Over at HoundsGood: Chronicles Of A Virtual Volunteer, they’re talking about how people make excuses about not being able to find a good dog at a shelter. Naturally, HoundsGood has posted several examples of very good shelter dogs, including dogs of popular breeds, such as a beautiful chocolate Lab.

It never ceases to amaze me what wonderful dogs you can find in shelters. Just this past weekend I was at the new Petsmart grand opening and a local shelter had several dogs there. Interestingly, almost all of the dogs were recognizable pure or almost-purebreds.

The one I fell in love with wasn’t- she was medium sized with a golden retriever-like coat and a German shepherd face. Clearly there was some Heinz 57 going on there, but she was adorable.

No, I didn’t end up with a new dog. Alas, the shelter’s requirements for owners is that they have a fenced yard and I don’t have a fenced yard. But I’m sure the sweet dog will find a good home. She was amazing.

:::sniffle, tear::::

I don’t have a fenced yard. Because I don’t have a fenced yard, this means my dog goes outside on a leash every time he goes outside. And because I am kinda obsessive about my lawn, I always pick up his poo. Always.

My neighbor across the street? Has the opposite theory of dog rearing. She doesn’t take her dog out on a leash, she just opens the door when he needs to go outside. And her dog isn’t obsessive about my lawn other than he likes to poop in it.

And this is where I’m left with a conundrum. I’m okay with picking up my own dog’s poo, but I’m not okay with picking up some other dog’s poo. And dog poo, contrary to what the movie Doggie Poo says, is not a good fertilizer.

So, do I talk to her? How should I approach the matter? Ugh, life would be so much easier if she would just follow the county’s leash laws.

Jeffraham Prestonian probably adores me for linking to  him so much, but this is really cool.

I’ve been playing my daughter’s Nintendogs game on her DS lately. It’s funny, if you’re walking your dog and you come upon another dog that your dog likes, they snuggle. If they hate each other, they run around and look like they’re playing. It took me awhile to "get" that.

For your viewing pleasure today, here are some posts with snuggling dogs. Too cute!

Jag’s dogs (pictured here)
Exador’s puppies (a-freaking-dorable!)
CeeElCee’s babies (awww, love!)

And a tip of the hat to Aunt B, who calls them all baroos. Hee!

We’ve always called my cat Simon "The Great Hunter Kitty". Whenever we get crickets or flies in the house, he hunts them down, stalks them, and eats them. It makes for a nice, cricket and fly-free house.

On Sunday, my uncle was filled with despair, because he has a terrible mouse problem in his house. He said he had already caught 6, and there were more everywhere. He told us he was using glue traps. Ack, I think those are inhumane. Not that there is a terribly humane way to get rid of your mouse problem, but I personally find glue traps to be the worst.

He just kept being sad and said he didn’t want to go home, so I offered to bring Simon over to see if he maybe could thin the mouse population. My uncle agreed, so I went home and put a collar on Simon, put him in the cat carrier, and one very meowy ride later, we showed up at his house.

Simon was amazing. We’ve never had mice, so I wasn’t sure whether he would know what to do with a mouse if he caught one. But my uncle and I flushed three mice out of the pantry, and Simon caught and killed all three of them. I was scared he would play with them instead of killing them, but he caught them and killed them immediately. Whew. More humane than glue traps, and my cat had a fun time, to boot. AND now I know if I ever get mice, I’m safe. I’m afraid of mice (stupid, I know) so if we ever had mice in the house, I’d freak out. At least I know Simon would take care of them.

The down side to this is, I know we can never have small animals now. We had a guinea pig when the cats were kittens, and I think they led to her demise to begin with. The guinea pig was very nervous- the cats would pop up at their cage to make her run around in the cage. Once we came home to find her dead in her cage. I think they gave her a heart attack.  So sad.

It does stem the tide of the kids asking for a hamster, rat, or gerbil though. Awesome.

Simon’s been stalking around the house ever since we came back from my uncle’s like he’s the bee’s knees. I think he knows he earned his "Great Hunter Kitty" title!

Animal Shak has only been around since November, but today is Shakadoo’s first birthday! I have been with Shak since March 11th, my first blog was Shakyard and I’ve been blogging all over Shak ever since then!

What I really love about Shak is how they have allowed me to be very free with my writing. Animal welfare is a big concern of mine, and Shak has allowed me to explore that, making for (hopefully) a better blog that brings to light important issues. And there’s room for fun videos and LOLCats, too. That’s my kinda blog.

Happy birthday, Shak, and many, many more!

Crating your dog doesn’t have to mean a big, ugly crate in the middle of your living room. My Shak In Style partner, Sarah C. in crime alerted me to this really attractive crate. I’m totally enamored with it- it looks to be a really attractive crate for your dog. I think my dog Tiny would dig it. What do you think?

I have never really thought about the physical reasons why it is important to spay your animals while they are young. I always just figured you don’t want to have to go through the pain in the butt of dealing with an animal in heat, so go ahead and get your dog or cat spayed.

Nearly Dr. Ferox has some very good biological reasons why spaying your pet while they are young, starting with this common sense (but it never occurred to me) reason:

You’ve probably all heard about why it’s better for an animal to be
speyed young, rather than waiting for them to reach maturity. It is
much safer for a female animal to be desexed while she is immature, as
the ovaries and uterus are much smaller and have a reduced blood supply
compared to a mature animal, which means her surgery will be faster,
less dangerous, and have a smaller incision producing a quicker
recovery.

But there’s more. Nearly Dr. Ferox has details about a uterine disease called pyometra that is potentially deadly. She has much, much more at her place. But be forewarned, there are graphic pictures. I dig that kind of stuff, but if bloody/animal organs/etc. grosses you out, you might want to only look at the first part of the post.

Before I got a flat screen monitor, my cats were enthralled with my monitor and tried to sit on it all the time. I guess it was the warmth emitting from it or something. Now that I have a flat screen monitor, they leave it alone.

But what’s the best way to clean your monitor? Why, the pug way, of course!

HT: FrugalHacks (with REAL monitor cleaning tips)
Photo: No Fixed Abode on Flickr

Some people spend their whole lives trying to come out of the closet. Jeffraham’s cats just want IN the closet: