'Staffy' knocking at our door.

I've written before about how stray dogs seem to gravitate towards me when they're lost even though I do nothing to encourage it. Well perhaps some of my magical abilities have rubbed off onto my partner because on the weekend the most adorable, female, Staffordshire terrier came knocking at our door.

The dog could see in through our screen door so could clearly see my partner (who likes to use the online name of 'Enigma' so from now on I'll refer to her by name). Perhaps it was the 'I want a dog' vibes that she's been sending out of late? Unfortunately the two cats (Casper and Gizzy) and I outvote her so there's no chance of us getting a dog at the moment.

Anyway back to 'Staffy' (because I can't keep calling her 'the dog'). Staffy was pretty stressed about her situation but must have decided that our house looked pretty good because she really wanted to come inside and see if anyone she knew was home. Casper isn't a very sociable cat when it comes to dogs (think attack cat) so we couldn't let Staffy inside. Enigma rounded up Gizzy from my studio and brought her inside whilst I led Staffy into our back garden where she would be safe whilst we waited for the council dog catcher to come and collect her.

Staffy, as I said, was adorable. Very well trained and more than willing to follow basic commands like 'come here', 'sit' and 'stay' from anyone. After she'd explored the back garden to see if anyone she knew was there I let her come into my studio. My couch never stood a chance. Without hesitation she jumped up onto it and made herself comfortable. Stretching all the way out, back legs fully extended behind her. If you sat down next to her she would move closer to you.

I'm sure I could've kept her off the couch but both cats sleep on it and Staffy was pretty stressed. We had a while to wait for the dog catcher to come over from another call out. Staffy seemed to relax a bit once settled on the couch, after a feed and some water. She sat quietly and got some shut eye while Enigma and I ate lunch at the table I have in my studio.

Our council's dog catcher is a pretty nice bloke. I got to know him relatively well from my time as an elected member of council. When he arrived he assured us that someone would probably call for such a well looked after and friendly dog. Enigma told him the dog had a tattoo that indicated it was micro chipped - so there is every chance Staffy found her way home.

I do kind of wonder how confusing it all must have been for Staffy. Clearly she was upset because she whimpered and whined about her predicament quite a bit before she settled down. However she was quite happy to go with the dog catcher, who was able to put a lead around her neck with no objection from Staffy whatsoever. Perhaps she was glad that she was on the move again, going somewhere else to see if she could find someone she knew.

Comments

New Cat Art Collaboration: TET's Cats Paintings and OpenArt AI Model Workspace (Photobooth)

TET's Cats AI generated art trained on my own art style. Way back in the early 2000's I started painting stylized cat artworks to illustrate some cat themed poems I'd written, that I exhibited and sold online in an exhibition titled 'Sleeping Cats' in 2004. You can see all these early works in my Flickr Album . Many are also available to buy as prints in my RedBubble Store . Leading on from that I began selling my paintings on ebay where the cat themed works were almost guaranteed to sell over any other subject I painted. As a result I became some what known for my cat art to the point where people would commission me to create images of their own pet cats in my cartoony style. Flash forward a decade (almost two at this point) and I haven't painted any cat themed art in years. To be honest I haven't done any traditional painting at all in years. In the last couple of years AI image generators have really caught my attention. Specifically that they are able t...

The Dukes of Hazard Movie - My Thoughts

The Dukes of Hazard is a movie that I wanted to see when it was released in 2005 but didn't because, well, I just didn't get around to it. Not only that but when I heard Johnny Knoxville and Jessica Simpson were in it my expectations were immediately lowered to "it's probably not going to be what I hoped it could be." Which is why I've never been pro-active about hiring the movie on DVD. Last night I saw it was being shown on free to air TV. I happened to have the time to watch, so I did. To sum up my experience... I didn't get fired up by the movie until I watched the 'bloopers' in the end credits. The Dukes of Hazard signature is the car. The General Lee flying through the air in some flat out impossible jumps. We know they're impossible jumps but they're just so cool you kind of want to believe the General Lee can do them. The point is, in the TV series, you never (or rarely) saw the General Lee not land safely and undamaged. Thus, seei...

