There were lots, and I mean, LOTS of good posts in the blogosphere that are animal and pet related this weekend, so it’s roundup time!

First, wild rat rescue! I give gigantic props here- I think rats are pretty cute, but I honestly don’t know if I could rescue a wild one. Sadly, the poor baby passed away.  But just being able to give that rat a more comfortable place to die is hugely awesome. (HT: HoundsGood Chronicle)

Lindsay at That Mutt wants to know: Is it okay for other people’s dogs to poop on your lawn? Me, I’d be fine with it except most of those dogs pooping on my lawn are unleashed. That part’s not okay. Otherwise, what’s a few more turds to rake? Of course, it would be EVEN better if people picked up after themselves like I do when my dog goes in someone else’s lawn, but I’m not even really that worried about that.

Is there anything funnier than assault via chicken? If there is, I’m not sure what it might be.

I always thought Blood Parrots were mean parrots, but I was wrong. They’re fish, and they lay eggs. Tennessee Mom has pictures and even video! Neato-rama!

Lynnster’s mom’s cat has disappeared. No, she didn’t go outside that they know of. She just vanished. Weird. I hope y’all find her!

Cheryl from Richardson Zoo has the scoop on 700 puppies who were rescued from a puppy mill here in TN recently. Poor, poor babies.

Do you have a pet blog that you’d like to be included in the roundups? Leave me a comment so I can add your blog to my feed reader! 

Image: Rattitude

I’m sitting here at an auto repair shop getting my car worked on. I used to work here, so the technicians are coming up and talking to me while I’m trying to work. I’m cool with that, since I’ve missed working with these guys and they keep coming up to me, telling me good jokes.

But that’s not the point of this story. It’s about a man and his cats. My friend Kevin, a big, tough, Harley riding auto mechanic, is a cat person. When we used to hang out, I’d always love on his cats Romeo and Pooh. Romeo and Pooh have gone on to the Rainbow Bridge, but Kevin has new cats now.

His cat Lucy is the luckiest cat ever. One hot summer day, a woman came into the shop for an oil change, and when the oil changer opened the hood, he saw something move. It turned out that it was a little kitten who had ridden about 15 miles in the engine compartment of the car all the way to the shop.

Needless to say, the cat was REALLY unhappy about being stuck in the car. Kevin pulled the cat out of the engine compartment and asked the car’s owner if she wanted her cat back. It apparently was just a stray, and the woman didn’t want the kitty, so Lucy came home with Kevin that day.

Now the cat from the engine compartment lives the easy life in air conditioned bliss with Kevin. Yay, I love happy endings!

Photo: Another man’s cat!

Yay! A new episode of Healthy Chowhounds! This one’s for the kitties:

I remember the first time my dad had much contact with my dog Tiny. I had gone away for a day, and Dad was checking in on Tiny, feeding him and taking him outside, you know the routine.

When I got back, Dad said, "I hate to worry you, but Tiny looked, well…disturbed…the entire time you were gone."

"Like he was missing me? Yeah, he gets that way when I’m not around," I said.

"No," Dad said, "I could tell he was missing you, but he looked like he was really worried about something." I looked at Tiny who looked at me with his normal expression. Worried is how he normally looks.

I’m not entirely sure what kind of life Tiny had before he came to live with us. Whoever had him did a good job of training him- he might not do tricks, but if I tell him to stay, he’ll stay there from here to eternity, even if he doesn’t know what "sit" means. And he’s never had a problem with being house trained, and he is really good about "knocking" on doors that are closed that he would like to be open.

But he always looks like he’s worried about something. What, I don’t know. I’d take him to a dog psychic, but that’s pretty expensive. Same with the dog therapist, which he probably needs, but since he can’t talk, I don’t know that therapy would really help.

I’ve only seen him looking happy a few times in his entire life and that was usually centered around my coming home or giving him food. Or coming home with food for him. I guess this will have to remain a mystery.

Photo: Chez Bez, whose dog doesn’t seem to have problems looking happy

Pet store dogs. Is there anything good we can say pet shops that sell dogs? The dogs almost always come from puppy mills. They’re then kept in tiny cages where they’re usually forced to urinate and defecate in their own cages, making it even harder to crate train these dogs. Even in the "best" of situations, it’s bad. But when they’re living like this, well, something needs to be done:

The first thing that hits you when you walk in is the smell.  A funky
mixture of cigarettes, old fish tank water, and dogs.  And there on the
floor, on a diarrhea stained newspaper, were  puppies that barely
lifted their head when we walked in.  Their food bowl contained dry dog
food that at one time had been watered down, but was now hard and
crusty on top.  It was covered in fly’s.  The puppies were on old
stained newspaper, and the one that did get up to see us was stepping
in little puddles of dog diarrhea.

Tennessee-Mom has more at her place about this, including a general location. When I have time, I’m going to try to get out there myself so I can call Metro Nashville’s animal control. If you’re in the Nashville area, please consider going out there yourself so you can also call. Perhaps together we can get this place shut down. 

Photo (which has nothing to do with this post, I just really liked it) Credit: Brittney on Flickr

Pigs in boots. PIGS IN BOOTS!!! Seriously, this pig and his Wellies is making me squee with pure happiness. Ariedana over at A Place To Crash has the whole story of a pig who was scared of mud and needed boots to get over his fears. This reminds me of my mom and dad’s dog who is scared of the rain and needs boots to go outside in the rain.

Or my own dog, who is scared of tigers and needs me to remove the (stuffed) tigers from the hallway before he can pass.

What are your pets scared of?

My pal Rumielf told a story on LiveJournal that I had to ask her to unlock so you all could see it:

So I called up Rachel and had just started chatting with her on the
phone when I glanced out my bedroom window. The window looks over the
backyard and the driveway behind the house. I was just glancing down to
see if the feral kittens were around (there’s two older ones and three
tiny ones…the older ones tend to come around me and purr) and I
thought I saw one and started to turn away.

Then my brain went "That wasn’t a kitten…."

So I looked back out.

Eating out of the cat’s food bowl was a huge, and I mean HUGE…

Head over to see what it was. I would have freaked out, myself.

Charley breaks my heart, but he’s SO CUTE!! Take a look: