Brave cat tests dogs' suitability

3 January 2011 Last updated at 02:54 ET

Pogo the cat faces a series of dog encounters every day to decide if the dogs are suitable for life in homes with felines.

Report features Richard Moore from the Dogs Trust

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Boulder house cat meets mountain lion

by Catherine Holland, KMOV.com

BOULDER, Colo. -- A house cat in Boulder, Colo. had a close encounter of the mountain lion kind, and his owner caught it on camera.

Gail Loveman said Zeus, her 11-year-old Maine Coon, tend to show his rough-and-tough side, standing firm, puffing out his fur and hissing when other animal, usually squirrels, invade his porch. Zeus was somewhat less assertive and perhaps more confused when the invader on the other side of the sliding glass door was a young mountain lion.

Loveman told The Denver Post last Thursday's face-off between Zeus and the mountain lion lasted about five minutes before the mountain lion apparently got bored and wandered away, stopping to check out a statue that looks like it could be his cousin in her yard.

Loveman said she was working in her home office when she heard a noise. She saw the mountain lion on her porch, grabbed her camera and started snapping a way as Zeus made his way to the sliding glass door to check out the interloper.

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It's Halloween for pets, too

The myth of the unlucky black cat is just a superstition for most. But for animal adoption centers, it's a real problem.

Black cats are among the last cats adopted from shelters and rescues.

They are less likely to find a permanent home than non-black cats, according to Janet Winikoff, director of education for the Humane Society of Vero Beach and Indian River County.

"It's always a challenge for animal shelters to adopt out black cats," said Winikoff. She said that too often, black cats stay at shelters for long periods of time because people are afraid of them and less likely to adopt them.

Other problems include the cultural stigma that is attached to a black cat.

"Black cats are associated with being sneaky, Halloween, Satan, bad luck and ghost stories," said Winikoff. "And they're usually depicted hissing and with their backs arched."

For many years, shelters stopped adopting out black cats around Halloween because there were fears that the cats may be injured or killed for ritualistic purposes. But over time, shelters have realized that in reality, these situations rarely occur but they urge cat owners to keep their cats indoors.

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Winter cat burrows in snow

3 Cat DIY Projects That Think Outside The Litter Box Read more: http://www.care2.com/greenliving/3-cat-diy-projects-that-think-outside-the-litter-box

Once upon a time, a cat was just a cat. Kitty would have a bed, a bowl and maybe something to scratch on so it wouldn’t wreck the furniture. For most of us, our cats are fully integrated members of our family. They lounge, sleep, play, and sometimes keep a rodent problem at bay. Let’s celebrate our four-legged friends by creating a few fun things for them to enjoy.

My pets are often the recipients of DIY projects. So, I was elated to discover Moderncat. Let’s face it, there’s tons of Doggie DIY, but cats are sometimes overlooked. Moderncat is a resource for cat owners with a contemporary style. Moderncat searches for cat products and resources that not only complement a modern aesthetic, but also present functionally innovative ideas that make living with cats an even more enjoyable experience. In a clear and concise format, Moderncat combines product reviews for cat owners, along with wonderful DIY projects. Here’s a sampling:



3 DIY Cat Projects

1. Cat Mouse Toy

These dapper little mice are constructed from recycled men’s suit and shirt fabrics. Follow the Moderncat link for complete instructions and download-able pattern.





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Deadly Sleepy cat

Need for pet food banks is up in down economy

That was the thinking behind the pet food banks that sprang up like oases in the desert when the economy went sour a few years back. The folks who started those operations were rewarded with tales of people, who — laid off from their jobs, down to their last few dollars and on the brink of leaving their pets at a shelter — received some free kibble and days later found work and could pay the rent and keep their pets.

That's how things are supposed to turn out.

Not every hard-times story ends that way, of course.

And, there's another, significant chapter of the pet food bank chronicle that hasn't played out exactly as hoped. The happy-ending dream these pet food pantry originators shared was that in a year or two the economy would right itself, the matter of millions of pets surrendered or abandoned for financial reasons would be mostly a dim, awful memory, and food banks would no longer be necessary.

In fact, the situation has worsened. The number of animals landing at shelters and rescues has escalated, and, of course, so have euthanasia rates, as welfare groups struggle to take in and feed the crush of animals. So more and more pet pantries are springing up (or are attempting to spring up); a growing number of shelters are working to find ways to temporarily give free food to pet owners who are in dire financial straits and are moments away from turning in their pets; and food pantries for humans are sometimes stocking pet food as well.

All that still isn't enough.

Most pet pantry founders are working harder and longer, and in ways they hadn't anticipated.

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Cat-Dogs & Pumpkins: America’s Favorite Pet Costumes

NEW YORK (MainStreet) – America is going all out for Halloween this year. Overall spending for Halloween is projected by the National Retail Federation at $6.86 billion, the highest since it started tracking those numbers nine years ago. Of that, $2.5 billion will be spent on costumes alone, with $1 billion spent on children’s costumes and another $1.2 billion to be spent on adult costumes.

That other $0.3 billion? We’ll be spending that on costumes for our pets, of course.

According to the NRF, we can expect to see a lot of dogs dressed up as pumpkins this Halloween, as that’s apparently the most popular pet costume for the year. That’s followed by devils (devil dogs, presumably, being the operative pun here) and hot dogs, which we imagine will be the costume of choice for many long, skinny dogs like dachshunds.

Many other owners will be going for more minimalist costumes. The seventh most-popular “costume” is a simple anthropomorphizing accessory tied around the neck, including bowties, fancy collars, and bandanas. We supposed this is the inverse of humans who dress up as cats by putting on cat ears.

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