Dogs
Riba, Samantha Seidlecki's research dog.
Spur, Pamela Martin's system administrator.
Darwin, Michael Foote's evolutionary theorist.
Rocky, gollum and guardian of the 3rd floor. "We wants it, we needs it. Must have the precious. They stole it from us. Sneaky little gradstudentsies. Wicked, tricksy, false!"
A number of canine friends are loyal members of the Department of the Geophysical Sciences.
• Riba - Small puggle (cross between pug and beagle; Beagle = name of ship, H.M.S. Beagle, that Sir Charles Darwin voyaged on) who likes fish and sweet potatoes for lunch. Riba has two advanced degrees from the Dogone Fun university in the South Loop area.
• Spur - Medium size McNab border collie, a mutt bred in Northern California for herding things, especially cattle (cattle = Artiodactyla). He is 2 1/2 years old; a third generation working dog (currently does system administration). He spent his first year on a ranch in California herding cattle but had a run of bad luck. So, he left "Sis" and "Bit" - his litter mates - behind and hit the rode East. He is still a working dog -- helps with cleaning the floors, waking professors to class, exercising departmental personnel (among other jobs). Spur is contemplating becoming a sled dog for polar research work. He is among the best frisbee dogs in Hyde Park, chases a tennis ball like no one's business, and enjoys playing goalie in street soccer. He can find a bone hidden ANYWHERE and is thus a natural taphonomist (taphonomy = study of death assemblages). He is NOT vegetarian, but rather is a clinical subject in a diet/greenhouse gas experiment.
• Darwin - A standard poodle of large size (size = morphological measure of nonzero dimensionality) who hails from New Berlin, Wisconsin and still longs for the cheese curds of that fine burg. Enjoys studying (or is it chasing?) finches, especially Geospiza. We love him, but he's not in charge.
• Rocky - (rocky = covered with scree or talus) Large black Labrador retriever. Guardian of elevators and hallways of the 3rd floor. Years of contact with ion probe has caused permanent changes.
