Watch Shelter Animals Get New Beds

Stop what you're doing because we've found it — the most "aw" inducing animal video ever. The RSPCA animal shelter in Victoria, Australia, recently put out a call to animal lovers to donate their old pet's beds to the charity. The hand-me-down beds were then gifted to 100 cats and dogs still awaiting their "forever homes." The resulting video is bitter sweet — at once cute and heartbreaking. Somebody adopt these precious little guys!

http://tinyurl.com/znybsk6

Could a Child Really be Raised by Animals?

I recently became a first-time mother. In addition to my daughter, Myrtle, I share my home with a motley collection of rescued animals including dogs, cats, horses, chickens, and pigs. This multi-species, multi-generational co-habitation—along with the release of a new adaptation of Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book—left me thinking about the phenomena of feral children, a topic I had considered in my book about human-animal interactions more generally. Certainly in some exceptional circumstances I can now appreciate how it might be possible for a human child to be cared for by a non-human surrogate.

http://tinyurl.com/hf2v6df

Better Ways to Handle Unwanted Animals

The last time I was in an animal shelter, I adopted a furry 8-year-old puss named Gus. The shelter was clean but depressing: It was filled with whelping dogs (mostly pit-bull mixes) and terrified cats that, most likely, were not long for this world. It was one of the nicer shelters I’ve been to, but it had the charm of a county jail.

http://tinyurl.com/jy2ze7w

Kids Get Shelter Dogs' Tails Wagging by Reading Them Tales

Who wants a bedtime story? Well, your local shelter dog might — and at the Humane Society of Missouri, that's just what they're getting.  In the Book Buddies Reading Program, trained volunteers ages 5-16 read to the shelter dogs, helping them gain confidence and grow comfortable with visitors.  "We saw more and more rescue animals that were shy, fearful, and stressed out in the shelter environment," explained JoEllyn Klepacki, the society's assistant director of education. "Unfortunately, these dogs are less likely to get adopted, since they tend to hang back instead of engage when potential adoptees come through.

http://tinyurl.com/j2axbbw

Not So Dumb Animals: Putting Dog Through IQ Test

Like anyone who has ever had to fight Fido for space by the fire, I’ve never had much time for the idea that dogs are just dumb animals. Sure, they can play the innocent after snaffling that stilton, but in reality they operate with a low and lethal cunning that’s all too familiar.

http://tinyurl.com/h9zwkqr

New Law Protects Animals From Extreme Heat and Cold

Dogs might seem to have more fun in the cold than people do, but long term exposure can be dangerous for them.  Betsy Larson owns a small dog, a Pomeranian named Chester.  She says, "I don't want to stand outside in the cold for 30 minutes.  I wouldn't make my dog do it unless we were outside doing something and having fun."  The Humane Care for Animals Act was amended in August to include a line that says no cat or dog owner can leave their pet in extreme heat or cold to the extent that the animal is injured or killed.  The law took effect at the start of 2016.

http://tinyurl.com/zxst6d7

Scientists Discover How Animals Develop Patches

Scientists have solved what shall henceforth be known as the piebald mystery: by discovering the origins of the broad white patches that can adorn the belly and head fur of cats, dogs and farm animals.  The distinctive patterns were known to be caused by a mutated gene, but how the faulty DNA produced the signature white bellies and other splashes of light on animals’ coats was far from clear.

http://tinyurl.com/j3low2w

Animals Find Forever Homes This Holiday

There are millions of loving and healthy cats and dogs sitting in shelters that are in need of a “forever home” or simply just a family to belong to. The Tri-County Animal Shelter recently announced its holiday promotions, which began Dec. 1 with a “Home 4 The Holidays” event and will finish off the month with a big holiday party Dec. 19.

http://tinyurl.com/qybdcnf

‘Blessing Of The Animals’ Brings Creatures Of All Kinds

Some lucky animals were serenaded inside the Christ Church of Manhattan, as the Upper East Side parish celebrated their 7th annual “Blessing of the Animals” ceremony.  The event offers individual blessings to all kinds of pets, including dogs, bunnies, guinea pigs, farm animals and even NYPD horses.  “They need to feel that God loves them,” Cindy Adams, an organizer of the event, said.

http://tinyurl.com/hzog3wn

Tech Breakthroughs Are Giving Animals the Power to Speak

Imagine you're a diabetic and you use a service dog trained to alert you if it senses your blood sugar is falling. These dogs are incredibly useful, because diabetics can lapse into “hypoglycemia unawareness,” where they don’t notice their own oncoming symptoms. The canines do, and they intervene. But sometimes a diabetic shock can emerge so suddenly the human passes out. Then the dog’s in a quandary: How does it go for help? Because dogs can’t talk.

