Hoodie Hound

The weather in Dorset brightened considerably yesterday, though it was still very cold with a cutting north wind, so we went down to Charmouth for a wander along the famous fossil beach. Where I saw the spectacle above. If I had to nominate my weirdest Christmas moment, this would have to be it.

The "uncanny" is a psychological condition classically defined as "doubts whether an apparently animate being is really alive; or conversely, whether a lifeless object might be, in fact, animate", leading to a disturbing, temporary "cognitive dissonance" in the observer. Colloquially, though, I think it can be said that any cognitively-dissonant event is uncanny when the brain is briefly locked into a "WTF state" (i.e. "What the Freud is THAT??"). I had a serious dose of the uncanny seeing that shamanic, dog-headed woman simultaneously staring at me while picking over the pebbles in her fancy wellingtons. I'm slightly short-sighted these days but hate wearing my glasses, so it took me a few myopic seconds to determine that she was, in fact, wearing a hood that, yes, was also a dog's head. Luckily, for once I had the presence of mind to raise the camera and press the button before she raised her head and spoiled the effect.

So I wonder where I might get one of those? I can think of a few people I'd enjoy treating to an uncanny moment or two... Woof!

Charmouth Beach