"Dog Eat Dog"

July 11, 2013 2:44 PM

Zachary Quinto would just like his damn dog now, please. (slyt)
posted by AlonzoMosleyFBI (17 comments total)

Well done! I especially like the scene where the action was in the background, but in the foreground you could see Quinto tapping his coiled leash like it was a whip handle, expressing his growing frustration.
posted by Kevin Street at 3:01 PM on July 11, 2013

Okay, that's just great. I enjoyed that much more than I expected.
posted by rmd1023 at 3:18 PM on July 11, 2013

Mirrors my experience adopting a dog. I found out at the 11th hour that my landlord doesn't allow large dogs (anymore, despite the existence of several already). I was fixated on a Greyhound rescue. I ended up "having to" get the world's coolest dog ever.

So I love this. Love it.
posted by basicchannel at 3:32 PM on July 11, 2013 [8 favorites]

I ended up "having to" get the world's coolest dog ever.

~heart melts.
posted by Thorzdad at 3:34 PM on July 11, 2013

Also, there are so many amazing shelter animals. The only reason I can figure my dog was left to wander the streets without a collar or a chip is because some asshole backyard breeder couldn't sell a Dachshund that doesn't much look like the "normative" one in customers' heads.

Please sock a breeder in the nose and adopt a shelter animal.
posted by basicchannel at 3:35 PM on July 11, 2013 [1 favorite]

I contributed to the Kickstarter and got my copy ages ago! It is so very nicely done.
posted by Glinn at 3:51 PM on July 11, 2013

I love Zachary Quinto and I love this film.

One of my dogs, Kenda, came from a shelter. Mr. Ant found her Petfinder profile and that's all she wrote. She has grown into a wonderful dog, supremely smart (which presents its own challenges) and full of opinions. She's my hiking buddy and my best friend.

[My other dog, Maeby, is a bear hunting dog who got lost from her pack. I found her deep in the backcountry. She was cold, sick, wet and very very hungry. I think she's much happier now.]
posted by workerant at 3:56 PM on July 11, 2013 [5 favorites]

Extra points for casting a pittie bully breed dog and not type casting it as a guard dog or demon beast.
posted by asfuller at 4:22 PM on July 11, 2013 [2 favorites]

Charming little film, but seeing those dogs in their shelter enclosures was quite gut-wrenching. I salute everyone working for or volunteering at shelters and rescues.

Please sock a breeder in the nose and adopt a shelter animal.

Certainly not. Not all breeders are created equal. The only one I know of is the one from whom I got our batpig frogdog, and they vetted us so thoroughly they nearly made me cry. But call me if you want to go on a rampage against venal breeders, puppy millers, the pet stores who buy from them, and people who buy from these pet stores. (Seeing those stores with "Summer Special: $200 off every puppy!" really marred my recent trip to NY.)

Loving all the pooch pictures posted so far though!
posted by peripathetic at 4:29 PM on July 11, 2013 [1 favorite]

If it helps, it says at the end of the credits that both "Rizzos" were adopted and now have good homes. So just making this film helped two dogs.
posted by Kevin Street at 4:34 PM on July 11, 2013 [1 favorite]

That's not Noah; where is Noah?!

Noah brings to you this informative ONTD post with further deets on backstory.
posted by Mizu at 4:51 PM on July 11, 2013

I loved this. We got our rescue Aussie after he was found in a pound. Some difference, hm?

Also, this brings back memories of adopting our cat. My brother and I met her at a local pet store that was allowing the shelter to present kittens up for adoption. We fell for her, then went to the shelter to find a kitten of compatible age to adopt with her. The people at the pet store didn't think we were serious about adopting her because we'd left after saying we were taking her, and offered her to a family who decided they wanted her. On arriving at the shelter and learning this, we threw a polite hissy fit, which ultimately got us both kittens. The kitten we found at the shelter just died this past January, of kidney disease, after 16 years of a very happy life being the king of our household. Our cat is still going strong. I fall for her anew every time I pet her and hear her enormous purr.
posted by bearwife at 5:03 PM on July 11, 2013 [3 favorites]

