Strollerderby : dog

Family Dog Saves Toddler’s Life

Hannah Tennant-Moore — Wed, 13 May 2009 21:02:00 GMT

Joshua Childers may only be three, but, man, does he have stories to tell. The Missouri toddler recently spent three days and two nights alone in the wilderness after he wandered off in the vast forest behind his house. As Joshua is treated in the hospital for hypothermia, bug bites, and scratches, the secrets to his survival are becoming increasingly clear.

Joshua told the family doctor that he drank water from a stream and didn’t sleep very much (poor little guy). But most importantly, he’s spoken of being with the family dog, which is a Great Pyrenees, a breed known for its loyalty and guardianship. Indeed, Joshua’s parents confirmed that the fluffy, 125-pound dog disappeared around the same time as Joshua and returned soon after he was found.

Were it not for the dog’s cozy fur and comforting companionship, Joshua may not have survived the rainy, 40-degree nights in the woods.

Photo: bestbullysticks.com

Three-Year-Old Survived Alone in Forest for Days

Family Dog Survives Four Months on Desert Island

Hannah Tennant-Moore — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 19:00:00 GMT

An Australian cattle dog named Sophie has lived through a harrowing experience that has her owners marveling over the powers of adaptability and unconditional love. Last November, Sophie fell overboard while on a family sailing trip off the coast of Australia. After more than an hour of searching, her owners sorrowfully resigned themselves to Sophie’s death by drowning or sharks.

But four months later, they learned that rangers on the remote island of St. Bee had captured a seemingly wild dog. The dog, who was surviving off of baby goats, had become so ferocious that it took several months for rangers to capture her. They carried the caged dog to the Australian mainland, where Sophie’s owners were eagerly waiting to see if she was their lost pet. And sure enough, as soon as they called to her, the snarling wild beast turned back into loving Sophie, whimpering and running to lick and cuddle her family.

Animal experts are amazed at Sophie’s adaptability. Though she had been a house pet all her life, she managed to swim five nautical miles to shore and then survive in a harsh climate home mainly to koala bears.

And her transition back to home life has been just as impressive. After four months of not allowing any humans to come near her, Sophie immediately resumed her old life of eating food from a can and sleeping happily on the family bed.

Photo: MSNBC

The New Pregnancy Test: Your Dog

JeanneSager — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 18:34:00 GMT

So you missed the sore boobs and the growing tummy? Maybe forgot about that missing period?

If nothing else, your dog getting awfully chummy all of a sudden might clue you in - you're pregnant.

There's been no scientific proof that dogs can sniff out a pregnancy - just a ton of circumstantial evidence. Take Peter Huoppi, who just wrote a column over at The Day about his pooch Remy's transformation to "Velcro dog," attached very suddenly to his wife, Jen. Three weeks after Remy couldn't keep the paws off of her, Jen found out she was pregnant. Or the series of mothers talking about this subject last month at Cafe Mom - they've got pups with pregnancy-sensing powers, or so they say.

Besides the heightened sense of smell that could be picking up on hormonal changes, dogs can pick up on emotional changes. Most animal trainers say the dogs will sense a pregnancy and the protective side kicks into overdrive.

So if your dog has taken to sticking his snout anywhere YOU are, maybe it's time to pick up one of those little pee-on-the-stick jobs and see if he's trying to tell you something.

Image: This Normal Life

Obamas Pick a Breed and a Homecoming for First Dog

JeanneSager — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 20:58:00 GMT

The president may jokingly refer to himself as a mutt, but it will be a purebred bounding into the White House on four paws come April.

Michelle Obama has let word get out that the family is looking for a Portuguese water dog - preferrably a rescue (a request the First Family has made several times over) - one of the few hypo-allergenic breeds of dogs that will be acceptable in light of ten-year-old Malia's allergies.

When's it coming home?

April Fool's Day, according to Sasha. Sometime in April, says the First Lady. The family still has to find that dog, and they're still working out names. Apparently "Frank" and "Moose" have both been bandied about.

All of our family pets pre-date my daughter, so she didn't get to help with the naming process, but I know in most families the names are a communal decision.

