Canis Lupus

Other than February 14^th being a kinda, sorta made up holiday, it is also the anniversary of the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre where seven people – six of which were rivals of Al Capone’s gang, were murdered in Chicago. It’s strange to know that this happened 95 years ago in 1929!  95!  Two amazing things about this (to me) – 1) this historic date happened years before my parents were born yet they know who Al Capone was, and 2) I did the math in my head and I suck at math.

I spent a few minutes this morning thumbing through a magazine I bought last week : The History of Dogs.  It’s hard to believe that the domestication of dog breeding happened between 10,000 and 40,000 years ago. Yeah, that's a big space between years. Wouldn’t you just go with 40,000 years ago? I asked the same question and found that the dogs/wolves/canines that were domesticated didn’t live through the ice age. They went extinct just like the wooly mammoth. Duh.

Anyway, there is evidence of dogs (i.e. domesticated wolves) and humans spooning in gravesites together. And there is evidence that about five domesticated lineages existed at the time of the ice age.

Dogs have been bred and domesticated from wolves, foxes, and dingoes, but all dogs trace back to an extinct wolf species shared with the gray wolf: Canis lupus.

The descendants of the gray wolves we now know mate for life.  They have monogamous relationships and flirt with each other, nuzzle their snouts and bump their bodies together.  Of course, the male alpha and the female alpha in any pack have their pick of the litter during mating season. Semantics.

Other animals that mate for life: Sandhill Cranes, Beavers, Bald Eagles and of course, Macaroni Penguins where their joy at seeing one another is evident because they jump up and down, do chest bumps and flap their wings. Interestingly, the male stays at home with the kids while the mama hunts.  

Then we have the Gibbons, monkey-like creatures that mate for life with the occasional side tryst, break-up and make-up. They share a mutual need and understanding to coparent their offspring. 

Being that it’s Valentine’s Day, I fell into an article about love between humans and dogs. Did you know both humans and dogs produce oxytocin when they stare into each other’s eyes? I had no idea but now it makes sense why it’s impossible not to smile when your dog greets you at the door with their tails wagging and their bodies moving.  My Gracie used to smile when she saw me! That memory makes me smile just thinking about it.   

To end this, here is a picture I snapped of my boy while I was on a conference call:

 
 This is the picture I took about two minutes later, still on a conference call:

 
 He wanted to go for a walk and kept creeping closer. 

Happy Valentine's Day.