Wow. Just wow. From The Consumerist:

A three-month-old gray tabby kitten was tortured. Mike Merrill, the
only witness to the crime, said, "There was four people spray painting
and kicking it from side to side."

When Merrill got to the kitten, he said it looked lifeless. He said,
"Basically seemed like it was almost dead…spray painted all the way
down its back."

Animal Control officers rushed the kitten to a veterinarian with concerns of internal injuries and severe shock.

Police said the men accused of spray painting and kicking the kitten
are contract workers for Comcast. The cable company released a
statement saying, "We are outraged and deeply saddened by this
incident. We are fully cooperating with police and will take
appropriate action once we have all the facts."

I wish I knew why people would do such a thing, maybe then we could stop it. Poor kitten.

I have cats for lots of reasons, but one of the biggest reasons is that I like to watch them. They’re always up to something crazy, even when they’re old men like my cats. They might become cranky old cats, but they still always seem to have a little bit of kitten in them.

Just last night I watched my cat Simon glide along the carpet, snake-like. He wasn’t doing anything important, he was just wandering. Suddenly, Spike came out of nowhere and pounced on Simon, who jumped a mile. I watched them roll around on the carpet, wrestling like they did when they were little kittens.

Then they curled up together into what we call the "kitty yin yang". I love those two guys.

[Photo: Jeffraham Prestonian]

If my dog Tiny was a large dog, he’d be scary. He’s a cranky old man of a dog, and although he’s great with my family, he hates strangers and has snapped at a few people who have been at my house. He was much worse when we first got him, I am trying hard to train him to get used to people coming in and out of my house.

Seems I’m doing it backwards. Come to find out, people are actually paying $85,000 for dogs who have been trained to be aggressive to non-family members. Some people might think this is a good idea, I find it to be sad for the dog:

Prospective owners face a two-year wait as each Titan dog undergoes
extensive, rigorous training at special training camps with some of the
world’s best handlers. The Schutzhund training involves odor detection, search and rescue, as well as strength, courage and endurance.

The brainchild of American-based Simon Brodie, the idea originated
after speaking with people about their concerns regarding their home
safety.

“Primarily these are pets but they are incredibly well trained
animals bred to protect a family,” says Brodie. “You can have the most
expensive CCTV cameras and alarms in the world but if someone climbs
into your garden when your children are playing they can be useless.
The Titan will alert people to danger as well as acting as a deterrent,
while being completely safe. They are genetically tested to make sure
the animal is suitable and then undergo two years of the most extensive
training to make sure they are safe.”

So, they spend 2 years in training and then come home to a family who expects them to guard the house. I don’t know why, I just find this incredibly sad.

My kids make me keep playing this video over and over. I think I’ve seen it a hundred times now, seriously. It absolutely breaks my heart.

And here I thought my dog was picky about having his blanket on my bed available at all times. Nate and Di’s chihuahua, George, was really upset when they moved her little house across the room:

George, our tiny chihuahua, went on strike because we moved her
house across the room to the opposite wall. I thought she’d like having
her house between the desks next to us - but I had no idea how wrong I
was.

She’s proud of her digs and it’s generally where she spends most of
her time. It’s more of a doggy condo, actually, complete with stairs
and a second level for her toys and chewies. She pranced so happily
when we brought it home last year as she explored every nook and cranny.

Go read the post in its entirety to see what happened. I love a good funny dog story.

Photo: Nate & Di

Remember my post about the woman who had accidentally gotten a coyote from an animal shelter? We laughed about the idea of someone trying to raise a coyote?

Well today, thanks again to the stupidpetowners community on LiveJournal (they weren’t saying this woman is a stupid pet owner, just  remembering that post and showing us this neat website), here’s a site from a woman who lives with a coyote that she has raised from when he was a baby.

Charlie the coyote was dropped on the blogger’s doorstep as a baby; Charlie’s parents were killed as apparently people kill coyotes left and right in Wyoming. The blogger rescued him and hand rasied him and now he’s a year old. They have a fascinating relationship- the blogger says most of their communication is by eye contact. They seem to be very in sync with each other.

She even neutered him herself. I can only imagine what that must have been like. She also does most of his doctoring herself- he got Parvo and she did all the shots and IV stuff herself. This makes sense because coyotes will only trust "their" humans- in this case, the blogger and a close neighbor friend of theirs. A vet could be seriously hurt, and I cannot imagine taking a coyote into a vet’s office.

