Neither the man nor the dog in this photo could claim to be examples of physical perfection, and maybe they wouldn’t win any beauty contests, but that’s not the point, is it? The best kind of beauty comes from within, and is entirely separate from physical appearance.

I love Sid and OH dearly, because they are mine, and because I know them both well enough to see their inner beauty.

Who wants a perfectly beautiful face? Or a perfect body? Oh yes, we would all love to have them, wouldn’t we? But that type of beauty can be shallow and empty. When you love someone, their face is beautiful simply because it is theirs. Lucky indeed are those who have both a beautiful body and a beautiful soul* … but most of us have to make do with one or the other, and I know which I would rather have.

Anyway, what is more beautiful than the love and trust so clearly expressed here between members of two distinct species, who cannot ever completely communicate with each other – not fully – because of their cultural and physical differences?

And about those physical differences? Either could quite clearly kill the other, should he so wish. Sid, because as a dog he is physically superior and has a mouthful of deadly weapons, even though he is smaller and has a leg missing. OH, because he is bigger, intellectually superior and has all kinds of cunning and tricks up his sleeve.

But there they both are, totally relaxed in each other’s company, trust and love binding them in a way no kind of force or coercion ever could. And that, dear friends, is a thing of beauty.

Thanks to Claudia of Dipity Road for this weekly meme.

*That would be Johnny Depp – and no, it’s not fair, is it?

ABC Wednesday has reached the letter ‘H‘ this week! Well, H is for Hound, of course, so I’m onto a winner there, aren’t I? Because greyhounds are members of the hound group of breeds. This means that they are independent, due to thousands of years of selective breeding to allow them to work on their own, and because of this trait, they can be stubborn.

Some think they’re extremely hard to train, but this is not so. All you have to do is find what motivates them, and you’re halfway there! So far, Sid has learned to go to his bed when told, to lie down, to wait, to stop doing what he’s doing when I say ‘uh-uh!’, to ’speak’, to touch a box with his nose, and to make eye contact (the ‘look at me’ command). He will also come to me, but isn’t terribly reliable at this one just yet. However, he does love his training sessions, and has been known to request one by stretching his head up to the kitchen dresser and looking from the clicker to me and back again.

So, until one has a greyhound properly trained to come when called in pretty much all situations, one has to be sensible as to when and where to allow them off lead. Now, for some people and some greyhounds, this will be ‘never’ (unless in an enclosed area) and I respect the views of those who differ with me, but we’ve been pretty lucky, and out of the four dogs we’ve had previously, three have had the luxury of daily off lead walks in the country and never got themselves into any trouble, because they did have good recalls. However, in a situation where there are numerous other dogs running about, some of them not very well behaved at all, we found it wise to keep them on leads*. In their later years, this meant harnesses for both Renie and Jack.

They loved being out and about, but in the summer we had to be a little bit careful, because greyhounds are prone to overheating. Here is Renie demonstrating how hot she would get in the sun.

She didn’t want to go indoors by herself, you see, even though she’d have liked to. Her Royal Highness was always much happier hogging the sofa. With her tongue hanging out!

Sid gets hot too. Here he is on a trip to a country park last summer, having an ice cream.

I had to hold it for him, of course. Greyhounds are pretty smart dogs, but there is the whole opposable thumb thing .. or lack of one.

Of course, when the weather is cold, Sid loves warmth, and will seek it out. So why is he in the conservatory, lying on this uncomfortably flat bed?

The answer is simple. The conservatory has a heated floor! Look at that expression of bliss! Greyhounds are the most hedonistic of dogs!

They love being hugged, too. This was Sid’s first day with us, when quite a lot of dogs might be expected to hang back a little and be shy. Not Sid.

And here he is at a show last summer, being hugged by a sweet little chap in a hat!

That’s one of my favourite pictures of Sid.

Of course, the weather isn’t always kind, and then greyhounds feel the cold, too. Here’s Renie, too lazy to move to a warmer room. Looks like she’s hiding herself, doesn’t it?

Whereas actually, she’s warming her nose.

