FUN FACTS, QUOTES & POETRY

Fun Facts, Quotes &Poetry

Fun Facts

Most domestic dogs are capable of reaching speeds up to about nineteen miles per hour when running at full speed.
Dogs only sweat from the bottoms of their feet, and the only way they can discharge heat is by panting.
Dogs have about a hundred different facial expressions, most of them made with the ears.
Dogs have about ten vocal sounds.
Dogs do not have an appendix.
There are more than two hundred different breeds of dogs.
Dalmatians are born spotless: at first pure white, their spots develop as they age.
Contrary to popular belief, dogs aren’t color blind; they can see shades of blue, yellow, green and gray. The color red registers on a grays scale in a dog’s vision.
Using their swiveling ears like radar dishes, experiments have shown that dogs can locate the source of a sound in 6/100ths of a second.
Domesticated for more than 10,000 years, the dog was one of the first animals domesticated by humans.
Research has shown owning a dog enhances a child's self-esteem, teaches children responsibility and respect towards other living things, and that therapy dogs can aid in the treatment of children suffering from various health conditions.
Research has also shown that owning a pet can help adults of all ages reduce blood pressure, stress and anxiety levels.

Famous Dog & Cat Quotes
& One Armadillo

"Ever consider what they must think of us? I mean, here we come back from a grocery store with the most amazing haul --chicken, pork, half a cow. They must think we're the greatest hunters on earth!"
~Anne Tyler

"If a dog will not come to you after having looked you in the face, you should go home and examine your conscience."

~Woodrow Wilson

"If I have any beliefs about immortality, it is that certain dogs I have known will go to heaven, and very, very few persons."

~James Thurber

"There is no psychiatrist in the world like a puppy licking your face."

~Ben Williams

"Dogs are not our whole life, but they make our lives whole."

~Roger Caras

"Cat's Motto: No matter what you've done wrong, always try to make it look like the dog did it."

~Unknown

"Money will buy you a pretty good dog, but it won't buy the wag of his tail."

~Unknown

"No one appreciates the very special genius of your conversation as the dog does."

~Christopher Morley

"The average dog is a nicer person than the average person."

~Andrew A. Rooney

"Heaven goes by favor. If it went by merit, you would stay out and your dog would go in."

~Mark Twain

"I care not for a man's religion whose dog and cat are not the better for it."

~Abraham Lincoln

"If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you; that is the principal difference between a dog and a man."

~Mark Twain

"Things that upset a terrier may pass virtually unnoticed by a Great Dane."

~Smiley Blanton

"One cat just leads to another."

~Ernest Hemingway

"My husband and I are either going to buy a dog or have a child. We can't decide whether to ruin our carpets or ruin our lives."

~Rita Rudner

"I'm really relieved about the armadillos ..."

~Mike Jager, on learning that armadillos can be housebroken.

"My little dog - a heartbeat at my feet."

~Edith Wharton

"For my companions — the Hills — Sir — and the Sundown — and a Dog — large as myself, that my Father bought me — They are better than Beings — because they know — but do not tell."

~Emily Dickinson

Dog Poetry

I Started Early--Took My Dog

~Emily Dickinson

I started Early—Took my Dog—

And visited the Sea—

The Mermaids in the Basement

Came out to look at me—

And Frigates—in the Upper Floor

Extended Hempen Hands—

Presuming Me to be a Mouse—

Aground—upon the Sands—

But no Man moved Me—till the Tide

Went past my simple Shoe—

And past my Apron—and my Belt

And past my Bodice—too—

And made as He would eat me up—

As wholly as a Dew

Upon a Dandelion’s Sleeve—

And then—I started—too—

And He—He followed—close behind—

I felt His Silver Heel

Upon my Ankle—Then my Shoes

Would overflow with Pearl—

Until We met the Solid Town—

No One He seemed to know—

And bowing—with a Mighty look—

At me—The Sea withdrew—

The Dog of Art

~Denise Levertov

hat dog with daisies for eyes

who flashes forth

flame of his very self at every bark

is the Dog of Art.

Worked in wool, his blind eyes

look inward to caverns and jewels

which they see perfectly,

and his voice

measures forth the treasure

in music sharp and loud,

sharp and bright,

bright flaming barks,

and growling smoky soft, the Dog

of Art turns to the world

the quietness of his eyes.

Canis Major

~Robert Frost

The great Overdog

That heavenly beast

With a star in one eye

Gives a leap in the east.

He dances upright

All the way to the west

And never once drops

On his forefeet to rest.

I'm a poor underdog,

But to-night I will bark

With the great Overdog

That romps through the dark.

Dog

~Mary Roulette

This morning, while it was still dark,

I woke to newborn pups squawking,

seven of them, & one fallen

out of the plastic kiddie pool,

in the middle of the kitchen,

in the middle of where

my husband & three daughters & I

once cooked & ate & congregated

in soft, musical undertones

around the rose laminated countertops.

The one on the run,

having somehow used his mother’s back

or two or more of his litter mates

to vault over the edge of the pool,

now drags his hind legs

like James Caan in Misery—

head bobbling all around, blind eyes.

My husband worries about this

as he rescues the lost pup,

says a bigger pool may be in order.

He is ruminating over the day

when their eyes are all open,

their twenty-eight legs,

all skidding across a floor

covered with newspapers & shit.

But for now,

there’s tender ceremony in the way

he airlifts this smallest of marauders

back over the edge of the pool,

gives him to his mother

who is most often asleep,

her tired, old-girl legs

running in a dream somewhere

away from all this

or, perhaps,

back toward her own dog-humble beginnings,

beginning again.

LAKE COUNTY DOG WALKERS

Think Outside the Box