I usually focus on dog related news, but when I came across a heartwarming cat rescue story I had to share.

A firefighter rescued a cat from a burning house and gave it back one of its lives by performing mouth-to-mouth.

Al Machado rescued the cat from a burning apartment in Massachusetts on Tuesday, and told The Standard Times of New Bedford that he saw immediately that it needed air. Machado began performing mouth-to-mouth on the animal as he carried it outside.

Two trapped dogs were also rescued. To help save them they were given oxygen by the paramedics and animal rescue workers.  Although no people were injured in the fire two other cats died.  A couple, thought to be responsible for the fire, were arrested and charged with arson.

Machado was asked what it tasted like to give mouth-to-mouth to a cat.  He replied “‘Like fur.”  If I was a betting man I would have guessed his reply would have been “Like chicken.”

Lisa and I recently lost our cat, Moose, after 16 years.  We got her about five months after we got Bo because we thought he needed company when we were at work.

They got along great, running and playing together like the best of buds. When we got Copper, years later, she also fell in love with Moose.  She used to follow her everywhere and would actually lick her face.  I think Copper believes she’s a cat.

After Moose passed Lisa swore we would never get another cat.  No, not because we don’t love cats, but because Moose had a constipation issue for the last 13 years.  It was so bad that one of the chapters in Bo’s book, Unleashed: Memoirs Of A Man’s Best Friend (Kensington Books, Oct ‘09) is called Enema Of The State.

Last week all that changed after Lisa found a cat on our sister site, Catster, and fell in love with Sunshine. On Saturday we picked her up and when we got her home Copper looked like it was Christmas.  She was so excited that she was going to have a new kitty buddy.  Unfortunately, Sunshine had other ideas and poor Copper got a big swat on the nose.  I’m sure they’ll eventually work it out.

As I was reading the news this morning I came across an article on a study that was done by Israeli researchers on the relationship between cats and dogs.

Tel Aviv University researchers said they found two-thirds of the homeowners they surveyed reported a positive relationship between their cats and dogs.

“This is the first time anyone has done scientific research on pets living in the same home,” Joseph Terkel of the department of zoology at Tel Aviv University said in a statement. “It’s especially relevant to the one-third of Americans who own a pet and are thinking about adopting a second one of the opposite species.”

Approximately 200 pet owners were used in the study. After analyzing the data the researchers concluded that cats and dogs can live together peacefully. Although, it was found that there were better results when the cat is adopted first and both animals are young.

Hmmm…I should have read this about a week ago.   There is hope things might settle down in our house, and peace will resume,  because  according to Terkel “cats and dogs learn how to talk each others language–or read each others body cues.”

That does seem to be true,  right now that big swat to Copper’s nose is coming through loud and clear.

Any Dogsters that have a dog and cat give us a bark, or meow, to share your story.

It’s always nice to see Dogster and its members in the news. This weekend the Boston Globe had an article about virtual gifts in the online social networking world.  You know virtual gifts; they’re the balls, paws and chicken hats we all love to give to each other.

Joni Gleason of Haverhill spends about $100 a year on gifts for her pet-loving friends. But the gifts can’t be held or wrapped. They can’t even be seen unless her friends are online.

As a member of Dogster.com, Gleason, 62, sends fellow dog owners virtual candles and angel wings when their pets get sick or die. When Gleason feels playful, she sends virtual squirrels or, one of Dogster’s newer gift options, a can of Spam.

It’s an interesting read about the trend toward virtual gifts in the online world.

As you can imagine, some people don’t necessarily agree they have any value at all.  Ted Rheingold, Dogster’s founder, responded to that argument by stating in the article:

“They may not be something you can hold in your hand, but the sentiment that comes with giving or receiving, is the same sentiment.”

I agree. The point naysayers are missing is that social networks consist of people who are connected by a shared purpose.

In our case, it’s the cute, lovable and nutty creatures that run our lives. Just because the gifts we give online don’t have physical properties, doesn’t change the feelings associated with giving and receiving them. What better way to know someone is thinking of you than receiving a Boo Boo Bandaid when your dog is ill?  Isn’t there value in that gesture? I think so.

Now, if you’ll pardon me, I have a few SPAM hats to give away.

Want to help out some needy dogs but don’t really have the time? Well here’s an easy way to contribute to the well being of our canine friends that will take less than a minute .

