Pet Blog of the Week: A Dog’s Life…the Real Story
For the sake of keeping us all together and making new friends in the pet blogosphere I have started talking about my favorite pet blogs once a week. This week’s wonderful pet blog is a dog blog. It’s called A Dog’s Life, the Real Story.
Our Golden Retriever friend Mogley is the author/blogger over there. Mogley sure is a lucky dog. He gets to have foster brothers and sisters to play with all the time because his humans are such wonderful people. They are so wonderful that they take in foster Golden Retrievers from Golden Retriever Rescue of the Rockies (funny that the acronym is “GRRR!” BOL!)
Mogley always has so much fun with the other dogs and he loves to play. He loves to play more than any other dog we have ever come to know. Mogley’s humans often take Mogley & Co. to the parks and trails out there in beautious Colorado where they find all kinds of streams, lakes, ponds and swamps to gallup around in. Lucky duck! The pictures of such pre-meditated swamp swimmings (often done without human’s permission) are hilarious! We always get a great BOL when we see them and so does our human! She says it is so typical of us Golden Retrievers to take unsupervised swims before our humans know what we are getting into. 
Mogley also likes to
run through the sprinkler!
From Mogley’s blog:
My Humans leave the key board of the computer on the fireplace hearth so I can write my own blog and tell you about the daily life of a Golden Retriever. I am a foster dog, living with a family that provided me a home when I was homeless. A poodle once said that golden retrievers can’t spell, but poodles can’t run spell check! Read the first blog, it was written by a human, but it gives you my history.”
Although Mogley says that he is a foster dog, we suspect that he is in his forever home.
We encourage everyone to go and check out A Dog’s Life, the Real Story, because it’s real true! We Goldens live like Kings (as do most of the dogs we have met in the pet blogosphere!). We visit Mogley on a daily basis to see what he is up to. His life is SO exciting!
Take care everyone and have a grrr-eat weekend
Love Benson and Gibson
Cutest Kitty Day!
I LOVE this day! It’s time for the Cutest Kitty! This picture is of maybe the most adorable Ragdoll cat I have ever seen. (I’ve always wanted Ragdoll cats but for some reason they don’t end up in shelters - which is where my animals come from.)
Anyhow, I bet this pretty little kitty is wondering if she can get these in her size…
For more pictures of this beautiful little girl (or guy?), visit the Macawley77 album on Webshots.com. There are tons and tons of adorable cat pictures in the Webshots Pets Category, too!
We Got Haircuts!
Our father always takes us to get shaved for the summertime since our fur is so long and we prefer to spend summer days lounging around outside chewing sticks. We Golden Retrievers are known for our rich long fur so its always nice to be “naked” for the summer. Our Mother calls us “naked dogs” when we are shaved and we’re totally fine with that.
Here is me laying in my favorite position, the “froggy dog” position (as my sister so eloquently calls it):
And here is my brother lying on the carpeting waiting for everyone to go to bed for the night. Its harder to see his naked body since he is a white Golden Retriever:
In the meantime, my kitty kin is teaching my sister a lesson in how to actively ignore a human:
He prefers not to be bothered when he is outside spying on birds, chipmunks and mice.
Be Kind to Animals Week
This week, May 4-10 is the American Humane Association’s Be Kind to Animals Week! The group created this celebratory week in 1915 to celebrate the unique bond between humans and animals.
Though we all love our fur-babies, there are some special things we can do this week to work towards a better future for all animals, everywhere.
So how can you be kind to animals this week? The AHA recommends the following:
Speak out for animals. Get active in local animal welfare policies and legislation.
Report animal abuse. While acts of violence against animals are tragic in their own right, they are also a red flag for other violent behavior, including domestic abuse and violent crime.
Appreciate wildlife. Create an inviting space in your yard or garden for butterflies and birds. Feed the local birds, ducks, bunnies, deer, etc. (Some people might disagree with this one, but oh well. This is my feeling on the subject of starving wild animals).
Make a donation to a local animal shelter. A donation can be monetary, but you can also volunteer or offer up some other service in-kind like contributing to the shelter’s marketing efforts, etc.
Adopt a pet from a shelter or a breed-specific rescue. Approximately 8 to 12 million animals enter our nation’s shelters every year, and more than half of these pets will have to be euthanized because of a lack of homes. Local shelters are the best place to find companion animals, even purebreds — 1 of every 4 dogs in a shelter is a purebred.
Educate others. Share information about animal welfare issues with friends, family and co-workers. Research an issue close to heart, i.e. puppy mills, factory farming, breed-specific legislation, and do something about it! Write letters, call legislators, and get involved with animal welfare advocacy groups!
Spay and neuter. Help solve the problem of euthanasia of adoptable animals by not contributing to it. Make sure your cats and dogs are spayed and neutered.
Lazy Day for Golden Retrievers
It is raining all day today, boo hiss. We Golden Retrievers have to refrain from our normal spring activities of stick-chewing, squirrel- and bunny-chasing, and peeable-plant-finding.
I find comfort in the big brown leather couch my Father bought for me (how silly of him to think there should be room for humans to rest here at night).
