Shamanism & Pup Play (part 2)

So I previously bloged about how I’ve long had an interest in Arthurian myth which led me to being a fan of John Matthews and his work on Celtic Shamanism.  As a definition, Matthews wrote: “The most important single aspect of shamanism is attunement w/ the Otherworld. All shamans are in touch w/ the inner self who is wiser, stronger, more balanced than they may appear in their normal selves. Trance states are used a great deal to keep in touch w/ the spirit world, including chant, drumming, and various hallucinatory substances.” (Taliesin)  Stephen Larsen explained, “The basic nature of this world view is that a human being dwells simultaneously in two worlds [and the] spiritual world – although seemingly insubstantial – is recognized as more potent than this natural one…” (The Mythic Image)  Larsen also comments, “The guide of souls must be a friend to the animal realm b/c the soul is, in part, made up of animals.”  In psychological terms, he’s talking about the way our minds grasp things in terms of projections.  “Children’s comic books have talking animals, which, we are told, make more sense to them than talking adults… The children empathize with the animals and feel them to be peers.  Adults are inscrutable and distant… Animals invite stereotypes.”

Totems (animal spirits) were an important part of Celtic shamanism.  Totemism harkens back to a time when human beings were more a part of the natural world and recognized a kinship w/ the animals.  Animals were not, then, seen as inferior things… and many of the ceremonies which surround hunting “magic” are actually about absolving the guilt of the hunter.  (“I’m sorry, Uncle, but I need your fur coat.” “Grandfather, this is painful for me, too.” “Please come back and be w/ us again.”)  Among the Celts, as w/ the Native Americans, many personal names and clan names are the names of animals – the animal that was originally the totem and spiritual kin of that tribe/individual.  In many cultures it is believed that (often during a coming of age ceremony at which the youth gets his adult name) part of his soul is exchanged for a part of the soul of a particular animal… as if for safekeeping.  So with me, for example, they might say that a fragment of my soul was taken out and placed in the body of a hound… and part of the dog’s soul was placed inside of me.  Not a bad metaphor, really – it certainly captures how I feel a lot of the time.  “More than a mere symbol,” wrote Larsen, “the totem is a vital force on the [mental] level.”

Closely related to totemism is theriomorphism – the practice of transforming into an animal.  It’s common in rituals for the shaman to wear the skin and mask of his totem animal.  This practice (as I mentioned before) goes back at least 30,000 years… to the time when the first cave paintings were created.  Later day myths and legends of animal transformations (like the werewolf) are probably distorted fragments of memories of ancient shamanic practices.  In one Norse myth, the hero Sigmund and his son Sinfjoti (ever notice that Scandinavian names always look like a cat walked across your keyboard?) are transformed into wolves when they dawn wolf skins… and our word “berserker” comes from ancient Scandinavian warriors who took on the characteristics of bears before entering combat.  (The very so-so movie The 13th Warrior is based on the premise of such a pseudo-Neolithic bear-people cult surviving into medieval times.)  Other examples include the Norse wolf-men (the ulfheonar), the leopard-men of Africa, the werejaguars of South America, and the shark shamans of the Pacific.

So, I mentioned that masks and costumes (skins) were a common part of these transformations.  A lot of gear fetishists use this technique in their pup play – using a mask or plug-tail or a collar as a transformative mechanism.  When I first started pup-playing, my Owner used a separate collar for my puppy-mode, and changing my collars out was a mental trigger I used to shift mindsets.  It’s worth tossing out there that the Greek persona means “mask”… and a personality is a plurality of inner masks.  Long before I ever got into pup-play (or even shamanism) I was into role-playing games… which is a fantastic medium for summoning up and working w/ different persona that are buried in our heads. 

It’s also useful here to bring-up what “fetish” actually meant before Freud.  In anthropology, a “fetish” is an object held in awe and believed to be charged spiritual power – like a voodoo doll, or the Ark of the Covenant, or the various other MacGuffins of the Indiana Jones films… or a collar or hood.  So the continuity between religious/magical fetishes and leather & latex fetishes is not too far apart.  “The mask,” Larsen wrote (not talking about fetishes in the modern sense – although he could have been), “becomes a transformer of energy, a medium between ego and archetype.”  In using masks in his therapeutic work, Larsen found, “that the masks ‘like’ music and dance to ‘explain’ themselves more fully.”  Masks and costumes make us stand and move differently… as well as think and feel differently by bringing forward a different persona w/in our personality.

