A Dingo Named Banjo

We recently received an email from one of our regular customers telling us about his unusual pet. He owns one of our very own Australian icons, a dingo called Banjo. Banjo, according to Chris, is the perfect pet. He does not bark, bite or fight. He is very well behaved and extremely clever.

Banjo was originally destined to travel to the Tokyo Zoo but fate intervened and instead he stayed on his home soil and became a loyal companion to Chris. Banjo has recently celebrated his fourth birthday and is in excellent health. Chris contributes this partly to using quality products that he purchases from us.

Facts about Dingoes 

Dingoes arrived in Australia about 5,000 years ago originating from Indonesia. Dingoes occasionally howl but do not bark. They are the largest of the native carnivores and play a very important role in the balance of nature.

Real Life Pet Detectives

Recent media reports are saying that there is a rise in the "Pet Detective", who, for a fee, helps you track down lost dogs, cats and other pets. A real life "Ace Ventura".

A quick internet search reveals there are dozens of real life Pet Detectives in the greater Los Angeles area alone.

In January, Hollywood actress Sandra Bullock and her husband  hired a pet detective to find their missing pet bull dog Cinnabun.(Cinnabun was found, three weeks after she went missing.)

The trend is not just in the US. Today's Herald Sun (Melbourne, Australia) for example, contains a report on Lee Jefferies, a lady who set up pet detective agency "Pet Search 17 years ago.

According to Ms Jefferies, her agency has helped find over 26,000 dogs, cats and birds and even reptiles and she claims an 85% success rate for dogs and cats, and a 40% success rate for birds.

Now there  is a job that the career councilors at school never told me about.

Dogs Playing Poker

I got a chuckle from the recent media reports about a survey from the American Kennel Council  about dogs in American culture (read our blog post here). One of the things that made me laugh was that the most popular dogs in art award went to "Dogs Playing Poker" (an old favourite of mine - who would not want this in the pool room")! 

When I googled it to find a picture to post on the blog, I laughed out loud at what I found!

Not only did I find that these great dog paintings have their own wikipedia entry but there is even an entire website devoted to them (called, maybe not surprisingly, "DogsPlayingPoker.org"). Not just that, there is even a video game called Dogs Playing Poker!!!.


The paintings themselves were done by American artist Cassius Coolidge (C.C. Coolidge) and were commissioned in 1903 by a Tobacco company to advertise cigars. 
 The titles in the "Dogs Playing Poker" series proper are:

A Bold Bluff A Friend in Need His Station and Four Aces Pinched with Four Aces Poker Sympathy

Post Mortem Sitting up with a Sick Friend Stranger in Camp Waterloo

The original series was joined in 1910 by a similar painting by Coolidge called  Looks Like Four of a Kind.
On February 15, 2005, the originals of "A Bold Bluff" and "Waterloo" were auctioned as a pair to an undisclosed buyer for US$590,000!


I am so glad I took the few minutes to do the google search to learn more about the Dog Playing Poker series. I learned so much (honest Dr Mark, it is work!). What did we do before the internet was invented?
 Anyway, have to go now, gotta google "Dogs Playing Pool"!