Great Pet Net

Photo of Mica by Kallo39 on Flickr

Photo titled Circle Of Life by Nailbender on Flickr.

Photo by NewLeaf on Flickr.

try this! Looks like it feels good!

Jim Hightower blogs about a building innovation: POOPING IN LUXURY. Excerpts below.

Austin is to be the first city in the nation to have a high-rise luxury condo building featuring a 10th floor dog park with – get this – a scented, self-cleaning doggie toilet!!

This automated pooch poop potty consists of an 18-square-inch, stainless steel plate that is scented with a chemical aroma that attracts dogs needing to do their business. I don’t know exactly what that aroma is – but I don’t really want to know. When a dog does his thing on the steel plate, the pet owner simply hits a specially-issued electronic fob and – zzzzzzt – a scraper slides across to deposit the poop into a flush system.

The designer of this wondrous new canine pooper scooper thinks it’ll be a big selling point for the 55-story condo, where units start at half-a-million bucks and rise toward $4 million. He notes that “Owners of condominiums don’t want to walk around with a bag in their hands.”

This is a sweet story that any animal lover will appreciate. The author is unknown.

Being a veterinarian, I had been called to examine a ten-year old Irish Wolfhound named Belker. The dog’s owners, Ron, his wife, Lisa, and their little boy, Shane, were all very attached to Belker and they were hoping for a miracle. I examined Belker and found he was dying of cancer. I told the family we couldn’t do anything for Belker, and offered to perform the euthanasia procedure for the old dog in their home. As we made arrangements, Ron and Lisa told me they thought it would be good for the four-year old Shane to observe the procedure. They felt as though Shane might learn something from the experience. The next day, I felt the familiar catch in my throat as Belker’s family surrounded him. Shane seemed so calm, petting the old dog for the last time, that I wondered if he understood what was going on. Within a few minutes, Belker slipped peacefully away. The little boy seemed to accept Belker’s transition without any difficulty or confusion. We sat together for a while after Belker’s death, wondering aloud about the sad fact that animal lives are shorter than human lives. Shane, who had been listening quietly, piped up, “I know why.” Startled, we all turned to him. What came out of his mouth next stunned me. I’d never heard a more comforting explanation. He said, “People are born so that they can learn how to live a good life - like loving everybody all the time and being nice, right?” The four- year-old continued, “Well, dogs already know how to do that, so they don’t have to stay as long.”

Photo of her loyal friend Chance posted on Flickr by Just2Peachy.

The Rolling Dog Ranch Animal Sanctuary in Montana rescues and shelters disabled animals. Every animal who arrives at the sanctuary gets another chance to have a safe and loving home. Our residents include blind dogs, blind horses, deaf dogs, blind cats, and others with medical issues like muscular dystrophy.

Below are excerpts from a story and video from their blog about rescuing a blind puppy.

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Irene’s cats, Zoe and Phoebe, remind me of super models: beautiful, skinny, lots of attitude.

You can see more photos of Zoe and Phoebe at her site on Flickr.

From The Daily Kitten:

Tao is one of three kittens in a foster home for Project Pet in Columbia, South Carolina, USA. She’s the smallest and the smartest - she purred first and is walking the best. She’s very curious and will be quite a handful when she is able to get out of the nest.

Photo by The Mighty Jimbo on Flickr