Of Cults, Crimes and Kittens
Just down the road (about 50 miles) from where I live at Best Friends Animal Sanctuary is Colorado City, a small Arizona/Utah town nestled up against…
Sheer Spite Kills Lennox
In the end, it simply boiled down to sheer spite and bloody-mindedness on the part of petty officials. The more people from around the world, pleaded,…
Now Pigs Can Fly
If your “service” pet is a pig or a horse or a monkey, you can now take her on a plane with you. The Dept. of…
When Labs Are Tigers and Chows Are Pandas
It started in China, but is spreading to the West: dyeing your dog to look like another animal. From tigers to turtles, it’s pets as fashion…
The Not-Very-Ugliest Dog
Mugly took home top honors in this Ugliest Dog Contest in Petaluma, Calif., this year. But frankly he just wasn’t that ugly. I mean, check out…
U.K. High Court Votes to Kill Family Dog
Two years ago, animal control officials in Northern Ireland, seized a family pet from the home of Caroline Barnes, a former veterinary nurse whose 11-year-old daughter…
When You Feel Blue, Does Fido Too?
When you’re feeling down in the dumps, does your pooch want to comfort you? If so, does she really know what’s going on with you, or…
How Dogs Have Saved an L.A. Neighborhood
In downtown L.A., pet-friendly policies have revitalized entire neighborhoods. In The Atlantic, Marissa Gluck writes: Walking dogs drove residents out of their homes and into the…
The Dead Kitty Copter
This takes Monty Python’s dead parrot sketch to a whole other level. And the responses are mixed: from “cute” to “hilarious” to “utterly tasteless” to “completely grotesque and definitely not funny.”
Do All Bugs Go to Heaven?
If dogs and cats can go to Heaven, why not chimpanzees, horses, birds, or even mosquitoes and worms? We decided to study what people think about whether all dogs—or for that matter, their fleas—go to Heaven.
Do Dogs Feel Guilt?
After a stressful day at work, you come home, only to discover that Rover has raided the trash and left a disaster all over the kitchen…
Racing 1,000 Miles to Her Adoption – Aaaw!
A small stray dog has become a sensation all across China after joining up with a cycling team and running with them for more than 1,000…
Fido’s Mysterious Ancestors
Dr. Larson and his colleagues conducted a detailed analysis of DNA 1,375 dogs of 121 breeds, along with 19 wolves. They found that all the modern breeds of dog had been so mixed that their early genetic history was impossible to see.
Where Cat Fur + Dirty Undies = Love Potion
When a woman in Malaysia reported her cat missing, the Malacca SPCA decided it was time to go snooping. After all, this was just the latest…
Italians Muzzle Pet Tax
An Italian canine da pastore Bergamasco It was all bark, no bite when a parliamentary commission in Italy proposed to help cut the massive debt by…
Did Dogs Help Us Beat the Neanderthals?
That means that the bond between humans and dogs was much stronger than simply the old “guarding the cave and getting a bone in return” idea, and that humans recognized an enormous dependence on their new best friends.
Dogs Agree: Yawning Is Contagious
It’s catching. Sometimes you only have to see the word and you want to yawn, too. (Like now?) And, in case you hadn’t noticed, Fido can…
Stray Dog Heals Homeless Dog’s Seizures
Blair the Labrador leads Tanner along on his walk When Tanner’s person died, the golden retriever’s health problems got much worse. Tanner was already blind; now…
Dogs Play Fetch Underwater
Photographer Seth Casteel specializes in lifestyle pet photography. So he got in the pool with a series of pets diving for balls, and the results are…
Welcome Home from War!
In Homer’s Odyssey, Argos the dog waits for 20 years for Odysseus, to come home from the Trojan War. Unable even to stand up any longer, he refuses to take his last breath until he’s been reunited. Here’s a more joyful compendium of Welcome Home videos.