Halestorm, Pig Pick’n, and I Protest!

FRIDAY NIGHT

Ma’am, her hound, and a very cute lady she’s seeing (one of the six people my Owner is currently involved with… as someone – I believe Groucho Marx or maybe his brother Karl – put it: “Even God slept on the seventh day!") joined a couple of our friends at a Halestorm concert Friday night.  That is a run-on sentence… but I like it, so I’m going to keep it.  The concert rocked!!!!!  I think Lizzy Hale will be my new celebrity crush.

SATURDAY

For Memorial Day weekend, CAPEX (my home club) traditionally does a cook out which we call the “Pig Pick’n.”  We originally did it at a pavilion in the park, we did it at a the Charlotte Eagle a couple of years, but the last several years we’ve done it at the home of one of our contributors who has a large, private back yard.  This year we had a very small turn-out (about 35 people – which is maybe half what we usually get)… but that wasn’t so bad, b/c it made for a nice opportunity to just sit about in lawn chairs and get caught-up w/ friends.  Ma’am brought only one toy w/ her: her sap gloves… which we’ve both grown very fond of.  So she did take an opportunity to beat the hell out of me w/ her sap gloves on.  Yummy.

Also noteworthy:  I have an old friend who identifies w/ the vampire archetype.  She knows I identify w/ the werewolf, and she wants to do an (Underworld inspired) interrogation scene w/ me as her werewolf prisoner.  Should be fun!  :)

SUNDAY

There’s this redneck church about 25 or 30 miles up the road from where I live.  The pastor, Charles Worley recently told his congregation that his (final) solution to dealing with lesbian, gay, bisexual & transgender people was to send them all to concentration camps surrounded by electrified fencing to die.  He also said from the pulpit that his congregation shouldn’t vote for President Obama b/c Obama is “a baby-killer and a homosexual lover” (which violates the laws for not-for-profits and should void their tax exempt status).  The video went on the net and it became a national news story.  (America, meet my idiot neighbors!)  Today, there was a protest against Worley and his church, so I hopped on the motorcycle to drop in on the protest for a bit.  People were scattered about, so it was hard to get a headcount… but it looked like we broke 1000.  Some of the signs were very clever.  Unfortunately I wasn’t able to get a picture of my favorite: a little boy holding up a sign that read, “I’m 10 and even I know bigotry is wrong.”  That was my favorite; short, simple, and impossible to argue with!

Interesting Friends

You know you have interesting friends when you get email like this:

"You won't believe what I just got off of ebay!

I have to share the news, it's just so crazy. I just got a bent crystal x-ray spectrometer that was originally built by KMS Fusion for use on the Aurora inertial confinement fusion project. ... I was needing a radiation detector, [and] this one was built for an actual real fusion project back in 1990-91. ... This device is like finding a holy avenger +5 on ebay...."

I particularly like that the device is "bent." ;)

Gratuitous Eye Candy

I just want to share proof that Megan Fox looks hotter w/ her glasses on...

(Well, it's not always deep and philosophical around here...)

Riding, Walking, and Immanuel Kant

My Owner had a date at home last weekend w/ a new boyfriend she’s acquired… so the Puppy was kicked out of the house for the weekend.  I could have gone to Atlanta to spend time w/ Sir and the pack… but they were planning to do this “Warrior Challenge” race through 3 miles of mud and obstacles… which sounds about as much fun to me as – well, as running through 3 miles of mud and obstacles.  No thanks.  So I opted to head to Tennessee instead to hang out w/ friends there.

As soon as I got off work Friday, I packed a bag and hit the road on two wheels.  I was a little worried about the weather b/c I had to cross under a thunderstorm while going over the mountains.  The FZ6 and I did get a bit drenched… but it only lasted only about 5-10 minutes.  Once I got on the other side of it and wound my way down, out of the wet mountains, then I soon found sunlight again, and my leathers dried off quickly.  The rest of ride into Tennessee was nice, and Ma’am had packed me some sandwiches for my trip, so I had a little picnic stop along the road.

