Strollerderby : dogs

Crazy Dog Equals Baby? Not So Much.

Amy Kuras — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 19:03:00 GMT

One of my raging pet (hee) peeves is dog people who think having a dog equals having a baby. Yes, dogs need care and you have to sort of rearrange your life to make sure they get fed and walked and whatever, and they’re all cute and loveable, but unless it’s been acceptable all this time to leave my baby with a Kong toy and a bowl of water while I go off and write for a few hours at my favorite coffeehouse, then: not the same thing. I have a crazy dog and two children and the kids? Much, much more work. Also less annoying, but that’s another post.

Carolyn Hax agrees with me. An advice seeker wrote to her asking if caring for their anxiety ridden neurotic dog would prepare them for the baby they were expecting later this year.

Hax showed a little more restraint than I would, given that this couple sounds like they’d done everything wrong to mess up their dog, to wit: “our dog, who has to be near us at all times, has separation anxiety -- he chewed his skin raw when we tried to vacation without him -- will not let anybody else feed or walk him, and has accidents all the time that we have to clean up.

We have definitely had to change our lifestyles because of him, including no vacations without him, always going home right after work, etc., but we love him and don't mind that sacrifice.”

Hax managed to not say “get yourself to therapy and your dog to a qualified trainer before you mess up your baby as bad as your dog” but she did urge them to look at the underlying issues and points out the that same kind, well-meaning impulses that have led them to cater to their dog in unhealthy ways could do the same number on their baby.

Hax to my knowledge doesn’t have kids but she always, always nails the parenting questions in a really sensible way. This one’s no different.

Obama Girls Meet the Easter Waterhound

JeanneSager — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 18:14:00 GMT

Charlie Brown had the Easter Beagle. Sasha and Malia Obama have the Easter Waterhound.

The president's daughters met their new puppy this weekend, just in time to ring in the Easter holiday by hiding their chocolate from him!

The dog will come home to the White House on Tuesday, but he's already got a name - Bo, the same as the girls' cousins' cat, and in honor of Michelle Obama's dad, whose nickname was Diddley.

Michelle had promised the dog would come home in April earlier this year when she released the news that they'd settled on a Portuguese waterdog, a pup that won't stir up Malia's allergies to pet dander.

It's not technically an Easter present - after all, Dad made the announcement that a pet was promised back in November - but the timing means the girls will probably always remember this Easter. It's a holiday that is often associated with getting kids bunnies and chicks (something most animal welfare officials advise against, because the kids soon tire of their new friends and all the work they entail). Have you ever considered Easter a pet-giving holiday?

Image: NY Daily News

Kid to Malia Obama: Save my Dad

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Keep This Kid Away From The Dog

Brett Singer — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 21:00:00 GMT

Is there anything cuter than a little child and his dog? Playing, laughing, enjoying the wonders of life.

Before you answer, you'll want to see the rest of this picture.

Oops. Looks like junior's got a little explaining to do. What's he going to say? The dog did it to himself?

I do wonder why whoever took this photo didn't stop the future tattoo artist. Maybe it was an older brother looking to get a bigger bedroom.

Source: Screencast

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Girl, 3, raised by dogs after her alcoholic mother neglected her.

Cole Gamble — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 22:00:00 GMT

Social workers in Russia discovered a three-year-old girl in her mother's house, naked and walking on all fours, gnawing bones with the dogs that she clung to for warmth.

The girl, known as Madina, knows only two words: yes and no. Her mother Anna, 23, would frequently disappear of just be too drunk to care for the child. Normally, when Anna ate dinner at the table, Madina ate scraps off the floor with the dogs.

Because of her inability to relate to other children, Madina is an outcast where she lives, only capable of relating to her dog companions. One social worker commented that little Madina has know no other love than that of her mother’s dog.

When police arrived to take the child into care, Anna reportedly claimed: 'I do look after my daughter.'

Despite a life entirely spent in the shadow of neglect, medics say Madina is mentally and physically healthy.

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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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Would You Let the Kid Eat Dog Food?