But I thought the old guy was actually the owner and he was just hanging out there to figure out who would be the best person to adopt his dog and he was going in that same morning to claim the dog but would give it to the young guy.
posted by orme at 5:11 PM on July 11, 2013

That was nice. I like how he already has a name for a dog before he's adopted. All my pets have been named after I got them, except for Saffron, our awesome shelter dog. I had my heart set on another Aussie, but a red merle this time, and the name of the dog was going to be Saffron, which would kind of go with the color, but also the precious nature of the dog. Saffron is (we think) a border collie/husky mix, and doesn't have the coloring of a saffron dog. She is precious though, and even if she was named after the hope diamond, the name still wouldn't be as precious as she is to us.

Another great thing about pound puppies is that you get some interesting mixes of breeds that make for some great combinations of temperament, behavior, and looks. Saffron looks kind of husky-ish, acts like and is as smart as a border collie, but is more mellow, and she loves the cold more than any border collie ever would. She also has two different colors of freckles. I highly recommend dogs from the shelter. Not only can they be better than any bred dog, they really seem to appreciate being adopted, and the good karma you get from adopting is only surpassed by the love they give you.
posted by Eekacat at 6:16 PM on July 11, 2013 [2 favorites]

My other dog, Maeby, is a bear hunting dog who got lost from her pack. I found her deep in the backcountry.

One of my best dogs was a coon hound named Addie, after Addie Bundren. She was an amazingly smart, sweet, playful, loving dog. But even though it isn't common in coon hounds, she was also a bear hunter. I always felt she was wasted on me as I wasn't a hunter, but I love being outdoors and I took her with me everywhere. And she'd tree a coon, just as one might expect, but she also would bring me bear. More than once I witnessed this behavior.

Anyone who's had a true American hound knows they think with their nose. Oh yeah, they love you and everything, just like they love all their buds in a pack, but if they should smell something — they don't know you. Fuck off.

Addie stayed with me most the time, until she picked up a fresh scent, and then she was gone. But as a hound she considerately and strategically let me know where she was, baying when it directed an animal, but silent when she was changing position. I typically couldn't see her on one of her forays, but I could tell where she was most of that time because she instinctively let me know, vocally.

The first time it happened I was a bit stunned. I was calling for her because at the time, I was the idiot and she was the savant. I heard her coming toward me, then she was silent, then a small bear, maybe a two or three year old female, ran across the path in front of me. I froze, half in fear, half in delight. At first I thought it was younger because I didn't know any better, and I worried about a mother in pursuit, but that never happened. Instead, the bear, and then Addie were silent until Addie too crossed the path in pursuit. And then I could hear her circle up around the bear again and direct it back at me. Again the bear crossed my path, followed by Addie in quick pursuit, baying at the bear, and perhaps half at my inaction; WTF in hound. She continued to bay until the bear found a tree to scurry up. Yeah, I didn't think bears climbed trees, and maybe they don't climb deciduous, but they can climb a Hemlock, and it was there at the base that I retrieved my disappointed dog. "Did you see what I did for you, you idiot? Why isn't that bear dead?" her eyes seemed to ask. I grabbed her collar and led her back to the path.

She obediently walked back to the truck, and she sat solemnly next to me on the way home. Her disappointment was palpable. I was the worst fuckin' date ever.

She did this a couple of more times before finally giving up on me. I miss that dog. I loved her so much that I almost wished for a life where I needed to hunt bear, just to give all three of us a significant purpose in our world. But I don't live in the woods, I live in the farm land next to the woods, and I have cotton and bacon cheaply and plentifully available. She's been gone over ten years, but I'm still sorry about not living up to her expectations.

Cool movie, too. Thanks.
posted by Toekneesan at 6:38 PM on July 11, 2013 [12 favorites]

He's a good actor - this looks like the opening scene of the best season of "American Horror Story" yet.
posted by lon_star at 2:04 AM on July 12, 2013

Awwww, this is sweet and was filmed in one of the shelters I visited before I adopted my dog.

That said, my dog was going to be named Roux or Rougarou, until he categorically REFUSED to answer to either of those names and we collectively settled on Alvy.
posted by Sara C. at 12:06 AM on July 13, 2013