Just visit http://www.freekibble.com, answer the daily Bow Wow Trivia question and 20 pieces of kibble are automatically donated to an animal shelter. Don’t worry, if you’re trivia challenged like me, you don’t even have to get the answer right in order for your donation to count.

It’s a great idea that surely came from a grizzly veteran of the online wars, right? Wrong. This idea was created by an eleven year-old girl, Mimi Ausland, from Oregon who modeled the site after http://www.freerice.com that donates rice to the UN World Food Program. What a smart, compassionate young lady!

So please, click on the link and help a dog in need today. While you’re at it, give some love to the kitties too at http://www.freekibblekat.com.

Thanks for helping out some needy pups and kitties, and making a little girl’s dream of helping our fuzzy friends come true.

So I was on the main Dogster.com page this morning and noticed the Bissell Pet Games Video Contest.  I clicked on it and to my horror I found out the winning videos for the first two weeks were cats.  Cats, people!

This is a call to arms for all you canine lovers with video cameras out there. Get famous plus give $10K to a charity of your choice, courtesy of Bissell by submitting the best video ever.

This week’s entries aren’t anything to write home about either, so it isn’t like I’m asking you to run an agility course. Heck, I think a video of a dog sleeping might be a winner.

Now, go get that camera and catch your dog doing something goofy!!

As those of us in America celebrate our country’s independence today, we need to be cognizant of the effect  fireworks have on our beloved pets. The newspaper Deseret has a good article on the subject.  Here’s an interesting tidbit on the effect of the loud booms and bangs that I never considered.

In most normal five-day stretches during the summer last year, his shelter would pick up about 66 stray cats and 70 stray dogs. But he said that in the five days surrounding July 4, it picked up 90 cats and 95 dogs - or 36 percent more than normal. “We always see big increases around July Fourth, and the same thing happens again around the 24th,” he said, adding that other cities in the county and state report the same.

It makes sense that dogs and cats would try to get away from all that noise. Fortunately the article also give advice on how to minimize their anxiety.

Doug Poindexter, president of the World Wide Pet Industry Association, said, “There are number of tips we have to try and help minimize stress by pets. First, bring your pets inside. Keep them in a room that is as sound resistant as possible” and then play music or the television there to drown out noise from fireworks.

Read the full article to find out all the tips they give and make this the calmest 4th for your pet ever.

Happy 4th of July!!

Security. It’s all the rage in this internet age and can be a thorn in one’s side.

Take for instance the verification code that you have to enter to gain access to a lot of sites, just to prove you aren’t a robot. You know the codes I’m talking about. They’re the ones that are all warped and wavy making it difficult to discern a 0 with an o or an I with a 1.

Now there’s a better solution.

Asirra stands for Animal Species Image Recognition for Restricting Access. Basically it’s an HIP [verification process] that requires you to differentiate photos of cats and dogs, a task that is nearly impossible for even the most sophisticated bots.

The cool thing about this technology isn’t really the technology but the fact that Microsoft Research has partnered with Petfinder.com to serve up pictures of the more than three million photos of cats and dogs available for adoption. A user is required to select all the pictures that are dogs (or cats) in order to gain access to the site. What’s really great is that each picture has a link to the animal’s petfinder.com adoption page. So now you can get verified and help place a pet at the same time!

You can read all about it here or go to the Asirra home page to find out more.

Considering how many thousands, maybe millions of pets were killed or injured by this horrible occurance, don’t you think Menu Pet and the others got off too easily?

Thanks to USA Today for this article.

Tainted pet food suit settled for $24 million
By Julie Schmit, USA TODAY

Menu Foods, other pet food makers and retailers involved in last year’s massive pet food recall will set up a $24 million cash fund to compensate pet owners, according to a proposed settlement filed Thursday in federal court.

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Thanks to MyFoxSTL.com for this recall announcement.

E. Coli Scare Leads To Meat Recall

Created: Sunday, 18 May 2008

CHICAGO — Federal officials say a Chicago-based company is recalling beef products distributed in 11 states, including Missouri, due to an E. coli scare.

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If you feed any of these kinds of products to your dogs or cats, please make sure they aren’t getting anything from Hope Food Supply, Inc.

Thanks to the FDA for this announcement.

FDA Shuts Down Seafood Processing Company, Requires Products Be Recalled
Failure to follow consent decree drives action

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today directed Hope Food Supply Inc., a Pasadena, Texas, food processing company, to shut down and immediately recall all products manufactured from its Texas facility since 2007.

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