The Muttropolis Blog

Top Tips To Keep Pets Safe During Hurricane Sandy

Don't forget to plan for your pets!

As Hurricane Sandy threatens land along the East Coast, it is important to plan for your pets when preparing for the storm. Our friends at the ASPCA and the Humane Society of the United States have provided us with top pet preparation tips to ensure pet safety if Hurricane Sandy and other looming storms reach your region.

[Related: Hurricane Ready: 6 Tips to Keep Pets Storm Safe ]

1) Prepare To Take Your Pets -- Don't leave your pets at home. If you're planning to head to a Red Cross Shelter or hotel, remember that not all will take animals. Here's a list of directories for finding a pet-friendly hotel by the ASPCA. Other options include a veterinary clinic, animal control shelter or pet shelter.

2) Photos & ID's Please! -- Keep a current photograph of your pet in case something happens to them during the storm. Identification in the form of a collar is also essential and will make it easier to locate them if they get lost.

[Related: Pets During Hurricanes - What To Do ]

3) Leash And Pet Carriers -- Think about how exactly you will keep track of your pet during the storm, and how you will transport them should you decide to evacuate. A leash and/or pet carrier will ensure your animal doesn't go astray.

4) Bring Your Pet Inside -- The last thing you want is to have to hunt for your pet on the brink of a hurricane. The National Hurricane Center suggests that owners calm and comfort pets inside well in advance of the actual storm.

[Related: Avoid Cat-astrophy With The Cat Evacuation Jacket ?-- [PHOTOS] ]

5) What To Pack -- The ASPCA recommends you pack five to seven days of pet food and water along with litter trays, litter and trash bags. Pet first aid kits might be a good idea, and remember their medications. If you are taking them to an animal shelter, you'll need to bring all of the above and ensure your pet has its rabies tags, up to date immunization records and labelled supplies.

For more information, the American Red Cross has more about disaster preparedness and safety for pets.

Source: Janet McCulley, Muttropolis Co-founder & The Daily Treat on AnimalPlanet.com

Top 10 Most Awesome Dogs of 2011

The year 2011 was absolutely brimming with historic, hilarious and downright heart-warming moments of doggie awesomeness! Stories of heroic hounds, comedic canines and doggie Dilbert's certifiably made life so much richer this year and we've selected some of our favorite four-legged stand-outs of 2011.

It was not easy, sifting through the incredible, insane, inane and sometimes hair-brained dog stories of 2011, but for you, dear readers, we will stop at nothing to keep you on the cusp of mutt's hot and mutt's not.

Our Top 10 Most Awesome Dogs of 2011

1) Loyal Dog, Hawkeye, Lays at the Casket of Fallen Navy Seal: A beautiful tribute and demonstration of a dogs loyal and unconditional love. Reportedly this story alone is responsible for a 32.36% increase in Kleenex's stock price in 2011. : )  Full story here >

 

2) The Amazing Commando Dog That Helped Snare Osama Bin Laden: This special four-legged soldier was a heavily-armored, explosive-sniffing pooch who was strapped to an assault team member and lowered into Bin Laden's hideout from a Black Hawk helicopter! To ensure their safety, these special four-legged forces are given oxygen masks for helicopter jumps as well as helmets with videocameras for remote monitoring. Read story here>

 

3) Eco-minded French Bulldog Saves Water with Inventive Pup Pre-wash Cycle. Read story here >

 

4) Dog Saves New Family Only Six Hours After Being Adopted: Gentle giant Hercules proved his worth as a loyal canine companion only six hours after being rescued from an animal shelter by chasing after an intruder who was attempting to break into his new adoptive family's house. Read the whole story here >

 

5) Static Cling Dog Channels a White Porcupine: Combine super dry air, a fluffy white dog, a synthetic fiber blanket and a monotone voice-over narrator and you've got a nugget of YouTube gold. See for yourself in the video below and read the full story here >

 

6) Uber Happy Dog Plays Hide-n-Seek with Bouncy Sheep: The most adoro interspecies love affair between a bouncing, fluffy sheep and one scrappy happy dog. Dingleberries and all, watch what a good ole time this sheep is having clomp-a-clomping around the barnyard with a dog that seems to have decided "...to hell with the whole herding thing."  Read the full story here >

 

 

7) Greece's Riot Dog: Allegedly present at nearly every importantGrecian riot since in 2008, and even braving police with teargas, it is unknown what this tenacious yellow dog, Loukanikos, was protesing, but he is deserving of a nod for getting up out of his tent and getting into the action. Read the full story here>

8) I Lean: Seeing-Eye Goose Befriends Blind Dog. This heart-warming animal odd couple shows that love really is blind! A blind boxer named Baks got a whole new lease on life this year thanks to a good samaritan goose named Buttons who leads  vision-impaired Baks around everywhere either by hanging onto him with her neck, or by honking to tell him which way to go. Read the full story here >

