to create a happy place on the internet for dog lovers . . . Elias has since photographed over 30,000 dogs across the world, authored a NYT Bestselling book, and gathered an audience of over 3.6 million people on social platforms.” This is another way to find a reason to smile, always a good thing.
Willie at the Nippersink Sheepdog Trial, the day I decided to retire him from competition.
My favorite animal-related blog is Companion Animal Psychology. As author Zazie Todd says, By Zazie Todd, PhD. “Happy cats. Happy dogs. Thanks to science.” That pretty much sums up what is important to many of us–using science-based information to improve the lives of our dogs. Bloggers are never supposed to send their readers to other blogs, but really, that’s like an author never recommending someone else’s book. If you haven’t read this one yet, check it out. It’s great.
Flowers. What would I do without them?
Favorite dog-related magazine? It’s a tie, between Bark magazine and Whole Dog Journal. Both magazines add greatly to my life with dogs, from the vast range of topics in Bark–art, literature, behavior, psychology–to the laser focus of Whole Dog Journal on physical and behavioral health. It’s a tough world in publishing right now, and I am grateful that these two magazines are there for us.
This photograph makes me so happy I enlarged it and hung it in the garage by the door.
My favorite memoir of the year, paws down, is Deep Creek by Pam Houston. I reviewed in March of 2019, and said “I love this book, love it deeply and completely. It is everything a book should be: Brilliantly written, flat out honest, rich with a sense of place in the Colorado Rockies, layered with her love of the land, her dogs, her donkeys, her stranded elk babies and frozen water tanks.” I’m sure it’s not for everyone, Pam doesn’t mince words, but I adored it.
I took this photo in fall at the Japanese Garden in Portland, OR. It’s one of my favorite photos ever.
Favorite New Dog -Related book? I’m going for Canine Enrichment for the Real World by Allie Bender and Emily Strong. Here’s what Ken Ramirez said about it: “Don’t let the word “enrichment” in the title fool you into thinking that the scope of this book is too narrow or not something you will find valuable. It focuses comprehensively on meeting your dog’s needs and is written in a holistic, science-based, practical, straightforward, and easy-to-understand way. I love this book!” I don’t know about you, but if Ken, animal trainer extraordinaire, says it’s good, you know it is.
This is the one photograph here that I didn’t take; it was taken by a good friend, Robert Streiffer.
And last but never least, I couldn’t resist reposting one of my favorites from my collection of signs that make me laugh.
MEANWHILE, back on the farm: Meet our newly named ewe lambs! BaaBaa Streisand, Baabarella and Badonna. Thanks and gratitude to J Christine (BaaBaa Streisand), Frances (Baabarella) and Helen Parker (Baadonna) for their contributions. Who knew social media would provide endless years of joy, by coming up with the best names ever, including Lady Baa Baa and Meryl Sheep.
Now all I have to do is decide who is who, and how to learn to distinguish them. I could put larger ear tags on them, but it’s fun for me to find subtle differences on their faces that allow me to identify each as individuals. Once an ethologist, always an ethologist.
And you? Your favorites from 2019? We’ll all love to hear from you.
And, HAPPY HAPPY NEW YEAR! AND NEW DECADE! Wow. 2020. Wow.
HFR says
I love The Dogist too! You should check out his younger brother’s account @keepingfinn. He quit his job in advertising and then decided to help his brother with a project by driving across country with a puppy from PR (Sato Project) and find him a home on the way by chronicling his travels. Needless to say, his account name tells it all. Finn has got to be the luckiest dog on the planet, traveling with Henry in his custom designed (by him) Sprinter all over the country. He is crazy in love with this dog and this year decided to raise money for the smaller shelters that he visits during his travels. You can sign up to donate a small amount every month. The cool thing is 100% goes to the shelter. He takes no cut. Both Friedman boys are amazing and Finn is pretty great too,
Thanks for all the other suggestions, I’m checking them all out now (altho I already subscribe to WDJ and Bark). And your photos, as usual are gorgeous. Thanks again and Happy New Year!
Trisha says
HFR, as usual, great ideas from you! I had no idea the Dogist had such a cool younger brother. Will check out travels with Finn soon. Thanks!
Jill says
Your Japanese Garden picture lifted my heart. Thank you.
Loved the Ewetide names too.
