CatDogBlog

You don’t want to know what was on the menu yesterday afternoon at a party this afternoon at the Hyatt near Beverly Hills. But here’s a hint: the event is part of what’s being billed as “Dine With Your Dog Day.”

Hollywood notables like Nicolette Sheradin and Linda Blair will gather at the hotel with “Eatables” brand dog food spokesman and former “Eight Is Enough” actor Dick Van Patton to do just that: dine with their dogs.

The celebrities will be participating in dog-food eating contests along with other canine-related activities, like chats with dog psychics. A best-dressed dog contest is also on the agenda, which begs the question, who makes this stuff up?

If you think it’s no big deal that your dog just ate some sugar-free gum or a cookie or two, think again. You may want to take a trip to your veterinarian.

While vets have suspected that the sugar substitute xylitol can make dogs sick, the American Veterinary Medical Associations says there is now further clinical evidence of an association between the product and possible liver failure in dogs.

A clinical report that appeared in the October 1st Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association discusses the sometimes fatal conditions developed by dogs that have ingested xylitol. Xylitol is sweetener found in many sugar-free chewing gums, candies, baked goods and toothpastes.

Veterinary toxicologist Sharon Gwaltney-Brant and veterinarian Eric K. Dunayer gathered information on eight dogs that were treated between 2003 and 2005 after eating products containing xylitol. Each dog became ill and five either died or had to be euthanized because of liver failure.
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Wired reports the shocking story of Genetic Savings & Clone, a biotechnology company that sold cloned pets, who sent letters to its customers last month informing them it will close at the end of the year because of little demand for cloned cats. The company had recently reduced the price from $50,000 to $32,000.

The letters said the Sausalito, California company was not accepting new orders for clones because it was “unable to develop the technology to the point that cloning pets is commercially viable.”

Company chief executive Lou Hawthorne did not immediately return telephone calls Wednesday. A message on the company’s answering machine said it was no longer taking orders and referred customers interested in freezing their pets genetic material to the Austin, Texas-based biotechnology company ViaGen.

A ViaGen spokeswoman confirmed that Genetic Savings & Clone had closed and had refunded cloning fees.

The company was launched by billionaire and University of Phoenix founder John Sperling, who had hoped to have his hunting dog, Missy, cloned… a feat that was never accomplished.
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After a disabled woman’s cat started a house fire, her specially trained dog came to the rescue, then died trying to help the cat still in the house. Jamie Hanson said the 13-year-old dog named Jesse brought the phone so she could call 911 and also brought her artificial leg.

“She got me outside and then she heard the cat upstairs and she went up there to get the cat and she wouldn’t come back to me,” Hanson, 49, said at a news conference Monday at Aurora Sheboygan Memorial Medical Center where she was being treated for her injuries.

She received third-degree burns to an arm in the fire Sunday night at her home in the town of Rhine south of Elkhart Lake, the Sheboygan County Sheriff’s Department said, adding that both pets died in the fire.

Hanson, who lost a leg in a car accident three years ago, said she was on the couch watching television when the cat ran over the back of the couch.

“And he jumped onto a table that had a candle on it and tipped it over and lighted the artificial plants on fire,” she said.

Hanson said she fell off the couch and was unable to get her artificial leg from the table, “so my dog got my leg for me and went and got the phone and brought the phone to me so I could call 911.”

She said she tried to put the prosthetic leg on, but it was too hot, and the dog, a golden retriever-German shepherd mix, came to her aid again before going back inside for the cat.

When rescuers arrived, the house was fully engulfed in flames, the sheriff’s department said. Hanson was in the doorway and was assisted by a deputy.

A school principal has resigned and could face felony firearm charges after he shot and killed two orphaned kittens on school property last month.

Wade Pilloud, who resigned as principal of the K-12 Indus school, 40 miles west of International Falls, said he shot the kittens to spare them from starving to death after their mother was killed in an animal trap.

Pilloud said the shooting, which occurred on school grounds, endangered no one.

“I have bred cats, and I currently own two myself,” he wrote Friday in an e-mail to the Minneapolis Star Tribune. “I am not a cat hater. I did not want the animals to suffer.”

The incident happened Sept. 21, and several students still on the grounds for after-school activities heard the shots.

“There were parents who felt, apparently some rather strongly, that there were concerns about the safety of their children,” said Joseph Flynn, an attorney for the South Koochiching/Rainy River School District. “The district’s position is that safety was not compromised.”
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A compilation of funny cat videos found on the interwebs.

Instead of running away this kitty cat starts purring. Check out this cute kitten playing the keyboard, listen to it a second time without watching and you’ll actually hear a horror movie theme. The best comment on this video so far is “Kitten your a musician”

Two chow chows, dogs frolic in the snowy winter, February 12, 2006.

Video by Chow Chow Rescue Maryland USA.

Timmy the cat has grown so big he has to sleep in a dog kennel at night! The black and white kitty only eats a can of cat food a day but still weighs a whopping 10kg (22lb) - which is about the same as a two-year-old child.

It’s thought Timmy, who was adopted from an animal shelter, has always been large and is simply “big-boned”.

His owner Sean Langley said it was hard for Timmy to make friends: “He doesn’t have any other animal friends - I think they’re scared of him.” Luckily for Timmy he gets loads of care and attention from his loving family instead.

The cat is in a very deep sleep and it’s kind of freaky until he wakes up. Like the owner says, it almost looks like the cat is in a coma or worse, until…