{"id":99,"date":"2008-07-05T19:29:45","date_gmt":"2008-07-05T19:29:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/midlifedog.com\/index.php\/a-dogs-life\/prototype-of-a-midlife-dog\/"},"modified":"2008-07-05T19:29:45","modified_gmt":"2008-07-05T19:29:45","slug":"prototype-of-a-midlife-dog","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/midlifedog.com\/index.php\/a-dogs-life\/prototype-of-a-midlife-dog\/","title":{"rendered":"Prototype of a Midlife Dog"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Cathy adopted me, she had trouble seeing me as the magnificent Canine Urban Princess (CUPPIE) I am. She was so accustomed to her First Dog, Keesha<\/a>, a keeshond-chow mix with fuzzy hair, pointy ears and huge paws.<\/p>\n

She actually referred to me as a “homely little mutt.”<\/p>\n

Then I started getting compliments from people who saw my photos. Mary Lynn of The Writers Center<\/a> said, “She’s beautiful! Look at those eyes.” Cathy knew the Lynns when she lived in Silver City<\/a>, New Mexico. They taught her a lot about writing. They seem nice, for cat people.<\/p>\n

And total strangers said, “What a cute dog.” Or even, “She’s gorgeous.”<\/p>\n

Cathy’s attention perked up when several different people said, “Now there’s a dog who looks like a real dog.”<\/p>\n

Huh?<\/p>\n

Cathy has always been fascinated by social psychology, so she remembered prototype theory<\/a>. When we think of categories, we tend to identify prototypes associated with that category. A robin is the protoype\"the for “bird.” The more an object looks like a robin, the more we’ll categorize it as a bird.<\/p>\n

And the more a dog looks like me, the more it’s a dog, right? Hmm…what about those furry little mops who entertain me at the dog park? Or those Great Danes who look a lot like horses?<\/p>\n

One thing’s for sure: Nobody would ever confuse me with a cat.<\/p>\n

And I’ll take my compliments where I can get them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When Cathy adopted me, she had trouble seeing me as the magnificent Canine Urban Princess (CUPPIE) I am. She was so accustomed to her First Dog, Keesha, a keeshond-chow mix with fuzzy hair, pointy ears and huge paws. She actually referred to me as a “homely little mutt.” Then I started getting compliments from people … Continue reading Prototype of a Midlife Dog<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3,39],"tags":[5,147],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/midlifedog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/midlifedog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/midlifedog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/midlifedog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/midlifedog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/midlifedog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/midlifedog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/midlifedog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/midlifedog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}