JeanneSager — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 20:32:00 GMT

Inspired by National Dog Biscuit Appreciation Day (yup, it's real), I have got to ask - what kind of parent lets their kid eat dog food?

Don't think people do this? Guess again. I know parents who think it's absolutely hilarious. Others think it's a little weird, but eh, so is drinking bath water, or eating dirt.

Turns out it's not all that funny or just plain weird. According to the experts over at Kids Health, it's also dangerous. They list a series of pretty serious reasons to put your kid in the doghouse for chewing on dog chow:

It's not nutritious - meaning they're filling up on something not exactly good for them.
The dog bowl isn't sanitary (OK, true, but neither is bath water!)
Small dry pieces of dog food pose a choking hazard (and what of chopped up, wet pieces?)
Dogs can be territorial about their food - they might bite your tot for sticking his or her snout in the doggie dish.

Now who's in the doghouse?

Image: DailyHaha

Doggie 101: How to Hug a Baby

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Doggie 101: How to Hug a Baby

JeanneSager — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 16:21:00 GMT

If you're one of those parents who starts hyperventilating at the mere thought of a dog around your precious bubbala, a warning: don't read this post.

Because this is full-on doggie/kiddie loving at its best!

The folks over at D for Dog, offer up a Doggie 101 class aptly titled "How to Hug a Baby." They walk your canoodling canine through the obvious - 1. First, spy a baby - to the proper "hug, smile and lean" for the camera.

My daughter's past the baby stage, and these days the hugging is more "pre-schooler wraps arms around the neck of dog and nearly cuts off her breathing." We always step in with a quick "gentle, be gentle!" But I think the kids who've been rolling around on the floor with the dog from day one are usually a little more adept at figuring out the dividing line between loving the dog and LOVING the dog.

You have to watch your dog cuddling with the baby, but a big part of the relationship is built on knowing how your dog is around other people. Do they have to be more gentle with a baby than with us? Sure, but you'd be surprised how acutely aware dogs are of the difference. My seventy-pound lap dog might galumph right over me, but she knew from the get-go that she had to turn on her mother radar with our daughter.

So get on over to D for Dog. The pictures alone are worth a look, but if you're a dog lover the tutorial is definitely a bonus laugh.

Image: D for Dog

Would You Keep the Death of a Pet from Your Child?

KeriF — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 17:34:00 GMT

Last year for Hanukkah, my then 6-year-old niece received two parakeets from her nanny, Marina. Who, incidentally, had neglected to mention the live animal gift to my sister. After some behind the scenes negotiating, it was agreed that the birds would live in the nanny's apartment and my niece, Erika, could visit Blueberry and Lemon whenever she liked.

This worked out fine for 6 months or so, until the birds, in rapid succession, died.

Marina couldn't bring herself to tell Erika. She told Erika the birds were at the vet and would be home soon. This went on for well over a week. Marina wanted to secretly replace the birds with doppelgangers. My sister got increasingly frustrated, and finally told Marina if she didn't tell Erika my sister would tell her herself. Which is what ended up happening. Erika was distraught.

I don't blame Marina for being so hesitant to break Erika's heart. No one wants to deliberately make a child cry, which is what you're basically doing when you tell him or her that a pet has died.

But it's a lesson that has to be learned. Hopefully, the closest most kids will come to death is through a pet rather than a relative.

My kids are still a bit young for this; at 3 and 4 they've experienced plenty of death through the waters of their fish tank. But rather than cry, they argue over who gets to flush the little guy down the toilet.

Christy Oglesby writes of the death of her son's beloved guinea pig on CNN. Her concern wasn't with how much grief her son would feel, it was with when he would feel that grief: during three important tests at school. She was able to keep the pet's death a secret through some very careful manipulation (unexplained power outage in the boy's room, unexpected tv-watching at night), and when she did tell her third-grade son two days after the fact, he thanked her for holding off on the news.

I've written before of how much I hate lying to my kids, but I'm not sure where this fits in. Isn't omission of fact just as much of a lie as omission of truth? Our kids need to learn of life and death, but when? Erika still cries over the untimely death of Marina's dog, Chavi, last summer, while my 4-year-old son Declan simply speaks of it matter-of-factly. Neither of them batted an eye when their great-great-Uncle Bob died around the same time.

