Pet Monologues

I recently found a site that was both fun and very provocative on many levels. Don’t assume I have come to any conclusions at this point but here is the link. Then read the rest of this article. Please! http://www.grumpybumpers.com/dogs

Coincidently, this past week I’ve had many dog encounters of a hybrid kind. Not the extraterrestrial kind. I don’t mean mutts or mongrels either.

The hybrids I refer to is a labradoodle, a bossi-poo, a foodle, an Irish-doodle. The poodle hybrids are endless. Well they are smart and don’t shed.

But there are others: The bug, the boxador, the dorkie (a person?), and so on. I saw a rather cool looking dog, a cross between a lab and a dalmation, but I didn’t have a camera or a pencil to record look and name. I hope I see dog and owner again this weekend. Read the rest of this entry »

Here is a thoughtful and compassionate article by Sarah Hartwell with regard to cats. Dogs, birds, elephants, horses, many animals for that matter, experience these feelings. Knowlege of the grieving process puts us in better touch with feelings, a good thing.

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When a cat dies, owners often notice behavioral changes in their remaining cats. Some of these are due to adapting to a changed hierarchy, but other behavioral changes are due to a sense of loss. Many cats grieve the loss of a close human companion and others show signs of loss when a canine companion ides or goes missing.

It is impossible to say exactly what emotions cats feel, but when a close companion goes missing they are certainly be aware of the absence. It is unlikely that they mourn in the human sense of the word, but there will be some behavioral changes as they adjust to the gap in their lives.

What is grief?

Grief is the result of abrupt or unexpected severing of attachment. Cats are aware that a familiar person or companion cat is absent and may search for that person or cat. The death or absence may change an established hierarchy as well as being the absence of a familiar companion. While this is not the ritualised grief of humans, the sudden absence of something familiar is distressing to many cats. Mother cats whose kittens were taken away and destroyed often looked for their kittens for many days, all the while pacing and crying out. As well as the physical pain of engorged mammary glands, the cats displayed mental pain. Read the rest of this entry »

From a lead role as Eve’s tempter in the Bible to regular appearances in the Harry Potter books and movies, snakes have slithered their way into world mythology and popular culture with tales born of fear as well as respect.

The Cottonmouth snake is also called the Water Moccasin.

In the more than 130 million years since they appeared, snakes have evolved into a highly versatile vertebrate, boasting the ability to climb straight up, dart through water and, in some species, even fly—all without limbs. Combine this mobility with a worldwide presence and a sometimes-deadly bite, and snakes can quickly become the stuff of myths.

In this article, we’ll shed some of their mystique. You’ll learn how snakes get around, how they kill and eat their prey, and how they court and reproduce, making note of some fascinating species along the way. Read the rest of this entry »

Court rules against Bush administration in global warming case.

Federal Judge Orders Production of Suppressed Scientific Reports on Global Warming Impacts< Read the rest of this entry »

Kempthorne awarded rubber dodo.

On Friday, August 24, Center for Biological Diversity awarded the first annual Rubber Dodo Award to Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne in recognition of his one year and 90 days in office without listing a single new species as threatened or endangered. That’s a record. Read the rest of this entry »

Imagine returning to your home after a long vacation. You pick up your pets from the kennel, unload your luggage and head to bed to recover from the long drive. But your sleep is anything but restful. All night, you’re plagued by tiny pinpricks and incessant itching. It doesn’t take you long to figure out that you’re being attacked by a seemingly infinite mob of hungry fleas.

An Adult Flea
Photo courtesy CDC/Vector Ecology & Control Laboratory, Fort Collins, Colo.

What happened? Did your pets pick up an infestation at the kennel? Did the vampire-like insects hitch a ride on your luggage? Or did a swarm of them decide to move in while you were gone?

It’s a creepy idea, but the most likely answer is that the fleas were waiting for you. Fleas are parasites—or life forms that feed on hosts—often harming the host in some way. Fleas use their hosts’ blood as food. They generally prefer the blood of four-legged animals to human blood, so before you went on vacation, the fleas fed on your pets, not on you.

Although newly emerged fleas need to find food within a few days, adults can go for a couple of months without a meal. Flea pupae can also stay in their cocoons for up to a year, waiting to sense the body heat and vibrations that signal the presence of nearby hosts. So when you go on vacation, the fleas don’t starve to death — they simply wait for you and your pets to come back. Read the rest of this entry »

by Odessa (?)

Hi my Friend,

Oreo, I’m so sad to have to tell you this: Barney, one of our pet apple snails, died this Christmas eve. We were all very sad. Mom even cried. Barney and Mom were very close you know.

After Mom removed Barney from her home aquarium and put her to rest, Mom dried her eyes, pulled up a chair and started to tell us all about Barney’s life.

It was not a sad story Mom told us, Oreo, and it wasn’t not only about Barney’s life. This story of Barney’s life could be the story of millions of other pet apple snail lives all rolled into one story. I decided that I wanted to shareher story with you Oreo as I know you will be as interested init as I and my mates were.

Barney’s life was not at all like our lives. Barney was an amphibious snail. Where as you and I will live all our life on dry land, amphibious snails like Barney live their lives in water but they must come up to the surface of their aquariums, streams or ponds to breathe. They also lay their eggs just above the water’s surface. The rest of the time they spend under water. Read the rest of this entry »

Dead pets for sale.

(ARCHIVE) Remember being aghast to find your pet goldfish mysteriously floating upside down in a fishbowl? Or cringing at the sight of your cat mashed along the roadside? Read the rest of this entry »

Iberian Lynx Confronts Extinction With Help From Humans

Dawn M. Smith

Captive breeding and prey base restoration being used to aid recovery but loss of habitat and human interaction issues need to be addressed for lynx to stay in the wild.

The Iberian lynx (Lynx pardinus) has been named the most endangered wild cat by the IUCN. It is feared that it may become the first wild cat to go extinct in nearly 2000 years. In a strange twist of fate, the loss of a common animal, the rabbit, has been a major contributing factor to the decline of the species. But habitat fragmentation also plays an important role, as does harassment by humans. Steps to recover the species include a captive breeding program, a rabbit population restoration project, public education programs and creation of reserves where Iberian lynx are protected. Read the rest of this entry »

CAPE MAY, N.J. - Cats versus birds in this town. Cats are as much a part of this seaside town’s genteel culture as rainbow-colored Victorian bed-and-breakfasts, trolley tours and cocktails on the porch at sunset.

They’re also suspect No. 1 in many deaths of the endangered piping plover, a fist-size, white-and-brown fuzzball of a bird that has closed beaches and stopped development projects in the interest of protecting its habitat. Read the rest of this entry »