Posts tagged "ShelterDog"

Iams Issues Voluntary Cat Food Recall
Iams ProActive Health canned Cat and Kitten Food is being recalled due to low levels of thiamine. The recall includes all varieties of 3 oz & 5.5 oz cans with a "best if used by" date between September 2011 and June 2012. According to Iams, "early signs of thiamine deficiency may include loss of appetite, salivation, vomiting and weight loss. In advanced cases, signs may include ventroflexion (downward curving) of the neck, wobbly gait, falling, circling and seizures. If treated promptly, thiamine deficiency is typically reversible." Contact your veterinarian immediately if your cat is displaying any of these signs or if you are concerned about your cat's health.

Neither dry cat food nor any varieties of Iams dog food are affected. If you have this product in your home, you should discard it. You can learn more about the recall and product refunds by reading this, or calling Proctor & Gamble at 877-340-8826 Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. ET.

Bob Harper Speaks Up for Shelter Pups
He's spoken out about vegetarianism, about ditching dairy, and even wore PETA's "Fight Breedism" t-shirt on television, so it's pretty clear that Bob Harper of "The Biggest Loser" is an animal lover. Now, after adopting a shelter puppy named Karl, Harper is speaking out against puppy mills, according to Ecorazzi. Harper told the Los Angeles Times, "It just kills me when people spend money on a dog when there are dogs in shelters waiting for someone to take them. I want to tell them, 'No! Those are puppy mills!'"

Many animal lovers are already familiar with Freekibble.com and Freekibblekat.com, the trivia game sites that donate to shelters ten pieces of kibble for every answer (right or wrong) you give to their questions. You can visit every day (and really, you should!), but on special days sponsors will donate five times as much kibble. Today, Feb. 5, is one of those days.

The sites and the concept are really cool, no doubt, but what's even cooler is that our friends at Tonic scored an interview with the girl behind the site, 13-year-old Mimi Ausland! She shared lots of fun facts, including how she was inspired to start these sites and -- something we're all itching to know -- how much kibble has been donated since she started nearly two years ago.

Check out the full interview at Tonic!

We love stories about people finding new ways to help needy pets, so when we were contacted by Clarissa Jones about the Save the Dogs From the Chill Project, our tails got to wagging.

The Save the Dogs From the Chill Project takes donations of old sweaters and repurposes them for dogs in shelters, something that's particularly important this winter when temperatures all across the country are reaching record lows. Even the southern states are seeing below-freezing temperatures, and not all shelters have indoor areas for all their dogs.

You can keep tabs on the project's progress on their blog -- at the present moment, Jones tells Paw Nation, "We have received so many donations that boxes are starting to pile up to the ceiling. It's crazy! We want to try and have everything mailed out by the end of next week."

And, of course, you can send your own used sweaters (or check your local Goodwill to scoop some up on the cheap) to the address in this post. Come on, you're never going to wear that ugly Christmas sweater again, are you? Lend a paw to a dog in need!

Calling Katherine Heigl! Her charitable efforts on behalf of animals may be needed again.

As we reported recently, the Grey's Anatomy star donated $25,000 -- via her charity organization the Jason Debus Heigl Foundation -- to fly 25 lap dogs from Los Angeles to Nashua, N.H. The transfer is an attempt to get the dogs to a part of the country with a high demand for small dogs, but little supply.

It turns out that Los Angeles isn't the only California city dealing with high numbers of small dogs -- the entire state is affected. Last week San Francisco's Animal Care and Control hosted a press event to draw attention to their own tiny problem -- chihuahuas.

"A year and a half ago we started to see an increase in chihuahuas coming to the shelter, either as stray dogs or surrendered by their owners," SF AC&C spokesperson Deb Campbell tells Paw Nation. "It's been a steady increase since then. We've never seen this before with chihuahuas." In years past, the shelter always had an overabundance of pit bulls and pit-bull mixes. Chihuahuas were rare, Campbell tells Paw Nation. "They would be adopted out immediately."

