A Dog's Last Will and Testament

I did not write this poem, I am sharing. I must warn you that tissues are a requirement.






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Tweets About The White House Turkey Pardon Are Hilariously Brutal

Every year, one lucky turkey is publicly pardoned by the White House right before Thanksgiving festivities begin. In the spirit of this time-honored tradition, the Trump administration tweeted out a poll asking civilians to choose one turkey for pardoning day. The responses were... erm... probably not quite what Trump's team was looking for. Tweets about the White House turkey pardon are hilariously brutal, and probably the best Thanksgiving gift any of us could ask for.

On Nov. 20, the Trump administration decided to do a little last-minute crowdsourcing on Twitter, asking,

To read more on this story, click here: Tweets About The White House Turkey Pardon Are Hilariously Brutal








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Raccoon Diseases Transmitted To Humans Or Dogs

What Diseases Can Raccoons Transmit To Pets And Humans - With their inquisitive nature and their clever and innovative ways of getting to food, along with their adorable features, there is no doubt that raccoons can be very cute and in some areas have become quite friendly where they are regularly fed by humans. Unfortunately, this contact between humans and raccoons can lead to several diseases being transmitted. It is also worth noting that there are several diseases that can also be transmitted to domestic pets such as cats and dogs by raccoons, which does mean that raccoons are not the best neighbors when they live side by side with people and their pets.

Rabies

One of the most important things to be aware of when getting close to a raccoon is that around a third of the documented cases of animals carrying rabies in the United States every year are raccoons. Signs that a raccoon may have rabies can include unusually aggressive behavior, frothing at the mouth and stumbling as though they are injured or disorientated. It is vital to stay away from animals displaying these symptoms, as rabies is transmitted by a bite or scratch, and can have significant consequences for people and domestic pets. 

If you or a pet is bitten or scratched by a raccoon, then it is important to speak to your physician or to your local vet to take a test to see if rabies has been contracted. Because of the widespread awareness of the threat of rabies, and prompt responses by those attacked by rabid raccoons, there is only one known case of a human fatality caused by the transmission of rabies from a raccoon to a person. 

To read more on this story, click here; Raccoon Diseases Transmitted To Humans Or Dogs

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New Study Finds That Apes Can Also Experience a Kind of Midlife Crisis

Across many cultures, people report a dip in happiness during their late-40s, a time when they generally feel less satisfied with their lives than they do in their younger and older years.

Apes, too, experience a kind of midlife crisis, found a new study. The surprising result suggests that the middle-aged blues may be a result of biology, not culture, and its evolutionary roots run deep.

"It was an astounding thing for us to find this pattern, to be honest," said Andrew Oswald, an economist and behavioral scientist at the University of Warwick in the United Kingdom. "It may be that the midlife crisis is driven by primate biology in a way we don 't understand, and if that 's the case, we all have to learn how to deal with it."

"I think it 's helpful for people to understand this dip," he added. "With luck, this could people them see that this is completely normal and that could help them get through it."

Studies in more than 50 countries over the past 20 years have revealed a near-universal pattern. Over the course of life, happiness tends to follow a U-shaped curve, with people ranking their sense of well-being higher in the first and last decades of life than in the middle.

The low point generally strikes between age 45 and 50 for both men and women, and the pattern crosses economic and demographic lines.

For each animal, zookeepers, researchers or caretakers answered four questions about the well-being of their primate friends, including whether the apes seemed to be in good or bad moods. The humans also ranked how happy they thought they 'd be if they were to become the animal for a week. They had spent time with the animals for at least two years and knew them well.


Apes live to be about 50 or 55 years old and, just like in people, results showed a drop in happiness that reached its lowest point about halfway through the animals ' lives, the researchers report today in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The magnitude of the dip was on par with the dips in happiness that people experience in their middle age, Oswald said. He compared the difference between the apes ' highs and lows to the loss in well-being that people report with marital separation.

