Kate dances!

Well, the good folks at JibJab have this nifty Interweb type thingie that lets you put yourself or loved ones into Christmas videos based on the movie "Elf."

Kate, being ever photogenic, is the star of the one I made. And there is a cameo by yours truly.

And, of course, you can buy stuff, including a downloadable version of the video to have and keep and bore all your friends with.

The JibJab people are extremely clever, don't you think?

500th post

It's been about a year and five months, but we've finally reached a milestone: 500 posts. Kate is taking it with her usual enthusiasm.

Here's the first one I did back on March 19, 2007.

I have a dog. Dogs are the superior pet. I’m sure others might take issue with that statement. But it’s a fact.

At least to me it is.

That said, this blog is here for you and me to talk about all kinds of pets: cats, ferrets, rabbits, fish, turtles, gerbils, you name it. Even dogs.

Let’s get the formalities out of the way. I’m a reporter for the Poughkeepsie Journal. My beat is covering the eastern part of Dutchess County. But enough about me. Let’s get to what’s important – and what brings us here.

My dog is named Kate. After Kate Hepburn. It’s the cheekbones. Kate is a (best guess) 12-year-old (even more of a guess) boxer/shepherd mix, who is (absolute certainty!) a sweetheart and the best dog in the whole wide world.

I know people have had pets as a part of their lives probably since the first time a caveman dropped a bit of roast mastodon on the ground and a wild four-footed furry creature snapped it up and wagged its tail in thanks.

But even after over 11 years of coexistence under a number of different roofs, I still look at my dog and marvel at the fact that I’m sharing my home with another species.

And another species that is entirely dependent on me. Some have said it’s like having a 2-year-old child who never grows up. I say it’s more like having a 2-year-old who never stops shedding.

The only thing that's changed is that I cover a different part of the county. Kate is still a bright spot in my life. I am blessed to be able to take care of her.

Eco Dog article in today's paper

Here's a link to the story I did on the book Eco Dog that is in the Life section of the Poughkeepsie Journal today.

It's all about me

Be sure and check out tomorrow's Life section in the Poughkeepsie Journal.

I've done an article about a book dealing with greening your dog, called Eco Dog: Healthy Living for Your Pet.

It was written by Catskill residents Corbett Marshall and Jim Deskevich.

I made one of the treat recipes for Kate and my editor Maria Burnham's Roland. They liked them.

I got your Furminator rules right here

Rules.

And in the column on the left.

Week 3 — Furminator give-away

You guys love give-aways. Thanks for all the e-mails and pictures.

Kate and I will be giving away two more of the grooming tools this week — one for a dog and one for a cat, ferret or rabbit.

No purchase is necessary. All you have to do is send an e-mail to me saying why you need the Furminator.

Please include your full name, a street address to which the Furminator will be shipped via Fedex by the Furminator people and a day-time phone number. Entries will not be accepted without this information.

Make sure you tell me whether you have a dog, cat, ferret or rabbit and give me the size Furminator you will be using.

Small Blue Tool — recommended for small- to medium-size dogs, cats, rabbits and ferrets
Purple Cat Tool — recommended for small- to medium-size cats
Medium Yellow Tool — recommended for medium- to large-size dogs
Large Yellow Tool — recommended for large dogs

Each person's name will be put into a hat for a drawing. Including a picture of your pet will get you an extra entry.

By sending an e-mail or picture, you have given me permission to use your comments and/or picture on my blog.

I will be choosing the next two recipients at random Tuesday (because of Memorial Day) at the crack of noon, so you have until then to send in your e-mails.

The Furminator company is generously supplying the grooming tools to recipients of the give-away. Neither the Poughkeepsie Journal nor I are receiving any compensation from the Furminator company. I bought my Furminator myself before I started blogging about it.

Big dogs, big hair problem

Maria from Lagrangeville has two Great Pyrenees dogs named Dante and Daisy.

She writes:

Ever since we got them last July (they were rescues) our house looks like a street out of the old West with blowing tumbleweeds. We have used combs, rakes and brushes but nothing seems to get all the hair. Our male dog Dante looks like he was put in a clothes dryer without a dryer sheet. The Furminator is our last hope in cleaning up this two-dog town.