The overall consensus among shelters and rescuers in California, along with the Humane Society of Greater Nashua, is that pop culture is to blame for this explosion. "People see little dogs as a nice Louis Vuitton handbag or beautiful Prada sunglasses," Campbell tells Paw Nation. "They're an accessory to a lot of people. They've seen starlets on TV, movies, and in magazines with these dogs, and so people bred to meet that demand. And they went overboard."

Anna and I finally were married in her hometown of Birmingham, Ala. at the end of last month. Our family and friends gave rousing and original toasts and Anna looked lovely. My only regret was that I couldn't bring my cat, Nora, to the ceremony. I truly do believe that she would have enjoyed herself. Unfortunately, she was stuck back at our apartment in Hoboken, alone but for occasional check-in visits from our friend. Nora won't be alone for much longer, however, as Anna and I continue our quest for a canine companion.

The week before the wedding, we stayed at Anna's mother's house, and had a chance to spend some quality time with her dogs: Whisky Sam "Damn-it" McGivaren and Picabo Street. Whisky is an extremely loyal and charismatic 13-year-old Westie who moves slowly these days but continues to charm as he did when Anna was still in the house.

Picabo Street was adopted more recently when Anna's sister Emily saved her from a group of thugs who were using her for target practice. Emily bravely put herself between the terrified dog and the gun, brought the dog home, and placed it onto her sleeping mother's chest. They named the dog Picabo Street after the champion alpine ski racer, who just happened to be competing on television that night.

Whisky and Picabo both love Anna, and she loves them. It's clear to me that she's getting anxious about finding a dog of our own. Now that our wedding is over, we can pursue the task in earnest.

Tell me your stories. Are puppies and newlyweds like chocolate and peanut butter, two great tastes that taste great together?

In honor of National Animal Shelter Appreciation Week, we've asked our bloggers to share their stories of shelter animal adoption.

On a warm fall Saturday in 2002, my fiance and I stopped in a Petsmart to buy cat litter. While he searched the aisles for the right brand, I wandered over to one of the pet-rescue groups, Puppy Hill Farm, that sets up shop in the store each weekend. I'd grown up with dogs, but my fiance hadn't, and I had yet to talk him into adopting one.

As we were about to leave the store, we both stopped in our tracks. A young couple was bringing in a black Labrador mix puppy, and we overheard something about it being their roommate's dog, for which they couldn't provide care after the roommate had dropped out of school and moved home. It took my husband about five seconds to fall in love with this puppy. It took me less time.

We named the dog Yuki, and she quickly became an enormous part of our lives. Yuki exhibited typical puppy behavior, but was eager to please and very smart, so although she was large (about 60 pounds), she went everywhere with us. We took her tailgating, to outdoor restaurants, up to Canada for vacation, and she was even in our wedding. She was the perfect running buddy, but was gentle enough to take on visits to my grandmother's nursing home.

Unless you're Cruella de Vil, you are guaranteed to love the new "101 Dalmatians" musical -- especially since all of the animal actors are shelter rescues.

"The script for the musical is based on the original 1956 book by Dodie Smith in which the story is told from the dogs' perspectives," the show's producer, Lee Marshall, tells Paw Nation. "Nothing in the musical is related to any of the motion pictures," he says, referring to the 1961 animated Walt Disney movie and the 1996 live-action film starring Glenn Close.

To illustrate the world as the dogs see it, all the human actors will be on 15-inch stilts surrounded by an extra-tall set scaled to show a dog's eye view of the world. The lead dog roles of Pongo and Missus Perdita -- whose Dalmatian puppies are stolen by the evil Cruella de Vil -- will be played by human actors dressed in fashionably spotted suits, and child actors will play the puppies.

But Marshall sprinkles each performance with real Dalmatians. Fifteen fortunate pups bound on the stage at the end of Act 1 and during the show's finale, performing choreographed movements set to music written by Dennis DeYoung, founding member of the legendary band Styx.

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