While my brother seems to perfectly happy trolloping around the house flinging toys around and smiling for pictures…
Hopefully tomorrow the sun will shine again and we can venture to the park to roll in the mud when our Father isn’t paying attention.
Cute Pet Wallpapers and Pet Screensavers
I was just perusing around for a new desktop wallpaper and found the most adorable pet wallpapers. This site has cat wallpapers and dog wallpapers, pet screensavers, and the cutest other animal wallpapers with horses, big cats and more too!
Here are a few I really like:
The best thing about all of these? They’re all free to download!
Why Do Cats Purr?
Seems like a simple enough question, right? Wrong. The science behind a cat’s purr has long been disputed.
Common knowledge tells us that purring is one of several methods of non-verbal communication cats use to convey their moods and needs. Most experienced “cat people” know that cats don’t purr only when they are content and happy. They also purr during traumatic experiences, i.e. when they’re injured. Purring under stress has been described as a cat’s mantra, i.e., a self-soothing, self-healing, relaxing, vibrating sound. The cat is telling himself to calm down and everything will be okay.
And that may be a part of the answer to the question, why do cats purr? It is soothing to the animal, and makes the cat (and others around her) feel good.
Thanks to Doctors Foster and Smith for this information…
A cat’s purr signals contentment, comfort and security. For many pet owners, the humming purr of a cat is the unmistakable sign that their cat is happy and healthy.In many ways this is true: behaviorists believe the original function of purring was to enable a kitten to tell his mother that “all is well down here.” This often occurs during nursing. A kitten can’t meow and nurse at the same time, but it can purr and nurse without any problem. The mother often purrs back, reassuring the kitten.This is why your cat purrs when petted, instinctively giving the signal “all is well,” a message you can both feel and hear.
But this isn’t the only message purring may signal…Although we assume that a cat’s purr is an expression of pleasure or is a means of communication, perhaps the reasons for purring can be deciphered from the more stressful moments in a cat’s life. Older cats purr when they play or approach other cats, signaling they are friendly and want to come closer. Cats also purr when they are distressed or afraid. Sick and injured cats, and those in veterinary offices often purr, thus, not all purring cats appear to be content or pleased with their current circumstances. Like expressed above, it is thought that this is the cat’s way of reassuring and calming herself.
(This catch-22 has lead researchers to investigate how cats purr, which is still under debate.)
According to an article in Scientific American, over the course of evolution, purring has probably offered some advantage to cats. Most felid species produce a “purr-like” vocalization.
Scientific American also says that scientists have demonstrated that cats produce the purr through signaling of the laryngeal and diaphragmatic muscles. Cats purr during both inhalation and exhalation with a consistent pattern and frequency between 25 and 150 Hertz. Various investigators have shown that sound frequencies in this range can improve bone density and promote healing (even in humans)!
This association between the frequencies of cats’ purrs and improved healing of bones and muscles may provide a third answer to the question, why do cats purr. Because cats have adapted to conserve energy via long periods of rest and sleep, it is possible that purring is a low energy mechanism that stimulates muscles and bones without a lot of energy! Sound vibrations, in the same frequency range as a cat purr, can actually act as a healing aid, reduce pain, and promote tissue growth.
So it seems that there are three reasons that answer the question, why do cats purr: they are content, they are making others (kittens, other cats, other animals and humans) feel comfortable using this special form of communication, and finally, purring is a potential source of self-healing and a built-in survival mechanism.
Who knew?
Pet Blog of the Week: Daisy the Curly Cat
For the sake of keeping us all together and making new friends in the pet blogosphere I have started talking about my favorite pet blogs once a week. Since I missed last week I am posting on Monday instead of Friday.
This week’s Pet Blog of the Week is a cat blog: Daisy the Curly Cat. Daisy might be one of the luckiest cats this world has ever seen. Her mother takes her for walks outside in a covered stroller, she gets to play dress-up, and she is just so photogenic.
Daisy’s blog has features like Monday Mystery - where you have to guess what she is doing or what happens next, Wordless Wednesday - where some adorable photo of Daisy is posted, Sunday Comics - where Daisy gets to be featured in her own comic strip, and Fashion Friday - where she gets to play dress up.
Daisy always has the cutest pictures up on her blog and it’s always fun to play along with her Monday Mysteries. Here is our most recent favorite picture of Daisy (she is in her stroller):
From Daisy’s blog:
I am a dilute calico Devon Rex cat, and I was born on 2/10/04. I have very soft, curly fur. Even though my ears are big, I am very little - I weigh just 6 pounds. I have a big sister named Pixie who is also a Devon Rex. Welcome to my curly world!”
If you are looking for some adorable photos and some feline fun, be sure to check out Daisy the Curly Cat!
Cutest Kitty Day
It’s time again for the cutest kitty of the week. In this case, it’s cutest kitties! I just want to squeeze these guys they are so adorable!
This picture is courtesy the PrettyNiceCat album in Webshots Pets Category. Check out the full album for more adorable kitten pictures.
Theodore’s Entertainment
Start with one fat tabby cat, sunning himself on the back porch.
Because he is a happy cat, start doing rubby-dubbies on the human Muthur…
Find something to attack - in this case a shoelace.
Chew on shoelace until it breaks free from shoe.
Mission accomplished.
