According to legend, when the ancient Iranian king Darius III was killed by the conspirator Bessus near Ahuan, and the body abandoned without burial to be found by the invading Macedonians, only Darius's dog stayed with his corpse.

And Herodotus relates the legend that Cyrus the Great was raised by a shepherd and suckled by a dog.

Has TWN gone to the dogs?
If something has gone to the dogs, it has gone badly wrong and lost all the good things it had.

This is an analogy to the scraps of waste food etc that were thrown to dogs from medieval baronial dining tables . They were of no other use. Thus, if someone is said to have 'gone to the dogs', he is also regarded as worthless.

Nah.

I always enjoy the pictures of the Dog Friends of Steve and his partner. The dogs are wonderful and there is nothing that would be better than fewer Republican lite posts or posts about what some Saudi Prince thinks and more dog pictures.

With friends like the Saudis and the Pakistanis (see Rashid's book Descent into Chaos) we really don't need enemies. But dogs are our best friends.

We have our first dog as of two months ago, and I now understand the people/dog owner thing much better. Before I thought these posts were cute but interesting only for how they made Steve feel, but now I get it. Dogs really are pretty amazing--they seem to be composed of 95 percent pure affection. They're really family.

being transported to a different world is always nice! thinking of the life of dogs works in this regard... it was Diogenes the philosopher whom the athenians called ' the dog '... he's famous for many quotes, but here are a few.

we are not as hardy, free or accomplished as animals..

it is absurd to bring back a runaway slave.. if a slave can survive without a master, is it not awful to admit that the master cannot survive without the slave?

plato winces when i track dust across his rugs: he knows that i am walking on his vanity.

when plato said that if i'd gone to the sicilian court as i was invited, i wouldn't have to wash lettuce for a living, i replied that if he washed lettuce for a living he wouldn't have had to go to the sicilian court.

go into any whorehouse and learn the worthlessness of the expensive.

watching a mouse can cure you of jealousy of others good fortune..

I was thinking yesterday that I'd like to see Oakley and Annie again. Perfect timing, Steve.

Yeah; dogs.

Nina has a picture of Louie up on her blog now.

I swore up and down I'd never own a rat dog mongrel like that little loudmouth. But Jake is in seventh heaven having the little guy around, and I have to admit, the little mutt's got a winning grin when he uses it. But in this particular shot, he is exercising his powers of hypnotism, and concentrating on mind controlling Nina into giving him the steak I was gonna have for dinner.

See for yourself....

http://deepintoartlifewest.blogspot.com/

I had a miniature dachshund with the same powers of hypnosis. She also believed she was a reincarnation of Cleopatra.

They say you cannot buy love. Not true -- get a Chihuahua puppy -- 99.9% love bug.

We have been graced with a "Katrina" refugee who has brought nothing but goodness to us and every other relationship he has engendered - Nickee Nouse, canine extrordinaire, capable of cutting through the flotsam of life faster than any human I know.

(BTW, what a site, POA. Thank you for the link. And for Jake, too. wink)