 

9) Tenacity Defined - Brave Terrier With Knife Stuck Squarely in Head Chases Robbers. Bella, a brave terrier mix,  happily chased robbers down her street earlier this year despite the ginormous Ginzu protruding from her forehead ! She survived the ordeal with flying colors and gets extra kick-ass doggy awesomeness points for her selfless heroicism! Read the full story here>

10) Determined Pit Pup Harper, Rescued from Trash Bag, Learns to Walk. Severely deformed, yet darling pitbull pup Harper was abandoned to die in a trash bag, but angelic shelter workers rescued her and provided her with proper therapy and now she has a new leash on life! Today, Harper is a frisky, happy pup who is gaining more and more mobility each day, to the astonishment of onlookers and medical professionals. Read the full story here >

 

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What Is Your Pet Thankful For This Thanksgiving?

by Janet McCulley, Muttropolis Co-founder 

With Thanksgiving just hours away, it's important to step away from the stove, put down the gravy ladle and remember that the Thanksgiving holiday is really about expressing gratitude for the blessings and goodness in our lives  … in addition to consuming mass amounts of food and slipping into a food coma by 5pm.

In addition to reflecting upon the goodness in our own lives that we are thankful for, we thought that it might be fun to think about what our pets might be thankful for this Thanksgiving season!

20 Things My Dogs are Thankful for This Thanksgiving

To find out what my dogs Lulu, Zazou & Kiki ( pictured below) might be thankful for this season, we *snuck a peek* in their gratitude journals this week and here’s what we discovered they are thankful for...any of this look familiar?

From the Gratitude Journal of Zazou, Lulu & Kiki - "Wot we r tankful four dis howliday seeson."

1) A warm cozy dog bed to curl up into every night

2) Morning cuddle time when everyone first gets up in the am

3) The joys found within the dirty clothes basket

4) Tasty, healthy dog food that doesn’t taste like cardboard

5) That the scary, loud purple machine that mom pushes around the carpet is kept in the closet most of the time

6) Petfinder – for bringing us together

7) Dirty dishes for us to prewash in the dishwasher

8) For the tall fence that separates us from the big scary dog next door

9) That we successfully scare away the hot air balloons that hover over our house by merely barking at them

10) For the many porcelain petting stations in the house.

11) Dogswell Vitality Treats - particularly Happy Hips Chicken

12) Houseguests that leave their purses on the floor, preferably unzipped

13) The Sirius 'Coffeehouse Music' channel for when mom and dad are not home

14) When the internet connection goes down …because then our people have to get up and play with us

15) Soiled dinner napkins accidentally left on the floor

16) When our people finally get off the phone or when their phone battery dies...which means they will pay more attention to us

17) Car rides (to anywhere but the vet)

18) The mysterious delicacy that is cat poop

19) Warm clothes straight out of the dryer

20) That dad inadvertently drops a lot of noms on the floor when preparing food in the kitchen

 

Do any of these sound familiar?  If your pet had a gratitude journal, what might it say? Share your comments below or on our Muttropolis Facebook Page!

[VIDEO] Owl + Pussycat Are True BFF's

Hoot Love: Animal Odd Couple Fum & Gebra Really Do Dance By The Light of the Moon

Have you seen the amazing friendship between this animal odd couple? Hailing from Tarragona Spain, Fum (a black cat) and Gebra (a barn owl) have been together since they were one year old. According to their handler, they truly like each other and enjoy hanging out until they are bored of each other - just like normal couples.

Watch this amazing video where Fum (which means Smoke in Catalan) and Gebra (which means Frost) play together in a field and interact like old pals. I must say that I was a bit of a skeptic about the legitimacy of this video, but my research seems to indicate that they are legitimately buddies!

What do you think? Watch the video below and weigh in >

Click here for another Animal Odd Couple>: Lean on Me: Blind Boxer Befriends Seeing Eye Goose

-Janet McCulley

Lean on Me: Seeing-Eye-Goose Adopts Blind Dog

Take a gander at this animal odd couple!

A blind Boxer named Baks has gotten a whole new lease on life thanks to a good samaritan goose named Buttons. Yes, you read that right. This is not a joke. 

Baks has been adopted and taken under the 'wing' of Buttons, a four-year-old goose who now leads her vision-impaired pal around everywhere either by hanging onto him with her neck, or by honking to tell him which way to go. How hilarious is that?!

Owner Renata Kursa of Lublin, Poland, was heartbroken when poor lil' Bak was left blind after an accident last year. But gradually Buttons got him up on his feet and starting walking him around. They're inseparable now - they even chase the postman together,' Kursa tells the Telegraph UK. 