Perhaps it's just what's familiar to the kids, who and what they see every day that hold the closest place in their hearts.

Have you had to break the news of a pet or loved one to your kids? How did you handle it? How did they?

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Kid to Obamas: Take My Puppy

JeanneSager — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 13:15:00 GMT

Now that the Obamas have narrowed their dog search to two breeds, there's a fourth grader in Pennsylvania who's crossing his fingers that he's got the answer to all their four-legged questions.

Zack Shiley's dogs produced a litter born on November 26, but only one survived. That's the puppy - a labradoodle - that Shiley wants President Barack Obama to bring home to the White House for daughters Sasha and Malia.

The fourth grader at the Wharton Elementary School in Farmington, Pa., sent word to D.C. this week via his County Commissioners, Vincent Vicites and Vincent Zapotsky. The Vincents attended the inauguration without the six-week-old Vegas, the love pup of eleven-year-old Hillary, a chocolate Labrador and her much younger stud (sire?) one-year-old Bullet, a black labradoodle.

Instead they took with them a letter directly to Malia - who Shiley figures has the final say on the matter (she's the member of the Obama family with an allergy - prompting consideration of a labradoodle).

"We want her to have a good home, and what could be better than the White House... A dream come true," Shiley wrote. "I almost forgot, the puppy is free."

According to his hometown newspaper, The Herald Standard, everyone admits it's a long shot, but Shiley's mom put her stamp of approval on her son's letter and offer to the new president. Considering the pup earned the name Vegas because Mom was on a trip to Las Vegas when the family dogs mated, perhaps there's a little more than selflessness at work there? Don't worry Ms. Shiley - we get you! Whatever your motivation (getting the puppy out of the house so you can go back to two dogs instead of three!), you raised a son with a big heart - and one adorable ball of fur for a friend.

Image: The Herald Standard

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Mystery Solved: Dog Swallowed Fifteen Pacifiers

Babble Talk: Dude Looks Like a Puppy

Brett Singer — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 21:00:00 GMT

There's a routine by a comedian whose name I can't recall that I always liked. In it, the comic talks about his son and how little kids are honest to a fault. The boy walks up to heavyset woman wearing a Guess? shirt and says, "I don't know. 280? 285?" And so on.

I was reminded of that routine by today's edition of Kids Say The Cutest Things:

"I didn't know dogs can drive cars!" said by my daughter Madelyne, 3, when she saw a not so attractive person driving a car past us who resembled a dog.

On the one hand, we want our children to be honest. On the other hand, there are times when being honest is not a good idea. When you receive a birthday present you don't like, you don't say, "Gee, this sucks." You say, "Thank you for the gift."

Or if you see a person who is particularly unattractive, it probably isn't such a great idea to refer to them as a K-9. I'm just saying.

Get more brutal honesty from people no taller than your kness right here. You can also submit your own trenchant toddler tidbits.

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Dog-Powered Scooter? Bicycle? Tricycle?

Shannon LC Cate — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 20:00:00 GMT

Ever want to ride your bike and walk your dog at the same time? What if your dog could help you make it up that steep hill? What if your dog could help pull the bike trailer with junior?

This company has the solution for you! Just hook up your dog to the harness and go. You get to steer. You get to decide when to help the dog by peddling and when to let the dog (or, up to 4 dogs) pull you while you rest. It looks a little whacky, but a little fun. I' not a dog-owner, but if I was, I admit, I'd give this one a consideration.

Dog owners, what do you think? Bikers, how about you?

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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Lost Dog Makes it Home For Christmas

JeanneSager — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 19:05:00 GMT

If you think a nineteen-hour holiday drive would be tough on a family's three-year-old, how about the family dog?

Nine hours into the trip home from the Freeman family Thanksgiving, Australian shepherd mix Bentley slipped his collar in a hotel parking lot and took off. The Freemans were ten hours from home, and couldn't find their pooch. But three-year-old son Jonathan wasn't worried. Turns out - he didn't need to be.