TET Artwork Diary: Nansen The Cabin Boy's Cat of the Belgian Sailing Ship, RV Belgica, Trapped in an Antarctica Winter, 1897

Belgica in the ice. 1897. Photo: Adrien de Gerlache Y ou wouldn't ordinarily think of cats and penguins together in the same image but that's what I found myself creating when thinking of an idea for my next painting. I have painted penguins before as part of my Australian Animals series from the early 2000's, and I have a couple of cartoon penguins (that you can see in a very old post, Designing Formal Penguins ) I created for a Yeti skateboard graphic, so, I didn't just randomly think, 'penguins'. Recently I had a revelation about my art, in that I don't simply paint pictures of cats, I paint 'relationships'. Almost all of my paintings of cats feature two or more cats, or a cat with something, such as a butterfly, bird, fish, goat... and why not a penguin? However, I didn't want to just paint some random cat with some random penguin. I wondered if there was ever any real cats in history that may have a reason to meet a penguin? Turns out, on...

"Ya Mum Reads it..."

You'l find my own Photography in this blog too. Quite a while back I did a survey that tells you what kind of audience credibility your blog has. I'm not sure what the score was but I do remember the commentary which boiled down to "Your mother reads your blog regularly but you probably don't have much wider appeal". Fuck you survey! (Hi Mum, sorry for cursing! I do appreciate you reading, really I do!) I don't know how many regular readers I have, if any, but I do know, on average this blog receives more than 4000 page hits per month, much of it coming from search engines like Google. Perhaps of some interest is my new current top search entry point of all time, people looking for Bert and Ernie, who I wrote some commentary about when it was officially announced that the Sesame Street Characters were not gay . Which is quite a departure from Krippin Virus from a few years back when the movie I am Legend came out. The thing about this blog is t...

Boom Crash Opera Born Classic But Not Again

Boom Crash Opera are an Australian Band that reached the peak of their popularity in the mid to late nineteen eighties. They are a band that I knew about at that time but was never really excited by until they released their ill fated double album Born and Born Again in 1995 (Album cover pictured). At the time of its release I was very much into emerging Australian musical acts and was also looking out for new sounds that were different and had kind of a futuristic/electronic sound. Artists that I was buying at the time included; Swoop , Nine Inch Nails and Pop Will Eat Its Self . As well as a really interesting release by David Bowie, the concept album, Outside . Born was a fairly radical departure for Boom Crash Opera (BCO). The first single, Gimme , was often compared to the sounds of Gary Glitter, particularly his single, Rock n Roll part 2 , because of the pounding drum loops. Watch the video below. My favorite single from the album is dissemble which probably went now...

Embarrassing Yourself with Doof Doof Music

Ever since Spinal Tap popularized the notion of turning an amp up to eleven audio systems have been rising to the challenge of louder, more awesome sound. In particular, car audio systems have embraced the notion of the bigger the noise the better the sound must surely be. What I'd like to know is, if these sound systems are so good, why do they make all music sound the same... Doof, Doof, Doof? You've all heard them. Pimped up cars, with audio systems seemingly worth more than gold, volume blasting way past eleven. Sound waves booming long before you make a positive visual on the car... Doof, Doof, Doof. It has to be the audio system right? Surely all these people can't be playing the same tune? Doof, Doof, Doof. Could it be that the more money spent on a car sound system the less musical range it will actually play? Maybe these people can't afford to buy music after purchasing the audio system so they all play the same demo track? Doof, doof, doof. In my own car I hav...

Movie Review: Spider-Man: Brand New Day (2026) No Spoilers

T his is the first time in quite a while we've seen a live action Spider-Man that is, essentially, a fully formed, grown up superhero, fighting crime on his own terms rather than looking to mentors to guide him. In Spider-Man: Brand New Day it's four years after the events of Spider-Man: No Way Home . No one knows who Peter Parker is but Spider-Man has become a local legend, helping to keep New York free of crime. Personally, Peter is still struggling with not reconnecting with his former friends, whose lives are again put at risk when a new foe crosses his path. If you're a fan of Tom Holland's Spider-Man films, and the MCU in general this film should not only not disappoint, you may even consider it to be one of the best MCU films you've seen in a while. I really enjoyed all the quick cameos by small time Spider-Man villains even though I don't know many of them. Their inclusion really started to broaden the scope of the character, despite this installment ...

TET.Life (The Extraordinary Tourist Life)

Search This Blog