Tucker Margaret says
For beautiful pictures, check out Barry Rosen’s website. He photographs dog activities, particularly agility, for a living, and is great at capturing the moment. He also has great wildlife pictures from lakes in Maine and Constitution Marsh in the Hudson River.
Jan Berger says
I was relieved to see that your recipes are organized like mine. I keep thinking that a day or two of bad weather will allow me to put them into my recipe binder but, thus far, it hasn’t happened. Happy cooking and a happy and healthy new year to you and your family! 🎉🎉
Louise Toole says
Here is a site you most likely will like. Aki has photographed our family including our dogs. Right now she has two adorable border collies one of which is deaf. Previously she had a border collie and a lab. She wrote her story and published a book. She loves her dogs as we do.
http://www.akiyamaguchi.com/
Also a FB Page for her photography.
Her photos make me smile.
Ron Bevacqua says
HAPPY NEW YEAR to Trish and all the wonderful folks who read and share their input on this amazing blog.
Melanie Hawkes says
Great choice of names, although my favourite suggestion was Britney Shears!
You should enter this short story competition: https://www.writerscentre.com.au/furious-fiction/ It’s Australian but you can enter from anywhere in the world. It’s a lot of fun and good practice. They do online courses too!
I will check out your suggestions but 2020 is the year I wanted to cut down on my subscriptions. I have trouble keeping up with my favourites some days! Time to unsubscribe from others…
Andy says
Both Alexandra Horowitz’s latest (“Our Dogs, Ourselves”) and Jessica Pierce and Marc Beckoff’s new book “Unleashing Your Dog” (full disclosure: not quite done with this one) are recent favorites. I also really enjoyed Robert Sapolsky’s book “Behave” and Jerry Coyne’s book “Why Evolution is True”, as well as my course’s textbook “Dog Behavior: Modern Science and our Canine Companions” by James Ha and Tracy Campion. On social media, I really enjoy Dr. Paige Harden and Holly Dunsworth on Twitter (!!!) and some of their associated lectures and articles. It was really enlightening to read Jerry Coyne’s book, which I take to be a fairly mainstream introduction to concepts of evolution, and Holly Dunsworth’s writings which really challenge long-accepted explanations for specific primate behaviors.
Now for an unsolicited bummer: my dear, brilliant, incorrigible, loving dog Cecil has prostate cancer and it’s really dominating my spirit these days. So much uncertainty about what can be done for him, and how much time we have left. Finding a stable treatment option so we can get a jump start on this and provide meaningful life extension dominates my thoughts all day and hopefully we will get to start radiation in early February. Once the day gets going we enjoy our time together and he is thankfully symptom-free, but this is an aggressive cancer and every day I wake with a sense of despair knowing my dear friend is in the December of his life. So 2020 is gonna be tough. I appreciate this forum and thanks for letting me share this.
Helen says
Happy 2020 Patricia and all your lovely readers! I enjoy reading the comments almost as much as the blog posts!
Loved all the lamb name suggestions, especially as Melanie said Britney Shears! Ha! And Baarbarella!
Have got new Insta to follow thank you.
I love @wolfgang2242 as he only adopts senior dogs, well and pigs. And follow a bunch of rescue instead so I can cry copiously when abandoned or neglected dogs finally get a family that loves them. Of course locally I love @projectunderdogrescue and @offthechaink9rescue….wiwis h i could adopt more dogs myself.
Have baby elephants and rhinos to my parents for Christmas and I adopted one myself for a year too. Following their Insta @sheldraketrust means I have now elevated baby elephants to the same cuteness level as puppies!
I post bad photos of my poodles doing poodle type things and displaying my lack of ability in keeping the new pupster still as I clip him. Oh the shame! @helenandthehounds
Chris from Boise says
Andy – so sorry to hear Cecil’s diagnosis. You will do the best you can for your dear boy, and your best will be good enough. Hope you have lots of good “right now, this moment” times with him as you journey this road together.
Thank you Trisha and commenters for another year of wisdom, laughter, sharing, and wonderful photos!
Andy says
Thank you, Chris. We had a great “right now, this moment” moment a week or so ago. I took him to a “fun day” event so he could run lure, which he really enjoys. Unfortunately, the line broke when he was all the way across the course so I tried his emergency recall. He tore towards me, eyes shining with joy, got within ten feet, and then caught wind of the instructor’s bag of breakfast tacos lying on the ground and swerved off to go savage them. He didn’t succeed. That’s my boy.