There's still time to enter. Here are the rules, and you can also find them in the left column of this page.

Cat with dreadlocks?

Allison L. from Wappingers Falls sent the picture above as an entry to the Furminator give-away. For that she gets two entries. Sweet.

Allison writes:

I need the Furminator because I have a ragdoll cat named Grendel. Any neglect in grooming causes him to become one big dreadlock. This makes no one happy. I also have a tabby who just enjoys being brushed. A friend, who ironically has a mostly hairless sphynx, recommended the Furminator as the greatest invention ever.

There's still time to enter. Here are the rules, and you can also find them in the left column of this page.

Keep sending your Furminator entries

Thanks for the great response to the second week of the Furminator give-away.

We even got our first rabbit entries!

Betsy from Lagrangeville sent this picture of Rosebud and Koala.


She writes:

Boy, could I use a Furminator! My three dogs, eight cats and 25 bunnies in my little sanctuary shed more fur than my brushes and combs can keep up with.

Good luck, Betsy.

The rules — please follow them — can be found here or in the left column of the page.

Another happy Furminator user

My colleague Irwin Goldberg, the digital editor, took my Furminator home and used it on Ace. He said the first time he used it there was a shopping bag full of hair. He just sent me a picture from a subsequent grooming session.

Irwin writes:

Here's a picture of Ace, our Australian Shepherd after being furminated. I'm not sure he enjoyed the experience as much as the dog on the Web site, but he certainly looks better and will deal better with the summer heat.

Embiggen the picture for a closer look.

You can still send in an e-mail to enter the second week give-away of two Furminators. Here are the rules. Please follow them. No full name, no address, no phone number, no entry.

Week 1 for give away coming to an end

Only a couple more hours until the first week of the Furminator give away comes to an end.

We stop taking Week 1 entries at noon today. Here are the rules. They are also in the left column of this blog.

Winners will be announced as soon after noon as possible.

Trena in Meriden, Conn., sent in this picture with her entry.

Hi! I'm e-mailing you about your free Furminator giveaway. I currently have 5 ferrets and shedding season is just terrible at my house. Fur seems to be everywhere. ... My poor babies seem to sneeze and cough all the time. I change bedding every other day, but it seems like once they crawl back into bed the fur is there again.

Kate is overwhelmed

Kate had to take to her bed when I told her how people were responding to the Furminator giveaway.

You have until Monday at noon to send in your entry. The rules are in the left column of this page or you can click here to read them.

Below are a couple of cute kitties whose owner Alicia in Poughkeepsie entered the giveaway.

Alicia writes:

I NEED the Furminator! As you can see from the attached photos, I have 2 (very) furry kitties, Gizmo (top) and Girly. I could brush them all day long and would still be picking up furballs rolling across the hardwood floor like dustballs in the desert. The Furminator would really help reduce the amount of hairballs I pick up! Gross!

More entries

The entries for the Furminator giveaway keep coming in. Thanks to everyone. And good luck. The drawing for the first week is Monday.

And then we start all over.

The rules are in the left side of this page. Or here.

I received a nice picture of Hollie (above) from Heidi in Wappingers Falls.

Hi Kate:

Pick me! Pick me! My name is Hollie and I'm driving my parents wild with my short black hairs. My poor mom spends many hours washing the floors because they are everywhere. I'd rather she spent the time playing with me. I love to chase my squeaky balls. As you can see, I'm not a tiny girl. I'm at least 72 lbs. I'm a mixture of a Black Lab and Great Dane. I love getting belly rubs and back rubs and this FURminator is the perfect thing. I'm going to go now and wait for the Fedex man to come deliver the package. I promise not to bark too loudly at him. I'm a friendly girl.

Keep the entries coming

The response to our Furminator giveaway has been really good. And a lot of you are sending in pictures, which gives you an extra entry.