Saturday, the weather was great!  I spent the day w/ “my bff,” Max.  We did a 10 mile hike along the Tennessee River.  I got a bit sunburned, but nothing too bad.  The only problematic aspect is that I had my collar locked on… and so I ended up w/ a sun-tan pattern in the shape of my collar and tag.  LOL.  Fortunately it’s not too noticeable… or else that could have drawn some unwanted questions at work.

We talked completely nonstop for the whole hike – mostly about science & technology.  Max is a mad scientist (and an official super-villain), so he updated me on on all of his own science projects… but he’s also obsessively plugged-in to the latest science and engineering news from all over the world.

After a quick shower, it was off to spend the evening with more friends at their regular philosophy salon.  I have a degree in philosophy (among other things), so this sort of thing is right up my ally.  One of my friends also has a strong interest in philosophy, so about a year ago, she started this “salon” where the gang would gather at her place, she would cook, usually they would watch part of a philosophy lecture on Youtube, and then that would become the spring-board for conversation.  Saturday night, we watched about 20 minutes of a lecture on Kant’s moral theory and took from that our springboard: the question of whether there’s an ethical difference between a deliberately misleading but literally true statement (we called it “true-ception”) and an outright falsehood.  Kant’s categorical imperative states that it is always bad to lie (a questionable claim in-itself)… but Kant himself felt it was okay to mislead people as long as what you said was literally factual.  Kant’s ethics is painfully lawyer-like!  And Max had the perfect, concrete example, b/c a few years ago he was the star witness in a federal criminal trial… and he was placed in a situation where it would be pretty bad to tell the “whole truth,” but he also didn’t want to commit perjury… so he had to craft some of his answers as “true-ceptions.”  He said that while he didn’t exactly lie, he still feels morally ambivalent about what he did.

We had a variety of perspectives represented and that made for a lively discussion.  (For my own 2-cents: I don’t think there is any ethical distinction between a “true-ception” and an overt lie; if you intentionally deceive people by what you say, then you are lying -- period.  On the other hand, I also reject Kant’s categorical notion that lying is always bad.  If I’m hiding Jews in my attic and the Nazis come and ask, “Are you hiding Jews in your attic?” then of course I’m morally justified in lying to them!)

The weather was also perfect Sunday, so I took the scenic rout home through the mountains.  Not surprisingly, there were a lot of other bikes on the road… so I did a lot of barking on my ride home.  I tend to bark at motorcycles.  :)  *Ruf! Ruf!*

Pup Body Language

Found this on PupZone, and liked it:

A Sort of Homecoming

My gypsy-Owner occasionally gets spells of wanderlust and has to vanish from home for a few days… off to stay in Atlanta or Charlotte or Raleigh or South Carolina… or wherever she ends-up.  This generally works well for me b/c, being such an introvert, it’s nice to have the house to myself for a few days.  But I still miss her while she’s away.

However, the homecoming often makes-up for the absence.  Ma’am always reminds me that I am “her heart and her home” and that she will always come back to her loyal hound.  :)

Yesterday, she returned from 3 days on the road.  I was so thrilled to see her when I got in from work – she was home once more to once more lock me into my collar.  That “click” is quite possibly the greatest sound on earth.  She had dinner ready… and during dinner she teased me w/ stories of her various sexual escapades w/ a guy she recently met on OKCupid… so I was at least semi-hard throughout the meal.  Right after dinner she sent me straight to my studio which is also our primary play room.  There, she proceeded to beat the hell out of me w/ a couple of canes and a wooden, toy short-sword she picked-up at a Scottish Games event that makes a hellacious paddle.  Of course there was also bighting and scratching involved.  Yummy!!!

Right after that, she made plans for us to go see the Avengers movie.  She first had me put a plug in my ass and pull a turtle-neck over my collar (we have to be very incognito in our hometown).  I got to sit through the movie w/ my collar locked around my neck, sore from my beating, a plug secretly filling my ass, pre-cum dribbling in my pants, and drooling over Black Widow.  WOOF!

