June 12, 2015

Meanwhile, back from the ranch...

... Meade brought pictures of the cowboy's dog:

P1320577

More pictures of Rollo at The Puparazzo. I don't know who or what Rollo is named after — here's Wikipedia's disambiguation page for "Rollo" — but my first association is Rollo the rich kid in the great comic strip "Nancy":

19 comments:

David said...

Roll May, of course. Blast from the past.

Levi Starks said...

Rollo does have dual citizenship?

Big Mike said...

"Rollo" is obviously short for "roll over." Solved it for you.

David said...

Wikipdia's summary of Rollo May's "Love and Will."

May particularly investigated and criticized the "Sexual Revolution" in the 1960s, in which many individuals were exploring their sexuality. "Free sex" was replacing the ideology of free love. May explains that love is intentionally willed by an individual, whereas sexual desire is the complete opposite. Love is real human instinct reflected upon deliberation and consideration.[clarification needed] May then shows that to give in to these impulses does not actually make one free, but to resist these impulses is the meaning of being free. May perceived the Hippie subculture and sexual mores of the 1960s and 1970s, as well as commercialization of sex and pornography, as having influenced society such that people believed that love and sex are no longer associated directly. According to May, emotion has become separated from reason, making it acceptable socially to seek sexual relationships and avoid the natural drive to relate to another person and create new life. May believed that sexual freedom can cause modern society to neglect more important psychological developments. May suggests that the only way to remedy the cynical ideas that characterize our times is to rediscover the importance of caring for another, which May describes as the opposite of apathy

Jon Burack said...

Rollo Tomasi, the unknown assailant of detective Sergeant Ed Exley in L.A. Confidential.

tim in vermont said...

Rollo looks sort of like Jeb Bush.

Static Ping said...

First Viking ruler of Normandy.

Carter Wood said...

If the rancher has another dog named Sluggo we could be sure.

Quaestor said...

Rollo, aka Hrolf the Ganger, First Duke of Normandy. Great great grandfather of William the Conqueror.

Quaestor said...

Roll appears to be a red-phase border collie. One heckuva nice dog, but they do need a job to do. They're not couch potatoes like some breeds.

Ann Althouse said...

"One heckuva nice dog, but they do need a job to do."

Rollo is still learning, but his job is with real cattle.

Ann Althouse said...

He's currently an apprentice to a couple of Blue Heelers who really know the job. The herd is about 1200 that moves up a valley and into the mountains as the summer progresses.

Scott said...

I've always been more attracted to Sluggos than Rollos.

Scott said...

I was going to post something about the extreme mutability of canine DNA, so I searched for "dog dna" on Bing and found slews of places where you can get your dog's DNA tested. Huh.

Wilbur said...

I think of Rollo Lawson, Lamont's best friend and running mate on Sanford and Son.

When Fred or Esther would ask Rollo "Ain't you Rita Lawson's boy?" Rollo would get nervous and answer "Yes sir" or "Yes ma'am".

Rollo was a player, and like a hundred brothers I knew growing up. A friendly guy, but he was always looking for an opportunity, so to speak.

A character well played by Nathaniel Taylor.

vza said...

Could be named for Rollo, the dog in Diana Gabaldon's very popular time travel, Outlander book series. I think Rollo first appears in Drums of Autumn (Book 4).

Goju said...

Could be named for Cleveland's stepson from The Cleveland Show.

Border Collies are more for sheep, goats, geese, etc than cattle. They will learn to work any animal tho. Actually saw one herding a Lab that was playing fetch.

Goju said...

BTW, heelers are called that because they "heel" cattle by biting them. Its a trait that needs to be controlled when they play with kids.

Quaestor said...

BTW, heelers are called that because they "heel" cattle by biting them.

Border collies are so intelligent it's possible Rollo will pick up that "heeling" behavior just by observing the Blue Heelers at work, which are themselves descendants of collies brought out West back in the 1880's.

Range cattle can be pretty ornery. Sheep will retreat from a collie just by reading the dog's body language, but range cattle will often resist violently. They have to learn to respect the herding dog by getting nipped. Heelers are incredibly adept at avoiding kicks, a skill they seem to come by instinctively. Rollo may have to learn the hard way, however.

It's really surprising how quickly normally placid breeds like the Angus and the Hereford become nasty tempered when they're range fed. This is why ranchers still rely on horses; it can be extremely dangerous to mingle with range cattle on foot. Good cow ponies just seem to radiate an aura of controlled menace which the cattle respect. This may come from centuries of Spanish horse breeding. Traditionally the Spaniards tested their prospective warhorses by turning them into an arena with a bull. If the horse showed fear of the bull they deemed it unfit to train as a charger. We can still see something like this in traditional Portuguese bullfighting.