Holiday Gifts for Pets

Internet Pet Supplies Holiday Pet Treats are great presents for:
your own "best friend"
family member's pets
friends with pets
teachers
neighbors
dog groomers clients
dog walkers clients
dog sitters clients
Veterinary patients
dog breeders customers
animal welfare facilities
animal rescue groups
dog club members
hostess "Thank You" gifts

Friday Cat Blog

Smoke growing up

in March, 2002




in May, 2002



in November, 2002



in July, 2005



He's still the sweetest, fluffiest, fuzziest most lovable kitty I've ever lived with.


Visit Friday Ark, to see this week's round-up of cats, dogs and other animals.

Also, make it a habit to see the Carnival of the Cats which goes up every Sunday and will be hosted this week by Music and Cats.

Baby aardvark at Nebraska zoo

The Henry Doorly Zoo has announced the birth of its first aardvark. The animal, born in Omaha on Sept. 9, made its public debut on Wednesday at the nursery, the zoo said.

The baby was born weighing only 3 pounds but grew to about 5 pounds within two and a half weeks. The animal comes out of an incubator for feedings, exercise and play each day from noon to 4 p.m., the zoo said. The animal eats a specially formulated liquid diet but will begin eating solid foods in about one month.

Kids smoking cane toads

Are Australian kids a little strange, or what?

Children as young as 12 are licking cane toads in an attempt to get high, the Northern Territory News has learned.

Some children and teenagers in Katherine and Arnhem Land are even drying out the skins of cane toads and rolling them up as joints to get a hit.

But Territory health authorities have warned that those who lick or smoke cane toads are dicing with death and stress that there are no hallucinogenic effects possible from bufo toxin, the toxin excreted by the introduced pest.

Director of emergency medicine at Royal Darwin Hospital Didier Palmer said anyone who ingests bufo toxin is more likely to die than get high from it.

"These are very foolish and dangerous acts," he said.

"Anyone who does this runs the very serious risk of seizures, a rapid loss of consciousness, cardio-vascular collapse and death.

Steven Kenny Fine Art

We humans are inclined to forget or ignore the principles of existence. They include: every action directly impacts our environment, change is unavoidable, stasis is unnatural, time is beyond our influence, conception is the commencement of death as well as life, and many others. Our challenge is to humbly accept Nature’s gifts and live by the lessons set before us without imposing our arrogant will upon each other and the planet.
(via)

Balls of Fire: Bees carefully cook invaders to death

Honeybees that defend their colonies by killing wasps with body heat come within 5°C of cooking themselves in the process, according to a study in China.

At least two species of honeybees there, the native Apis cerana and the introduced European honeybee, Apis mellifera, engulf a wasp in a living ball of defenders and heat the predator to death. A new study of heat balling has described a margin of safety for the defending bees, says Tan Ken of Yunnan Agricultural University in Kunming, China.
(via)

Animal Bytes

Each byte is a one-page fact sheet specifically designed to help you quickly find information about some of the interesting creatures found in the animal kingdom. Most species files include coverage regarding scientific classification, basic physical traits, fun facts, and conservation/ecological value. Where available, links to more in-depth species coverage via our online infobooks are provided.

New Love Breaks Up a 6-Year Penguin Relationship at the Zoo

The two male chinstrap penguins had found each other in the big city. They had remained faithful. They had even raised a child. But then, not too long ago, they lost their home. Silo's eye began to wander, and last spring he forsook his partner of six years at the Central Park Zoo and took up with a female from California named Scrappy. Of late, Roy has been seen alone, in a corner, staring at a wall.

New York Times log in required: BugMeNot.com

Mouse grounds flight for over 12 hours

Passengers were buckled up when a crew member spotted a mouse darting across an aisle, triggering a chase that grounded a Qatar Airways plane at Manila airport for more than 12 hours.

The airline asked the 243 passengers to disembark, unloaded hundreds of pieces of luggage and brought the Airbus 330-200 to a hangar for a two-hour fumigation, the Philippine Daily Inquirer and the Philippine Star reported. The rodent was never found, so it either escaped or there's a dead mouse aboard the plane.

Piranha bites Manila airport inspector

A routine check of a shipment at Manila airport turned bloody when a piranha sprung up and bit one of the inspectors.

