Smart pooch

When I saw the tout to this video from the Arizona Republic, I was a bit skeptical. But, Sandy proved me wrong.
In addition to putting mail in the mailbox and letting the postman know it's there, she can do math.
Watch Sandy the dog add numbers.
My dog, Ace, isn't that advanced, but he does understand the command, "turnaround" and "lets go downstairs."
How smart is your dog?

Update to Petsmart firing story

See an update to the story of the Petsmart employee who was fired for bringing his dog to the stor while he was working an overnight shift when no one else was there.

A new day for guide dogs and their owners

From our sister paper down in Westchester comes an article about a graduation ceremony.

Noreen O'Donnell of the Journal News wrote about Guiding Eyes for the Blind in Yorktown Heights ceremony Saturday that had 11 people receiving new guide dogs.

They came from across the United States and as far as Sao Paulo, Brazil, to which Rodrigo Galvao, a 32-year-old lawyer, will return with one of only 60 guide dogs in that country. He has already had several canes broken in the bustle of Sao Paulo, he said.

Like other graduations, this one featured well-wishers and speeches and whoops and cheers. But these graduates came paired with their dogs, whose noses stuck out from under the seats. And in the audience were the volunteers who had raised and trained the dogs as puppies, couples such as Mike and Raina Napolitano of West Warwick, R.I.

The Napolitanos took in a dog named Orion who was going to Oakland, Calif., lawyer Michael Moore.

Moore aptly described the difference between using a cane and having a guide dog.

"It's the difference between riding a bike and flying," he said. "The cane is like a bicycle. You feel every bump. And with a dog you don't feel that. I also tell people with a cane, you have to find the obstacle, figure out what it is. And with a dog, you just avoid the obstacle entirely."

Congratulations to the new recipients of the guide dogs, and thanks to volunteers who cared for them.

Stupid decision rescinded

From NPR comes the story of Eric Favetta, a New Jersey Petsmart worker who was required to work a double overnight shift.

He brought his pooch to the store, not wanting him to be alone all that time, and put him in the store's doggie daycare.

You guessed it, Favetta was fired for "theft of services."

He was eventually offered his job back, but come on. It's not as if he put the dog in daycare when he wasn't on the job.

The transcript makes the point that the daycare is a very popular offering at that store.

Well, daycare isn't overnight. Favetta was looking out for the welfare of his dog.

One would think a store whose clientele are pet lovers would be a little more understanding about their employees who have pets.

UPDATE: Favetta got a much better job while he was unemployed. Read the whole story here. Good for him, and bad for Petsmart for treating him that way.

Maybe we all CAN get along

You have to admit, this is pretty interesting.

A basset hound allowed kittens to nurse.

See the video here.

Her name is Jezebelle, and when her owner rescued a litter of kittens, she took matters into her own paws.

She certainly seems pretty OK about it, doesn't she?

Science geek alert — cat related

Now, just because I can be a bit of a space geek, I bring you a Science Daily link to a stunning photograph of the Cat's Paw Nebula (NGC 6334) released by the European Organization for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere.

It was created from images taken by the telescope at the La Silla Paranal Observatory in Chile.

The whole tooth

According to the Animal Friends Insurance Web site, a new pet health-care product could help protect pets' teeth.

Inventor Dr. Frank Driscoll was working on something meant for the military who can't always brush their teeth with fresh water.

The product he created could remove bacteria and plaque that lead to tooth decay and gum disease.

The Web site said the pet-teeth dental gel is going to be introduced in the U.S. in April by Petrodex.

Love and care at the end in Denver

USA Today had an extremely moving article by Sharon L. Peters about a hospice program for pets.

Located in Denver, MaxFund, a no-kill shelter fosters out pets who are at the end of their lives.

Cooper, a lab/shepherd mix, went home with Tami Tanoue and Roger McKenzie. The pooch had inoperable prostate cancer.

And for two sunny months he lived the life he deserved. He settled in with the couple's other pets, adapting quickly to the various rhythms and routines of the household. His big tail was a constant-motion metronome, thrubbing against the wall whenever a human approached, flinging everything at big-dog height to the nether reaches of the room (his nickname became Slappy because of all that tail action). He took long walks around the neighborhood and snacked on grilled steak.

And then Copper died.

Tanoue and McKenzie's home is one of about 15 foster homes the shelter uses for terminally ill animals abandoned by their owners.

Copper got a final summer of happiness. He took long walks, ate boiled chicken and lay on Tanoue's feet every night while the rest of the pets clustered around. When he died it was at the place he'd known as home, with the people who loved him holding his head and telling him so.

Here's my thanks, as inconsequential as it is, to Tanoue and McKenzie and all the others in Denver.

Do any of you know of other programs like this around the country?

Russians dogs loose in Moscow

There are an estimated 84 stray dogs per square mile in Moscow.

That adds up to about 35,000 dogs roaming the streets and the subway.

An article in the Financial Times by Susanne Sternthal tells the whole story.

I moved to Moscow with my family last year and was startled to see so many stray dogs. Watching them over time, I realised that, despite some variation in colour – some were black, others yellowish white or russet – they all shared a certain look. They were medium-sized with thick fur, wedge-shaped heads and almond eyes. Their tails were long and their ears erect.

They also acted differently. Every so often, you would see one waiting on a metro platform. When the train pulled up, the dog would step in, scramble up to lie on a seat or sit on the floor if the carriage was crowded, and then exit a few stops later. There is even a website dedicated to the metro stray (www.metrodog.ru) on which passengers post photos and video clips taken with their mobile phones, documenting the ­savviest of the pack using the public transport system like any other Muscovite.

Click on the link in the above paragraph. Even though the page is in Cyrillic characters, the pictures really speak for themselves.

While 500 of the strays make their homes in the underground transportation system, only about 20 have learned how to use the trains to move around.

Some good news from Haiti

Bill Monahan and his border collie Hunter located three girls trapped in the rubble of Tuesday's devastating earthquake in Haiti.

Read the whole story here from PR Newswire.

Monahan and Hunter, who were trained by the National Disaster Search Dog Foundation, were searching the remains of a four-story building in a neighborhood near the Presidential Palace.

After criss-crossing the area, Hunter pin-pointed the survivors' scent under 4 feet of broken concrete and did a sustained "bark alert" to let Bill know where the victims were. Bill spoke with the survivors, then passed them bottles of water tied to the end of a stick. As they reached for the water one of the girls said, "Thank you." Highly trained rescue crews from California Task Force 2 pulled the girls from the wreckage and provided first aid.

In his report this morning from Haiti, SDF Handler Bill Monahan stated, "It would have been a reward to find one person alive. Finding multiple survivors is a huge victory for everyone on the Task Force. It's a giant team effort. From the canines, to the logistics team, to communications, everyone is working at full capacity, using everything we've been trained to do to find survivors. It's an honor to be here."

The National Disaster Search Dog Foundation is located in Ojai, Calif. Its mission is to produce highly trained canine-firefighter disaster search teams.

Here is their Web site.