This tongue-in-cheek ad by Same Day Pups is to show
you that breeders and puppy mills are using impulse shopping to place animals
in homes. This ad is not real. It’s absurd and so is shopping online for a
puppy like they’re a toy. Shopping online is surely convenient but bringing an
animal into your home should never be about convenience. It should be about
love. Adding a pet to your family is a real commitment because an animal is a
real family member.
Many puppy mills operate online and pull at your heart
strings. They have fancy websites and post adorable photos (and even videos!)
of available puppies that they can be sent to your local airport (some even
next day!). Don’t be fooled. Just because these puppies look pretty in the
pictures doesn’t mean they come from a loving environment. Plus, sending these
puppies can be so traumatic. These puppy mills are for profit, not for the good
of the animal. Adopt, don’t shop! So many wonderful animals are waiting for
homes!
Beverly Grove, Los Angeles - A woman cleaning out a closet noticed a trash
bag moving. Startled she opened the bag and found a mom opossum and her babies.
When she opened the bag the mom opossum was upset and
hissed at her. Tara McVicar pulled out her cell phone and documented her close
encounter. "That's a terrifying sound, but you're relatively cute,"
she says to the hissing marsupial.
She's soon won over once she realizes it's a momma possum
with her seven babies on her back, nearly melting down: "Omg! it's the
cutest thing I ever saw."
McVicar thinks the opossums got in when she left the patio
door open for her daughter's pet rabbit, Mustache.
Eventually she's able to get the animals outside when she
puts the bag, with a few babies inside, in Mustache's backyard cage. The babies
calling out for their mother draw the opossums out. "Just take 3rd all the
way to Beverly Hills," she says as she bids the possum family farewell.
Seniors Delaney Johnson and Nick Ackerman, strangers until
a few weeks before their high school proms, both planned to skip the big
night–that is, until they and their adorable service dogs Troy and Griffin met.
What happened next is something you just have to see for yourself!
The two teens, both with disabilities, go to different high
schools and hadn’t even met until their service dogs, in a way, brought them
together.
Nick, who has a service dog named Troy, was interviewing
Delaney, who has a service dog named Griffin, for a school video project on
service dogs.
Making small talk, she asked him, “Are you all geared for
prom?” When he told her he had no plans to go to his, she volunteered to go
with him. He accepted.
With their service dogs along, they attended his school’s
prom, then hers.
A Lansing State Journal columnist and photographer went
along .
Delaney, 17, goes to Haslett High School, where, before she
got her 2-year-old Dutch shepherd Griffin, she would faint or pass out up to 20
times a day due to narcolepsy.
Between medication and help from Griffin, that condition —
and a second neurological condition called cataplexy — have been brought under
control.
Her dog acts to distract her if she’s experiencing anxiety
and, in case of an attack, he’s trained to stay with her, lying on top of her
if she becomes incapacitated so that she feels protected.
“Since I got Griffin, I’ve not had any major cataplexy attacks
at all,” said Johnson, a singer and songwriter who plans to take Griffin with
her this fall to attend Grand Valley State University. “…He’s my own personal
little bodyguard.”
Nick attends Forest Hills Central High School in Grand
Rapids, where he’s a champion debater. His service dog Troy helps Nick, who was
born without arms, do everything from carrying things to zipping up his coat.
Nick, who plans to attend Eastern Michigan University in
the fall, met Delaney two weeks ago, when he interviewed her for a class
project on service dogs and the subject of proms came up.
On May 2, they went to his prom. Last Saturday, they went
to hers.
The columnist and photographer accompanied the foursome —
from home, where they posed for family photos, to a sushi dinner and then to
the prom itself.
“I was going to stay home and eat ice cream and watch
movies,” Delaney said later. “I’m just so glad I went…It was an amazing time.”
Help raise $850 for Animal Allies. Your purchase will help
care for homeless and abandoned animals.
Animal Allies is dedicated to rescuing homeless and
abandoned animals. They could use your help to care for the animals. Please
help by purchasing this great t-shirt for $17. Only 50 being made, so order
yours today!
All funds will go directly to Animal Allies of Fairfax,
Virginia.
More about this campaign
Animal Allies, a nonprofit, all-volunteer no kill
organization dedicated to the rescue of homeless and abandoned animals. We are
a registered 501(c)(3) organization incorporated in the State of VA. Founded in
1984, Animal Allies is devoted to curbing the irresponsible breeding of pets in
an effort to end the overpopulation of homeless animals.
Animal Allies volunteers work to rescue lost, abandoned,
or stray animals and find loving homes for them if possible. All animals in our
system are vetted to check for disease and spayed and neutered to stop the
cycle of unwanted animals.
Through a detailed process, we do our best to make sure
each animal goes to a suitable home where they can enjoy love and shelter and
the necessities for the rest of their lives, and provide their human companions
with love in return. Our organization is funded solely through the generosity
of the public and countless hours put in by our volunteers.
(EMERGENCY ANIMAL RESCUE) TEXAS — On Sunday, a tornado
struck Van, a town in eastern Texas, killing two people and injuring 43. This
disaster not only resulted in human casualties, but it also destroyed a large
percentage of the land, flattened homes, and led to flooding.
Efforts to recover the tornado victims have been ongoing.
Texas Game Wardens from the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, along with
their K-9s are actively searching the Van area for people and pets who may be
stuck under debris or in need of care.