The bite left a V-shaped wound on the inspector's finger, and the 34 piranhas in the consignment he was checking -- falsely declared as "ornamental fish" from Peru -- were confiscated over the weekend, but died two days later, the newspaper reported.

Photos Offer First Glimpse of Live Deep-Sea Giant

A live giant squid (Architeuthis) measuring roughly 25 feet (8 meters) long attacks a baited fishing line off the Ogasawara Islands. Japanese scientists recently released the first-ever images of a live giant squid in the wild. Their series of photos offers clues about the way giant squid swim and hunt in the deep ocean.

Red Tide Chasing Away Fall Beach Visitors

The red tide bloom that has plagued the southwest Florida coast for most of the year is chasing away tourists this fall, business owners and tourism officials said.

The toxic algae has left loads of stinky dead fish on beaches and makes it hard for people to breathe. It has prompted early checkouts and cancellations at hotels in tourist hot spots such as Anna Maria Island near Bradenton and Sanibel and Captiva islands off Fort Myers.

Fish, sand dollars, sponges, crabs, coral and other undersea life suffocated as the red tide -- this strain is called Karenia brevis -- choked off the oxygen in the water. Bottlenose dolphins, sea turtles, manatees and birds that swim through it, inhale the nerve-impairing toxins in the surf spray or eat contaminated fish also have perished.

Predicting when and where red tide will show up is impossible because blooms are driven by wind, currents and tides.

Puppy swallows 13-inch knife

Jon-Paul Carew has seen strange items get into the stomachs of dogs before, things like kebab skewers and small utensils. But a 13-inch serrated knife in a 6-month-old puppy?

That was a new one.

"I was just flabbergasted," said Carew, of Imperial Point Animal Hospital in Fort Lauderdale.

The knife was removed this week from Elsie, a Saint Bernard puppy. The dog's owner, Jane Scarola, wrapped it in a towel and put it in a cabinet atop the refrigerator.

Armed dolphins may be missing

It may be the oddest tale to emerge from the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Armed dolphins, trained by the US military to shoot terrorists and pinpoint spies underwater, may be missing in the Gulf of Mexico.

Experts who have studied the US navy's cetacean training exercises claim the 36 mammals could be carrying 'toxic dart' guns. Divers and surfers risk attack, they claim, from a species considered to be among the planet's smartest. The US navy admits it has been training dolphins for military purposes, but has refused to confirm that any are missing.

New findings about West Nile confound researchers

For more than five years, scientists have believed mosquitoes spread West Nile virus with the help of a highly infected middleman - birds.

Now, a study suggests mosquitoes may be able to spread the virus directly to one another when they feed together.

This discovery still may not resolve the mystery of how the virus has swept across North America so quickly since 1999. But the unexpected finding illustrates how, after more than five years of intense research, West Nile continues to confound scientists and stump health officials as they try to protect the public from the disease's advance.

Amazonian Ants Use Own Herbicide to Poison Unwanted Plants

A species of ants in the Amazon rainforest controls its environment by selectively killing off plants it doesn't like, a new study reveals. Findings published today in the journal Nature, indicate that a formic acid herbicide produced and used by ants is responsible for single-species swatches of trees.

Sections of the rainforest made-up almost entirely of the tree species Duroia hirsuta, are called "Devil's gardens." Local legend holds that they were produced by an evil forest spirit, report Megan E. Frederickson of Stanford University and her colleagues. But the results of a four-year field study reveal that ants that make their nests in D. hirsuta are the driving force between the homogeneous plots of vegetation. The team introduced saplings of another common Amazonia tree to "Devil's gardens," using a barrier to protect some of them from the ants. Those that were unprotected, however, were quickly attacked by worker ants, which injected poisonous formic acid into the leaves. Trees began to show signs of withering within 24 hours and most of the leaves were lost after five days.

A New Deadly, Contagious Dog Flu Virus Is Detected in 7 States

A new, highly contagious and sometimes deadly canine flu is spreading in kennels and at dog tracks around the country, veterinarians said yesterday.

The virus, which scientists say mutated from an influenza strain that affects horses, has killed racing greyhounds in seven states and has been found in shelters and pet shops in many places, including the New York suburbs, though the extent of its spread is unknown.

