Yes, its a piglet in with the puppies!

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Wolves are our canine furbabies’ closest relatives and many Dogsters are concerned about their well-being. If you’re as upset about the ruthless war on wolves as I am, here’s one small way you can help. It only takes a few minutes to sign this Care2 petition.

It happened today - the Bush administration has just eliminated federal protections for hundreds of endangered wolves in Greater Yellowstone and the Northern Rockies.

Please protest this decision now - it will only take a minute to send your message in support of protecting these wolves!

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What fun!

Thanks to Leeann B., furmom to Dahlila Rose, for barking in this opportunity from Hallmark! Your dog can be on a Hallmark birthday card!

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Thanks to Lady Bee for barking in this article from the TimesOnline.

Wildlife park lets you pet tiger for £160
PARADISE WILDLIFE PARK - in Hertfordshire, where for a fee visitors can feed lions and tigers.
Daniel Foggo and Holly Watt

A WILDLIFE park is charging members of the public to feed a 500lb tiger and pet it by putting their fingers inside its cage, a practice condemned by animal welfare groups as dangerous.

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Thanks to Lynn H. for barking in this article from The Washington Post.

Presidential Pet Display Finds a Place to Park
Annapolis Museum’s Contents Relocating to Williamsburg

It is what the Founding Fathers might have called “a more perfect union”: The Presidential Pet Museum in Annapolis is merging with Presidents Park in Williamsburg, creating a place where guests can wander through a garden of gigantic busts of all 43 presidents and wonder why Calvin Coolidge briefly kept a pet alligator.

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Good news — someone tested these pet foods. Bad news — they tested positive for melamine. I know these foods aren’t for dogs and cats but it suggests to me that the Chinese firms STILL don’t get it! Stop poisoning us and our pets!

We cannot let our guard down against Chinese foods! Before buying any pet foods, please check the country of origin. If it says “China” put it down!

This information comes from the FDA’s Enforcement Report for December 26, 2007.

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If you live in a city with a small dog or cat, you may think you don’t have to worry about predators. Think again! Janice, furmom to the darling Tico el Bandito, barked in to warn all Dogsters and Catsters to watch out for hungry predators.

It’s cold and many larger birds and other animals are hungry. Keep an eye on your smaller furbabies!

And Janice, please bark back in to let us know about Tico!

Janice F. wrote:
Joy

Yesterday morning my Chihuahua was attacked by a hawk in my own backyard.

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I don’t think the results of this research will come as a a surprize to most of us Dogster’s and Catsters. So much for that ridiculous statement — “They’re just animals!”

BTW, this article does discuss intrusive animal research. I am NOT condoning it but the research is so interesting that I am sharing the article anyway. Please do not bark in about how terrible this kind of research is; I share your concerns.

Thanks to Psychology Today and the ComparativePsychNews listserv for this article.

Animal Passions: Fido Loves You
Joy, despair, and the bold rush of love; experts insist such nuanced feelings are unique to humans, but some say they connect us to the rest of the animal kingdom.

By:Douglas Starr

They could almost be a couple of kids—chasing, tumbling and squealing with apparent glee. Well, almost like kids. For one thing, their squeals would be impossible to hear without the electronic device that lowers the pitch to the range of human perception. For another, black and white lab rats are not what we think of as fun-loving. Yet here they were, chirping up a storm while engaged in a bout of rough-and-tumble play.

“We studied these sounds for a couple of years without understanding they might be laughter,” says Jaak Panksepp, a neuroscientist who maps animal emotions in the brain. Tickling the rats, he has found, provokes the same chirping response observed during rat play. When he momentarily stops the tickling they run to his hand, seeking more. So if you ask whether young rats enjoy playing and tickling, the answer, says Panksepp, is an “unambiguous yes.”

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Amazing!!

Thanks to BBC.com for this article.

Kittens ‘adopted’ by pet rabbit

Six abandoned kittens have found an unexpected new mother figure - a pet rabbit.

Veterinary nurse Melanie Humble took the three-week-old kittens to her Aberdeen home. The kittens seemed to think Summer the rabbit was their mother and began to climb all over her and try to feed from her.

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Thanks to ComparativePsychNews for this EurekaAlert.org press release.

Who’s afraid of the big, bad wolf? Coyotes
Study finds coyote densities more than 30 percent lower in wolf territory

NEW YORK (September 11, 2007)—While the wily coyote reigns as top dog in much of the country, it leads a nervous existence wherever it coexists with its larger relative, the wolf, according to a new study from the Wildlife Conservation Society. In fact, coyote densities are more than 30 percent lower in areas that they share with wolves

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