Dog on couch

Fast running

Did you know?  A dog’s shoulder blades are unattached to the rest of the skeleton to allow greater flexibility for running.

Egyptians mourning their dogs

Ancient Egyptians revered their dogs. When a pet dog died, the owners shaved off their eyebrows, smeared mud in their hair, and mourned aloud for days.

Egyptian dog

The ancient Egyptian word for dog was "iwiw", which referred to the dog's bark. They served a roll in hunting, as guard and police dogs, in military actions and as household pets.

Cat and dog sculpture

Alberto Giacometti  described his “Dog” (1951) sculpture as a form of self-portrait: 

“One day I was walking along the rue de Vanves in the rain, close to the walls of the buildings, with my head down, feeling a little sad, perhaps, and I felt like a dog just then. So I made that sculpture. But it’s not really a likeness at all. Only the sad muzzle is anything of a likeness." 

Giacometti remembered that his brother Diego's cat "passed just like a ray of light," squeezing its lithe and predatory form between close objects without ever touching them.
Sculpture dated 1954. 

Act of cruelty

Somewhere in Turkey in what a group of heartless kids thought was a game and highly amusing, after they drenched the dog in glue, they dragged him through the mud. And then they all ran away leaving the defenseless puppy to try and rub the hardening glue away. All he could do was rub and roll. It didn’t take long before the glue dried – and became a second skin as thick as cement preventing blood flow to parts of his body.  When discovered barely alive, the suffering puppy, who tried to hide from everyone as he languished in pain, was brought to a nearby shelter where the international rescue group, He’Art of Rescue stepped in to help.
When brought to the organization’s partner veterinarian hospital, the puppy’s prognosis seemed poor; his body and his spirit were nearly destroyed.  The dog was named Pascal. Doctors slowly peeled the layers of glue away from his skin. Because the blood flow has been severely compromised, one of Pascal’s ears was necrotic, and although he is still in pain, his condition has not worsened. Poor old thing. 

Long life

The shape of a dog’s face suggests how long it will live. Dogs with sharp, pointed faces that look more like wolves typically live longer. Dogs with very flat faces, such as bulldogs, often have shorter lives.[