Bentley was picked up and taken to the Wichita Humane Society in Kansas, who scanned his microchip and called the Freemans in Texas on Sunday. Jonathan was right - his pup made it home for Christmas.

It's one of those awwwwww stories that fills even the grinchiest with holiday cheer. It's also made me start thinking more seriously about taking my menagerie to the vet to be microchipped. All rescues, my pets never came through a store or breeder who chipped them as kittens/pups. Nor did they come from shelters - which have slowly started to invest in the microchip technology (funding his short at most shelters, so it's still hit and miss).

It will mean an expense on my part, but watching my own three-year-old "share" her Christmas cookies with the dog and plop her new crown on the cat's head, I realize I'm not the only one around here who needs the four-legged part of the family around. So I guess we'll be making the investment soon - as much for the kid's sake as the animals'.

Image/Source: The Dallas Morning News

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Puppies Save Lost Toddler

Brett Singer — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 15:30:00 GMT

After so many sad stories (winter, I suppose?), this one was a nice find.

3-year-old Jaylynn Thorpe had "wandered away from his baby-sitter" and was missing for almost 24 hours in the woods of Halifax County, Virginia. (That's some babysitter.) Luckily, he was with two 12-week-old puppies. When it got late and cold – 17 degrees – the puppies snuggled up to Jaylynn and kept him warm. The kid is fine, thanks to these two dogs.

The trio had quite a journey – according to published reports, the boy and his two dogs "wandered up to a mile in the dark, even across a highway." Eventually he was found, "sitting by a tree, the two puppies nestled against him."

Even after Jaylynn had been rescued, the dogs didn't let him out of their sight -- "Where he went, they went," said search party member Billie Jo Roach.

When people get dogs to protect their families, I don't think this is what they have in mind. Luckily everyone is OK. I might have a little chat with the baby-sitter, though.

Source: NY Daily News via The Howard Stern Show (specifically Robin Quivers' news)

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Renting Drug Dogs to Search Your Kid's Room: Over the Top or Not?

JeanneSager — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 01:44:00 GMT

Think your kid's smokin' the reefer? Excuse the trip back in time, but the company renting out drug dogs so parents can take them tromping through their teens' bedrooms seems, well, like Joe McCarthy's back and teaching parenting classes.

Sniff Dogs has offices in Ohio and New Jersey and five Labrador retrievers who they say can catch a whiff of a doobie from as far as 15 feet away. The dogs are in and out of the room in five minutes, and the process only happens when a parent is at home. They're even trained to stop and sit at the spot where the scent is strongest, so parents can have the ultimate decision as to whether they want to search the spot or just bring the kids in, have the chat and see if the kids will own up themselves.

None of us want to see our kids on drugs, but isn't this a little . . . I don't know . . . Gestapo-esque? Whatever happened to confronting your kids on your own authority instead of the know-how of a dog's nose? Or making them systematically take their room apart while you watch and direct?

If you're afraid of alienating your kid with an old-fashioned parent-to-kid confrontation, calling in the canines will certainly leave them howling.

Image: Sky News

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Pit bulls and kids: Scared or Perfectly Comfortable?

JeanneSager — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 16:34:00 GMT

For the first time since a law was enacted putting the responsibility for a dog's attack on its owner, a Texas couple has been convicted in the death of a 7-year-old child. They were sentenced to seven years, one for each year of life taken from their 7-year-old neighbor by their vicious pack of pit bulls.

I know what you're thinking. She's gunning for those dogs. But where my heart aches for parents who've lost their child, I can't blame that all on a dog. And I wouldn't blame it all on a breed.

Tanner Joshua Monk was walking to playing with other neighborhood kids the last time his parents saw him on May 18. He was headed in the direction of Crystal Smith and Jack Watson's house. His body was later found in a ditch, surrounded by the couple's four pit bulls, 100 yards from his home and 70 yards from Smith and Watson's property line. The dogs were outside of their property and a clear danger - so more power to the court that convicted the couple for not keeping them locked up.

