Paw Nation http://www.pawnation.com Paw Nation http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.pawnation.com/media/feedlogo.gif Paw Nation http://www.pawnation.com en-us Copyright 2012 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/"Mutts" Creator Patrick McDonnellhttp://www.pawnation.com/2009/10/21/mutts-creator-patrick-mcdonnell/http://www.pawnation.com/2009/10/21/mutts-creator-patrick-mcdonnell/http://www.pawnation.com/2009/10/21/mutts-creator-patrick-mcdonnell/#commentsFiled under:

Posted online by special permission of King Features Syndicate

Technically, Patrick McDonnell works with imaginary animals. But for the millions who flip straight to the comics section, the "Mutts" crew is as real as their own pets. Everyone from PETA to the Humane Society of the United States have bestowed honors on McDonnell, and even late "Peanuts" artist Charles Schulz called "Mutts" "one of the best comic strips of all time." This fall, McDonnell publishes "Wags," a children's book about what makes "Mutts" star Earl's tail wag.

Name: Patrick McDonnell
Age: 53
Job: Author and illustrator of the comic strip "Mutts" and 13 compilation books.

Earl was inspired by your prior Jack Russell, also named Earl, who lived to be 19. What about Mooch?
Mooch was a combination of a few cats I had when I was growing up. We always had cats and I always wanted a dog, but I guess my parents didn't think I could take care of one. I bought every book about dogs I could find, I wanted a dog so bad. When I finally got Earl, he certainly lived up to everything I could have wanted for a dog.

How did you decide on how Earl would look? Was that instantaneous, or did it develop over time?
Early in my career, I was an illustrator for Forbes and Sports Illustrated and so forth, and in 90 percent of my drawings, there was a little white dog in the background. I just thought I was drawing a generic dog, but an art director told me that I was drawing a Jack Russell terrier. So I looked it up in a book and it was like my cartoon dog come to life. So the cartoon dog became a real dog and the real dog became the cartoon dog.

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]]>animalscartoonscomicsiworkwithanimalspetsSteve FriessWed, 21 Oct 2009 15:00:00 ESTSuperZoo's Innovative (and Quirky) Pet Productshttp://www.pawnation.com/2009/10/08/superzoos-innovative-and-quirky-pet-products/http://www.pawnation.com/2009/10/08/superzoos-innovative-and-quirky-pet-products/http://www.pawnation.com/2009/10/08/superzoos-innovative-and-quirky-pet-products/#commentsFiled under: , , , ,


Last month's SuperZoo, the largest pet goods trade show of the year, showcased hundreds of products both predictable (leashes, toys, carriers) and a bit offbeat (licorice dog treats, cat's pajamas, relaxation CDs). There was a lot to choose from, so we at Paw Nation searched high and low for a collection of the most intriguing, useful, strange and ingenious new items hitting pet stores in the coming months.

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Inventive Pet Supplies from SuperZoo
Amazing Treat Machine
It looks like an ordinary cardboard box, but inventor Michael Newman insists it's so much more. The $13 box folds in such a way that when a dog drops a ball into the top of it, the ball plus a treat flies out the front.
AmazingTreatMachine.com

Inventive Pet Supplies from SuperZoo

    Amazing Treat Machine
    It looks like an ordinary cardboard box, but inventor Michael Newman insists it's so much more. The $13 box folds in such a way that when a dog drops a ball into the top of it, the ball plus a treat flies out the front.

    AmazingTreatMachine.com

    Bowzer Buddy
    Marlies Barton came up with the Bowzer Buddy, a $17 purse with an outer pocket for purple, biodegradable bags and a zipper pocket for stashing cash and cell phone. The purse comes in six different colors, holds up to 15 of the bags at a time, and clips right onto the leash or your belt loops.

    Bowzer Buddy

    Dura Doggie Disc
    As a product idea for an entrepreneurship class at the University of California at Santa Barbara, a group developed the Dura Doggie Disc -- a $15 dog Frisbee that also doubles as a water dish and indestructible chew toy. The kids graduated last spring and now are focused full-time on their product. Hopefully they got an A -- it's pretty brilliant.