Dr. Cynda Crawford, an immunologist at the University of Florida's College of Veterinary Medicine who is studying the virus, said that it spread most easily where dogs were housed together but that it could also be passed on the street, in dog runs or even by a human transferring it from one dog to another. Kennel workers have carried the virus home with them, she said.

Antique Dog Photos

Her master's voice.
Originally uploaded by Antique Dog Photos.

Lots of old photos with dogs in them. A very unusual collection.

Friday Cat Blog

Grace, hiding in plain sight


Can't hardly see her, can you?

Visit Friday Ark, to see this week's round-up of cats, dogs and other animals.

Also, make it a habit to see the Carnival of the Cats which goes up every Sunday and will be hosted this week by Yourish.com.

Mass Extinction of Insects May Be Occurring Undetected

The term 'endangered species' typically conjures up images of charismatic animals—tigers, pandas, orangutans, whales, condors. But a new study says that the vast majority of species on the verge of extinction is in fact humble insects.

The study estimates that up to 44,000 bugs of all varieties could have been wiped off the face of the Earth during the last 600 years. And hundreds of thousands more insect species could be lost over the next 50 years.

Only about 70 insect extinctions have been documented since the 15th century, possibly because many insects have been poorly studied.

Most Dangerous Animal? Hint: They Make Honey

Bees are deadly.

More people in the United States are killed by them than by any other animal - and some of those people may not be getting the right emergency room treatment.

A study published in the September issue of The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology suggests that most insect sting victims, even those with potentially fatal reactions, are undertreated in hospitals and discharged without the proper follow-up.

The researchers reviewed the charts of 617 patients with insect sting allergies treated at 15 hospital emergency rooms in the United States and Canada. Almost one-third of patients had anaphylactic reactions, the more severe, multisystem responses that can be fatal.

New York Times log in required: BugMeNot.com

Jakarta cracks down on bird flu

The Indonesian government has imposed 'extraordinary' measures to contain a bird flu outbreak that has killed four people in Indonesia, including the forced hospitalization of people with symptoms of the disease.

In addition to the fatalities, seven patients suspected of having the H5N1 strain of bird flu -- two of them zoo employees -- have been admitted to Jakarta's infectious diseases hospital, officials said.

Three Plague-Infected Lab Mice Missing

Three laboratory mice infected with the bacteria responsible for bubonic plague are missing from a bioterrorism-research facility in Newark, sparking an investigation by federal and state authorities.

Lucies Farm Luxury Dog Resort

Nestled on 57 acres in sunny Worcestershire, Lucies Farm is the premier resort destination for man’s best friend. From the convenience of watching your dog via web cam to the personalised service and unique amenities of each cubby, Lucies Farm is in a class of its own. While you’re away, give your dog the ultimate in luxury, attentive personal service and the pleasures of an incomparable location at home on Lucies Farm.

Temple going to the dogs

The newest acolyte at a temple on an outlying South Korea island is a dog who has learned to sit, stay and perform Buddhist prayer rituals alongside the monks.

Monks at Buljang Temple on Chindo island off the southwest coast said the stray called "Hama" now joined them at prayer.

Hama -- Korean for hippopotamus -- follows monks into the temple and bows in the same manner for prayer, a temple official said. Some local Buddhists, who believe in reincarnation, are wondering what Hama may have been in a past life.

"Since about a month ago, when the monks were performing a ceremony paying respect to Buddha, they were joined by this one-year-old dog," the official said by telephone.

Sea lion invaders have law on their side

They have broken windows, sunk a boat and their barking keeps Newport Beach harbor residents awake all night.

But the more than 40 sea lions that have made southern California's ritzy Newport Beach their home have the law on their side. As a protected species under a 1972 U.S. federal law, they cannot be killed, harmed, or even harassed.

In an effort to find the ultimate place to sun themselves, the sea lions have taken up residence in yachts, sailboats and fishing vessels in the small harbor that boasts multimillion dollar houses on one side and quaint beach shops on the other.

"Last week, so many of them piled on a sailboat that it sank. The Harbor Patrol was out here trying to use water to get them off, but it didn't work," said Doug Turin, owner of Newport Harbor Boat Rentals.