Oh yes, we do have to take good care of our hounds. And one thing we have to do is take care of their teeth by giving them plenty of hard things to chew.

See how hard he’s working on that! I think it’s a pig ear, but he has the smoked bone for later.

Now, how about I leave you with a short video of Sid? As you know, he’s a tripod, and that means he has to hop his back end along when he walks. I’m sure some of you think that sounds a bit awkward for him, so I thought you might like to see him in action.

Hops along just fine, doesn’t he? And he looks happy, too!

Oh, and by the way – the picture right at the top was taken on our holiday to Dewey Beach last year.

*Extending leads are NOT recommended for use with greyhounds for various reasons, the most important being that they can go from 0-30mph in a few strides if they see something they want to chase. If you drop the lead it can seriously spook them so that they panic and run faster, and blindly, and can get injured. If you don’t drop the lead, you could theoretically break their necks. However, we knew our dogs. Neither had a tendency to take off after anything while being walked: Jack was too elderly, and Renie too lazy, and both had been thoroughly trained to walk nicely. However, I would still say to anyone who asked, don’t do it.

I bought a magazine recently on eBay. Nothing particularly unusual about that, I collect Johnny Depp memorabilia (as you might expect) and this was a rare copy of a magazine with a nice long interview in it. And pictures! I was looking forward to the pictures.

When it arrived, and I eagerly turned the pages to find the article, I found rather more than I’d bargained for. Apparently, some time during the year of 1998, Johnny Depp transformed briefly into a large lizard! And Terry Gilliam did too – it must have been an epidemic! It may have been the drugs, of course, and it was clearly hushed up quite well because I don’t remember hearing about it at the time and I’m sure I’d have remembered.

But the proof is out there. Two pictures of Terry and Johnny in a well-known glossy magazine, captured in all their green and scaly glory. Check out the captions on these two.

I spent a while wondering which was which, and I came to the conclusion that since the caption says ‘Terry discusses … ‘ it must be him in the centre, and Johnny must be the red-clad lizard to the right, earnestly waving his arms, possibly to make a point about the plot or the dialogue. Maybe he was saying ‘but why would lizards care about bats?’ or ‘do I look like someone who wears shorts?’ Who knows? Who can fathom the mind of a lizard?

Looks like they recovered pretty quickly. anyway. Even if the writer of the captions didn’t.

Oh, and in case you can’t quite read the captions, you’ll need to click on the picture to enlarge it, but also click on the thumbnail on the next page.

And there are no prizes for guessing which movie this was. Ask any Johnny Depp fan.

Well, I tried. I tried to make this week’s Macro Monday puzzle a little easier for you, and I thought I’d done quite well, but when I showed it to OH he was … puzzled! And then when I told him what it was, he told me I was cruel! Oh dear.

But since it’s all I have for you this week, I suppose you’ll have to just do your best, won’t you? Tee hee!

Now this object is found in pretty much every household in some form or other. The shape varies a little, the size can vary a lot and the colour varies too, but this is a nice, average example. Common as muck here in the UK, in Europe, and in the USA, I feel confident in saying that this is something you’ll find in pretty much every corner of the civilised world – in the sense that ‘civilised’ means ‘a society having a high degree of development, both social and technological’, though for all I know, you might find these things in a grass hut in the back of beyond, too.

Pretty, isn’t it? But these are not usually purely decorative (though they can be), because they do have an important function, too.

What is it?

You can check back here tomorrow evening (UK time) to find the correct answer in a picture link, and also later in the comments when I answer you all, but I don’t answer very quickly on this one. I like to give everyone a chance to guess without giving it away.

Over to you – prove OH wrong, and give me some correct guesses. I know you can!

Alrighty then – here we are on Tuesday evening and I suppose you all want the answer? Here it is! Surprised? Some of you won’t be – congratulations to Mr Moon, to Colleen, Icy BC, Dutchbaby, Babs Beetle, Christina, Jientje, Rebecca, Jama, Shelle and Sistertex! Seems I did alright after all, in my attempts to make this week’s puzzle a little easier!