Meet the Woman Who Owns Over 1,000 Cats

Parlier, California  — "You can't really call me a crazy cat lady, I'm obsessive." Those are the words of Lynea Lattanzio.

Watch Lattanzio's story below:

Does Your Pet Sleep with You? A New Study Suggest it Might Not Be a Bad Idea

Do you ban your dog from the bed in the hopes of getting a better night's sleep?

It may be time to beg your pooch's forgiveness and hope he'll join you at bedtime, after all.

A recent study finds that sleeping with pets actually helps some people sleep better because it gives them a sense of security — and despite what sleep experts have said for years, pets don't really disrupt our sleep.

"I'm not sure that there's a hard and fast rule about pets [in bed]. My community of colleagues do think that it is just always a risk," says Dr. Lois Krahn, a sleep medicine specialist at Mayo Clinic Center for Sleep Medicine in Arizona, and one of the paper's authors

The study's findings are good news for many. Half of American households own pets and half of those pets sleep either right in the bed with us or somewhere in the bedroom.

To conduct the study, Krahn asked 150 respondents fill out a sleep questionnaire that included questions about their companion animals. It asked for details about the type and number of animals in the home as well as what their sleeping habits were. During a subsequent interview, respondents were asked where the pets slept, how the pets behaved, and whether or not pets affected their own sleep.

Washington, DC - Love Turtles? Come Adopt Red, Teal, Orange, Blue, Slippy or Philly Today – Washington Humane Society

Radical news! We have a bunch of totally tubular turtles waiting for forever homes at our New York Avenue Adoption Center right now. Adopt Red, Teal, Orange, Blue, Slippy, or Philly today!

Blue

Animal ID: 28599041

Species: Reptile

Age:  

Sex: Unknown

Color: Brown/Black

Declawed: No

Site: Washington Humane Society

Teal

Animal ID: 29312140

Species: Reptile

Age:  

Sex: Female

Color: Green/Brown

Declawed: No

Site: Washington Humane Society

Orange

Animal ID: 29569011

Species: Reptile

Age:  

Sex: Male

Color: Green

Declawed: No

Site: Washington Humane Society

Slippy

Animal ID: 29791299

Species: Reptile

Age:  

Sex: Female

Color: Black/Green

Declawed: No

Site: Washington Humane Society

Nam

Animal ID: 30209351

Species: Reptile

Age: 2 years 28 days

Sex:  Unknown

Color: Brown/Yellow

Declawed: No

Site: Washington Humane Society

Comet

Animal ID: 30285226

Species: Reptile

Age: 1 year 17 days

Sex: Male

Color: Brown

Declawed: No

Site: Washington Humane Society

Vixen

Animal ID: 30285230

Species:  Reptile

Age: 1 year 17 days

Sex: Male

Color: Brown

Declawed: No

Site: Washington Humane Society

Red

Animal ID: 29289234

Species:  Reptile

Age: 1 year 4 months 10 days

Sex: Male

Color: Green

Declawed: No

Site:  Washington Humane Society

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Shelter Animals Count: The National Database Project is Now Online

Los Angeles, California - Millions of dogs and cats end up in animal shelters or rescues every year, but there are no comprehensive statistics on how many, how they got there, if they were adopted, if a rescue saved them or if their time ran out and they were euthanized. But a new website is aiming to remedy the lack of data.

Animal welfare workers talked about creating a database for years. Now, four years after the work began, "Shelter Animals Count: The National Database Project" is online.

When enough information is input, "we should have a sense of how dogs and cats move in and out of these rescues and shelters that are dedicated to their care," said Jodi Lytle Buckman, board chair for Shelter Animals Count. Data organization is modeled on the U.S. Census, so comparisons will be possible at the county level, she said.

Until now, individual agencies have used estimates when statistics were needed. As a result, figures often varied from group to group and state to state. Even the precise number of shelters and rescues is not known.

The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, often cited by The Associated Press, estimates there are 13,600 shelters across the country taking in 7.6 million companion animals a year. Of those, 2.7 million are euthanized, 2.7 million are adopted and 649,000 are returned to their owners (with the other 1.5 million including animals besides cats and dogs, feral animals and other categories).

For every dog or cat relinquished to a shelter by an owner, two strays were brought in, according to ASPCA estimates.

Rescues are usually dedicated to saving one breed and can be operated out of a home, so they are even harder to count than shelters, which are most often run by counties or cities.

The new database at www.shelteranimalscount.org is incorporated as an independent non-profit. Two employees will be hired, one to look at the data and one to recruit shelters and rescues to sign up.

"This database is precisely what the animal welfare world needs to guide good decision-making and help enable a greater understanding of the issues facing rescues and shelters in this country," Buckman said.

The database is funded entirely through grants from board members. Board members include: Animal Assistance Foundation; Animal Humane Society in Minnesota; the ASPCA; Association of Shelter Veterinarians; Best Friends Animal Society; Humane Society of the Pike's Peak Region; The Humane Society of the United States; Maddie's Fund; National Animal Care & Control Association; National Council on Pet Population; Petco Foundation; PetSmart Charities; Society of Animal Welfare Administrators; University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine; University of Wisconsin School of Veterinary Medicine; and Wisconsin Humane Society.