Go Buttons! What's good for the goose is also apparently good for...the...boxer.

-Janet McCulley

 

Helping Animals in the Wake of Recent Tornadoes + Floods

The Humane Society of the United States Animal Rescue Team has been on the ground for more than a week helping pets and other animals affected by devastating tornadoes and flooding in the South and Midwest. While the search for human survivors in the rubble ended already, more than 350 dogs, cats, birds, snakes, lizards and even a tarantula already have been found in the shattered neighborhoods around Tuscaloosa, and the local animal shelter is so full it had to erect tents for additional space.

The HSUS teams are rescuing cats and dogs from devastated neighborhoods, giving out pet food and supplies to residents, and helping to reunite pets with their families.  They're also operating emergency shelters in Missouri and Mississippi to care for hundreds of animals.  As you can see firsthand in the disaster relief video compiled by the HSUS, many animals are still roaming through the wreckage, but they are understandably frightened and disoriented after the disaster. HSUS is making efforts to set traps in locations where high numbers of cats have been seen and where residents have lost their pets. 

Setting up temporary shelters, distributing donated pet food and reuniting pets with their families or finding new homes for pets is the order of the day with the Humane Society of the United States and we thank them for all their tireless, beautiful work!

How To Help These Animals in Crisis

To donate supplies or funds to assist in these rescue efforts or learn how to volunteer, click here or visit the Humane Society of the United States to learn about all the amazing ways they advocate for animals across the nation.

Source: A Humane Nation: Wayne Pacelle's Blog  

 

 

Adorable Beagle Plays Catch With Paws!

Forget Fetch...This Beagle Plays Catch!

Most fairly coordinated dogs can catch balls in their mouth, but just how many dogs can catch with their paws? Check out the remarkable eye-paw coordination of this darling Beagle pup who, after a few tries, masters the art of "catch" - and looks darn proud of herself I might add.

Adding to the adoro-factor is the off camera pitcher who hoots in celebration after each successful catch. If this doesn't put a smile on your face today, I simply don't know what will!

Thanks to Baby Praying Mantis for turning us on to this one!

Is Calling Your Pet "Pet" Derogatory? Experts Say Yes

Old Skool: "May I pet your pet?"

New Skool: "May I caress your companion animal?"  

According to the Journal of Animal Ethics, we have been unknowingly been insulting our beloved pets on a regular basis. A recent study compiled by university professors from America and Great Britain states that "pets" is downright derogatory and not an acceptable moniker for domesticated animals. They assert that "pets"  should instead by replaced with the term "companion animals"...which I whole heartedly agree with! 

Similarly, their findings maintain that words such as "owner," are also offensive, recommending instead that we be known as "human carers." (I personally would prefer "Lulu's mom" over "Lulu's human carer.") While technically correct in law, "pet owner" does kind of hark back to a previous age when animals were regarded as property. These academics believe that changing our vocabulary to companion or "parent" is essential to updating our understanding of the relationship between humans and the natural world. 

I have to say - I agree with their recommendations! What do you think? Will changing the way people refer to animals and pets help change the way they are treated?

source: Janet McCulley, The Daily Treat

Meet Chaser - The Smartest Dog in the World

Think your dog is the smartest pup on the block? Think again!

The new reigning smarty-pants pooch, Chaser, a border collie, possesses the largest human vocabulary of any dog! Chaser, who is a female dog - naturally -  can recognize the names of more than 1,022 objects. According to a report by the New Scientist, Chaser can categorize the various objects based on function and shape as well as understand the basic concepts behind nouns and verbs! Impressive!

The last record holder, another border collie named Rico, knew 200 human words - still impressive, but Chaser's vocabulary is off the charts, putting her on intellectual par with three-year-old human children (and..um... some adult males we know ;).

As part of a three year training course at Wofford College, taught by psychologists Alliston Reid and John Pilley. Chaser was introduced to the names of 1,022 toys. Over the three years, Reid and Pilley taught the collie the names of 1022 toys by introducing them to her one by one, getting her to fetch the toy and then repeating the name to reinforce the association. They say there's no limit to what the dog can learn! Watch the video below and watch the amazing Chaser in action! (via Discovery News).

 

 

 

Animal Odd Couple: Curious Cat Plays with Dolphin!

We've seen curious cats play with their food, moths, iPads and even Crocodiles ...but a dolphin?! Srsly?

Check out one of the most improbable - and adorable - animal pairings you've ever seen! The folks on a tour boat certainly got a shock when their cat, Thunder, started making friends with a couple of gregarious dolphins. These unlikely friends are clearly smitten with each other - but what do you think is really happening here? Is the cat indeed nuzzling and "marking" the dolphin as some have theorized, or is it simply a case of opposites attracting? 

Either way - enjoy this darling interspecies connection!

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