If you love nice pet products but tend to stick with the discount variety, you might want to check out the Spring Cleaning Sale at Drs. Foster & Smith. Click on the coupons below for discounts.
You can’t make this stuff up, people. News started coming out this morning about an elderly couple living in a triple-wide trailer (do they even MAKE those?) with between 700 and 800 small dogs and about 80 parrots. The dogs were mostly Chihuahuas, Chinese cresteds, Lhasa apsos, Pomeranians, and and terriers. Neighbors said that the couple bred dogs to find homes for them, but apparently they neglected to follow through with the second part of that equation. According to a spokesperson from the Humane Society of Southern Arizona, a number of dogs were pregnant and gave birth while being transported to the shelter.
Despite the absolutely squalid conditions — think of how much poop just ONE dog produces, and then multiply by 800 — the majority of the dogs were in excellent shape. Neighbors reported seeing an Iams delivery truck visiting the home at least once a month, so apparently they were relatively well fed. Some dogs were missing paws, supposedly from either being attacked by other animals or getting stuck in nearby fencing, but only three dogs were found dead on the premises. One report that I can’t locate online stated that one of the dead dogs was a puppy and the other two were adults, but I cannot find a link to confirm.
Authorities stated that this was more than double the number of any other seizure in the state of Arizona. The couple, whom some reports have named as a Mr. and Mrs. Jones and others have reported have not yet been identified, will likely not be charge with anything other than neglect. They are cooperating with authorities.
Area animal shelters that were already full are attempting to accommodate the nearly 800 dogs along with 80+ parrots, which also seemed to be in largely healthy condition. Another report that I cannot confirm at this time stated that the couple is hoping to recover 12 or 18 of the parrots and none of the dogs.
The dogs will be offered for adoption as soon as they can be checked over by shelter staff for illness and injury. The Humane Society is currently accepting monetary donations and donations of crates, food, and other supplies to care for the animals.
Do you have more info? Leave a comment with a link.
I think I may never leave Pickles outside alone again after reading this article. The short version is that a 15-foot python stalked and then devoured a Chihuahua in Australia earlier this week, while the family’s 5- and 7-year-old watched in terror. I’ll spare you the photo, but for those who are interested, you can view it here. But seriously, it’s gross and pretty horrifying, so use your judgment.
You may be thinking, "Well, what could they have done?" And if we’re talking about the children, the answer is, "Nothing."
But the article explicitly states that the snake was hunting the dog for days and that they saw the snake in the dog’s bed. And yet, rather than protecting the dog, maybe keeping it inside or walking it somewhere else, the owners let it out with two small children knowing full well that a hungry15-foot-long snake was in the neighborhood and jonesing for a Chihuahua fix. Oh, good idea, people. Just brilliant. You realize that you killed your dog, right?
In a video filmed at the zoo where the snake was taken after being removed from the family’s home, you can see exactly how big it was, and you can also see that it is still digesting its last meal.
Because yes, now that we can film everything that happens all day we do, here is Pickles with her limited repertoire tricks. See how she does almost everything with hand signals? That’s all me, baby. I rock at training my dog. Just her, though. The other two couldn’t care less about rolling over or even sitting. Oh well. At least I have one talented child, right?
The secret to training Pickles is threefold:
Incessant repetition.
Lots of patience
An endless supply of treats.
No, really. But probably the best thing we have done with training her is to build on thing she does naturally. Every time she laid down, for instance, we threw a party. "Good girl, Pickles! Down! Good girl! Good down! Yay, Pickles! Down! Good girl!" Same with speaking (it helped when we barked, too, to get her started), sitting, and high-fiving. Rolling over was a little trickier because it necessitated basically yanking her legs out from under her and flipping her manually for a while, but she picked it up fast.
What should we teach her next? Leave your suggestions in the comments.
