stoutfellow

A while back, talking about one of Buster's misadventures, I said something about a dog treat being similar in color to my skin. Now, though, I'm wondering about that.

The set of all colors - all wavelengths of light in the visible spectrum - is infinite-dimensional. The colors we (most of us) are able to perceive make up a three-dimensional projection of that set - three, because of the three types of cone cells in our eyes.

It has recently been verified that dogs are dichromats, with two types of cone cells, and hence they perceive a two-dimensional projection. If that projection is itself, more or less, a projection of ours, then colors that look alike to us will also look alike to them; but if not, then not. This would, I suppose, depend on the frequencies which cone cells are most responsive to; if canine cone cells peak at or near the peak frequencies of two of our cone types, then they can't distinguish what we can't distinguish.

Does anyone know whether this is true? The Wikipedia article simply says that most non-primate mammals are red-green color-blind, but it's not obvious to me that resolves my question.

Get ready for pack-hunting snakes.

And wait until you read about their bat-catching techniques....

:hides under covers:

A man, a guitar, and two cockatoos.

Every year, the red crabs of Christmas Island migrate from the forest to the shore and back again. It takes about a week each way, and has become something of a tourist attraction.

Weird, weird world.

Okay, now this is startling: baboons and their pet dogs. I'd love to see what, say, Frans de Waal would make of this.

Hunh.

Just now, I was finishing dinner. Buster was under the table, waiting for scraps, as usual, but Gracie, oddly, was nowhere to be seen. I set the plate down for Buster to lick and decided I should look for her. Just as I stood up, I heard a *thump* from the garage. Glancing out, I saw a blackish something come out the outer doggie door, leap to the top of the fence, and then away. It was gone before I could maneuver into position to see it clearly.

I think it was a cat.

A few moments later, Gracie came bounding in, wiggling happily and looking for scraps.

I devoutly hope that it wasn't a female cat, building a nest. The barrier that used to shield most of the garage from the dogs is gone now, and I don't know how the dogs would react to kittens. (I suspect that Buster, at least, would show no mercy.)

Today has been a lively day.

This morning, at the most inconvenient of moments, I heard Gracie yelping in fright. I, um, leaned forward (not being in a position to do more than that) and saw Buster snarling and grabbing her by the neck. I shouted at him; he let her go, and she raced over and hid, um, behind me. I spent some time calming her down; there's been no recurrence, but there's also no indication what triggered the fight. It wasn't food this time; they were both in the living room.

Later, canine excitement again erupted; this time, there was a bird in the house - a sparrow of some kind. (I think it got in through the doggie doors, somehow.) An entertaining ten or fifteen minutes followed; I finally chivvied it out into the garage. Hopefully, it won't come back in.

Hopefully also, that'll be the last faunal emergency of the day.

Sheesh.

Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water... this happens.

On a lighter note: The Girl is so happy!

There is a rather large - about four inches, head to tail - praying mantis clinging to the outside of my window. We just had a brief thunderstorm, and things get blown about....

This is the third largish insect I've seen in the last few days; there was a dragonfly (memory says about three inches, but my judgment of lengths is suspect¹) flitting around near the Science Building two or three days ago, and the largest katydid I've ever seen hanging on the University bus shelter. I don't know whether there are more of them about, the weather is making them more conspicuous, or I've just been noticing them more.

There've been some pretty big moths around, too. At least there are no cicadas :knock wood:.

[1] I used a tape measure to check the length of the praying mantis.