horizontal stripes: the exception that proves the rule

Really, I don't think the stripes on this lovely lime sweater make this Chinese Crested look fat at all! No, not at all, you look great, honey! NOTE: this is a real live Chinese Crested. Once upon a time the Muttropolitan Diarist accidentally posted a photo of a stuffed one. But this one is la vraie chose.

gaby schwartz

Shiny, low, broad, and floppy-footed, Gaby is, according to her owner, part Chow (note the blackish tongue) and part Cocker Spaniel and, judging by her proportions, part ottoman.

squirmy shiba inu puppy

This is l'il Shibu, age three months. (Check out his tiny left forepaw!)

big al and mugsy

Whoa. Scawy!

dinkums

cocktail hour, lower Fifth Avenue

how come that bald puppy gets to ride in the stroller?

hairy yellow nursemaid

speaking of working dogs

This yellow lab waiting for its child to come out of the Madison Square Park playground reminded me of one of my favorite books, Higglety Pigglety Pop! by one of my favorite authors, Maurice Sendak. It's the story of Jennie, a very hungry Sealyham terrier who goes off to find herself. For her, it turns out, this means a life on the stage. She takes up acting but of course acting doesn't pay the bills so she has a side job, as I recall, as a nursemaid. This idea made the young Muttropolitan Diarist wild. The M.D.'s nanny was unparalleled but she was still after all a person! What could have been better than being looked after by a dog? Alas, this fantasy did not come to pass.

An excerpt from Higglety Pigglety Pop! Or, There Must be More to Life



Chapter One

Once Jennie had everything. She slept on a round pillow upstairs and a square pillow downstairs. She had her own comb and brush, two different bottles of pills, eyedrops, eardrops, a thermometer, and for cold weather a red wool sweater. There were two windows for her to look out of and two bowls to eat from. She even had a master who loved her.

But Jennie didn't care. In the middle of the night she packed everything in a black leather bag with gold buckles and looked out of her favorite window for the last time.

"You have everything," said the potted plant that happened to be looking out the same window.

Jennie nibbled a leaf.

"You have two windows," said the plant. "I have only one."

Jennie sighed and bit off another leaf. The plant continued.

"Two pillows, two bowls, a red wool sweater, eyedrops, eardrops, two different bottles of pills, a thermometer, and he even loves you."

"That is true, " said Jennie, chewing more leaves.

"You have everything," repeated the plant.

Jennie only nodded, her mouth full of leaves.

"Then why are you leaving?" "Because, " said Jennie, snapping off the stem and blossom, "I am discontented.

I want something I do not have. There must be more to life than having everything!" The plant had nothing to say. It had nothing left to say it with.

two scrawny brothers

Luca (shown here with plush bunny) and Salvatore. They're sort of the canine equivalent of those gay models/artists/art movers the Hundley Brothers (below) only, clearly, a lot more jolly.

the hundley bros.

oscar

micah 'n max

Micah (the little one) is only four months old.