Responsible Dog Ownership

A survey commissioned by the American Kennel Club in observance of AKC® Responsible Dog Ownership Day on September 17, 2005 revealed that some dog owners need more control over their pets, especially when out and about in the community. Top issues bothering non-dog owners about their canine-loving counterparts include jumping, barking and owners not obeying pooper-scooper laws. The survey also revealed some quirky human characteristics defining those with pooches and those without.

Two Mississippi dolphins rescued after Katrina

Wildlife experts on Thursday rescued two of eight bottlenose dolphins swept from their aquarium home into the Gulf of Mexico by Hurricane Katrina and said they hoped to recapture the others in the next few days.

Moby Solangi, president of the Marine Life Oceanarium in Gulfport, Mississippi, said the two rescued dolphins, 30-year-old Jackie and her 16-year-old offspring, Toni, had been taken to a hotel swimming pool.

The six others, including Jackie's 5-year-old son, Elijah, are still in the Gulf and will be rescued as soon as the U.S. Navy provides salt water tanks to house them, said Connie Barclay, spokeswoman for the fisheries division of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Friday Cat Blog

Chopper is ready for dinner.



But Ava says, "Hey, that's my chair!"



We're not the only ones crazy about our pets. Visit Friday Ark, to see others.

Also, make it a habit to see the Carnival of the Cats which goes up every Sunday and will be hosted this week by Watermark.

Female Bats Share their Mates

Female greater horseshoe bats share male mates with their mothers and grandmothers, Nature magazine reports.

This serves to bind families together, but avoids the dangers of inbreeding.

The females live together in groups segregated from the opposite sex, but gang together to prowl for males once the mating season arrives.

Sea Lions Cause Mayhem in Newport Beach

The scuttling of a $24,000 boat may be the most striking example of mayhem that sea lions have caused since they started showing up in Newport Harbor in May.

Residents complain that they bark all night long, and the city received a report that a rogue sea lion tipped over a mother and her child in their kayak.

City officials are considering asking the City Council to make it illegal to feed the sea lions.

Pick Your Own Pig

Ever wanted to have your own rare breed pig, to know where your meat has come from, to rest assured that it has been fed on the best pig food (non-GM and without medicines), as well as grass, roots and bugs, and even to choose the way the meat is prepared, that has been hung to give it a chance to mature, with an option to enjoy cuts that no supermarket would ever offer, and be able to create your very own sausages, to your individual recipe?
(via)

The History of Kobe Beef in Japan

Eating meat from four legged animals was prohibited in Japan for more than a thousand years prior to 1868.

This ban was especially strict during the Edo Period (1603-1867). Buddhist influences were primarily responsible for this dietary restriction, but other cultural factors and the need to protect draught animals in times of famine may have reinforced the taboo. After the Meiji Restoration in 1868, the new leaders of Japan wanted, among other things, to reduce traditional social barriers and to encourage the adoption of beneficial Western habits. There may also have been a desire to weaken the power of the Buddhists. Lifting the ban on the eating of meat was a small step towards these objectives.

Fat Little Fairies

The Penguin Parade at Phillip Island, just outside Melbourne, is one of the most famous tourist attractions in Australia and visited each year by half a million people. The phenomenon at Phillip Island has made Australia's Fairy Penguin Eudyptula minor famous all around the world. What is less well known is that these penguins can still be found in many other places in southern coastal Australia.

A hundred years ago, penguins were a common sight along southern mainland Australia. Today, however, human development, feral animals and traffic have forced most penguins to retreat to islands off the coast where they are relatively safe.

Video: Cat and a Ringing Phone

Get the phone, will ya?

Elephants know best time for a trunk call

Namibian elephants prefer to broadcast their very low-frequency calls at exactly the times of day when the air is best for carrying sound a long way, research has found.

In a three-week study that incorporated a range of meteorological equipment and an array of eight microphones, it was found that 42% of all elephant calls were made during the stable air period three hours after sunset.

Tracking the movement of leatherbacks in the Atlantic

Scientists estimate that about 50,000 leatherback turtles - a Critically Endangered species - are caught each year as bycatch in fisheries longlines.

