Some Canine Random Facts and Trivia

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As a general rule, a better formula for calculating dog years into human years is 21 years for the first year of a dog’s life and 4 years thereafter. This is more accurate than each year than 1 dog year = 7 human years and allows for a puppy growing to adulthood after one year and also corresponds to the other age landmarks of human life. Dogs reach middle age when they're 6 or 7, which works out to 41-45 in human years. Life expectancy for most is 12-15 years (65-77 human years); occasionally one manages to reach age 20 (97 human years);

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Dogs are (were?) often called Fido in that Fido comes from the Latin fidus, faithful, a fitting term for man's a person’s best friend. 

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Disney has always had trouble explaining the discrepancy between dogs Goofy and Pluto. Whereas Pluto is a dog dog who barks and doesn’t wear clothes, Goofy is a human dog who does speak and wear clothes, as do Mickey, Minnie and Donald (although Donald wears a top, not a bottom). We may accept talking mice and ducks, one of whom has a duck uncle wh is the richest being in the world, but we still expect things to make sense.

It reminds me of a joke that I have previously posted:

A motorist is driving past a mental hospital when he gets a flat tyre. He goes out to change the tyre and sees that one of the patients is watching him through the fence. Nervous, trying to work quickly, he jacks up the car, takes off the wheel, puts the lug nuts into the hubcap and steps on the hubcap, sending the lug nuts clattering into a storm drain. The mental patient is still watching him through the fence. The motorist desperately looks into the storm drain but the lug nuts are gone. The patient is still watching. The motorist paces back and forth, trying to think of what to do, when the patient says "Take one lug nut off each of the other wheels and you'll have three lug nuts on each. ‘ "That's brilliant!!!" says the motorist, "What's someone like you doing in an asylum?" “I’m crazy, not stupid” the patient replies.

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Chocolate is the third most common cause of poisoning in dogs. Certain chemicals in chocolate, notably caffeine and theobromine, can cause erratic heartbeat, excessive panting, dehydration, diarrhea, vomiting, muscle tremors, seizures, heart attack or internal bleeding. and in large enough doses can kill your dog, more so if a pup. The second most common cause of canine poisoning (after rat and mouse poison) is ibuprofen, the well-known pain reliever. Dogs apparently love the smell and taste, so they chew through the bottles, eat the contents, vomit and die. Raisins and mushrooms are also a no no.

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in February 1986 during a heated debate in parliament, Wilson “Iron Bar” Tuckey (so nicknamed because he beat an Aboriginal man, who was pinned down, with a length of steel cable) accused Treasurer and later Prime Minister, Paul Keating of breaking a promise of marriage to one Christine, resulting in a breach of promise suit.  An infuriated Keating called Tuckey `You stupid foul-mouthed grub. You piece of criminal garbage.' The uproar that followed received considerable coverage in the media. In 1990, Tuckey again provoked Keating by yelling out the name `Christine', leading Keating to accuse Tuckey of being `a dog returning to his vomit', and accuse John Howard and the Liberals of being `sleazebags' and `scumbags'. 

Paul Keating

Wilson Tuckey

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