Then it was back home, and me into my doggy kennel for the night – horny and frustrated.  (Every time I complain about how horny I am, Ma’am always responds, “That’s how puppies are supposed to be.”)  Yes, it was one very excellent homecoming!

And tonight... Ma'am's taking me to Kinky Karaoke!

Shamanism & Pup Play, Part 1 – Background

Many years ago, before I even became a pup, I developed an interest in shamanism – primarily Celtic shamanism.  It grew out of an enthusiasm for King Arthur lore… which led me to Arthurian scholar John Matthews.  He was the primary consultant for the King Arthur film that had the oh-my-gods-sexy Keira Knightly's Gwenevere… *panting and drooling*

One of the greatest movie lines ever is…

     Lancelot: It’s alright to be afraid. There’s a lot of lonely men out there.

     Gwenevere: Don’t worry; I won’t let them rape you.

Damn!  Sounds like something my Owner would say… only Shdwkitten would add, “Unless I can watch.”

Sorry, where was I?  Oh – John Matthews.  Right, so he’s an Arthurian scholar who has also published widely on Celtic paganism, mythology, bardic poetry… all interests of mine.  One of his books in particular first introduced the concept of Celtic shamanism: Taliesin; the Last Celtic Shaman (1991).  It examined the poetry of the sixth century Welsh bard Taliesin for traces if shamanism.  Taliesin is named in the Welsh Triads as one of the three great bards of ancient Brittan – the other two are Myrddin Wilt and Myrddin Emrys… the former being another historic bard of the sixth century, the latter is probably the remnant of an ancient, Celtic, solar deity – “emrys” being Welsh for “immortal.”  (These two Myrddins were rolled together in legend, and the name was changed to Merlin… possibly b/c the Arthurin stories were first chronicled by French-speaking Normans and the Welsh “Myrddin” sounds a lot like the French word for “shit.”  Myrddin is actually not a personal name at all in Welsh but a place – literally “the fort by the sea.”)

But I got distracted again – oh, Shinny! – The point is that Matthews used this sixth century Welsh poetry to introduce a very convincing argument that the primary religious practice of the pre-Christian Celts was shamanism (“traveling” through hallucinogenics and/or trances into the “spirit world”) w/ a heavy emphasis on animal totems (spirit animals) and theriomorphism (animal shape-shifting)… very closely resembling the religions of Native America.  Traces of these practices can be found in the later myths and legends of the Christianized Celts… “Arthur” for instance, means “Bear,” “Gawain” is derived from “Falcon,” and Cuchulainn (one of the most famous Irish heroes) means “Hulainn’s Hound” (a reference to the year when the young hero lived as the human-wolfhound of Hulainn the Smith).

Shamanistic practices involving animal totems and shape-shifting are man’s oldest form of spirituality.  The Paleolithic cave paintings of 30,000 years ago were once mistakenly believed to have related to ceremonies of “hunting magic”… but now experts generally agree that they are depictions of spirit animals, the first artists were shamans nailing down visions they saw in trace, and the underground caves were the physical counterpart to the spirit-world.  The famous “Sorcerer of Tois Feres” is 15,000-year-old depiction of a shaman in theriomorphic mode.

In Celtic myth the spirit-world became the Otherworld, the land below the lake and the sea, Tri-Na-Nog, the Sidhe, the fairy land.  By the way… believe it or not, Pup Emrys actually grew up in a town named “Fairy Land.”  True!  I’m from Fairy Land.

Well, I want to write about how all of this relates to puppy play and being a pup, but I see we’ve run out of time…

Spring 2012 Treehouse Party

We have a great party house.  It sits on an acre of wooded land (we see deer all the time) w/ a big pond behind us.  2300 square-feet w/ an open floor-plan.  Our friends dubbed our placed “the Treehouse” b/c the house is built out of several miss-matched types of wood – mostly reclaimed barn wood I think – and we have a tree trunk as a support beam downstairs.  The place was built in the early 1980s by this very butch, lesbian artist.  She called it the “California style,” but I think it’s really her own unique style… including the indoor hot-tub that overlooks the living room (which unfortunately isn’t running at the moment – we have a leaky pipe).

