Search Results for: blog dog elephants best friend

Woman Attacks Bear to Save Dog

Bears are moving into cities I first saw this MSNBC story on Facebook where a friend of mine, also a dachshund owner like the woman in the article, linked to it and said she would have done the same thing. What’s the headline? “Alaska Woman Punches Bear in Face to Save her Tiny Dog.” Brooke Collins is 22 years old and lives in Juneau, Alaska. Her wildlife encounter didn’t occur when she was out camping or hiking in the wilderness, but rather in her own urban neighborhood. The Alaskan capital often sees bears prowling its streets for food, but they’ve … Continue reading →

Dog: Elephant’s Best Friend

I’ve wanted to post this video for a long time. However, I try to space out my articles about cute animal videos, or unlikely animal best friends, and this is one of both. It just might edge out the hand-holding otters for my favorite animal video on the internet. A few months ago CBS Evening News highlighted the extraordinary events at The Elephant Sanctuary in Hohenwald, Tennessee. While the sanctuary is ostensibly for elephants and caters mostly to them, it does take in other needy animals, particularly stray dogs. Because there are 2,700 acres at the Sanctuary, there’s plenty of … Continue reading →

The Pets Blog Week in Review for December 31 – January 6

Last week Aimee and I said goodbye to 2007 and welcomed 2008. Here’s how we did it. Monday, December 31 The Top Pets Blogs of 2007: January – May A breakdown of which blogs you, Dear Reader, liked most. The Top Pets Blogs of 2007: June – December The continuation of the above for the back half of the year. Tuesday, January 1 Resolutions for a Yappy New Year I listed the goals I want to accomplish both professionally and personally. Survivors of Melamine Poisoning What happened to the pets who survived last year’s Menu Foods debacle? Aimee wrote a … Continue reading →

Hamster Successfully Cohabitates with Snake

The best unlikely animal friends stories are the ones where predators and their prey ignore the call of nature and become buddies instead. I could fill this blog with such stories, or even just animal friendship stories, but I try to space it out. I couldn’t ignore this 2006 tale from Japan, however, that garnered international attention. BBC News has the details. Aochan is a two-year-old rat snake residing at the Mutsugoro Okoku zoo in Tokyo. He’s a bit of a picky eater; he rejected the frozen rats presented to him by the zookeepers. So instead, in the fall of … Continue reading →

Dangerous Exotic “Pets”

Exotic pets have been in the news lately. I define exotic pets as wild or barely domesticated animals that you’d sooner expect to see in a zoo than someone’s home. They’re often illegal to own. Even then the classification gets tricky; I’ve previously written about potbelly pigs and hedgehogs, two uncommon pets, that are sometimes illegal in certain states or counties. In these cases, however, the illegality issue has to do with invasive species; certain types of hedgehogs and pigs are not native to the country and officials want to keep out the non-native breeds. When I’m talking about exotic … Continue reading →

Heartwarming Tales from Across the Web

Guide dogs for other dogs aren’t entirely uncommon Months ago I posted about the best animals on the internet, rounding up the latest of the funniest or cutest animal stories I’d seen. Today I want to share two of the most heartwarming stories about dogs I saw in October. MSNBC Today has the first story. Erica Daniel specializes in fostering the dogs that really need help, either for behavioral or health issues. She’s used to not giving up, to pouring everything she can into healing these dogs so that they’re ready to go into homes. This summer she found herself … Continue reading →

How to Adopt a Pet without Adopting the Responsibility

Some people want to adopt a pet or help animals but they don’t want to adopt the responsibility that comes with it. Or maybe it’s not so much they don’t want the responsibility as it is circumstances prevent them from taking it on. (Such as they work too much, don’t have the room to keep a pet, or live in a place where pets aren’t allowed.) Yet, they’re still able to adopt a pet. How? Through pet adoption programs like the ones I’ve listed below. If you want to adopt a pet, but can’t, or, if you’re like me and … Continue reading →

Animal Holidays and Observances There Should Be If There Aren’t Already

Last year I was pretty good about tracking the different animal/pet related holidays and observances with articles like Appreciating Elephants (in honor of Elephant Appreciation Day), Have You Hugged Your Sea-Monkeys Today?, Happy World Turtle Day!, and Hug Your Cat Day: Come Here, Tabby and Mr. Meow!. That’s just to name a few. There were more (see the list below for some others, including some Aimee wrote). The past few months I’ve been thinking about the number and variety of holidays and observances I found –and the ones I don’t think exist that have occurred to me since. I decided … Continue reading →

All Hail the Resident Pets in Chief!

Photo by Peter Mackay Presidents are often known for their policies, diplomacy (or lack thereof), and in some unfortunate cases their scandals or assassinations. In honor of Presidents’ Day, I thought I’d focus on a different side of the White House. One Pets Blog readers might better appreciate: the variety of pets who have called the White House home. I think the first pet I remember hearing of living at the White House was Jimmy Carter’s daughter’s cat. I was just a little girl at the time (maybe eight?), and it caught my attention because I was surprised a cat … Continue reading →