http://tinyurl.com/o39v89h

Summer Is Dog Days For Shelter Animals

Every summer, ACCT Philly has to fight tooth and nail to save animals in its care, and this one is no different.  The summer of 2015 has brought an average of 26 dogs into the shelter each day, more than during the other seasons, Ed Fritz, ACCT Philly's director of operations, said Monday. With an average daily adoption rate of just eight dogs, the kennel is constantly approaching its capacity of 160.  More people surrender or abandon their pets in the summer than in cooler months, said Ame Dorminy of ACCT Philly's adoption team. There is no one clear reason this is so, she said, but she speculated that spring birthrates may overwhelm pet owners.

http://tinyurl.com/oee7pol

Bomb Sniffing Elephants in South Africa

Armed with a sharp sense of smell, dogs have a long history of detecting explosives for their human handlers. Trained rats sniff out land mines from old African wars. In Croatia, researchers have tried to train bees to identify TNT.  Now elephants. New research conducted in South Africa and involving the U.S. military shows they excel at identifying explosives by smell, stirring speculation about whether their extraordinary ability can save lives.

http://tinyurl.com/ou96m6l

Video: Doggie Shows Off Cutest Case Of Road Rage

When we saw a seemingly annoyed boxer dog honking her owner's car horn back in March, we thought she was just a rare case of a perturbed puppy.  But now that we have stumbled upon the video above, and we see yet another pooch laying on the horn, we are certain that this is what dogs do when they have absolutely no patience.

http://tinyurl.com/k6v5nv6

Hundreds of Dogs Saved From Massacre on Puerto Rico

When Stephen McGarva and wife Pamela decided to move to Puerto Rico because of her job, he jumped at the chance to ­explore the sun-soaked island.  On their first week in the lush resort community in Humacao in October 2005, McGarva — an artist, extreme-sports addict and professional free spirit — went exploring remote Playa Lucia beach for a killer wind gust.  “I noticed what I thought was a pile of coconut husks,” he told The Post. “When I got closer, I said, ‘Oh, my God, it’s a dog.’ ”

http://tinyurl.com/okycb8u

Lucifer the Lion Treated With Acupuncture

Veterinarian Nicki Grint usually performs acupuncture on dogs, but she’s been using the ancient Chinese practice to treat a bigger beast at the Paignton Zoo in Devon, England.  Lucifer, a 419-pound Asiatic lion, had a tumor removed from his right hind paw before he was recently transferred from the London Zoo to Paignton. (He was born in captivity at the U.K.’s Cotswold Wildlife Park in 2002.) His wound from the procedure wasn’t healing, so his keepers at the Devon facility took an unconventional approach.

http://tinyurl.com/p7p7o5d

25 Pets That Take a Cute Selfie

The word "duckface" just got a whole new meaning.  While snapping a shot of your own face is still wildly popular on social media, people just can't compete with their furry friends when it comes to selfies. Dogs, cats and even guinea pigs are getting a taste of Internet fame through some self-indulgent photo session — and they like it.

http://tinyurl.com/nynw4r4

-Igor Purlantov

Does Your Cat Love You?

With sloppy kisses and swishing tails, it’s hard not to notice how much dogs love their owners, as if their only purpose is to love, love, love you and sometimes eat. That’s because we’ve been breeding dogs for tens of thousands of years, selecting the cutest and waggiest pooches for pets. Young pups even respond to human gestures.

http://tinyurl.com/mlqsddn

17 Breeds of Dogs at 6 Weeks Old

Puppyhood is an awe-inducing showcase of 25 breeds of dogs all photographed at six weeks of age. Professional animal photographer J.Nichole Smith of Little & Large shot 25 different litters over a hectic 30 day period. We caught up with Smith who was kind enough to give us some background info on the project.

http://tinyurl.com/n5ebd6q

Video: Cats Annoyed by Doggie Friends

We've all been there. Someone really wants to be your friend and you find them totally...slobbery. They get in your face, smiling like they can't possibly understand why you're not in the mood to hang out. They think you're looking for something to do, when in fact sitting quietly is a perfectly enjoyable activity. They seem to have interminable energy and optimism. It's just so exhausting.  Cats get it. Why can't dogs? 

http://tinyurl.com/kw2f2o3

-Igor Purlantov

Sochi's Olympians Vie for Puppy Love

Forget official Sochi Olympics merchandise. U.S. athletes at the Winter Games are corralling much more cuddly souvenirs: stray puppies. Gus Kenworthy, the silver medalist in the 1-2-3 U.S. sweep of the men's ski slopestyle competition Thursday, spent the past two days buying kennels and leashes for a brood—four young pooches and their mother—he plans to bring home. The dogs had made their home under a security tent near a media center in the mountains.

http://tinyurl.com/n5hz445