Dog Life

Because the domestication of dogs occurred so long ago during prehistoric times, many of our beliefs about people’s early relationships with dogs, wolves, and wild canines are sheer speculation. In some respects, we have not moved very far from the vision of the British writer Rudyard Kipling in 1912 when he offered his theory of the domestication of dogs in his Just So Stories. The story begins with the wild dog/wolf/jackal/coyote hanging around the home of the humans, looking at the food being cooked by the primitive human female, and feeling hungry. more

Google furkids and you will find hits on everything from dogsitters to tailored clothing: the population of pet guardians that relate to their bundles of fur much like offspring is steadily growing. Some pet parents see their dog as a child-substitute—a replacement for the unconditional love and nurturing that comes with a parent-child relationship. Others view caring for their dog as a bona fide parenting role, regardless of their choices surrounding reproduction, and seem to use the term furkids to symbolize their degree of love and commitment. more

I was having coffee with a friend of mine who is a professorof psychology. As we chatted, he brought up the fact that hehad broken off his relationship with a woman he had beenseeing. “I’m a dog person and she’s a cat person, and theydon’t mix well,” he explained. more

Born prematurely on a frigid February night in West Virginia along with 11 healthy, hungry piglet siblings, tiny Pink, his eyes sealed shut, was not breathing on his own. Johanna Kerby cleaned him up and got him breathing, but he was rejected by his littermates, who had no time or patience for a piglet so small. Unable to eat or stand without help, Pink could do little more than whimper quietly. The other piglets pushed him from the pen; it was too cold and he was too small to survive alone. more

Welcome to the weird, wonderful world of homegrown dog videos. From the inspiring to the hilarious to the just plain strange, these videos will make you smile—and perhaps inspire you to court your own YouTube fame with a video posting of your own. (Just check out the number of views these videos have received.) more

If you’re like us, you have loads (and loads) of yet-to-be-printed digital photos of your pup on your camera…and laptop and desktop and iPhone. It’s time to delve into the digital forest of photos and put those pics to good use! more

Lu Parker on winning Miss USA, making a difference and living with a monkey more