WWF and its partners are tracking leatherback turtles in the waters of the Atlantic Ocean. You can follow their ocean voyages and track their movements and dives with the weekly reports and maps.

Molerats

Molerats are the only eusocial vertebrates known to man.

This means that these mammals live in colonies similar to those of ants and termites, with a single fertile queen giving birth to nonreproductive workers and soldiers.

Molerats are also famous for their incredibly powerful jaws, the muscles of which constitute 25% of their body mass.

Baby molerats are raised on a diet of their older sibling's fecal pellets, emitting a special cry when hungry to summon a worker.

Red Squirrel Week

Red squirrels are one of the most loved animals in the UK.

With their distinctive russet fur, tufted ears and twitching tail, a red squirrel is always a captivating sight in the forests of the UK. Yet these flashes of red are becoming more and more scarce - the current population is estimated to be only 160,000.

Red squirrels are at risk from grey squirrels and are usually displaced within 15 years of the arrival of greys. Disease and habitat fragmentation are also key factors in their decline.

Spend a week seeing red with Red Squirrel Week events at selected red squirrel sites across the UK.

Tail Talk

Cats use their tails to communicate their emotions, both to other cats and to humans. Here are some typical "tail postures" you will see, and what they mean.

Oil Tycoon Airlifts Stranded Animals from Floodwaters

Animal lovers have organized a major airlift of cats and dogs orphaned by Hurricane Katrina.

The first group of nervous and weary travelers left Baton Rouge, La., on Sunday on a chartered Continental Airlines plane. The plane flew first to San Diego, where it dropped off 50 dogs, and then to San Francisco International Airport, where it delivered 30 pooches and 20 kittens, said officials from the Marin, Calif., Humane Society, which is helping shelter the animals.

Texas oil tycoon T. Boone Pickens and his wife, Madeleine, paid the estimated $50,000 fee to charter the jet on Sunday, and donors are being sought to fund the transportation later this week for another 3,000 animals, with 1,000 each going to the San Francisco Bay Area, San Diego and Houston.

Hurricane's impact on animals

As of late last week, rescuers had pulled more than 1,000 stranded animals from deserted parts of New Orleans. Wayne Pacelle, president of the Humane Society, said it is just a start. The need for animal rescue is much more expansive. Pacelle estimates about 60 percent of U.S. households have pets and more than 50,000 animals were probably stranded by Katrina.

Volcanic overflow ruins salmon return on Alaska river

King Salmon River on the Alaska Peninsula: "No bears, no birds, no fish. It's like someone dropped a bomb on the place."

A new 1,300-foot-wide crater lake near the 7,005-foot summit of Chiginagak, a little known volcano, gushed through its glacial rim earlier this summer and spilled a foul slurry of volcanic sediment, water and ice, said volcanologist Janet Schaeffer. In addition to damaging the upper King Salmon system, the water also leaked into an unnamed drainage on Chiginagak Bay in Shelikof Strait, on the Cook Inlet side of the peninsula.

Quiz: Cool cats

How well do you know cats?

Love, Charlie

Charlie is an Italian Greyhound born May 17, 2003 in central Minnesota. He loves people, is often up to no good, retrieves like a retriever, chews chewing gum like a person, is allergic to house dust, and is very, very curious. His favorite toy is a pink house duster; he also loves small stuffed balls with squeakers. He hates construction cranes... go figure. This site documents the time he spends with his best friends Nicole Dotin and Eric Olson.

The ScatShovel

The ScatShovel makes cleaning yards quick, easy, and sanitary. The ScatShovel is uniquely designed to scoop and bag scat in one easy motion. You will be amazed at how easy it is to use. Simply attach an ordinary plastic grocery bag, scoop up the piles, remove the bag, and throw it away.

95% of thoroughbreds linked to one superstud

Virtually all 500,000 of the world’s thoroughbred racehorses are descended from 28 ancestors, born in the 18th and 19th centuries, according to a new genetic study. And up to 95% of male thoroughbreds can be traced back to just one stallion.

Thoroughbred horses were developed in 18th century in the UK. English mares were bred with Arabian and other stallions to create horses with great stamina for distance racing.