Since we moved-in, we have a tradition of throwing a Treehouse party twice a year: spring and fall.  We set-up a cross in the bedroom, this time a friend brought her massage table, we have a bondage bed in my studio, I have two locations in the house where I’ve fixed bolts into the ceiling (our house looks so odd already w/ all the salvaged wood, they just blend in), and the tree-trunk support beam which is great for cling-wrapping people to.  We generally cap the parties at abut 30, and we’ve had parties were we had five scenes going at once… and b/c the Treehouse has a pretty open floor-plan you have good flow and visibility on a lot of it. 

We had our spring fling Saturday night… and it was a very unusual party.  There were no BDSM scenes at all!  I don’t believe anybody even brought in a toy bag!  Usually when we have a party the foyer is full of toy bags.  For one thing, it was a smaller party than usual – I think we only had about 20 people at this one.  One other difference was that Ma’am had invited a lot more of the TNG crowed (20-somethings) to this party, and most of the more serious/experienced, 24-7 lifestylers we hang w/ either couldn’t make it or left the party early.

We did have some veteran lifestylers there… and one thing worth mentioning:  NCMaster told me about a scene he recently did that had to be one of the best interrogation mind-fucks of all time.  It was seriously awesome!  If you see me, ask me about it some time.

I think I had the best line at the party.  We were talking about the Avengers movie, and one of the TNG girls said, “I masturbated to Loki last night.”

To which I replied, “Really? I gave Loki a blowjob last weekend.”  Most of the room just looked at me confused, but a few got it and fell out of their chairs laughing.  :)

Not long after this I got pounced upon by four of the TNG girls… I puped-out, as at one time I had eight hands on me scritching, petting, rubbing… and at least a couple of tongues licking me… all belonging to four, pretty, hot, 20-something-year-old girls…  This could be Puppy Heaven.  *wags*

That was about the time the party shifted, and people began disappearing upstairs into the bedrooms in twos, fours… sixes (seriously! sex-with-six).  But no chains or floggers!  When did this become a swingers party?  Or a frat party? (Minus the loud, annoying music.)  Not that I can complain too much, since one of the young ladies spent the night w/ me on the floor in front of my kennel… but it was still a bit odd.  I like watching all the fun, hot BDSM scenes… and the ones we tend to have in the Treehouse generally have an especially fun energy about them… from great lines like, “Hump that tree, Pussy Boy!” to using a rubber chicken to beat someone with.  LOL.  Ma’am and I agreed that for our fall party we need to get some BDSM scenes going early.  Hopefully more of the older, 24-7 crowd will be available next time… and we’ll make sure the hot tub is working!

Leadership...

What a difference 3 months make…

This was my second Atlanta Dominion – a quarterly, all-male dungeon party.  Definitely some changes since my first Dominion three months ago.  At my first one, Sir Loki came up to me and asked, “So, do you feel like spending some time on the cross?”  This time, it was more a matter of Sir telling me where, when... and what to wear.  LOL.  At my first event, I knew hardly anyone there… and of the few I knew all but three of the met-him-once variety.  This time I was part of the puppy pack and the ice (at least w/ them) was already very broken.

Some highlights include:

Pup Pepper (immediately upon my arrival) confessed to me that he has a “married man fantasy.”  LOL.  Not sure what we’ll do about that, but I’m sure we can come up w/ something…

I quite enjoyed seeing Jake in his shinny new collar.  He seemed very pleased to be wearing it.  It’s amazingly transformative – to have that locked around your neck…  It really gives you liberty to let go, relax, and give-up control to someone you trust to take care of you.

I had a wonderful scene w/ Sir.  We’ve always had highly compatible play styles, but I think he’s getting even better at pushing my “yummy” buttons.  This was the first time we played w/ my leather hood on.  That was cool – I love kissing through the leather hood.  One thing that seems to work well is that he cuffed my hands to the cross, but tied my ankles w/ rope that had a bit of slack.  That seems to be a good approach b/c I tend to hop and move a lot when I play, and I’ve already started a tear in one of Sir’s ankle cuffs.  By using the rope, he can keep my legs spread but still allow me to “dance.”