Did you pick before your pet came home, or did you wait to see what he or she looked like so you could gauge the name to the looks or personality? Were your kids involved in the naming process?

Image: Getty, via Daily News

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Mystery Solved: Dog Swallowed Fifteen Pacifiers

JeanneSager — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 13:30:00 GMT

In case you ever wondered, no there really is nothing your baby won't share with the dog. Strained peas, Cheerios, dirty diapers . . . and apparently pacifiers too.

A Missouri mom caught her English bulldog licking a pacifier on the floor one day, and she thought to do nothing more than chide the dog. Jennifer Zwart turned away . . . then turned back to realize the pacifier was gone - inside the dog's mouth.

"I took Lulu to the veterinarian and expected that an X-ray would reveal the pacifier. The X-ray was unclear, so the veterinarians decided to perform surgery. Midway through the surgery, they started a 'binky count,' as they pulled out pacifier after pacifier. They had never seen anything like it. Over the course of six months, Lulu had swallowed 15 pacifiers, a bottle cap and piece of a basketball," Zwart says.

Now her story has been entered into the running for the Veterinary Pet Insurance Hambone of the Year Award, a new prize for claims that come into their office that are above and beyond your average splayed hip. It gets its name from a dog who accidentally got locked in a refrigerator and proceeded to eat an entire ham, right down to the bone, while waiting for his rescuers.

I asked a week ago why parents seem to get uptight when they see another person's kid with a pacifier in the mouth, but I'd never stopped to ponder what I'd think of a dog sucking on a soothie!

I've always blamed the missing kid socks on the dryer gnome, but maybe I should rethink that theory. . .

Image: Flickr, OmniNate

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Keep Kids From Getting Fat - Get a Dog

JeanneSager — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 15:32:00 GMT

Want to keep your kids from falling victim to the obesity crisis? Australian researchers say get a dog.

The study of more than 1,100 kids ages 5 to 12 showed kids with a friendly Fido in the house were in better shape - even if they weren't walking the pooch on a regular basis. If the dogs were anything like mine, it might have more to do with the amount the dog's stealing from their plate. Just saying - my dog gained 11 pounds in the year after my daughter started solids.

On a more serious note, pets have long been touted as good for kids, boosting self esteem, helping kids learn discipline and responsibility and even lowering kids risk of developing allergies down the line. Put each of those benefits together, and it would make sense that kids who have a four-legged friend have a healthier outlook on life - which usually translates to overall health. Then add in the exercise of chasing the dog to rescue all that stolen food, and that's one canine who's earning his keep.

Image: Pet Door Decor

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Woman Raises Rabbit in Her Bra

Hannah Tennant-Moore — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 19:15:00 GMT

Breasts and baby bunnies: two cuddly, loveable entities. Put them together, and you get a healthy three-month-old rabbit who answers to the name Miracle and enjoys watching a good game of cricket.

When her dog killed a rabbit, Cherida Cannon planned to make a good soup—until she noticed that the hare was pregnant. She extracted the living baby from the dead rabbit’s womb and turned her over to the care of her sister, Margi Heath.

Heath nursed the baby to health by keeping her inside her bra, which seemed to her like the warmest, most womblike place for the bunny to be. Whenever the bunny got hungry, she popped her head out of the brassiere, and Heath fed her infant formula with a syringe.

Miracle is now almost grown up and quite tame. Heath walks her on a leash and often takes her to local cricket games in a cat carrier.

Photo: Julian Simmonds/The Telegraph

Crafty: Hair of the Dog

Adrienne Martini — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 15:00:00 GMT

As crafts go, I'm a fairly live-and-let craft kinda gal. There are some hands-on activities that I don't quite understand -- like leather burning -- but can admit that reasonable crafters can agree to disagree. There is only one handicraft that I simply cannot get behind.

Why on earth would you spin yarn from your dog's fur? Do you simply want to make the dander-sensitive sneeze when you walk past? Do you enjoy the eau d' wet canine on a rainy day? Are you so thrifty that you can't bear to throw Fido's fluff away?

I just don't get it. And I especially don't get why you'd let a random photographer take your picture with your sweater and the dog who donated to it.

