Sunday, January 19, 2014

pets

A friend and I had an interesting discussion yesterday regarding what constitutes a pet. For the most part, I don't think of my turtle as being the focus of those rental agreements that say "no pets". Pets are usually, and overwhelmingly, dogs and cats with maybe a hamster, guinea pig or gerbil for the younger people. Possibly a rabbit. My friend has an aquarium full of fish. She doesn't really think of them as pets, but more of a collection. Otherwise she'd be saying "I have 21 pet tropical fish" which sounds silly. We decided that a pet involves a degree of interaction between human and animal. The fish mostly interact with each other and my turtle at the moment is not interacting at all until he emerges from hibernation.

Anyway, for pets on stamps I have been looking forward to sharing a few from a 1963/4 series of dogs and cats.


above we have a Poodle, a Bulldog and an Airedale
and below a Persian, Siamese and European 

and my favourite...


These  are all the works of Polish illustrator Janusz GrabiaƄsk (1929-1976).
If you are not familiar, look at his luscious illustrations for children's books.

23 comments:

  1. A pet...kept for amusement or companionship. I don't think turtles and fish qualify as I don't find either one amusing or very good company. The cat stamps are lovely.

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    1. My turtle can be amusing, in his own understated way. He has quite a balancing act with his poses when he's basking!

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  2. These are all great pets I think.

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  3. I have these Polish cat stamps too, but not the dog ones...ahh, you are lucky to have them both!

    btw, I agree, that last kitty is just hilarious!

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    1. there are a couple of dogs I saved in case the theme comes up again :)

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  4. Those are great, especially the last one.

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  5. I think I may have seen his other illustrations - such a familiar style.
    thank you for participating!

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    1. he was quite prolific with his children's books illustrations. I think I'd seen them before, too, without knowing who he was.

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  6. I think the one at the bottom will definitely be my favorite too. Glad to see kitten stamps here on your page in addition to the dog stamps, which most of us posted for the Sunday Stamps theme this week.

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  7. I have the three dos. The Airedale is my favourite because that is the first dog I remember as a small boy.

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  8. A lovely selection, especially the last one! I'm a cat person too :)

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  9. I do like Airedales, I think its the combination of ears and woolly legs. GrabiaƄsk has captured the cats eyes so well and the last one is so funny and true.

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  10. Greta discussion! I'm not especially a cat lover, but I'd make an exception for the last one...

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  11. Without a doubt, the crazy cat is my favourite of these.

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  12. I consider my walking sticks as pets, too :-) (I really mean it!).

    And since we've guinea pigs in our house I prefer vegetarian pets, as cats and dogs are far too dangerous for our gp's - see the three cat's eyes, ready to attack!...

    The Airedale stamp I love most, because it reminds me of my childhood, We only had guppys at home, then, but sometimes I walked the dog of an old neighbour. That dog was called Mickey, a friendly Welsh terrier. And the Welsh terrier to me seems a kind of small edition of the Airedale terrier :-) .
    Strange, when I see your Airedale stamp, I also see our former neighbourhood before me. Which I have left decades ago - and in which there wasn't any Airedale terrier around, only Mickey. How a stamp can bring back good memories...
    Thank you for sharing!

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    1. It took me a moment to understand the "walking sticks"!!
      What a great story - who knew stamps could be so memorable?!

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