BUT, and this is a big but, I'm not ready to join the forces out there who are ready to ban pit bulls to protect our kids. That makes as much sense as banning cars because accidents are the leading cause of death in American children, and automobiles account for the largest number of these accidents (according to the National Institutes of Health).

Not every pit bull is a hulking beast with bloodthirsty jaws and no heart, a lesson I learned after warily watching as my friend began dating and then bought a house with a pit bull owner. Their move put the dog in the same house as her now 4-year-old son, who invites my daughter over for frequent playdates. Buster is certainly strong. His body is a lean block of muscle so strong that when he's leaning on me - as he loves to do, it's one of his ways of showing affection - he could easily drop me to the floor. That he maintains the control not to let me fall was one of the first signs that I could let down my guard when Buster is around my daughter.

He is your classic case of nurture versus nature, a dog whose owner has worked hard to train him to obey. My friend's boyfriend has lavished him with the kind of love that has brought out in a breed known for its mean streak a desire to cuddle up on the couch with anyone who's willing. He's no more of a danger to my daughter than our own dog, an exuberant hound and boxer mix who's more than earned a sign on our door that reads "warning, an attack licking may occur." Her presence in our home is also part of the reason I have stopped worrying about Buster. From the get go, we've taught our daughter how to act around animals, not to grab their tails or touch them while they're eating. Out in public, we warn her not to approach an animal without first asking its owner if she can put out a hand.

Maybe being a dog owner has made me biased, but I've never owned a pit bull. I wonder, how do other dog owners feel about their kids around pit bulls?

Image: The Sula Foundation, a rescued pit bull puppy

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Woman Tapes Dogs' Mouths, Gives Birth

Amy Kuras — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 21:24:00 GMT

I am on record as not especially loving our family dog, especially post-baby: she smells, she vomits if she drinks water too fast or eats people food, which she steals from the table or the counter if we’re not looking, and she barks piteously when we leave the house.

And after a particularly hair-raising escaping incident that had our deeply kind friends out at midnight and again at 5 am searching for her, finding friends to dog-sit is a little bit, um, challenging.

But I’ve never considered resorting to this: a woman in Johnston, RI taped her two pit bull’s mouths shut while she checked into the hospital for two days to give birth to her son.

Animal control finally found the dogs after neighbors reported no one entering or leaving her apartment (that’s right, she had two pit bulls, which are not small dogs, in an apartment) for two days and the sound of whimpering dogs. The dogs were emaciated when they were taken away by animal control.

Let’s just think about the wisdom of this woman: not one, but two, pit bulls in an apartment soon to contain a baby. Yes, I know pit bulls can be wonderful dogs when treated well, but somehow I am guessing these dogs were more likely not. Owner thinks this is an appropriate way to treat dogs – what happens when she needs to step out on the baby? And this is a 20-year-old with so little common sense, cash, or social support that she couldn’t find someone to care for her dogs while she was gone.

She’s been charged with two counts of animal cruelty. Let’s hope she’s convicted and her sentence includes some parenting classes lest her kid gets a similar level of care, huh?

Woman Clones Her Pit Bull—Five Times

Hannah Tennant-Moore — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 23:30:00 GMT

While this stor y will hopefully never be remotely related to parenting human babies, this woman’s quotes are so priceless that I just had to share. Plus, she’s essentially paying to torture puppies, and she should get some backlash for it, even if it’s only of the indignant blogger variety.

Losing a pet is awful. No one knows this better than I, who cried for days after my goldfish died. (Don’t even get me started on my dog.) So I feel for Bernann McKinney, who took the loss of her beloved pit bull Booger quite hard. Still, I can’t exactly condone her method of grieving. McKinney recently became the first person in the world to pay to clone a pet. After selling her house to raise the necessary sum—when defying death, one must make sacrifices—McKinney had a South Korean cloning company create five puppies using a piece of the original Booger’s ear.

McKinney couldn’t be happier with Booger McKinney, Booger Lee, Booger Ra, Booger Hong, and Booger Park. “I dream of the day, some day, when everyone can afford to clone their pet because losing a pet is a terrible, terrible loss to anyone,” she said.

