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Cute little dog

A King Charles Spaniel with his owner in Paul Street, Cork a few months ago. I don’t like seeing dogs in the city because it’s so stressful for them but it was really quiet. Little fella looks worried though doesn’t he?

The dog and his bone

Oscar, our pet Shih Tzu, pictured with a bone shaped biscuit treat. Actually he doesn’t like them much. He prefers Markies, but they’re bought now so he’ll finish them!

Eye of the Shih Tzu

This is Oscar, our Shih Tzu. He has been a part of our family for just over a year now and he’s very devoted to my wife Jacinta. He loves playing with me too, but I know who he’d save from a sinking ship!

We were worried what would happen when the baby came along, but Oscar has been great. For the most part he has ignored Adam, but if a stranger should lean over Adam and his mom then Oscar will be out to growl and sometimes bark! That would be great if there was any danger but it’s almost always a friend or family so it’s become an annoyance we need to look out for.
Poor Oscar doesn’t get the same amount of attention as he did before baby but in general he behaves better, so that’s a good thing! I think he got a little cocky and just a little too confident of his place in the family hierarchy.

The curious dog

While wandering about on St. Patrick’s Day this year I spotted this adorable little dog. I got a few snaps and his owner didn’t seem to mind. The doggy was more than happy at the attention and sniffed eagerly at my lens!

Donkey in the field

I almost made an ass of myself and forget to post a picture today! You’d be saying to yourselves, “He haw-lways posts a picture every day, where is today’s one?”

Never fear, here it is and I’ve run out of donkey jokes so it’s back to normal. Feel free to contribute in the comments however!

This donkey was snapped down in Kerry last September. We were driving back from Baile Na nGall (Bally David) when I spotted this donkey and a few horses in adjoining fields. I pulled over and ran across the busy bothaireen. Well, a Hi-ace and a tractor passed by..

More of the donkey to come!

Feline eyes stare at me

I love cats. There’s nothing quite as relaxing as rubbing a cat’s soft fur while he basks in the heat of the sun. Some people hate cats however and I’m non-plussed. Perhaps it’s a primal instinct in them?

This is a friend’s cat as he was eating from a bowl. It’s my desktop picture!

The soaking wet happy springer spaniel

This is another photo of Ruby, a springer spaniel that lives in Myrtleville. This time she followed us over to Fennell’s Bay where she dashed off into the shallows after stones. She was deliriously happy!

Unfortunately the same could not be said for a group of teenagers higher up on the beach who threw stones at us and into the water very close to us. Their malevolent laughter spoiled that moment for us and put us in real danger. They weren’t locals and by their accents it wasn’t hard to figure out where in Cork they were from.

There’s more of Ruby here and here. We were down in Myrtleville last weekend and didn’t see her at all. I hope she’s ok and was tucked up at home in front of the fire instead of at a cold and wet beach.

Congratulations to Gavin@Headphoneland for winning best photoblog at last night’s Irish Blog Awards! Get well soon!

There’s definitely something up with Flickr’s “Blog This” function. The URL of the image it passed to my blog was borked and displayed the infamous, “This photo is currently unavailable”. I reported it yesterday but I guess it’ll take longer than that to fix.

The ever vexxing question of privacy arrises on Kevin’s blog here and here. In the USA it’s perfectly ok to use someone’s image for non commercial usage as long as the photo was taken in a public place. I can understand why that woman is suing Yahoo! but I guess it’s the money she wants rather than protecting her privacy. (Is there a difference?) I covered the issue in the past, where things could be a little different in Ireland - the expectation of privacy extends to a private conversation in a public place. Vexxing indeed!

The Digital Photography Show interviewed Bert Krages, the author of the PDF, The Photographer’s Right on the subject of photographer’s rights. I haven’t listened yet but it should be good as he knows his stuff. Obviously laws will change from place to place so do some research locally before shooting on the street! The interview is also mentioned here and here.

Alone in the park

A dog, a tree and a park bench in the Lee Fields, Cork.

I took Oscar, our shitzu, for a short walk at the Lee Fields a while back and made this image during what was a fairly uneventful walk. Neither of us was in the mood for a walk but we had time to kill.

Dog in a lampshade

Poor Oscar. It’s not bad enough that he got the snip but he had to wear what looks to all the world like a lampshade for two weeks. This was only a week after he moved in with us last Summer and the poor fella was not impressed.

Thankfully he got over it remarkably quickly and doesn’t have an aversion to lighting fixtures as we suspected he might have.

Our Oscar is quite a needy little character. He loves human attention. This faq on Shih Tzus is quite good, although it does contradict an earlier page I read that said they are a one human dog. Oscar definitely prefers Jacinta to me, but he goes crazy when he sees me after an absence too!

He sleeps in the kitchen and up to recently we kept the door closed to stop him coming upstairs but unfortunately he has the door half-ruined from scratching and his whining and barking kept us awake many times.
The solution? Train him and be more strict. He’s not allowed upstairs now and I leave the kitchen door open at night. No scratching, no whining. Sometimes he sneaks upstairs and we find him curled up on the landing but a quick and sharp, “Oscar! Get down!” and he’s scurrying down to his bed again.

So, it is possible to teach an old dog new tricks. Well, a middle-aged one at any rate.

Fun at the crib

Fr James McSweeney’s live crib in Ballyvolane was busy with animals and human visitors all through last week but I managed to get some shots the night when we visited.

As I mentioned already, there were all sorts of animals there, from sheep and donkeys to chickens, calves and puppies. Donations are welcome, and all proceeds go towards the renovation of St. Patrick’s Church. The crib last year raised 35,000 Euro for the Cope Foundation so hopefully they can beat that this year!

The crib is open from 5pm to 9pm until the 23rd, so if you’re in the area, call up to Ballyvolane Church and you’ll see the signs pointing the way to the crib.

I like this: Edward Scissorhands - my wife is a huge fan of the film. I wonder how long it took to get the model looking like that?