Hi Friends –

It’s good to be back as a guest blogger for Mom today, because I have a doggone bone I’d like to pick with all of you.

Let’s talk about Dogwood Trees.

Yes – they are beautiful…

Especially this time of year when Mom makes us stop for ridiculous amounts of time while she takes pictures like this of their flowers.

But really….  DOGwood…  What about this tree even remotely resembles a DOG??!!

Let’s take a look at me….  I am a DOG…

And a fine specimen I might add…  if I do say so myself…

As a dog, I have a tail that wags when I’m happy, a nose that is always slightly damp to sniff out important things, whiskers to add a little charm, fur to keep me warm and for my family and friends to pet.  I have four legs, pads on my feet so I can go for long walks WITHOUT shoes, two eyes to stare people down when they are eating something delicious (which is everything except for raw green beans), two floppy ears that perk up when visitors come to bring me cookies (like Mike the UPS man), one very hungry mouth (I must remind you again)…

Need I go on?  You get the deal – right?

I am a DOG.

DOGwood trees have NONE of these important things?  So I asked Mom to Google it and try to explain this phenomenon to me.

With a couple clicks on that darn laptop that takes up the space that belongs to ME on her lap, she learned a few things I thought you might be interested in about dogwood trees from Askville and Wikipedia:

The word dogwood comes from the original term dagwood, whose slender stems of very hard wood were used for making ‘dags’ (daggers, skewers). The wood was also highly prized for making loom shuttles, arrows, tool handles, and other small items that required a very hard and strong wood, wine and fruit presses, and it was used to make the first styles of tennis rackets made out of the bark cut into thin strips.

The name Dog-Tree entered English vocabulary by 1548 and was further transformed to Dogwood by 1614. Once the name dogwood was affixed to the tree, it soon acquired a secondary name as the Hound’s Tree, while the fruits came to be known as dogberries or houndberries.

Another suggestion as to how the dogwood got its name is the distinct barking noise it makes when its limbs rub together in a gentle breeze.

It is also possible that the common name of dogwood may have come about because dogs were washed with a brew of its bark, hence dogwood.

Hmmmm.  Interesting?  I’m not sure…

Barking???  I’ll be listening for that.

And as far as washing in a brew of it’s bark….  NO THANK YOU!  I am NOT a fan of baths.  I think I smell quite good just the way I am.

Unfortunately Mom disagrees.

And she’s the boss….

Or at least the one who fills my breakfast and dinner bowl and drops food on the floor while cooking and takes me for walks, so we’ll let her think that…

Thanks for visiting with us today.

Wishing you a doggone great day!

Sincerely,
Mikey