Photo credit: Erwan Fichou

Maybe these pit bulls are dangerous

Brett Singer — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 14:00:00 GMT

I'm a dog lover (though not a dog owner), so I'm usually willing to sympathize with people that blame bad owners when their pooch attacks someone.

But with so many pit bull attacks, maybe these muscular little k-9's don't make the greatest pets.

Henry Piotrowski, a 90-year-old man in Staten Island, was attacked by two pit bulls and had to have his leg amputated. According to NY1, the owner, James McNair, allows the dogs to wander the neighborhood sans leash; Piotrowski was attacked outside his home.

Then there's the sad tale of Kamar Reynolds, a 3-year-old Brooklyn boy who had an ear bitten off by a pit bull a few days ago. He seems to be recovering nicely, or as nicely as he can, considering the fact that he had to have his ear reattached.

Now, to be fair, this particular incident happened because some jerk threw his dog through an open window into a room full of kids, including Kamar. The dog has been put to sleep, the owner is being held "on charges of assault and criminal possession of a weapon - the dog." I've never heard of a dog being classified as a weapon, but this probably isn't the first time.

Are there any stories of poodles attacking people? Chihuahuas? Pugs? Golden retrievers? Labs? Maybe it happens and isn't reported. But I sort of doubt it.

This may be a bit of a stretch, but I think you can draw a parallel with gun ownership. Yes, guns don't kill people, people kill people. But one way to ensure that nobody gets accidentally shot is to not have a gun in the house.

Are pit bulls the doggy equivalent of a loaded gun? Or is it just stupid owners?

image: nydailynews

Related:

Pit bull attacks one-year-old girl

Brett Singer — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 00:29:00 GMT

A pit bull in Greensboro, NC attacked a one-year-old girl. How does something like this happen? The dog is a pet, and the child went to touch the pooch's puppies; when she did, the dog bit her.

The dog is now in an animal shelter for at least 10 days, or "longer if they can't determine if the dog has current vaccinations for rabies." I thought you had to keep records of that sort of thing, but maybe not.

The two comments on the site where I found this story are a bit over the top but do make a good point: "The big question is--where were the parents?" To paraphrase, leaving a little girl, especially a one-year-old, alone with a new mama pit bull and her litter is probably not a great idea.

If you look at the "Related Links" for this story on digitrad.com, it seems like there's an awful lot of pit bull attacks going on in North Carolina. One dog was put to sleep two years ago after attacking two kids, and this story where a pit bull killed another family's pet a month ago. In that case, the owner asked the now-really-unfortunate question, "What if this was a child?"

The little girl – a baby, really – is recovering at a local hospital. Hopefully she'll be OK.

For a video report, click here.

image: digitrad.com

Strollerderby : dog

Family Dog Saves Toddler’s Life

Family Dog Survives Four Months on Desert Island

The New Pregnancy Test: Your Dog

Obamas Pick a Breed and a Homecoming for First Dog

Babies for Your Babies

Woman Trades Two Kids For Bird

Would You Let the Kid Eat Dog Food?

Obamas Pick a Breed and a Homecoming for First Dog

Would You Let the Kid Eat Dog Food?

Are Chores Important? The Obamas Say Yes.

Raising Kids in the White House: Routine You Can Believe In

Sasha and Malia See Hogwarts with Harry

Mystery Solved: Dog Swallowed Fifteen Pacifiers

Why Do Pacifiers Piss So Many People Off?

Smackdown: Aw, Just Let Her Have a Barbie

Babble Talk: Is Ditching the Baby Monitor Child Abuse?

Mom Bugs Kid's Teddy Bear to Spy on Ex

Mom Shoplifts Parenting Book With Kids in Tow

Keep Kids From Getting Fat - Get a Dog

Woman Raises Rabbit in Her Bra

Crafty: Hair of the Dog

Maybe these pit bulls are dangerous

Pit bull attacks one-year-old girl

Pit bull attacks one-year-old girl

Pregnancy Can't Be Good For Paris Hilton, She Can't Even Care For Puppies!

Pregnant Wife Killed for Refusing Sex

Dog Rips Off Baby's Genitals

Baby-Proofing the Pooch