Pet Monologues

Pet owners can be buried with pets.

MERRILLVILLE, IN―A growing number of funeral homes and cemeteries are offering burial and cremation services for animals to help bereaved pet owners cope with their loss. Read the rest of this entry »

PM just received a request from “Animals as Friends” to raise awareness of a troublesome issue. The killing of animals for money. Possibly people are killed too. The troubled location is the Virunga National Park, Africa.

Please take the time to visit Animals as Friends as well as spread the word, offer advice, or more. Thank you.

This post celebrates World Animal Day and Bless the Animals. Follow the links to learn more about PM’s initiative which started on October 4.

Here is a story by Stu Bykofsky, columnist with the Philadelphia Daily News

I am an elephant.

I was not born for your amusement any more than you were born for mine.

If you see me in the zoo, and especially in the circus, which arrived here yesterday, I am not there willingly.

I was kidnapped and carried far, far away from my home and my family. I might have been an adult, but was more likely a baby when captured. Some “brave” hunter might have killed my mother—who could be dangerous—and sold me to a zoo or circus as an orphan.

Elephants have large families, as you may know, each headed by a female. When a female is born into the family herd, she never leaves.

Closely and happily, we travel together, eat together, play together, rest together. For elephants, every herd is a “village” in which the baby is cared for by its mother, and her sisters, and her mother. Being connected to family is as much a part of our being as our floppy ears. It harms us to be separated from our family. Can you understand that? Read the rest of this entry »

Older than us?

George Mackenzie Dunnet was a well-known Scottish ornithologist who passed away in 1995, aged 67. The photograph that accompanies his obituary shows a timeworn face, mostly bald head and grey locks clinging to temples. However, his sense of fun survives—literally.

Throughout his life George studied fulmars on Eynhallow in the Orkney Islands.He had his picture taken in 1951 holding a ringed fulmar when he was a young man and, by great coincidence, had it taken again 30 years later with the same bird. Personal vanity was brushed aside in his admiration for the fulmar’s unchanged looks.

Meanwhile, the bird lives on. It is a sobering thought that, when ringed, it was already a mature breeding adult making its true age a mystery.

Unlike humans, birds do not go grey or develop wrinkles. If their outward appearance does not change, how can we tell their age? In most cases ringing provides data on lifespan and longevity. Natural clues to the precise age of a bird are few and only serve to chart survival into adulthood—not beyond. Small birds replace distinctive juvenile plumage with that of an adult within months of being born. After this, their looks do not alter. Larger birds take several years to reach maturity during which time they grow progressively more adult-like feathers. Brown juvenile gannets acquire white plumage resembling their parents’ through a series of moults over a five-year period. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted by Deanna—For the Love of the Dog

Mary and her husband Jim had a dog named ‘Lucky.’ Lucky was a real character. Whenever Mary and Jim had company come for a weekend visit they would warn their friends to not leave their luggage open because Lucky would help himself to whatever struck his fancy. Inevitably, someone would forget and something would come up missing.Mary or Jim would go to Lucky’s toy box in the basement and there the treasure would be, amid all of Lucky’s other favorite toys.

Lucky always stashed his finds in his toy box and he was very particular that his toys stay in the box.

It happened that Mary found out she had breast cancer. Something told her she was going to die of this disease….in fact, she was just sure it was fatal.

She scheduled the double mastectomy, fear riding her shoulders.

The night before she was to go to the hospital she cuddled with Lucky.

A thought struck her…what would happen to Lucky? Although the three-year-old dog liked Jim, he was Mary’s dog through and through. “If I die, Lucky will be abandoned,” Mary thought. “He won’t understand that I didn’t want to leave him.” Read the rest of this entry »

Chapter 9: The stories that nourish a newspaper.
By John Armstrong

[This is the ninth of 14 excerpts, running Tuesdays and Thursdays, from John Armstrong's memoir of the working life: Wages.]

When a cement truck lost its brakes on a hill and ploughed through someone’s backyard, you needed the parents and relatives of the dead and wounded, the name of the driver, the owner of the company, the neighbours (to fill out the background and describe the terror they faced daily with Big Trucks roaring though their neighbourhood) and someone from government licensing to comment on why he and his department hadn’t checked this truck’s brakes.

It was also important to get the Opposition critic for that department who would describe how the government had failed so tragically in this case, despite his repeated warnings that such a disaster was coming, and how his party would do things differently if they were in office….

The same was true of any local tragedy whether it was the man who hacked up his wife and mailed her postage due to her parents or an immigrant woman who spoke and read no English and bled to death in the emergency room because she couldn’t fill out the admittance papers. Read the rest of this entry »

I found during the past 18 months there were six deaths from dogs being dragged to death. Few were accidents and I have been hesitant to post these stories. Just too darn sad and maddening. And when I do see pets, animals, children, sitting in the back of a pickup truck, it makes me very uncomfortable. I don’t think anything should be back there that cannot survive a rollover, a sudden stop. And yet, the dead dogs were leashed to the vehicles and your dog, Jackson, was not.

And then this story! Count your blessings!!!

The story…

Well, one of my worst fears took place yesterday afternoon. Jackson fell out of the truck. Read the rest of this entry »

The HSUS releases list of best and worst state dogfighting laws.

Idaho, Wyoming, Georgia, Nevada and Hawaii ranked worst. New Jersey, Alabama, Colorado, Mississippi and Arizona ranked the best. Read the rest of this entry »

Warning: though there is a bit of humor in this discussion, this is not a joke. Recklessness can cause injury, even death. Be responsible. Opinions and recommendations should be documented. PM does not endorse nor recommend anything other than the art of conversation.

“At least two thirds of domestic cats “enjoy” the effects of Nepeta, a.k.a. “catnip.” But do they enjoy it enough? If humans were able to isolate the active ingredient in catnip, could we not use it to become omnipowerful CATGODS? Imagine the possibilities! What fool wouldn’t want their own personal cat army? A massive fuzzy force with which to execute your every bidding? A united, unquestioning militia that requires nothing other than unfettered access to the super-powerful catnip products that give their adorable cuddly lives meaning.”— theinstructables.com Read the rest of this entry »

Today is National Pet Memorial Day, a day for us to remember all of the beautiful pet friends we have loved and lost.

Unfortunately, when someone loses a pet, they may hear things such as “it was just a dog” …. “go get a new one” … “it’s not like it was a family member that died.”
The thing is, for many of us when we lose a pet, it is indeed a family member that dies…a very loved family member. These wonderful, loved beings are certainly never “just a pet.” This is true whether we are talking about a cat, dog, bird, rabbit, reptile, or some other type of animal.

The grief that comes with that loss can be just as strong as if it were a human family member - sometimes even stronger. With the loss a pet, a very real, very important bond has been severed and like other live changing events, it can be extremely painful. Those who dismiss the grief, simply do not understand the strong bond between people and their pets. It’s a shame too, really…because it means they will never know the depth of love that we experience every day with our pets.

Regardless of what others may say, it is definitely okay to grieve when we lose a beloved pet! And it’s also okay to seek out people who understand the pain and will allow each other to grieve for the pet. There are websites, and other resources for people to turn to when they need help getting through the loss. Many of them have chat rooms or bulletin boards, memorial pages, inspirational reading, and suggestions for books or real life resources in cities throughout the country. These resources allow people to grieve for their pets in their own way.

So, today when we think of the pets we have lost, we can honor each of them by remembering how rich our lives have been because of the bond, the love, and affection that we had with them. And even though there is pain when we lose our beautiful pet friends, we are extremely fortunate to be pet people!

Source: petsitusa.com