Tag: rescue

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Happy New Year!

I hope everyone had wonderful holidays!  I wish you and yours all the best in 2013.  My main hope for the coming year is for progress on animal welfare issues in developing countries and in areas with severe poverty.    There are signs of hope in some places.  Egyptian Society for Mercy in Egypt, Rudozem Street Dog Rescue in Bulgaria, Rez Dog Rescue in the Yakima Valley of Washington State.

My plans for the New Year are fairly simple:

  • I want to add a second walk for Saffron per day to the one looong walk she already gets—good for both of us!  MapMyWalk is my favorite tool for finding out how far we walk.
  • I’m going to get more DIY projects done for the furred ones.  I’m currently working on a cute, red raincoat for Saffron based on this DIY Doggie Raincoat.  She looks like Little Red Riding Hood.
  • I also need to do more to enrich our cats’ lives.  More playtime and more places for them to perch around our house.

We hope you all have a happy, healthy, & prosperous year!

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Friday Fun: Shih Tzu Rescued From Rocks

Not exactly fun, but a very happy ending.  Long distance paddle boarder, Charlie Head, spotted the little Shih Tzu stranded on rocks by the incoming tide.  Charlie interrupted his attempt at a 600 mile row from Cornwall to London to rescue the very lucky pup.  No one on shore was aware the dog was out there.

Many dog owners seem to think their dogs don’t need to be kept safe around water.  However, even the strongest swimmer is no match for rip tides and any dog will eventually tire & drown in just calm water.

Hypothermia is probably the biggest threat to a dog’s safety in water.  A dog’s coat loses its ability to insulate well when wet.  The water doesn’t need to be extremely cold for hypothermia to set in.  Temperatures that would be fine on land can be deadly in water.

A water temperature of 10 °C (50 °F) often leads to death in one hour, and water temperatures hovering at freezing can lead to death in as little as 15 minutes…Water at a temperature of 26 °C (79 °F) will, after prolonged exposure, lead to hypothermia.

Get your dog a good life jacket!  One that is secure and keeps their head above water—not all of them are good.  I’ve posted previously about our favorite life jacket.

http://youtu.be/0vDjItZhUw4

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News Bites: Dog, Parasite, Parrot, DNA, Europe’s Shame

Dog rescued after 8 days at 13,000 ft. on a mountain peak in Colorado.  The guys who rescued her were strangers to each other and to the dog, but they weren’t going to let her die up there.  There’s a custody battle now between her rescuers and her owner, who came forward.

 

Toxoplasma gondii even creepier than previously thought.  Here’s a really good article on a study that shows Toxoplasma infection is linked to increased risk of violent, successful suicide in women.  Scientists already knew it caused birth defects, changed behavior in rats, can make us neurotic, & increase risk of schizophrenia in children born to infected mothers.  Cats usually become infected by eating animals they kill, so here’s another reason not to let your cats roam!

 

Clever bird!  Study shows African grey parrots demonstrate a level of abstract, inferential reasoning equal to 3 yr.old humans and previously only seen in primates.

 

New genetic test can tell you if your kitty descended from cats in the Middle East or 7 other regions or if she’s really purebred.  If your cat is really mixed breed, this test won’t show whether she’s part Siamese or something.  It will only work if one of her parents was purebred.

 

Disgusting!  In Europe, every summer means thousands of abandoned pets.  What the hell?  I knew Europeans took long vacations in summer.  I didn’t know that so many ditched their pets before they went.

…every summer an estimated 100,000 domestic animals are abandoned in France by owners who say they are unable to take them along or find someone to look after them.

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Podcast Episode 112: Bart & Sadie

This podcast was actually recorded last year, so I’ll be doing an update on Bart and Sadie soon.  They’re doing great!  Happily we all were wrong about how big they’d be and it looks like they’ll stay under 50 lbs.  A much more easily managed size when there are 2 of them!  Here’s what Bart & Sadie  looked like at New Years.

Click below to play.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

You can listen to it here and or on iTunes.  We also have an RSS feed you can subscribe to if you use an RSS reader.

 

Be sure to check out these topics mentioned in the podcast:

 

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Friday Fun: Cat Rescued After 4 Days In A Tree

When Anthony Flannery learned of a cat that had been stuck in a tree at least 4 days during flooding and severe weather, he immediately went to rescue her.  This meant climbing a crazy tall, spindly tree and sawing the trunk she was on to rescue her.  Keena is a very lucky cat whom he’s been taking care of ever since, though she does need to be adopted.

Anthony is one of those people who gives me hope for the world.  Not only does he go to great lengths to save this kitty, he also has a world view I really admire.  He’s a man of faith, but doesn’t believe anyone should push their beliefs on someone else, he believes there’s answers to the world’s problems in technology and in working together, and that if we changed our spending priorities, we’d have a better world.  He also actively supports animal rescue groups in his community, including building a cat house for one.  AND he’s a musician—the music playing during the video is his own song, which you can download.  What a nice guy!

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