The Poodle (and Dog) Blog

New year's resolutions for the cat (written by the dogs) and for the dogs (written by the cats) redux

I ran these several years ago, but not much behavior has been modified in the meantime.

 

New Year's Resolutions for the cat
by the dogs

• I will not play Thundering Buffalo Stampeding across the Great Plains while humans and dogs are sleeping on the bed.

• I will patiently allow the dogs to sniff my mouth and nether regions when I return to the yard to bring them the news from the neighborhood.

• I will limit my going out/coming in to one time per each door opening

• I will not rub up against any dog while another dog or human is watching and laughing.

• I will allow the dogs some measure of doggie dignity by not curling up with them even though they are warm.

• When playing chase with the dogs, I must not embarrass them by getting in the rear.

• When playing with humans and dogs, I must remember I have retractable claws and keep them retracted.

• When launching myself from the bed to the window or dresser, I must not use humans or dogs as a launching pad. The same is true of a landing pad.

• I will not weave around feet in the hallway or on the steps even though it does cause some excitement.

• A human typing on a computer does not form a hammock for my enjoyment.

• I will remember that my human can see me when she first wakes up in the morning even when I am further than one inch from her face.

• Playing psycho cat from hell when I am put into the cat carrier only annoys the humans and amuses the dogs.

 

New Year's Resolutions for dogs

Steve Bartlett’s eight cats, Kepler, Casper, Tulip, Pippin, Travis, Gizmo, Ellie, and Marble submitted these resolutions after living with Lisa the Eskipoo and Buddy the Lab

• I will not bark at people walking past the house.

• I will not bark at leaves blowing in the street.

• I will not bark at the garbage or recycling collectors.

• I will not bark when the branches blow in the wind.

•  I will not bark when the shed doors rattle.

• I will not bark when squirrels run across the roof.

• I will not bark when the whistling kettle whistles.

• I will not bark when I hear a siren five miles away.

•  I will not bark when a car horn honks.

And finally…

• I will not grab cats by the tail and drag them around the living room just to hear them make really cool noises.

Lily the Chihuahua survives house fire for 15 hours in the kitchen cupboard

When Jackie and Iam Heys of the UK went out for dinner, a fire broke out in their home around 7pm. The roof and most of the house was destroyed, but they managed to save a box of mementoes of their only daughter who had died of a rare cancer when she was eight-years-old.

They were able to save two of their Chihuahuas, but they were sure that Lily had died in the fire.

However Lily had scrambled into a kitchen cupboard and hid for 15 hours under a blanket as the fire raged through the bungalow.

The next morning they asked a fireman to retrieve her body.

Mrs. Heys said,

…he walked towards us with her in his arms and she moved. He’d found her in the kitchen cupboard. She was as black as coal. I held her and cuddled her, then she went up to the fireman and started jumping up at him, almost as if to say thank you.

Out of all this tragedy, she is the miracle. She’s risen from the ashes. We’re going to call her Lily Phoenix now. The story

Chihuahuas and cockroaches...but in a good way.

Disabled man gets his Pit Bull service dog back

In a case of cruel ignorance, not to mention blatant federal law breaking, the city of Aurelia, Iowa forced a disabled former Chicago police officer to give up his service dog, Snickers, because he was a Pit Bull mix.

James Sak, 65, is confined to a wheelchair, unable to use the right side of his body. A medical center in Chicago had paired him with Snickers to help him walk and call for help in an emergency.

Saks and his wife moved to Aurelia to be close to aging family members, not knowing the law forbids Pit Bulls or any dog that looks like one to live there.

Despite defying the American with Disabilities Act, the city council voted for Snickers to be removed from town.

An Iowa federal judge ruled today in favor of an injunction to allow Snickers to be reunited with Saks immediately.

"Today I got my peace of mind back," Sak said. "I hope that nobody else has to go through what we went through." The story

“Keep the diamond, keep the Bentley, I just want the dog.”

When Crystal Harris, 25, broke off her engagement to Playboy founder Hugh Hefner, 85, last June it was agreed that she keep the three carat $90,000 engagement ring and the Bentley he bought her.

But she agreed to let him keep Charlie, the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, they shared.

But now, according to those who keep account of these things, she is also demanding full custody of the dog as well.

Is there such a thing as a pup prenup?

Oh, the madcap life of the rich and famous and self involved! They are a constant source of entertainment.

 

After Christmas giggle: dog wearing Santa pants

Uploaded by MrPhillypickles on Dec 26, 2011

"It was Christmas day so I threw a pair of Santa pants on my dog.

"He was fine walking around but when he ran down the stairs to greet someone, something amazing happened."

The tree that tried to kill me

As I was doing research on the sago palm for the recent post This plant can kill your dogs and children, I realized that I had spent years living with this vegetative potential serial killer without knowing what it was.

The plant grew into a tree which eventually went off to a new life in Las Vegas (seriously) and I never learned its fate after that.

When we moved into our house, it was growing beside the front door, an attractive, exotic shrub. I’m sure when the people planted it close to the house it was just a cute little plant.

The sago palm isn’t actually a palm tree,  It is a cycad, a family of plants that have been living on earth for hundreds of millions of years on almost every continent.

One source said that it was a large part of the dinosaur’s diet…which may have accounted for their demise. All parts of the plant are poisonous.

The sago palm is said to be slow growing. Our variety wasn’t. Growing season here starts in February. Huge fronds like green daggers grew until they were threatening us and anyone who came up the front walk. We kept cutting them back. They kept growing.

Finally my father suggested we have a professional tree trimmer cut the fronds back far into the trunk and leave just three or four small fronds to grow at the top which was by that time above the roof line.

For a while the tree looked… and there is no way to put this delicately, like a large penis having a green ejaculation.