Apart from that, there were two particularly outstanding aspects to this scene.  The first was that my pack-mates Tebow and Pepper were playing in the room w/ us.  I couldn’t see a lot of what they were doing, but I got occasional glimpses… and definitely enjoyed their added energy.  There was a very nice symmetry to Sir beating the tar out of his pain-puppy, while 8’ away the beta-Top was teasing “poor” Pup Pepper.

The second really cool aspect to this scene came when it “ended.”  Sir began to take me down from the cross – too early as far as I was concerned; I was like, “Please more,” but I don’t know if someone was waiting to use the play-space or if Sir’s arm just got tiered.  (Maybe I can take anything he can dish out!?)  But, as it happens, the scene didn’t end, so much as transitioned.  Sir put on my gear for me and dropped me straight into pup-mode (not a big leap when I’ve been on the cross, flogged, licked, and bitten).  That was so perfect.  I loved it!  I spent some time on all fours, drifting in and out of various depths of my pup headspace.  I love being a pup in the dungeon!  So many great sounds and smells and shinny things...

Later, some guys did a rather cool scene w/ a violet wand.  They chained the bottom facing-up on a table.  Then they hung the (solid state) violet wand from the ceiling above him and attached a long (like 4’), thin chain to it.  The chain was exactly long enough to caress the body of the bottom as it swung back and forth, zapping him as it went along.  Very cool.

While that was happening, Sir had tied-up his beagle and was teasing him rather mercilessly.  He summoned me over to lend a hand, and, Loki being Loki, before I knew it I had a vibrating toy down my pants and was grinding-up against my “little brother” while the Alpha Pup circled us, biting and teasing.  Woof! 

The event ended w/ Sir and I on the couch… and I have to once again remind myself that, w/ long hair like mine, hair-bands are like condoms – always have one on you b/c you never know when you might need it!  Unfortunately I had to prematurely leave (although premature leaving is better than premature coming) b/c photo-hour was about to start, so it was either leave or go back in the hood...  It was a good event, and I already look forward to the next Dominion party in another 3 months.

Amendment One -- follow-up

Amendment One passed by about two to one (over 77% in my own rural county – "Right about then the Duke boys pulled up…").  Unfortunately that’s not surprising.  But to me, one of the most significant aspects of this story hasn’t been reported very much… which is that exit polling indicates that the majority of the people who voted for it, did not properly understand what they were voting for – that they thought it was just a vote against gay marriage – which is bad enough, but… 

“Marriage between one man and one woman is the only domestic legal union that shall be valid or recognized in this state.” (emphasis added)

The majority of North Carolinians actually poll in favor of allowed civil unions or domestic partnerships (which, up until yesterday, was legal for gay couples in eight NC counties)… but apparently the majority of people who voted for Amendment One did not realize that they were voting against civil unions (not to mention common-law marriages and various other things).  I think this key fact has been very under-reported.

Amendment One

For those who didn’t know, the Wolfhound is presently a tarheel… (although I’ve never been quite sure what “tarheel” means exactly).  So today was “Vote Against Amendment One Day.”  I just got back from the polling booth.  However, every time a same-sex marriage ban has gone on the ballet it’s passed, and probably will today… which is exactly why we don’t have a pure democracy.  A pure democracy executed Socrates.  Because of a fear that pure majority rule would trample the rights of the minority (the “tyranny of the majority over the minority”) the Framers tried to give us a (theoretically) independent judiciary that would be able to say, “Sorry, no, you can’t do that to them just b/c you have them outnumbered. They have their rights too.”

But… I don’t think anybody’s political views are ever swayed by argumentation or logic or abstract appeals to the Bible or whatever authority.  What changes people’s views are real-life, concrete stories of real-life, actual people.  That’s one reason why (despite whatever the polling results are today) I think those restricting gay rights will ultimately be on the loosing side… b/c they have NO concrete, real-life, feet-on-the-ground stories of actual, specific persons.  Give me one personal story that demonstrates why we need Amendment One?  Nobody can.  Even those adamantly in favor of it can't put a name or a face or a story w/ their argument.  However, there are countless person-specific stories that demonstrate why we need rights for same-sex partners… such as this one:

Five Years... and many more to come!