The new findings help rule out some theories for midlife slumps in humans, said Arthur Stone, a psychologist in the psychiatry department at Stony Brook University in New York. For example, a whole generation of people can end up feeling less happy at a certain time in their lives simply because of some external historical situation. But that is unlikely to happen in societies of apes.

Instead, it might be chemical or physical changes in our bodies that influence how our feelings morph throughout our lifetimes.

"What this really starts to point to is that maybe there are biological things that we just don 't know about," Stone said. "Maybe there are changes in the brain, changes in how neurotransmitters work or changes in how hormones work that relate to how people view their lives and how animals feel. People will be looking at this more seriously, I think."

Apes Giggle Like Humans

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Have You Heard About Poodle Cats? Take a Look!

In 1987, a mutant kitten was born in Montana with hair like a poodle. Named Miss DePesto, this kitten grew up and birthed curly kittens of her own. As the curly cat family tree grew, Miss DePesto's descendants eventually became recognized as a new breed: the Selkirk Rex.

Now, 25 years and about nine kitty generations later, researchers at the University of Veterinary Medicine, Austria, have confirmed that these felines are genetically distinct from previously known breeds, making Selkirk Rex the fourth curly-haired cat breed known.

The genetic quirk that makes a Selkirk Rex's hair kink is a dominant trait. This makes the trait easy for breeders to retain even while crossing breeding to maintain genetic diversity. Selkirk Rex is usually crossed with Persians or British Shorthairs, making it a particularly laid back cat.

And while the Selkirk Rex is one of four curly-haired cat breeds, it easily has the best hair. Devon Rex and Cornish Rex are breeds with curly, downy, super-short hair, prone to balding, while the unimaginatively named LaPerm breed has curly hair of average length hair -- but not nearly as plush and thick as Selkirk Rex. Miss DePesto would be proud.



Check out some of these good looking mutant kitties below.

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The Gruesome Death of a Beloved Pet at an Upscale Boarding Facility for Dogs Has Left its Owner Distraught and Grieving

Now, her lawsuit over the demise of the 4.5-pound teacup Yorkie, attacked by a Labrador mix puppy seeks to prove that animals are far more than property.

Falen LaPonzina filed a lawsuit in D.C. Superior Court last week against Wagtime Too, which operates doggy day care and boarding facilities in Washington. She alleges that the business was negligent in allowing her dog, Dax, to be kept alongside another canine four times its weight. She is seeking $150,000 in damages.

But LaPonzina said she wants more than money. She wants the courts to recognize the role pets play in the lives of their owners. She said the 12-year-old Dax, with a giant underbite, was a friendly and loyal companion who had been a constant through her transient twenties and thirties.

“I had no idea when I dropped my dog off there I would never see him again,” LaPonzina said. “Yorkies live to be 18 to 20 years old. He had many good years left.”

Wagtime Too has denied that the business was negligent in its care of the dog. Lisa Schreiber, a co-owner, said the dog’s death was a “freak accident.” She said that an employee had been watching all the dogs and that by the time he saw the lab mix attacking Dax, it was too late.

LaPonzina said she traveled to Alaska in July, dropping off Dax at Wagtime Too, which advertises itself as a cage-free facility. There are two locations in the District, where owners can board their pets for $55 a night. LaPonzina, a 36-year-old lawyer, and Dax had been regulars at the company’s facilities, first in Shaw and later in Navy Yard, since 2010.

LaPonzina said she did not check her phone during her week-long cruise. But when she got off the ship in Canada, she found missed calls and messages from Wagtime Too indicating there had been an emergency. Dax was dead.

An 18-pound Labrador mix puppy had picked up the teacup Yorkie with its mouth, and moments later the miniature dog was no longer breathing, Schreiber said in an interview.

The Labrador, a rescue, was screened before it came to Wagtime and never displayed aggressive behavior, she said. After the incident, the dog was evaluated by a canine-behavior specialist who also found no signs of violence in the rescue dog. The Labrador has since been adopted by a woman with no children and no other dogs.

