Cats Who Eat Plants

If cats are meat eaters, why does yours sometimes prefer salad? Actually, eating small amounts of plants or grass is normal for cats, and as many as one in three housecats regularly munches on veggies. There are a few common reasons for this behavior.

First, your cat might just be looking for some fun. Leaves that dangle or flap in the breeze can look a lot like a fluttering bird or cat toy, so they can be pretty exciting to a cat who’s in a playful mood. Some cats might have learned that biting plants is a sure-fire way to get your attention. Kittens and juveniles might just be looking for something (anything!) to chew, just like human babies, who put everything into their mouths and find comfort chewing on teething rings. Eating large amounts of grass or leaves usually results in vomiting or can act as a laxative. No one knows if cats sometimes purposely eat plants to solve gastrointestinal discomfort or to help bring up hairballs, but those are possibilities. Green plants might also provide some missing nutrients, but there’s currently no scientific evidence that plant eating satisfies any nutritional deficiency.

Most of the time, plant eating is just a nuisance to pet parents, but it can be dangerous if a cat decides to eat a toxic plant or a plant that’s been treated with pesticides. Many common house and garden plants are poisonous to cats. Please see the ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center’s website for a list of common poisonous plants.

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Association Four Paws, Swapped Dogs Available for Sale in a Pet Shop with Unwanted Dogs that Were Rescued from the Streets

An animal shelter in Brazil found the perfect way to show rescued dogs in a positive light in a bid to get them adopted.

Associacao Quatro Patinhas, which translates into Association Four Paws, swapped dogs available for sale in a pet shop with unwanted dogs that were rescued from the streets.

The experiment was staged to change people’s perceptions of rescue animals and prove that they are as loving as any other dog and in fact, in more need of a home.

Many families tend to bypass animals shelters in Brazil and as a result they are overcrowded and under-funded places.

Setting up hidden cameras around the shop, the film crew capture the moment a number of people came in and asked about the price of a puppy.

The reactions range from shock to confusion, and every person involved questions the shopkeeper and cannot believe it when he tells them that the animal is free.

Christianne Duarte Garoiu, the president and founder of Associacao Quatro Patinhas, said, "The shelters are usually in bad conditions. Animals die of diseases and maltreatment or due to overcrowding. Some people abandon animals in shelters thinking they’ll get adopted and receive proper care. But they usually end up dying from many diseases and depression. People still pay a lot of money buying animals in pet shops."

He added, "But there are many other pets that would bring them so much love for all their lives and people don’t need to spend a cent for it."

Christianne said, "it doesn’t matter whether a dog is pure bred or not, all that matters is its owner's connection with it."

The video concludes with a message that reads: 'Better than buying a life is saving one'.

Fairfax County Police Department: Meet CJ, Our Newest K9 Recruit

Our newest K9 recruit, CJ, says Happy Monday to everyone! You can't help but smile when you see her! CJ is just 7 weeks old and traveled up from Alabama last week. She will live with her new K9 handler and ride alongside K9 Cody over the next year, as she grows and begins training. CJ is a Bloodhound. Her Bloodhound cousins, K9 Bolt and K9 Silas, already serve on the department. CJ will learn to find missing children and adults with her amazing tracking abilities! Let's give CJ a big welcome to our county!

It's Me or the Dog

The night my girlfriend discovered she wouldn’t be my only bedfellow, she was baffled. “Where I come from, you only sleep with a dog in your bed if you’re single, or your central heating is broken,” she said upon finding Whisky, my 15-pound terrier-spaniel mix, settled in comfortably for the night, her head resting daintily on my pillow.

But this was a nascent long-distance relationship, and she had just flown more than 5,000 miles from London to Los Angeles to see me, so she let it slide.

Since then, and even though she now adores Whisky (or claims to), she insists that “normal people” don’t share their beds with dogs. After she pointed out — while prying her expensive-looking jacket from beneath a snoring Whisky — that my canine companion seemed perfectly content to sleep almost anywhere, I began to question it myself.

Am I the unreasonable party? Who’s really deciding where Whisky sleeps, me or the dog? My girlfriend is British; I wondered if allowing one’s dog to share one’s duvet is a distinctly American custom, like Thanksgiving or the Super Bowl.

“Don’t get me wrong,” she said one afternoon. “It’s very attractive to me that you’re able to care for another living being. I love that. But it’s a step too far. It’s like having another person in the bed.”

The practice of sharing one’s bed with a dog, I discovered, is hardly modern. In “Cynegeticus,” a treatise on hunting, the ancient Greek historian Arrian of Nicomedia wrote, “There is nothing like a soft warm bed for greyhounds; but it is best for them to sleep with men — as they become thereby affectionately attached — pleased with the contact of the human body.”

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