    Steve Friess/Paw Nation

    Anti-Lick Strip Prevent
    When your pet has an injury, they need to let it heal, but there's something irresistible about licking that dang boo-boo. Nurtured Pets now sells a bandage to deter licking. Sprinkled with cayenne pepper, this thing is less than tasty, plus it uses an adhesive that won't tear off fur. A two-pack starts at $8.95.

    Nurtured Pets

    Pet Top Portable Drinking Devices
    Keeping your pup hydrated on a hike can be a real pain: if you don't have anything to pour the water into, you're pretty much screwed. Seeing a problem in need of a solution, Nick Pappas invented this $8 orange screw-top adapter that fits most standard bottles and dispenses water upon the dog's lick.

    Steve Friess/Paw Nation

    Pooch Power
    Yet another entry in the pick-up-after-'em genre is the Pooch Power system, a four pound cordless vacuum cleaner for dog poop. Just latch a plastic bag to the entry hole, then suck up the droppings on the lawn or sidewalk. The $125 device comes with 25 plastic bags, is battery-operated and rechargeable.

    PetPowerProducts

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]]>dog toysDogToyspet productsPetProductssuperzooSteve FriessThu, 08 Oct 2009 17:00:00 ESTFunny Cat Video: Human Cat Perchhttp://www.pawnation.com/2009/10/01/human-cat-perch/http://www.pawnation.com/2009/10/01/human-cat-perch/http://www.pawnation.com/2009/10/01/human-cat-perch/#commentsFiled under: ,


Ever tell your friends about something funny your pets do but can never get them to do it in front of company? YouTube user Sweetpea377 went to an extreme to prove that her tuxedo cat hangs out in a rather unusual place -- every night!

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]]>bathroomcatsFunny Animal Videosfunny cat videoFunny Cat VideosFunny Pet VideosFunnyAnimalVideosFunnyCatVideoFunnyCatVideosFunnyPetVideosvideoyoutubeSteve FriessThu, 01 Oct 2009 15:00:00 ESTSuperZoo's Creative Grooming Competitionhttp://www.pawnation.com/2009/09/30/superzoos-creative-grooming-competition/http://www.pawnation.com/2009/09/30/superzoos-creative-grooming-competition/http://www.pawnation.com/2009/09/30/superzoos-creative-grooming-competition/#commentsFiled under: , ,


Six finalists in the Creative Grooming Contest at the SuperZoo convention in Las Vegas earlier this month clipped, dyed, and pruned their dogs into visual representations of everything from Pac-Man to the garden of Eden.

These aren't the only folks who like to shave and dye their dogs. Aubrey O'Day is known for putting foils in her Maltese's fur, and who could forget these insane poodle transformations and China's latest dyeing trend.

Check out the gallery below to see their creative results and cast your vote for who you think should have won. Find out who actually took the big prize after the jump.

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SuperZoo's Creative Grooming Competition
"Pac Poodle" by Sandra Hartness
Steve Friess/Paw Nation

SuperZoos Creative Grooming Competition

    "Pac Poodle" by Sandra Hartness

    Steve Friess/Paw Nation

    "Garden of Eden" by Cat Opson

    Steve Friess/Paw Nation

    "Go Green" by Carol Hoover

    Steve Friess/Paw Nation

    "Queen of Hearts" by Rebecca Reimer

    Steve Friess/Paw Nation

    "Solar System" by Margaret Batten

    Steve Friess/Paw Nation

    "Thing #1 and Thing #2" by Lisa Reeder

    Steve Friess/Paw Nation



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]]>creative dog groomingCreativeDogGroominggeo:36.174999 -115.136398superzooWhere:las-vegas-nvSteve FriessWed, 30 Sep 2009 15:00:00 ESTWoman Hits $20,000 Vegas Jackpot In Grooming Contesthttp://www.pawnation.com/2009/09/23/woman-hits-20-000-vegas-jackpot-in-grooming-contest/http://www.pawnation.com/2009/09/23/woman-hits-20-000-vegas-jackpot-in-grooming-contest/http://www.pawnation.com/2009/09/23/woman-hits-20-000-vegas-jackpot-in-grooming-contest/#commentsFiled under: ,

