Posts tagged "Boston"

Here at Paw Nation, we love funny animal videos and we love pet stories. So we hit the streets to ask dogs (and their owners) about everything from how they were adopted to what the naughtiest things they've ever done are. It's our weekly video series, "Pet On The Street."

This week we're in Boston asking owners to give us the scoop on what really irritates their dogs.

A pair of would-be honeymooners are back at home after Mexican officials refused to accept the groom's dog-chewed passport. Two days before Boston area newlyweds Eric Mann and Brooke Blew were set to enjoy a relaxing stay at a Cancun resort, the couple's 2-year-old basset hound, Moses, decided to use his dad's US passport as a chew toy.

How bad was the damage? We'll just say it was worse than just a few dog-eared pages. According to WCVBTV, Moses chewed up the front cover and teeth marks were clearly visible on a few of the pages. Mann reportedly visited the nearest passport office to inquire about getting an emergency passport.

According to MyFoxBoston, the intact barcode and photo on Mann's severely-chewed passport were enough to get the groom through security at Boston's Logan Airport. However, once the couple touched down in Cancun, it was a whole different story -- a much sadder one.

Mexican immigration officials stopped the honeymooners in their tracks, putting them back on the very same plane they flew in on. "I handed over my passport and that was it," Mann tells WCVBTV. "We weren't in the office a minute and they said, 'You have to leave the country.'"

Remember Kenmore, the cat who used to hang around Boston's Kenmore subway station before he was finally given a home last December?

We do, and we were wondering how the formerly subterranean feline was handling his above-ground existence. So we got in touch with his owner, Karen Ingraham, the trolley operator who had become concerned about his safety in the subway and rescued him.

Ingraham tells Paw Nation that the first day in his new home, Kenmore didn't venture out of the carrier. Her older rescue cat, a friendly orange and white male named Lucky, helped to smooth the way for the newcomer.

"I put the carrier down and told Lucky, 'Come and see the baby,'" Ingraham said. "By the next day they were friends already."

Now, several months later, Kenmore is playful, curious and content, Ingraham tells us. He follows Lucky's lead and greets visitors to her home, instead of hiding under furniture as he did in the early days.

"He likes to look out the window. He and Lucky sleep together and play together, and when I pet him he purrs and purrs," Ingraham said. "I think he's happy to have a home."

When a litter of kittens was born in Boston recently, all quickly found homes -- except one. Nubbins, who was born without hind feet, was surrendered to the MSPCA-Angell Animal Medical Center.

Nubbins was placed in foster care for several weeks, where he learned to walk on his malformed limbs, according to an MSPCA-Angell press release.

Now Nubbins needs a permanent home. His ideal home will be fully carpeted, since hard surfaces would be hazardous to his tender back legs. And his future adopters will need to have regular visits with a veterinarian who can keep a close eye on Nubbins' legs as he grows.

MSPCA-Angell staff are optimistic he'll find a loving home. "We care for thousands of homeless animals every year and we frequently encounter those with special needs," Meagan Rock, director of the MSPCA Boston Animal Care and Adoption Center, said in the news release.

Despite his special situation, Nubbins is a typical kitten. "This was something he was born with," Rock told Boston's WHDH News. "It's a deformity that he has and he overcomes all the time. He loves to play."

Here's hoping adorable little Nubbins finds his new home soon.

New York City is the place to be for fashion, theater, fine dining -- and, it turns out, is also a pet-friendly city. The housing rental website Rent.com recently released a list of the top 10 pet-friendly cities in the U.S. The Big Apple takes the top spot, with cities from North, South, East and West rounding out the list.

Rent.com president Peggy Abkemeier told Paw Nation that her company combed through thousands of pet-friendly rental listings to find cities with a significant percentage of cat- and dog-friendly pads for rent. "Of the Rent.com listings in Charleston and Austin, 98 percent are pet-friendly," Abkemeier told Paw Nation. Next, she and her team looked at other pet criteria such aspublic parks, doggie daycares, pet-friendly restaurants and off-leash beaches.

Abkemeier said that these days, the rental climate is pretty welcoming to pet owners around the country. "In fact, 80 percent of our national inventory is pet-friendly," she added. And as property owners deal with vacancies linked to the economic downturn, some are becoming even more flexible in their pet policies, she said.

Unfortunately, not all landlords are as charmed by our four-legged friends as we are. Abkemeier offered some tips for sweet-talking a potential landlord and landing the perfect pad.

• Ease landlords' worries by ensuring that your rental insurance will cover any pet-related damages.
• Show landlords recommendations from your current landlord or neighbors who can vouch for your pet's good behavior.
• Offer up written evidence of vaccinations and obedience training, so your potential landlord knows your dog is healthy and won't keep the neighbors up all night.
• Introduce your potential landlord to your pet. Abkemeier says that landlords often bend the rules when they see how sweet and well-behaved your pooch or kitty is in person.

To make things easier for cat- and dog-lovers, Rent.com lets you search a list of more than 20,000 apartments and homes where pets are welcome, and not just in the cities that made the top-ten list.

Did your hometown make the list of the most pet-friendly cities? Take a look at the top ten, then let us know what the pet climate is like in your neighborhood!

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