Who needs those cutesy little sweaters for their pooches.  Who needs the darling diamond collars?  NO ONE when you have these amazing dinosaur costumes for your pet!  From Party City, check this out!

This post touched me because I’m secretly making a list for *ahem* some people for Christmas.  I started it last year and it’s similar to this post, Why I Love My Dog by Riding in Cars with Ducks:

At the moment, Cooper is laying on top of one of my feet, and staring at me as if to say, “you could be scratching my ears.” He does that often. Although sometimes the stare means, “you could be rubbing my belly,” or “I’m hungry.” It’s hard to tell. But usually, it’s one of those three things. And the thing is, most of the time, I’ll stop what I’m doing and scratch his ears, rub his belly, or feed him.

Aw. I love dogs.

I don’t know where to begin … complimenting Shane on his brilliance in keeping Sturm calm during bath-time or grossing out over the dog eating poop.  The whole dog-likes-poop thing is why we have a barrier to keep our pups out of the kitty litter.

The worst is the bad breath after!

I started to meander over to the barn but he met me half way, chewing something.  Naively I hoped it was perhaps a barn mouse or maybe even a bit of hay Manny had shared with me.  No, it wasn’t a trophy from his hunting expedition, nor a gift from a friend, it was horse poop.

Yuck. Horse poop!

I think a toothbrush would have been a good alternative!

Photo by Scott Robinson via flickr creative commons.

My dogs are so overdue for a bath that I’m embarrassed about having them in public.  After they get out of the tub, I wrap them tightly in a towel, hold them close, and take them outside to shake.  I hate it when they shake off their water indoors!

There is a science, however, to the wet dog shake.  From Pawesome,

… when a dog shakes, the water attached to its fur is pulled off through centripetal forces. In order for a droplet to detach, the centripetal force has to exceed that of the surface tension between water and fur. Makes sense. The surprise: smaller dogs shake more vigorously than larger dogs.

Did you know when an old dog shakes, it’s kind of sweet in a sad little way?

Photo by Ian Carroll via Flickr Creative Commons.

H/T Brittney G.

This tickled me.

From The Daily What.

H/T Brittney.

Cartoonist Beth Cravens sketched a friend’s dog with the caption that the dog’s breath was nasty. Ha!

Often bad breath in dogs is a sign of dental or gum disease, but sometimes it can be from something more serious. If your dog has really bad breath, take it to the vet to make sure it doesn’t have liver or kidney problems, or diabetes.

First, let me define “part-time” as someone who loves animals, but who might be unable to have a full time pet.  And pets are full-time, especially dogs! You need to play with them, feed them, walk them, talk to them, and visit the vet to give a good, happy life.

Some people may travel frequently but every now and then get an extensive break to stay at home.  Perhaps just loving on a pet until it’s healthy again is something others enjoy.  For whatever reason, there are pets available to foster.  My brother and his family just agreed to foster two pugs and they are thrilled with the opportunity.

If you want information about how to foster, you can Google pet foster and the name of your location.  There are dozens and dozens of organizations throughout the U.S. that need help and would welcome your participation after a screening process.

Good luck!

This is so cute I could just SQUEEEEE!

H/T Vegansaurus! And special thanks to the Farm Sanctuary.

My husband is impossible to buy for, so at Christmas I was my usual stumped self.  But as I wandered the aisles at our local Super Target store, I spotted a special display of weird stuff  to give as Christmas gifts.  The kind of items that no one would really buy for themselves, yet they were kind of cool.

I found a laser pointer.  Yes, I hate when I go to the movies and someone has one pointed at the screen.  But my cat ADORES chasing the light. She fell instantly in love with my husband’s gift and is always on the lookout for that little red light.  In fact, I may be teaching her to be OCD about it, but she’s a cat so I’m not overly stressed.

We’ve also learned that the laser pointer is even better when it lands on a piece of tissue paper.  She loves chasing it in circles while she’s on the tissue paper because of the crunchy noise.  I pick up a 40-sheet package for a dollar at our local Dollar Tree.

But woe is Kitty … the batteries in the light have begun to give out.  I went to the store to replace them and nearly choked when I saw that the package of three cost $9.   I decided it was crazy to spend $9 on batteries when the light itself only cost $5 during the holiday season.

Always thinking frugally, I asked the clerk if they had laser pointers for pets.  They said, “Sure!” and told me “Aisle 5″.  I wandered down and found a brand new laser pointer that included three brand new batteries for $4.95.

Kitty has a new laser light.

Kitty pictured laying on tissue paper.

This wigs me out just a little bit, yet the pictures are so stunning that I had to share at least one and the link.  Photographs of animals inside the womb – or shell.

These amazing embryonic animal photographs of dolphins, sharks, dogs, penguins, cats and elephants are from a new National Geographic Documentary called “Extraordinary Animals in the Womb”. The show’s producer, Peter Chinn, used a combination of three-dimensional ultrasound scans, computer graphics and tiny cameras to capture the process from conception to birth.

Truly amazing.