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Native Californian, biologist, wildlife conservation consultant, retired Smithsonian scientist, father of two daughters, grandfather of 4 small primates. INTJ. Believes nature is infinitely more interesting than shopping malls. Born 100 years too late.

Friday, November 27, 2009

Fred's First Birthday



We celebrated Fred's birthday the day before Thanksgiving.

The g'kids made him a hat, which he tolerated for the photo op.

Then we lit a candle in his dog food and sang Happy Birthday.

The only thing he enjoyed was the dog food -- a junk food treat rather than his usual dried chow.

5 comments:

Froggy said...

hahaha... he may have tolerated it, but he doesn't look pleased.

Camera Trap Codger said...

Yeah, he got even with it by popping the balloons.

randomtruth said...

Happy birthday Fred!

Owlman said...

"Man's best friend"? Not anymore!
Hard to believe this dog has been on more adventures in one year than most others in a lifetime.

Retrieverman said...

Fred could pass for a St. John's water dog:

These are the last two dogs that died in Newfoundland in the late 70's or early 80's: http://retrieverman.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/last-st-johns-water-dogs.jpg

The dogs are the ancestor of all the retrievers. They probably are the ancestor of the big Newfoundland dog. In the nineteenth century, all water dogs from Newfoundland were called "Newfoundland dogs," which means that figuring out which breed an author is writing about can be very confusing.

Don't ask me the ancestral make-up of this breed. It is an enigma.

For lack of a better description, Newfoundlanders used the dogs as a kind of "water cur."