Tomorrow is not just Cinco de Mayo… it’s also the fifth anniversary of my wedding to my Owner – the love of my life and the center of my world.  We once had a Relationship SIG meeting where the topic was “The wedding ring vs. the collar.”  What is the significance of each?  Does one trump the other?  Since I wear both Ma’am’s collar and wedding band, we determined that for us, my ring is an extension of the collar.  I never think of myself as her “husband” – even the word just tastes wrong in my mouth.  I’m her hound – her faithful, loving canine companion (who just happens to spend most of his time on two legs).  Ma’am found me the coolest wedding ring on earth: a circle of Irish wolfhounds in Celtic knot-work.   It’s perfect, and I’ve never seen another like it.

As well as the wolfhound ring, at our wedding ceremony, I read to her a poem about the Irish wolfhound (its faithfulness, devotion, protectiveness…) and pledged to be her loyal wolfhound.  (My mom and all the vanilla relatives had NO clue that this also meant I would be spend my nights sleeping in a kennel and spend my time at home sitting on the puppy pillows, sprawled w/ the bio-dogs on the floor b/c Ma’am doesn’t allow us on the couch.  *grins*)

I will give thee a dog

which I got in Ireland.

He is huge of limb,

and for a follower equal to any able man.

Moreover, he hath a man's wit

and will bark at thine enemies

but never at thy friends.

And he will see by each man's face

whether he be ill or well disposed to thee.

And he will lay down his life for thee.

I especially like the part about my huge limb.  ;)

We’ve had the moments of disagreements that all couples do… but not too often and not too severely.  We’re highly compatible personalities, and whatever disagreements we do have are generally settled by a quick reminder that I’m her pet and she’s in charge.  I wouldn’t be complete w/o her, and (let’s be honest) Ma’am just couldn’t function w/o me.  *licks Owner playfully*

I know I’m biased… but I think the bond between Owner and dog is the purest form of devotion, fidelity, and love.  So, this Cinco de Myao, let me ask everybody to raise a margarita to all the Owners and dogs of the world (4-leggeed and 2-legged) whose love keeps the world going around.

Wheeeeeee!!!!

Puppy Typology

I mentioned that Sir taught a great class on Puppy Play at SITS.  He started out by talking about different kinds of puppies.  It was very interesting to me as a long-time pup who has had little contact w/ other pups b/c it really helped me see how there are lots of other ways of doing pup play than what I do.  It certainly gave me a lot to think about…

Sir identified four types of pups… and he conveniently had examples of 3 of the 4 romping on the mats at his feet.  :)

• The “innate pup” (that would be me) is one for whom being a pup is a (basically) constant state… like being a slave, or being a Christian, or being gay, or being a African-American.  It’s a part of who we are and how we interact w/ the world.  When I do pup play (get down on all fours), it’s a matter of letting the hound that’s always under my skin come forward and psychologically take over for a while.
• The “play pup” (that would be Tebow) is one who enjoys pupping-out as a kind of fetish play… like w/ bondage, gear fetish, boot-blacking, or interrogation play.  It’s essentially a fetishized role-playing game.  I think for the play pup it’s primarily an opportunity to let-lose, be goofy and uninhibited, and… well, playful.
• The “furry pup” (our Pepper) is one that I don’t know much about.  I learned some more about furries talking w/ Pepper at SITS (while looking at porn on his phone).  For instance, I thought that furries were all about the costumes.  I had no idea that there were non-costumed furries!  I’m still learning about this furry thing… but one difference that Sir hit upon in his class is that apparently furries don’t have the D/s dynamic that leather-pups emphasize (the Handler/pup dynamic).  Maybe that’s why the furry pups I know are the most unruly.  Ever heard the expression, “He listens like a brick”?  Yeah… when it comes to some of the furry pups I know, I think goldfish are more trainable.
• We don’t have a “cur” in our pack.  The cur is really an odd-ball that maybe doesn’t even fir in as pup-play strictly speaking.  Curs are submissives who enjoy being humiliated by being “forced” by a Dominant to behave like a “less than human” animal.  “Get down on all fours and crawl, bitch!”  Personally I consider this more humiliation play than pup play… but I’m NOT saying, “If you’re a cur then you’re doing it wrong.”  What works for you, works for you… I just find it to be a very different play and a very different headspace from what we do.

