Pet Monologues

And the envelope please…

Best in show! first beagle in 132 dog shows!

uno

How it works…
The Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show is among the world’s most prestigious ”conformation” shows, meaning dogs are judged by how closely they conform to breed standards of build and appearance.

To qualify, dogs must have won an American Kennel Club title.

To do that, they compete in dozens of local, regional and national AKC-sanctioned shows a year, earning points.

Dogs compete in seven groups—herding, working, sporting, non-sporting, toy, hound and terrier—all of which encompass many breeds.

That’s the first level of competition.

Best of Breed winners then compete against each other for Best of Group. The seven Best of Group winners go on to compete for the coveted Best in Show title.

Best of Opposite Sex is awarded only at the Best of Breed level, and that dog does not advance. For example, if the best Labrador Retriever is a male, the most outstanding Labrador female would win Best of Opposite Sex.

Judges are also free to give Awards of Merit to worthy dogs at the Best of Breed level.

Winner information
Ch K-Run’s Park Me In First (aka “Uno”)
Breed: Beagle, 15 In.
Sex: Dog
AKC: HP 16966001
Date of Birth: May 05, 2005
Breeder: Kathy Weichert & Leah Bertagnolli
Sire: Ch Windkist A Walk In The Park
Dam: Ch Legacy’s Lil Secret At K-Run
Owner: Caroline Dowell & Eddie Dziuk & Jon Woodring & Kathy Weichert
Photos: Breed judging / Group judging Read the rest of this entry »

Holiday shopping. Here come the animal products!

Life size mice are ready for a good game of cat and mouse. Hand stitched in designer wools, cottons and faux furs, each mouse is deliciously stuffed with certified organic catnip and fattened with poly-fill. 12 different fabrics and colors to decorate your floor.

Designed by and seen at Itchy Knee

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 Chicago artist who does animal portraits and murals.

Portrait: Cat#29

Mural: Zebras

Animal art: fine art portraits in acrylic latex. Each piece is a “close-up” likeness focusing on distinct markings or characteristics unique to the subject; freckles, fur patterns, scars, eye color, etc. Matthew likes to say that “these are portraits of your animal the way you see them first thing in the morning as you open your eyes.” Also, murals featuring superb trompe l’oeil with a specialization in figurative work as well as landscapes, whimsy and fantasy.

Source: Matthew Owens © Copyright 2007 by Matthew Owens

This post was placed in response to the World Animal Day 2008 initiative. All images can be seen at Bless Animals.

Hair ye, hair ye.

Something you don’t see often—a fur-free guinea pig.

The “Skinny Pig” was created for lab testing in the 1970s but is now the UK’s must-have pet.


Woolly jumper—the animals need to wrap up in winter

The baldies must wear factor 50 suncream in the summer, a jumper in the winter and need their dry skin moisturized. They also eat three times more than standard guinea pigs to keep warm. Breeders have set up waiting lists to meet demand as desperate pet lovers pay up to £150 ($214US).

What’s the fuzz?

Source: A mermaid! Thanks Fishalicious!

October is adopt a shelter dog month.

ASPCA’s message this month is “Think Globally, Adopt Locally.” They encourage people who are considering adding a four legged barking buddy to their family to adopt from their local shelter. And, if you do bring a new friend home, they also have tips that will help make the transition go smoothly for you and your new dog. Here are some of their tips…

1. You Better Shop Around
Stock up on supplies before Fido arrives! Your new pal won’t need much—the Burberry overcoat and crystal tiara are optional—but essentials include food and water bowls, safe chew toys, grooming tools, a collar and leash, an identification tag and a crate with bedding (towels will do if you don’t want to spend money on a fancy crate pad).

When it comes to food, try to buy the same brand he’s already eating. If you want to change foods, make the switch gradually, mixing old food with new, over a period of a few weeks. 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 »

This must be “fix the blog” week. PM is having site maintenance issues. Here is a 13 item laundry list to boost your blog from Samantha and Tigger over at Life from a cat’s perspective. But first, to preface this next post a little terminology should be clarified. For example, what is a “meme”? Urban Dictionary offers this definition along with some others:

Meme (a noun):
1 : an idea, belief or belief system, or pattern of behavior that spreads throughout a culture either vertically by cultural inheritance (as by parents to children) or horizontally by cultural acquisition (as by peers, information media, and entertainment media)

2 : a pervasive thought or thought pattern that replicates itself via cultural means; a parasitic code, a virus of the mind especially contagious to children and the impressionable

3 : the fundamental unit of information, analogous to the gene in emerging evolutionary theory of culture
- meme pool (n.) : all memes of a culture or individual
- memetic (adj.) : relating to memes
- memetics (n.) : the study of memes

4 : in ‘blogspeak,” an idea that is spread from blog to blog Read the rest of this entry »

Ever wonder why some dogs need haircuts? Why some leave a trail of lost hair behind them? Why people are allergic to certain breeds of dogs and most cats? A common belief is that some animals have hair, non-shedding, while others have fur, the shedders and allergy bombs.

All mammals have some sort of hair covering some, much, or virtually all of their bodies. The hair on some animals is known as fur, but it’s all the same no matter the name. Hair is made of the protein keratin and dead epidermal, or skin, cells and it grows from follicles in the inner layer of the skin. Human follicles each give rise to a single hair, but animals that depend on fur coats for temperature regulation often has several or many hairs per follicle. The diameter of individual hairs decreases as the number of hairs per follicle increases. Each follicle has an oil gland to keep skin and hair smooth. Dog breeds developed to work in water generally have high oil content in their coats so that water runs off hair and does not penetrate to the skin. Read the rest of this entry »

There’s a relatively new pet-food product out: an organic yogurt treat for dogs. Let’s unofficially include cats too. After all, we did our research before posting this product. Is it good for people? Probably, in small doses. Talk about bait and switch!

It’s inspired by people food and organic ingredients. The packaging is hip. Somewhere on this blog someone said our pets eat better than we do. In some cases that is absolutely true!

More information on yogurt for your dog and cat:

Good Bacteria: Yogurt and Kefir

One common homeopathic dog nutritional supplement is yogurt. It contains “good” bacteria, which can aid in digestion and help keep your dog’s digestive system clean and functioning optimally. Read the rest of this entry »

Minks freed from cages, farmers give chase.

HELSINKI (Reuters)—Farmers and other locals were chasing thousands of minks let out of their cages at a fur farm in western Finland early on Friday by suspected animal rights activists. Read the rest of this entry »