Game Warden John Thorne recently stated:
“It’s very deliberate work in the sense that we’re trying
to clear each and every one of these brush piles. There could be a victim in
here that we wouldn’t be able to detect without the use of one of these dogs.”
Although search-and-rescue dogs are critical in helping
people affected by the tornado, efforts have also been made to rescue animals
who were tornado victims. While some families evacuated the area with their
beloved pets, other pets were separated from their guardians in the midst of
the disaster.
Dozens of abandoned golden retrievers are adjusting to
their new lives in metro Atlanta after a rescue took place in Istanbul, Turkey.
The Adopt a Goldenorganization
helped bring 36 purebred golden retrievers to Alpharetta, Georgia last weekend.
This is being called the largest international golden rescue ever.
The dogs arrived at Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson
International Airport late Saturday night. They were taken to Pet Lodge pet
resort.
According to Adopt a Golden, the dogs range from 6 months
to 10-years-old.
“Our guiding motto is that we never say no to a Golden
Retriever in need. These dogs are in need because the novelty of having a
Golden Retriever in Istanbul, Turkey, as a status symbol wore off, they were
abandoned and are now living in crowded shelters, in the forests or in the
streets,” explained Lauren Genkinger, founder and president of Adopt a Golden
Atlanta, Adopt a Golden is calling these dogs “Freedom Goldens.”
Each dog has been given a patriotic name, such as “Liberty” and “Glory.”
“I want these Golden Retrievers to be happy and have a
better life,” explained Yasemin Baban, the lead shelter volunteer in Istanbul
who was instrumental in helping Adopt a Golden Atlanta rescue the dogs. “I want
them to find love and affection, a home to live in, and a cushion to sleep on,”
she added.
The dogs have never heard English and have their own
interpreter in Fulton County. The only commands they know, if any, are in
Turkish.
"From a behavior standpoint, we didn't really know
what we were getting in to," Genkinger told FOX 5 Atlanta. "They're
very social though, since they're used to begging for food on the
streets."
The dogs will be medically screened, taught to walk on a
leash, be housebroken and of course will receive lots of TLC.
Adopt a Golden is now
accepting applications for adoption.
Facing the threat of imminent death, Johnny Depp's dogs,
Pistol and Boo, were being prepared to be taken from Australia to the United
States after Australia's agriculture minister angrily accused the Hollywood
actor of sneaking the pups into the country.
Barnaby Joyce said he was told the Yorkshire terriers were
expected to return to the U.S. Friday aboard a private jet, after the
government ordered the actor to get his dogs out of Australia by Saturday,
saying they would be euthanized if Depp didn't comply.
The canine chaos erupted after Joyce accused Depp of
smuggling the dogs in aboard his private jet when he returned to Australia on
April 21 to resume filming of the fifth installment in the "Pirates of the
Caribbean" movie series at Gold Coast studios.
Australia has strict quarantine regulations to keep
diseases such as rabies from spreading to its shores. Bringing pets into the
country involves applying for a permit and a quarantine period on arrival of at
least 10 days.
The department is investigating how the pets were brought
through Brisbane Airport without an import permit.
The Agriculture Department told Depp, 51, and his
29-year-old wife Amber Heard on Wednesday they had to send Pistol and Boo back
to the United States within 72 hours.
In Australia, Joyce's tough stance attracted both
commendation and criticism, with some praising the minister for defending the
nation's laws, and others cringing over what they viewed as his crass response.
The agriculture department discovered that Depp snuck the
dogs into Australia after hearing that a handler had taken the terriers to a
Gold Coast dog groomer on Saturday, Joyce said. A biosecurity officer found the
dogs at a Gold Coast house on Wednesday.
Two young kids in are captivated by their unusual new
neighbor, a 10-foot alligator.
The alligator first took up residence in Sonya Gilreath's
bushes Thursday morning.
"It didn't look very big to me," she said, adding
that it seemed like it could have been a baby alligator.
Police responded, Gilreath said, and as the gator laid
still, she and her 2-year-old and 3-year-old sat on the front porch "just
watching it."
"All of a sudden, it stood up, and I realized how
gigantic it was," she said. "I've never seen one this size before.
Not loose."
That's when Gilreath took her excited kids inside and
snapped the adorable photos from her kids' perspective.
"They thought it was really cool," she said.
The gator was 10 feet long, according to ABC affiliate
WCIV, and taken by local police back into the water. The Department of Natural
Resources was notified but did not intervene, WCIV said.
"There's a pond in front of our house and I watched
the alligator escort himself into that pond," Gilreath said. "And the
animal control and policemen left."
She said she called the Department of Natural Resources,
which told her it wouldn't remove the gator from a residential area, instead
calling it the homeowner association's responsibility.
"It's still in the pond and I really want it
gone," Gilreath said, adding that the homeowner association is looking
into the issue. "It is really scary having an animal that size... We
probably have about 10 kids on the street that walk to the school bus."
Even though the gator is still on the loose, Gilreath's
children are still talking about it today, she said, adding that they
definitely seemed more excited than afraid.
"I was trying to keep them from being scared,"
she said. "I don't want to put fear in them where they're afraid to go
outside."
The Goose Creek Police Department wrote on Facebook,
"If you see an alligator in your neighborhood, don't approach or attempt
to handle them on your own. Our animal control officers will respond and
determine the best course of action in these situations."