Let us pray that McKinney’s dream is never realized. Cloning carries a high risk of miscarriage and still birth, and those animals that do survive are usually plagued with health problems. As RSPCA scientist Penny Hawkins put it, “I can’t believe that any true dog lover would condone causing suffering to dogs and wasting their lives for such a trivial and selfish purpose, particularly when animal shelters worldwide have thousands of dogs who need loving homes.” I'm pretty sure Booger would agree.

Photo: Getty Images

5 Reasons Dogs and Kids DO Mix

5 Reasonds Dogs and Kids DON'T Mix

5 Reasons Dogs and Kids DON'T Mix

Rachael Brownell (Redsy) — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 01:05:00 GMT

Sweet canine-child love stories notwithstanding, let me just say up front that I'm not a dog person. I've never been fond of the ill-behaved crotch sniffers that seem to populate parks and sidewalks. It's annoying as hell to be accosted by a mutt --far more annoying than ill-behaved children -- who rarely, if ever, sniff a person's crotch with any real enthusiasm.

But since becoming a parent, my concerns about dogs are well-grounded. Here are 5 reasons dogs and children don't mix:

1. Off leash areas - One of the only swimming beaches in my neighborhood has an off-leash area next to a children's playground. My personal favorite is when dogs tear through the play area and scare the hell out of toddlers.

2. Unscooped poop - Grass covered poop is just as startling first thing in the morning as it is when you walked your dog through my yard last night and didn't scoop the poop.

3. Dangerous breeds - Pitbulls seem to attack children weekly. Why are these breeds necessary? On the other hand, black labs when ill-treated can be just as dangerous.

4. Herding - Herding dogs are dangerous around new walkers. When my daughter was 18 months old, she was herded by grandma's little terrier. Nothing happened, but it could have.

5. Jumping - Dogs like to jump and wrestle around when they're playing. Larger breeds are just plain scary when they are poorly trained and managed.

Obviously well loved, trained and cared for dogs can be a pleasure. But so often the dogs roaming public parks are just the opposite.

5 Reasons Dogs and Kids DO Mix

Hannah Tennant-Moore — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Babies and dogs often end up in the news in tragic situations or simply unpleasant encounters. But when I think back on my years working as a nanny for a family with two boys—aged six months and two years when I started caring for them—I remember their dog Annie as my personal savior. Granted, Annie was a well-trained black lab, which is one of the best breeds for children.

Not only did Annie help teach the boys empathy and responsibility as they got older—they were very attentive to her food and play needs—but she was a great addition to the family for some practical reasons as well. Here are just a few reasons why dogs and children can go hand in, uh, paw:

1. Cleaning doesn't get any easier than yelling, "Annie, come!" Dogs will gladly clean up everything from crumbs in the car seats to applesauce in the carpet to jelly in the baby’s thigh rolls.

2. Dress Up. When the kids outgrow their clothes or stain them with grape juice, give them to the dog. Hours of hilarity for the whole family will ensue.

3. Family photographs. Put a baby next to a black lab; snap a photograph. Your holiday pictures are done. Even the worst photo of a baby and a dog is pretty darn cute.

4. Dog Hair. That's right: studies have indicated that growing up with dogs helps kids develop immunities against asthma and other allergies.

5. Catch. What quickly becomes boring and a little gross to adults is endless amusement for dogs and children. Dogs never tire of running after balls. Toddlers never tire of throwing balls and watching dogs chase them—no matter how slobber-covered the ball becomes. All the little creatures in the family have a blast and you don't even have to get your hands dirty!

Photo: Derek Leffew

Political Nanny: Cat Ladies Don't Trust Obama

Madeline Holler — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 19:01:00 GMT

If Obama expects to move into the White House, he had better pack up the kids and, quick, head to the nearest animal shelter. Seems pet owners feel a bigger connection with John McCain and are supporting him over his Democratic opponent.

