Tag Archives: Barnabás kutya

St. Barnabás the Patient

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You have to believe me when I say it started with this duck costume, which was intended to be for Carnival. Yes a little jokey, perhaps, but no harm in it.

But then our carnival costume shopping ended.  And then next aisle over there were sales upon sales upon sales of little clothes. So I rummaged around in my head for an excuse and came up with a good one– I needed Barnabás to model for me as I tested out the aperture and shutter speed settings on my new camera. Barnabás with a little outfit on would be perfect for depth of field experiments, I convinced myself.

But when I saw the pictures uploading of Barnabás in his office-wear, I knew we had taken it too far.

Then I received an email from my mother, and I was sure that when I opened it, she would set me straight about Barnabás’ costumes getting a little out of hand. (After all, I had written to her explaining the challenges of his size– boys’ 24 months, though his hips are skinny and his belly occasionally sags after long weekends.)  But instead of a well-deserved critique, she told me that her dog, Coco Elaine Jewell, was probably (she wasn’t sure) a 3T.  Toddler that is.  3 years old.  She does have a thick neck.

You have to understand that Barnabás really is a care-free soul, as long as he can always hang out with us.  Sometimes when he gets up from the couch, he drags the blanket that was covering him around for hours. He’ll lay down with it somewhere else, then move again, taking it with him. And honestly he would carry around a baked potato on his head if I asked him too, and I gave him a little treat.  I think he genuinely likes taking pictures now (probably because he knows that all photography sessions end in a salami or bone). And I know I’m not the only one who does these things.  Coco Elaine Jewell got a Martha Stewart bed for Christmas.  And a pearl necklace.

According to the amazing Horizon documentary I watched a few nights ago– Secret Life of the Dog– since they mapped the dog genome and went through half a century of research into dog’s domestication–we now know that dogs are closer to humans in terms of behavior than even chips. Smart dogs can even perform analytical thinking skills, can retrieve objects after being shown pictures of the objects– understand that one things REPRESENTS another thing.  This is something that not even human toddlers can do until 2 or 3 years old. Dogs respond to pointing even though they don’t exhibit this behavior in the wild. And scientists in Hungary found that, like humans, dogs look directly into the left eye of humans to gauge emotion (just like humans do). If you are a dog-lover, you honestly need to find that documentary on Youtube and watch it.

And I’m not saying that Barnabás is some kind of genius for sitting still when he wears a duck costume. Or for falling asleep halfway through our photo shoots.

But he is patient. And damn cute.

Joy in Winter

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Not that we wouldn’t go to Margit Island alone in the winter. Cold air is good for the lungs. But there is something about walking around the cool, empty and snowcovered island property with a little cocker spaniel who is so enthralled in his joy of exploration, that just makes every winter morning one I want to spend in that moment there.

A few weeks ago we decided to go to the island. It was early morning–maybe 6 or 6:30 when we finally arrived. The sun hadn’t really tried coming up yet, but even when it did, it didn’t get very far.  Just a little fire lit in the distance:

It didn’t even seem like anyone was awake at the usually bustling Saturday morning spa. Covered by the leafless trees, the building looked like a haunted house.

Since there weren’t any people, I turned my camera to the peaking grasses,

frozen limbs,

and unplucked winter berries frozen in time.

As morning approached, the birds left their warm nests for food, passed the water tower still caught in the fog of previous centuries.

It would be nice to write that our little Barnabás goes tumbling after the birds. But he’s nearly blind and can’t see almost anything there, especially in that hazy, low morning winter light.

He runs for the pure joy of running.  The smells and texture of the snow.  Follows our voices calling to him from the distances when he’s gotten distracted by a trail.  O, Mornings of Pure & Innocent Happiness–you’re worth waking up for.

Ladies and Gentlemen and Internet,

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It is my great pleasure to introduce:

Barnabás Miklós István Mihályi Jewell

after first bath

after first bath

Barnabas (pronounced–Barn -a- bash– and don’t forget to roll that r) is the newest member of the Budajest family.  He’s around 4 years old and was wandering the streets of a small Hungarian village before he was rescued by the Spaniel SOS.

the windblown look

the windblown look

Barnus (Bar-noosh)  is an English Cocker Spaniel and is the sweetest nugget ever.  On every street corner and in every little bakery and seamstress and little fruit stand I hear Istenemmmm (my god) rolling out of the mouths every old lady he passes.  He understands Hungarian, so I’ve been working on him with English commands, though he’ll pretty much understand anything if there is a little slice of kolbasz at the end of it.  He loves to walk and play outside, obviously, and has so far been completely accepting of the million photographs Gy and I have already taken of him.  We’re planning on posing him with as many old Hungarian sculptures and landmarks that we come across.  So in case you don’t like the historical bits of this website, the concession is a picture of an adorable dog.

So, until you meet again, have a wonderful Easter weekend (and long weekend if you live in Hungary).

And Barnabás, take your bow.

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