Soon after, I tripped and caught myself on the shaved trunk of the tree. What should have been a mild skin abrasion quickly became an angry rash.

Sometime later a thorn from the tree pierced the skin on the back of my hand. It quickly swelled to an alarming size. I thought about going to the emergency room but there was a party that night and besides I didn’t want to have to explain that I was attacked my tree.

I thought that either I had an allergy to this particular plant, there might have been spider venom on it, or it was seeking revenge.

A couple of years later the fronds were once again growing down to threaten us and eat the roof. The tree trimmer wanted $100 to trim it again and $600 to remove it. We went for the short term solution although I had grown to hate and fear the tree.

Then one day a man knocked at the door and wanted to buy the tree. He offered $100. It seems that the builders of a casino in Las Vegas wanted to landscape with mature palm trees. Price was no object for new casino landscaping, and he was sent out to buy palm trees growing in California.

Deal!

We signed a contract and a few days later a huge crane showed up, plucked the tree out of the ground and loaded it on a flatbed to make the trek to Vegas.

I don’t know all the intricacies of the business dealings between the tree buyer and the casino owners, but the tree buyer went bankrupt.

I don’t know if my tree was ever planted near a casino. I've never heard of anything that large being transplanted. The full story will probably stay in Las Vegas. I didn’t ever get the $100, but I didn’t care. All I cared about was that the tree was gone.

It’s called a sago palm. It is evil.

This plant can kill your dogs and children

Recently a 4-year-old German Shepherd police dog in Atherton, CA died after eating a plant in his handler’s back yard.

The dog, usually quite energetic, became lethargic. Not knowing the problem, by the time the handler took the dog to the vet, it was too late.

The plant is a sago palm and all parts of it, leaves, trunk, roots and seeds, are poisonous to humans and pets.

The sago palm is used as a landscape plant in southern states and has become a trendy exotic house plant in the north. It is sold by Wal-Mart, Lowes, IKEA, and Home Depot without a warning label.

Amazon currently offers them as a "Great gift idea easy to grow"-- 6" pot on sale for $6.09.

Often the plants are simply called palm trees so the people don’t understand the variety they are bringing into their homes and yards.

Even a very young plant is toxic enough to cause death. Ingestion can cause neurological damage and permanent liver damage.

The colorful seeds, which may be attractive to children, are the most poisonous parts of the plant.

Some owners think the spikes will deter the dog from chewing, but as one veterinarian said,

"I swear, it seems to me that dogs are attracted to sago palms. In the cases of toxicity I see (several each year), it seems to be the only plant in the yard the dogs chew on. ... I think we need to be more proactive in trying to warn owners they should not have these plants at all."

 

Other common toxic plants are poinsettias, azaleas, Easter lilies, lantanas, mistletoe, nightshades, oleander and yew. More information

 

Inflatable dog controversy rages in Florida city

Alan Ronay of St. Pete Beach, Florida bought a six foot inflatable dog holding a Christmas stocking as a decoration at his Pet boutique, but the city bureaucracy told him he couldn’t put it in a parking place in front of his store or on a walkway.

So he put it on top of his delivery truck.

Then the city came back and told him that the pup is in violation of the city’s sign ordinance.

"It's not a sign. It's our Christmas decoration. Why shouldn't we be allowed to have it?" said Ronay, owner of Best Buddies Dog Boutique and Bakery.

"This is a waste of taxpayer money to spend time on frivolous things like this," he said.

It would appear that it will be up to the town magistrate to translate the city code at the next scheduled meeting on January 10. Chances are that Ronay’s Christmas decoration will be down by then.

Meanwhile I’m guessing that all the free publicity he is getting is quite welcome. Anyone who has ever tried to fight city hall will probably become a customer whether they have a pet or not.

The story

Just in time for Christmas—Kapone comes home

A lot of you probably have heard the story of Kapone, a beloved family Pit Bull who disappeared in Memphis under mysterious circumstances.

In June, 11-year-old Kapone and another family dog, Jersey, escaped their yard after a storm blew down the fence. They were both picked up by an animal control worker, later identified as Demetria Hogan.

Kapone’s owner. Brooke Shoup, went to the shelter to retrieve the dogs. She quickly found Jersey, but Kapone was nowhere to be found. When the shelter management proved to be no help, she went to the police and to the media.

Hundreds of people joined in the search. Banners around Memphis offered $8000 reward for the return of Kapone. Everyone’s greatest fear was that Kapone would be used as a bait dog for fighting dogs.

The situation helped lead to an audit of the Memphis shelter which turned up many flaws and cruelties as have been chronicled in heartbreaking detail on the blog Yes Biscuit.

An arrest warrant was issued for the shelter worker, Demetria Hogan. She was fired and charged with animal cruelty.

Now six months later an informant has led police to the recovery of Kapone at a house in Mississippi.

Today he is back with his family and the young children who had never known life without Kapone.

There are a lot of questions that remain to be answered, but for now it’s a Christmas miracle for Kapone and his family. The story and video

Alex unchained: You won't believe what you see

One of the great mysteries of dogdom is why anyone would keep a dog chained outside day after day.

They can't protect the home or even themselves from attacks by humans or animals. They can't offer the companionship that dogs so desperately want with humans. They live out their lives lonely and frightened.

On the other hand, I've been skeptical about laws against chaining or tethering dogs. Many are poorly written and hard to enforce.

While I do think that anyone who keeps a dog on a chain for life is a hopeless neanderthal, passing laws will not turn them into good dog owners. In order to avoid a fine, some will simply turn the dog loose to be a danger to themselves and the community.

This amazing video is from KC Dog Blog where Brent makes some excellent points about chained dogs. The video shows what happened when an experienced and compassionate rescuer encountered a chained dog that even his owner was afraid to approach.

The transformation of Alex