Let me note (as Sir did) that these distinctions are continuous, not discrete.  Tebow is mostly a play pup but w/ a dash of the innate pup in him.  Pepper is a furry, but interested in exploring the leather-pup (D/s) side…

I saw these differences really come out in the mosh pit we had at SITS.  We had six of us in there, including three furries.  I was glad that we had Sir’s class first, b/c his typology gave me a good tool for understanding the dynamics of what was happening. 

Coming from the perspective of an innate pup, I expected that for others, the mosh pit would be a way to sink deeply into the canine headspace (pup-space).  When I pup-out… I let go of my human thoughts.  As I sink deeper, the verbal part of my brain shuts down (or grows a lot quieter); it becomes hard to verbalize or even understand sentences w/o focusing on them.  I visualize myself as a large, lanky, shaggy dog.  I’ve never used bondage mitts b/c when I sink into my headspace, I forget that I have hands – I “see” paws.  This visualization, for me, can become so complete that one time I had the unpleasant experience of trotting past a full-length mirror.  Expecting to look over and see a wolfhound reflected there, I was genuinely surprised and unpleasantly shocked to see an awkward-looking human crawling by.  It snapped me right out of my headspace!

What I was surprised to find was that most of the pups in the mosh where playing, being mischievous, and chasing balls around… but w/o getting much into what I think of as pup-space.  When I pup-out… I want to be a dog as much as I can.  I want the humans to treat me just like they would treat a big, shaggy canine in the room w/ then.  But some of the pups, I found, talked throughout the mosh – never giving-up their words – and their actions (while playful and puppy-like) were more methodical than my brain gets when I play.  (Including sneaking away and sitting at the dinner tables w/ the humans.  LOL)

Of course there’s a whole other aspect to this when we bring in different breeds (which Sir also touched on in his class).  I’m fascinated by evolutionary psychology… and naturally a sight hound will have a different psychology from a sled dog, or a shepherd, or a retriever, etc.  Wolfhounds are easy-going, highly loyal, laid-back but very protective, and we respond easily to those we see as our pack leaders.  Beagles are… different.

But… I could do a whole other post about dog breeds…  Another time.

Puppies at SITS

I spent the weekend w/ my pack at Atlanta S/m Solidarity’s annual weekend-long event: Spring in the South (SITS).  I highly recommend this event to anybody who can make it next year.  You get: Friday night meet-n-greet at the Eagle, several venders, 4 classes Saturday by a great line-up of presenters,  a puppy mosh pit, dungeon party Saturday night, a couple of more classes Sunday following breakfast… and they feed you four meals!  What I particularly liked about this event was that you have a wonderful line-up of classes by some really good presenters… but w/ small class sizes.  So you get a lot of what you’d get a beg kink con, but w/ like 60 (?) people there all together and class sizes of like 8 to 15.  So you got a lot of the “value” of a convention, but in a more intimate setting… and the classes could be more personal and hands-on…

What made this event all the better for me was that I got to spend the weekend w/ my pack.  It was really great for me to be part of the leather family and not just a welcome visitor.  And Sir presented a class on puppy play that was very good.  He had Tebow, Pepper, and I in pup-mode for the duration of the class… which was entertaining for us as well as the audience.  *wags*

This was also my first puppy mosh pit.  I know – that’s odd since I’ve been a pup for 7 years now… but I’ve never had the opportunity to pup-out w/ more than one other pup at a time.  But there were six of us in the mosh.  It was such a blast, and I believe I could have kept going for hours… but I think we wore Sir out.  He was alone monitoring the six of us… and there was quite a bit of mischief going on.  Imagine that! 

The dungeon party turned into one of the more "interesting" DM shifts I've had to date.  The first hour I was on shift, and Sir walked around w/ me and was constantly teasing my cock and slapping my balls... then he had the second shift and we continued to do the same.  Finally we ended up on the couch together, and Sir let me "relieve some tension."  :)

This weekend: Saturday is my 5th wedding anniversary w/ Ma'am... and Sunday is Atlanta Dominion w/ the pack.

I love this collar...