Obama has said in the past his family fully intends to get a pet -- a dog. But that's just not good enough, it would appear. Here's one former dog owner in mourning (Yahoo!):

Richard Powell, 79, of Spokane, Wash., whose dog passed away last fall, said if a person owns a pet that "tells you that they're responsible at least for something, for the care of something."

Seems a little general (and kids count, right?), but you know how intense pet people can be. Anyway, here's how it breaks down (from Yahoo!):

— All pet owners: McCain, 42 percent; Obama 37 percent; Nader, 3 percent; other, 3 percent; undecided, 14 percent. Margin of error, plus or minus 2.9 points.

— Do not own a pet: Obama, 48 percent; McCain, 34 percent; Nader, 3 percent; other, 3 percent; undecided, 12 percent. Margin of error, 4.1 points.

— Dog owners: McCain, 43 percent; Obama, 34 percent; Nader, 3 percent; other, 3 percent, undecided, 12 percent. Margin of error, 3.6 points.

— Cat owners: McCain, 41 percent; Obama, 38 percent; Nader, 3 percent; other, 4 percent; undecided, 14 percent. Margin of error 3.9 points.

While Obama doesn't yet know the pleasure of cleaning the litter box, McCain is no stranger to it.

He has a veritable menagerie, including Sam the English springer spaniel, Coco the mutt, turtles Cuff and Link, Oreo the black and white cat, a ferret, three parakeets and a bunch of saltwater fish.

What about you? Would you trust a president who doesn't even own a goldfish?

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Photo: cbsnews.com

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

Top 10 Low Maintenance Family Pets

Rachael Brownell (Redsy) — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 14:02:00 GMT

The thing about pets is they teach kids about love and caring and responsibility and death and life and cleaning up after "messes." They provide teaching opportunities and lay the groundwork for our kids to have a better connection with nature. Don't argue. I didn't make the rules.

For those of us who already have plenty of closeness with other mammals' feces, taking on the care of any other live thing is unappealing in the extreme. Here are 10 low maintenance pets that might suit in this case:

1. Goldfish/ put them in a bowl with a fake plant, throw in food, call it good.

2. Earthworm/ strange and hardly move, easy to keep in a jar or can

3. Ladybug/ they're cute and little and probably eat grass

4. Neighborhood cat (not feral) / not your pet, not your problem

5. Imaginary Dog/ creative and fun and very well trained

6. Stuffed Squirrel / throw some business at your local taxidermist. they're cuddly and furry and never bite.

7. House Fly / these little guys only live 36-48 hours, but they're replaceable and are actually quite friendly.

8. Bee in a Jar/ great for metaphorical lessons, fun for the kids.

9. Ant Farm/ you can buy them in a kit, on the internets.

10. Sea Monkeys/ even brine shrimp now have their own fansite and why shouldn't they? These are the best pets ever!

Any others you'd recommend?

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

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Other uses for diapers: Heroin Hiding!

Brett Singer — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 20:50:00 GMT

Ah, diapers. So useful for so many things. You know, like... well, okay, diapers are really just for keeping the stuff that bounces out of your babies' bodies away from their clothes.

But Frank Keys Jr. is not bound by convention! According to this Associated Press story, Frank was pulled over by state police in New Orleans. After searching the car, drug sniffing dogs discovered something was going on in his pants.

Here's a couple of quotes:

During the pat-down, "officers felt a large hard object in the pants area on Keys," according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney's office.

Out of context, that could be taken the wrong way. Methinks somebody was chuckling when they wrote that press release.

Then there's this:

Keys told officers he was wearing a diaper and when they asked if there was anything in the diaper, he "shook his head affirmatively."

Tell me you haven't had that exact conversation with your toddler.

Of course, there's a key (no pun intended) difference between what's in your kids' diaper and what was in Frank's. The man had "257 grams of heroin" hidden in there. According to this site, one gram goes for approximately $300, or more if it is broken up into milligrams. That means there was at least $80,000 worth of dope in this dope's diaper. Good thing he wasn't wearing one of these.

image: ebaumsworld (note: this image is not a picture of the man with heroin in his diaper)