It was already known that just a handful of stallions (but many mares) were used to found the thoroughbred breed. But startlingly, the new research finds that, in 95% of modern racehorses, the Y-chromosome can be traced back to a single stallion - the Darley Arabian, born in 1700.

Stalking devotion - the Catman

Over the past 25 years, Stalking Cat, 47, has received so many surgical and cosmetic procedures he’s lost count. And he says all of them - from full-face tattoos to fanged dentures to steel implants for detachable "whiskers" - have been done to achieve oneness with what he calls his totem, the tiger.

"I’m Huron and Lakota," he said, relaxing barefoot in his Freeland, Wash., living room. "I’m just taking a very old tradition, that to my knowledge is not practiced anymore."

He has had all his teeth removed and replaced with tigerlike dentures and fangs. He has had his lip split to resemble the mouth of a cat. He has six stainless-steel mounts implanted on his forehead and 18 piercings above his lip to which he can attach whiskers. He has had nose and brow implants, and silicone cheek, chin and lip injections. The tips of his ears are pointed. And he has so many tattoos they almost cover his body.

Toyger Cats

Toyger cats, genetically designed to look like a tiger. The breed is still being developed and refined.

Luxury British developer offers live pig with every house sold

A housing developer in Britain is offering a live pig as a pet to anyone who purchases a property from him, a spokeswoman said, adding that the unusual offer had already attracted two buyers.

The rare Gloucester Old Spot pig will be fully house-trained before it delivered to its new family.

Those who do not fancy getting trotter marks on their carpets can opt to have their pig kept on a farm and turned into pork chops or rashers of bacon.

Friday Cat Blog

The kitties' new toy

Smoke, the fearless hunter, caught a locust one night. He brought it into the house for the enjoyment of the entire family.

It was great fun for about an hour. The locust flew from room to room, buzzing and crashing into walls. The kittties took turns chasing it and leaping into the air to catch it.

Then, the wings stopped working ...

The exhausted and damaged bug landed in the upstairs hallway.


Grace:"Hmmm, so this is what it looks like close-up."


"It's buzzing! And it's moving ... doesn't smell like much, though."


Smoke: "Hit it, Bandit! See if you can get it to fly again!"


Bandit: "Do you think we broke it? It's not doing anything."


"I'll give it a little push. Maybe that will jump-start it."


"Oh, oh. This is not good. It's laying on its back and waving its legs at me."


"It's not working. Nothing is working. The darn stupid thing won't play anymore."


"I've got one last idea. I'll push it down the stairs. That should make it fly again!"


Nope, sorry kitties.
The locust never flew again.
It did get to go for a swim though.
In the toilet.

If you're in the mood for more pet stories and photos, visit Friday Ark.

Also, please visit the Carnival of the Cats which will be hosted this Sunday at Elisson.

Protecting pets in times of disaster

When disaster strikes, it’s hard to think straight, so having a plan beforehand can save both human and animal lives.
(via)

Rescuers scramble to reach animals left in dire straits

"Animals are resilient," says Julie Morris of the ASPCA, "but they're going to starve, they're going to drown, so we're working as fast as possible."

For animal victims of Hurricane Katrina,
www.i-pets.com will ship for free any order placed for hurricane relief for animals, a pet rescue or animal welfare organization. We will do this regardless of the size or weight of the order.

Great Ape Portraits

Portraits of Gibbon, Siamang, Orangutan, Gorilla, Chimpanzee, and Bonobo by William H. Calvin.

Chimps, Humans 96 Percent the Same

Scientists have sequenced the genome of the chimpanzee and found that humans are 96 percent similar to the great ape species.

"Darwin wasn't just provocative in saying that we descend from the apes—he didn't go far enough," said Frans de Waal, a primate scientist at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. "We are apes in every way, from our long arms and tailless bodies to our habits and temperament."

They wouldn’t leave without their pets

Harold McDonald was racing to escape drowning in the floodwaters Hurricane Katrina swept into New Orleans when something made him turn around.

He found out his son’s red-nosed pit bull, Lela, remained stranded at his home.

Lela now sits safely inside a kennel at the East Park Fire Station in Houma, along with more than 30 other evacuated dogs and cats. Across the street, McDonald sits safely in the East Park Recreation Center with dozens of other New Orleans refugees.