NB: Although I don’t generally advocate writing for free, I do encourage all people to volunteer their talents to help favorite causes and organizations when they feel so inclined. It’s in that spirit that I post this ad, courtesy of renegade writer Linda Formichelli. -kk
Company: Creative Professionals for Animal Welfare (creativePAW)
Job Title: Volunteer Writers, PR People, and other Creative Professionals
Description: This is a volunteer opportunity at Creative Professionals for Animal Welfare (creativePAW). creativePAW’s mission is to help animal welfare organizations find creative professionals (such as writers, editors, proofreaders, graphic designers, web designers, videographers, PR people, and illustrators) who are willing to do volunteer work to help with the orgs’ marketing, education, fundraising, and PR efforts.
Please check out the site and join the database…it’s free (of course) and simple, and you can choose to take on only the volunteer work you have time for. You don’t have to worry about spam if you join the database, as animal welfare orgs have to join and be approved before they can search the database.
I’m thrilled that I announced the site in mid-February and we have more than 90 volunteers already! However, the animal welfare orgs are flowing in so we need even more volunteers.
According to the Humane Society of the United States, a homeless companion animal is euthanized every eight seconds in the U.S. creativePAW’s mission is to help animal welfare organizations publicize their causes and educate the public about homeless pet issues. So please, sign up and get involved! Also, please do pass this message along to other creative types you know.
…but they sure hated the present she brought! Check it out as Murphy and Ty make their YouTube debut (and here’s Pickles’ first appearance on YouTube, featuring Isabel).
Well, if this isn’t irony, I don’t know what is. I came home from being gone maybe an hour, and found the house in utter disarray.
Now, before I get into the details, it’s important to point out that with as well as things have been going since Bark Busters came, we’ve started leaving the dogs loose in the house when we’re gone for short periods of time. Aside from a few garbage can incidents, it’s been mostly successful. Until yesterday.
Something felt a little…off when I walked in. Then, I saw the new phone book. Or, rather, what was left of the new phone book. We’d dropped it on the coffee table and forgotten about it, but the dogs didn’t! Parts of the alphabet were strewn all over the house, with a big shredded pile still attached to the binding. Bye-bye, phone book!
It wasn’t until I began picking up G-J that I realized that something else was in the pile. I started finding broken glass and wood splinters. And then I discovered our “family photo” amid the debris: me, Jesse, and the three dogs.
They stole a wrapped present out of a bag in the dining room, unwrapped it, and procecded to utterly destroy a framed photo of themselves. Except, the picture was unharmed, just a little slobbery. Awesome.
Even more awesome was that as I swept up the mess, I started finding huge splotches of blood all over the floor. A careful examination of everyone’s paws failed to reveal who the bleeder was. It wasn’t until I separated everyone during the cleaning efforts that I finally discovered who it was: Pickles, as evidenced by the blood spots all over the white carpet in my office, where she was confined. Did I mention that it was awesome? She is fine, by the way.
In Murphy’s defense, I don’t think he worked alone. But now that we’ve stopped calling him “the life ruiner,” we’re back to referring to him as “Destructor.”
And here are a few other things they’ve destroyed recently. My favorite was the feather pillow. It looked like a duck exploded, and the best part was the feather stuck all over Murphy’s face.
This morning, I took Julius in for his alteration (sounds like he’s having a suit tailored, doesn’t it?) and through the glass door between the clinic and the animal shelter I saw a young couple with the Chihuahua I fell in love with on Monday. I set Julius down by the counter and approached them.
"Are you guys taking him?" I asked.
"Yes, we got here at 1 this morning to make sure we were the first ones in line," the girl told me.
Wow. They slept in their car during an ice storm to get this dog. That’s committment right there.
Watching him sit in her lap and seeing how much she loved him already and how comfortable he felt with her, I knew it was the right family for that dog. It made my morning.
Do you want a pet? Please adopt a shelter animal. They are so desperate for love, and they deserve a forever home.
Well, if this isn’t irony, I don’t know what is. I came home from being gone maybe an hour, and found the house in utter disarray.