Pet Monologues

Hospital plans to unleash animal-assisted therapy.

Like other hospitals that have used animal-assisted therapy to help patients reduce stress and heal faster, Northwest Community Hospital is recruiting dogs and owners interested in volunteering for a new program expected to begin in August.

“The animals provide a unique dimension of care that is unlike any other therapy around,” said Diane Colville, manager of cardiopulmonary rehabilitation at the Arlington Heights hospital. Read the rest of this entry »

Animal lovers flock to Dallas. DALLAS, Tex. – The world’s largest educational conference and tradeshow for animal sheltering professionals, hosted by The Humane Society of the United States, brings more than 1,400 animal sheltering professionals from across the U.S. and many foreign countries to the Hyatt Regency Dallas at Reunion Arena. For more information.

Heide Winings warms raw ground beef in the microwave, throws in shredded carrots, cheese and a fried egg and serves breakfast to her four dogs that surround her panting and whining for a bite.

Like a growing number of pet owners, she feeds her dogs a natural diet that she figures costs up to $400 a month compared with the roughly $250 she spent before going raw.

Photo: Tribune Terry Harris

Winings’ approach is among several alternative pet diets that have attracted new followers since the massive recall of contaminated pet food blamed for the illness and death of thousands of cats and dogs.

“It’s a difference in how they enjoy the food,” said Winnings, 53, who lives in the Barrington enclave of Tower Lakes with her husband and two children. “They just love it. It’s the excitement of choices.”

Winings recalled people buying leftover bags of meat at the butcher shops in her native Germany and decided to give it a try four years ago. It was an instant hit. Read the rest of this entry »

Federal act: Big penalties for animal fighting. Update, April 11, 2007: Great news! Last night, the Senate unanimously passed the Animal Fighting Prohibition Enforcement Act! Now all that is left is for President Bush to sign the bill into law. Read the rest of this entry »

Snakin’ Google: python saga eerily reminiscent of Studio 60. Hooray, the kids at Google caught the giant python on the loose in their offices! Not a joke! There was a giant python on the loose in their offices! It turns out that after launching not one but two April Fool’s Day pranks, New York-based Googlers received an email warning them that “a 3-foot long, brown-and-grey ball python” had escaped from his owners cage and was lost somewhere in the office. [RK] Read the rest of this entry »

Worried owners cooking for pets. ATLANTA - Some worried pet owners are grinding up meat in their kitchens and making their own dog and cat food because of the contamination scare blamed for numerous animal deaths.

Sales of pet food recipe books have also shot up since the nationwide pet-food recall began two weeks ago. [RK] Read the rest of this entry »

New York couple taking cab to Arizona retirement. NEW YORK (AP) — Betty and Bob Matas have retired and are moving to Arizona, but like many New Yorkers they don’t drive, and they don’t want their cats to travel all that way in an airliner cargo hold.

Their solution: “Hey, cabbie.” [RK] Read the rest of this entry »

U.S. Coast Guard. HOUSTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Coast Guard plucked a man and his pet bird from a 75-foot (23-meter) tree on Tuesday evening after he became stranded while trying to coax the creature out of the branches. [RK] Read the rest of this entry »

Another pet food recall. COLUMBIA, S.C. - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration reports that at least 76 dogs nationwide are believed to have died as a result of eating contaminated Diamond Pet Foods. [RK] Read the rest of this entry »

Pet-Food Recall Over 40 brands of cat and dog food have been pulled from the shelves all over the U.S. Read the rest of this entry »