Here's one from Colleen in Poughkeepsie:

Dear Michael and Kate:

Boy do we need the furminator! My name is Keeto and I am a 6-year-old German Shepherd/Akita mix. I am a really good boy (except for my habit of still taking treats from the trash can). I have a combination of my parents coats — my bottom coat is Akita and my top coat Shepard. So when I shed (all year-round) I shed both types of coat — I am a shedding machine!! What was my mother thinking?? An Akita?? Oh well, I guess Dad was just as handsome as me!

My owner/Mom tries her hardest to keep me groomed — lots of brushing and quarterly trips to the groomer but there is no stopping the mess I make. I am really friendly and want people to pet me but when they do I cover them with my hair and they back away. The shedding hair is also very uncomfortable for me — it itches a lot!! Kate, has this happened to you?

The furminator would improve both our lives. Mom wouldn't have to sweep and vacuum everyday. People would pet me more which I would love!! I love to get mail so having the furminator delivered to my house would be really cool — the cats would be so jealous...heh, heh, heh!! The medium yellow tool would probably be best for me.

This give-a-way is purr-fect for me! I have attached a picture of myself so you can see just how handsome I am.

Kate, what do you think? Ever seen a guy as good looking as me??

I would never think to speak for Kate, but I would imagine she would be impressed.

There's a link to the rules here and to the left under Kate's picture.

On the air

I will be on the radio tomorrow morning talking about this blog and announcing a give-away.

Tune in to Mix 97.7 (WCZX-FM) during the 7:30 a.m. half hour.

Kate will be at home sleeping while I'm on the air, naturally.

Prisoners train dogs to help disabled

My story about the Puppies Behind Bars program, which is going on at Fishkill Correctional Facility and other prisons in the area, is in the paper today.

Here's an excerpt:

Edward Stoll, 51, originally from Warwick, Orange County, is training Midas, a 13-month-old male golden retriever.

Stoll, who is serving 20-years-to-life for second-degree murder, has been with the program for five years.

"I haven't regretted it yet," he said. "If you've got to be in prison, what better way to spend your time?"

Stoll talked about the various tasks the dogs will hopefully master, including taking off someone's socks, opening doors, taking clothes out of dryers and turning light switches on and off.

Midas, on cue, jumped up and flipped a wall switch.

"We teach them all kinds of things," Stoll said.

And the dogs give back companionship and affection, not only to the inmates who work with them, but to other inmates. Stoll said just about every day another prisoner will ask if they can pet his dog.

"There they are looking pretty miserable," he said, "and then they go away smiling."

Read the whole article and see the photo gallery and video created by Lee Ferris and Chrissie Williams, respectively, here.

Puppies Behind Bars story might really run

According to the latest information, my Puppies Behind Bars story is scheduled to run tomorrow (Wednesday).

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know what you're thinking. You've heard this before.

Here is the link to the blog entry with Chrissie Williams' video and Lee Ferris' photos.

Upcoming story

I wrote a story a couple of weeks ago, but it hasn't seen ink yet because we've had a few other stories that needed to be on the front page lately.

Thanks, Eliot!

But there's no need for my colleagues Chrissie Williams and Lee Ferris to have to wait in the wings.

Chrissie shot the video below, and Lee took photos (see the photo gallery here) while we all were working on a story about Puppies Behind Bars, a program that uses prisoners to train dogs to become guide dogs, service dogs or explosive-detection dogs.



At this point, the print story is on for Wednesday.

But I haven't looked at the schedule in the last five minutes.

Is Paterson still governor?

Photo by Lee Ferris/Poughkeepsie Journal
Video by Chrissie Williams/Poughkeepsie Journal

UPDATE: As of Monday morning, March 24, the story is scheduled to run on Tuesday, March 25. That means there will be some cataclysmic event this afternoon.

UPDATE II: Thanks, Marist women's basketball. As of Monday afternoon, my Puppies Behind Bars story has been bumped to Wednesday.

Look up your dog's name in our database

Here is the article in today's Poughkeepsie Journal about dog names in New York State as well as Dutchess and Ulster counties.

I had some fun picking out strange names.

Enjoy.