“This is not anything that anyone who works for me could have prevented,” Schreiber said. “I do want people to understand this is a cage-free facility, and there are inherent risks here. We are not negligent here, but it is horrible that it happened.”

Bruce Wagman, a partner at Schiff Hardin in San Francisco who specializes in animal law, said that a six-figure settlement awarded to LaPonzina would be an unprecedented amount in the death of an animal.

That seems an unlikely outcome, however, Wagman said.

If someone intentionally kills a pet, it occasionally might yield a significant penalty. But for LaPonzina to receive a sizable settlement, Wagman said, she would have to prove that Wagtime was not just negligent but had intentionally killed Dax. When owners do receive significant cash settlements for the death of a pet, such as when a police officer kills a dog during a home raid, Wagman said, it is typically because the officer violated the civil rights of the homeowners, not because their pet is dead.

“Every state, in every court everywhere, animals are considered property,” Wagman said. “That said, there is no question that courts are more and more appreciating that animals are not like computers. They are not vases, and they’re not books.”

This is not the first time Wagtime has faced complaints about its care of animals or how it operates its facilities.

In 2015, a dog walker dropped the leash of a 9-month-old puppy being boarded overnight, and the dog was struck by a car. Its owner sued, but the case was settled out of court.

Wagtime ran into trouble in 2003 for moving into a now-closed location near Logan Circle without a certificate of occupancy. It also squabbled with neighbors over noise and cleanliness complaints.

LaPonzina’s lawsuit also accuses Wagtime Too of not having the correct license to operate its Navy Yard location. Dog-care facilities operate under a D.C. basic business license, and the District’s Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs said the Navy Yard location has not been issued one. On Nov. 3 the owners applied for a certificate of occupancy, which is not the same as a business license.

Schreiber said that she has been in touch with city agencies and that the absence of a license is the result of a paperwork error. Matt Orlins, a spokesman for the DCRA, said there is no evidence of a clerical error.

Wagtime see hundreds of dogs a day, and until Dax, none had ever died in its facilities, Schreiber said.

Last week she sent a letter to customers informing them of the July death of Dax and ensuring them that their canines are safe in Wagtime’s care. “This incident was not in any way caused by negligence,” the notice stated.

LaPonzina said she will be going beyond the courts and pushing for regulatory reform in the D.C. government to tighten operating standards for dog-boarding facilities.

“Dax was just so adorable, you couldn’t ever be mad at him — you couldn’t not love him,” LaPonzina said. “This dog has been through it all with me.”


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Alaskan Town's Polar Bear Problem Leads to Tourism Boom

Polar bears are an enduring symbol of the wild arctic, a mighty beast that has made its home in punishing terrains. But in recent years, the polar bear has come to embody something else: A creature caught in a world that’s disappearing under its feet.

Each fall, the bears descend in hordes on the tiny Alaskan village of Kaktovik, located on Barter Island, hugging the state’s northern coast.

And the bears are hungry.

Polar bears wandering into the town, with its population of just 239 people, proved to be such a problem there that a polar bear patrol now sweeps the streets looking for the animals.

To read more on this story, click here: Alaskan Town's Polar Bear Problem Leads to Tourism Boom



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Woman Turns Old Dressers Into Cozy Personalized Dog Beds

These aren’t your typical dog beds. Behold the “Sheltie shacks.”

Kaylee Robertson, an emergency medical technician from Shetland, Scotland, makes custom, personalized dog beds out of old dressers.

She said she likes to “provide pets with their own little ‘safe haven’ that they can sleep happy in.”

“Let’s be honest, your typical dog bed is pretty ugly!” Robertson, 27, wrote to ABC News in an email. “They're normally these limp, dull, lifeless, smelly things that just lie in the corner. My hope is that by providing a bed which is also a piece of furniture, the dog is introduced more into the living area.”

To read more on this story, click here: Woman Turns Old Dressers Into Cozy Personalized Dog Beds



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