I love how she is very realistic- she’s received many emails from people who say things like "oh! I want a coyote pup!" not knowing the kind of work that is involved in keeping him and other people safe. She’s very clear that although she has a special relationship with him and he probably could not survive on his own in the wild, that he is still a wild animal and should be respected and treated as such.

Seriously, head over to the website and check it out for yourself. I spent several hours pouring over the beautiful pictures and learning more about life with Charlie.

[Image: Wikipedia because you MUST go see her pictures at the site. I'm not even going to do a teaser image. They're that good.]

Over at Home Ec 101 today, I had someone asking for kitty safe houseplants. In my house, no plant is safe from Simon the Destroyer. I try to keep some catnip around for him, but that’s hard to do. My recommendation for the questioner was African violets, but I was thinking perhaps you lovely Animal Shak-ers had some suggestions. Head on over and let them know what your recommendation is!

It’s not just in America that pets are being abandoned because of rising costs and home foreclosures. Britain’s pets are being affected as well:

Britain’s economic woes are forcing people to abandon animals in unprecedented
  numbers as desperate families struggle to cut costs by dumping their pets.
  Animal sanctuaries say they have been overwhelmed by the number of animals
  delivered to them in recent months as the credit crunch continues to bite
  and the cost of living rises sharply. They fear that the situation could
  become unmanageable if the downturn continues.

According to RSPCA records, the number of pets abandoned by their owners in
  2007 was 23 per cent higher than the previous year. And as the possibility
  of recession looms, the figures for the first quarter of this year suggest
  that the number of abandoned animals is continuing to rise. Last year,
  Britain’s leading animal charity was forced to rescue 7,346 animals
  abandoned by their owners. In the first four months of 2008, a further 2,621
  animals have been picked up. Almost half of all the animals abandoned were
  cats, the charity said.

And America is having the same problem, according to the article:

Kimberley Intino, of the Humane Society of the United States, said yesterday: "Many
  shelters are indeed seeing an increase in animal intake due to people losing
  their homes. However, it is not a uniform increase across all areas of the
  country. The hardest hit regions seem to be those where the economy and/or
  the real estate market had already been suffering."

Unfortunately, this is becoming a worldwide problem and it is one we must get control of. It is understandable that a person who is losing their home or can no longer afford to care for their animal, has to rehome that pet. However, there are measures that can be taken to prevent so many of these animals having to be rehomed.

First- and I know I harp on this all the time, but it’s important- spay and neuter your pets. There are low or no-cost spaying and neutering programs across the United States. (Sorry the link is US-centric, but that’s where I live, yo) By making sure your pet is not part of the overpopulation problem, you are saving other pets’ lives. Also, it is a lot more expensive to take care of the offspring of your pet than it is to just spay or neuter them in the first place.

Secondly, err on the side of caution when adding new pets to your home. I’d love to have a few more dogs, but I can safely afford the animals I have now. If I added any more pets in, I might get in an uncomfortable place if one or more of my pets got sick.

Finally, feed your pet the highest quality of food that you can afford. I know this sounds counter intuitive, but since I stopped feeding my asthmatic cat food with any corn, wheat, or soy, his asthma attacks were cut in half, which means MUCH fewer vet visits. I made the switch for my dog as well, and he seems much happier and healthier. Finding pet food without these items means I have to shop at a pet food store and not a grocery store for their food, but it is well worth the expense. Prevention is key.

Save an animal- your own.

Image: Brittney on Flickr’s totally not abandoned, spoiled rotten Tootie

I cannot express my love enough for this video.

Earlier this week, I had some time to observe a fish tank. It reminded me of the fish tank I had when I was growing up. I spent a lot of time watching that fish tank and I used to make up stories about all the fish in the tank. It seemed there was always some kind of drama happening with the fish in the tank.

We had an iridescent shark that was the tank "bully". He would go around sneaking up on the unsuspecting fish (especially our ultra-nervous plecostomus) and would scare them out of their wits. I always felt a bit bad for the other fish in the tank, but like the shark, I also thought it was pretty funny.

Then one day I noticed all the other fish kind of hanging out in a group, away from the iridescent shark. Could they have been coming up with a conspiracy to scare the shark? I watched closely.

They didn’t do that, though. Instead they started grouping up all the time, possibly to keep the shark away. Then one day, the shark was dead. Did they finally give him the scare of a lifetime? I never did know.