Archive for October, 2009

This new Life with Corky video on YouTube was promised last week to the Twitter Squirrel Club after bragging about being an expert squirrel tracker. The evidence is in the video. I did get close to the squirrel. The transcript of Dad narrating is below the video display for those who want to read along (or can’t understand some of the words).

Narration script: This special video presentation is for the Twitter weekly Squirrel Club meeting.

Dad will narrate for me. I became a squirrel tracking expert as a puppy. You will be amazed at how close I can get to squirrels as demonstrated in this video. First step is find squirrels. Go to a known squirrel hangout and begin by looking for squirrels far far away.

If they see a puppy or especially a big dog they will run away. Spot them before they see you, and they’ll come closer.

Next, get down low to the ground. As you can imagine here, a white puppy stands out in the green grass, but when I scrunch down flat on the ground, and stay quiet… I’m invisible! Yep. That squirrel is coming closer and closer because he can’t see me… hiding… and waiting.

Okay, now imagine that little rascal is getting really really close. Stay down low to the ground because if you can’t see him, he can’t see you. Of course it’s okay to take a peek at the squirrel when he’s looking the other way.

Finally, it’s your choice what to do next. I just track squirrels. Didn’t say anything about catching them. When they get close like this little guy, I jumps out to scare the little critters away and teach ‘em a lesson.

Ever wonder about what dogs are thinking? You may enjoy this Time Magazine article The Secrets Inside Your Dog’s Mind, a 4 page article by Carl Zimmer.

Humans make the mistake of attributing human characteristics when analyzing canine behavior, and may be disappointed with how often they are wrong. The Times article reveals much more about what dogs really think that may surprise some of you humans. My guardians needed the lessons. Hope they help you, too.

Here’s an excerpt from page 2 of the article, but I advise you to read every page:

Take for instance the kiss a dog gives you when you come home. It looks like love, but it could also be hunger. Wolves also lick one another’s mouths, particularly when one wolf returns to the pack. They can use their sense of taste and smell to see if the returnee has caught some prey on its journey. If it did, the licking often prompts it to vomit up some of that kill for the other members of the pack to share. The kiss dogs give us probably evolved from this inspection. “If we happened to spit up whatever we just ate,” says Horowitz, “I don’t think our dogs would be upset at all.”

That have you thinking again about the real meaning behind those puppy kisses? Haha. Good.

Another 20 doggy wallpaper photos added to the Fleet Peeples Dog Park Photo Gallery 5 were released earlier today. The first one (shown top left in the collage of 20 photos below) shows the empty beach with thousands of dog pawprints in the sand, part of the Baldwin Lake shoreline, and a gorgeous early morning Florida blue sky in the background.

Besides panoramic views of Fleet Peeples Dog Park which is near Orlando in Winter Park, see a wide variety of dogs both in size and breed. This brings the total of doggy desktop wallpaper quality photos in the galleries to 139.

Visit the new Fleet Peeples Dog Park gallery 5 to view 20 new dog photos today. Each of the photographs is shown as 150px wide thumbnails in the photo galleries, yet click any to see an enlarged desktop wallpaper version to download and use on your computer.

I am an excited puppy! The next video in the Life with Corky story of a shelter dog series was released earlier. Visit the main site to view Corky’s Doggy Jail Interview where I first meet my parents to-be. The photo here is me leaving doggy jail.

Below the video is complete text of the video narration for hearing impaired or others who just want to read along as Dad talks for me in this next episode in the series about my new life as a rescued shelter pet. Readers can view the entire video story on my Corky the Puppy YouTube video channel, too.

The YouTube version of the interview video will be uploaded later, and does not have the transcript of the narration. While on YouTube look for short video clips that are only found there and not included on my website.

Finally, given the chance to bring a pet into your home, please consider a shelter dog or cat. October is Adopt-a-Dog Month, but kitties and other pets need homes, too, so make every month adopt-a-shelter-pet month, okay?

Part of my puppy duties to earn a weekly doggy toy allowance is critter security patrol. In 9 months my record for doggy home security has been spotless. No alligators or elephants have dared enter my territory, yet as shown in the photo below while making today’s rounds my favorite palm tree looks highly suspicious.

What do you think? Feel free to comment or you may want to download the Corky on patrol desktop wallpaper (1200px x 900px) for a closer look. Thank goodness Dad explained that I only dreamed my palm tree was an elephant, and he made the trick picture. Haha!

My record for critter security patrol remains perfect because little animals like squirrels or lizards don’t count.

UPDATE: Curious about how this photo special effect was done? My pals in Twitter were and asked, so Dad posted an illustrated step-by-step xara photo edit tutorial on his blog.

October is adopt a shelter pet month and the perfect time to feature some good doggy pals of mine from Twitter, Jake and Tycho. They’re mutts like me, and did a Public Service Announcement video on YouTube that deserves a look and a listen.

After watching the PSA video here, go to the Jake and Tycho website to view their short and funny dog videos (more than 300) for lotsa smiles. Woof woof!

After considering my old design and the revised custom cms with matching WordPress blog, I reversed one decision and brought back the “Latest Tweets” in the home page sidebar column. It looks something like this, just not quite that wide:

This blog post uses the original code for inserting the tweets, so no matter when you visit this entry those should be my most recent tweets. Of course you can see a whole page of tweets on Twitter by following the Twitter link with my picture at the top right. It’s next to the graphic for my YouTube puppy videos and you’re invited to view those, too.