Tammy Colbert with Cece picture

Tammy Colbert with Cece moments after winning $20K in a grooming competition on Thursday at SuperZoo in Las Vegas. Photo: Steve Friess/Paw Nation

Forget the slot machines! Tammy Colbert hit the jackpot by perfectly grooming a miniature schnauzer named Cece. The California resident bested 35 other expert groomers in the two-hour competition at the pet goods trade show SuperZoo, taking home $20,000 -- the world's largest prize in the history of dog grooming contests.

Colbert, who runs Wildwynd, a mobile grooming business in Huntington Beach, Calif., told Paw Nation, "They kept reading off the names and when they got down to fifth, [I] started crying. And then I won and it was just surreal that it even happened."

The prize money, furnished by the World Wide Pet Industry Association, is a long way from Colbert's first grooming competitions back in the mid-1980s. Back then, she said, winners received prizes like a gallon of shampoo and a plaque.

"People could hardly believe it that there was going to be this much money," event coordinator Janice Fehn told Paw Nation. "This is the biggest money ever, ever, ever offered."

Continue reading Woman Hits $20,000 Vegas Jackpot In Grooming Contest

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]]>dog groomingdog grooming competitionDogGroomingDogGroomingCompetitionsuperzooSteve FriessWed, 23 Sep 2009 15:00:00 ESTStem Cells Used to Treat Animals Suffering From Arthritishttp://www.pawnation.com/2009/08/12/stem-cells-used-to-treat-animals-suffering-from-arthritis/http://www.pawnation.com/2009/08/12/stem-cells-used-to-treat-animals-suffering-from-arthritis/http://www.pawnation.com/2009/08/12/stem-cells-used-to-treat-animals-suffering-from-arthritis/#commentsFiled under: ,

Stem Cells Used to Treat Animals Suffering From Arthritis picture

Photo: J Pat Carter, AP


The debate may rage on over stem-cell treatments for people, but hundreds of veterinarians are already using the renewable cells to give arthritic dogs and horses a new spring in their steps.

Vet-Stem, the company pioneering such treatments, harvests adult stem cells from the suffering animal's body fat, isolates them in a lab, and then injects the stem cells into the affected area, such as the hips. While there have been no truly independent clinical studies to determine the effectiveness -- Vet-Stem has funded the three biggest studies to date -- there has been promising anecdotal evidence coming from reputable sources.

University of Florida veterinarian Kristin Kirby, for instance, told the Associated Press that the owners of the five dogs she's injected with stem cells extracted from their own fat have all reported marked improvement -- though no outright cures -- from vexing mobility problems. Ditto for Adam Gassel, a vet in Irvine, Calif., who has treated 40 dogs and found 80 percent of his patients enjoyed varying degrees of relief.

"I was pretty skeptical," Dr. Gassel told the Associated Press. "I was hoping that dogs would just be more comfortable."

California-based Vet-Stem has treated 3,500 horses and 1,500 dogs, and they've licensed 1,500 vets to use their procedures since they started in 2003. Treatments for cats are coming this year. "We're a long way from growing a heart or a whole organ outside of the body and transplanting it, we're decades away, I'm sure," Vet-Stem founder Dr. Bob Harman told ABC's "Nightline". "What we can do is take these cells and put them in a damaged organ and help the organ truly heal itself."

At $2,500 to $3,000 a pop, the treatments aren't cheap, and there's no guarantee more operations won't be necessary. But consider the case of Be A Bono, a thoroughbred with bone chips in his knees and damage to cushioning fluid around the joints. After surgery, Be A Bono went on to earn more than $1 million in racing purses. Now if only there was a way for Fido to earn that kind of money fetching the ball!

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]]>arthritisarthritis treamentsArthritisTreamentspet health questionsPetHealthQuestionsstem cell researchstem cellsStemCellResearchStemCellsveterinary medicineVeterinaryMedicineSteve FriessWed, 12 Aug 2009 13:00:00 EST