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All in Animal Companions
There is something about ginger cats. They tend to be more confident, more outgoing, and generally more cheeky – especially the toms. BBC News asked biologist and cat behavior expert Roger Tabor if there was a reason for ginger adventurousness.
The Australian animated series Bluey has pre-school fans all over the world. Plenty of adults love the show too, and so do their dogs for some reason. People magazine consulted with Amanda Farah, the National Training & Behavior Coordinator for Best Friends Animal Society, to break down why the show has become known as “dog entertainment.”
A family-friendly zoo in England has an R-rated problem: five African grey parrots that curse a blue streak. The foul-mouthed birds are spicing up the proceedings at Lincolnshire Wildlife Park in Friskney.
A 34-year-old elephant named Ali at Florida’s Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens has just undergone an intense, drawn out dental procedure to remove his tusk. Ali was once part of the menagerie at Michael Jackson’s Neverland Ranch in Los Olivos, California; he was donated to the Florida zoo in 1997.
Coffee shops around Japan have fully embraced the concept of the animal cafe. First came pet-friendly spots, then cat and dog cafes, then all manner of creature-themed stops, including the latest craze: the pig cafe.
Last year we noted the longevity of Bobi, both at his incredible 31st birthday, and at his passing in October. Now the arbiter of such things, Guinness World Records, is investigating Bobi’s advanced age, which has been questioned by veterinarians.
A new breed of dog – the Lancashire heeler – has joined the 200 other official breeds recognized by the American Kennel Club. The new guy is a “sturdy little dog with a short, weather-resistant coat of black and tan or liver and tan, they are affectionate with their owners, always happy, talkative and always ready for a walk,” according to the AKC website.
In August a mysterious canine illness broke out in Oregon, affecting at least 200 dogs. Since then, the respiratory ailment has spread to 14 states, and vets still don’t know what’s causing it.
In western Thailand just outside Kanchanaburi, an elephant sanctuary is home to a few dozen rescued domestic elephants. They’ve had a difficult time, either born into a brutal life of logging or retirees from the slightly less degrading tourism trade.
On August 19, 71-year-old hiker Richard Moore of Pagosa Springs, Colorado, and his 12-pound dog Finney had set out to climb Blackhead Peak just east of town. He never returned, and a several-days-long search did not find the missing man.
“The idea that animals should have the right to vote sounds preposterous.” That’s how Chicago lawyer Ioan-Radu Motoarcă opens his argument, published in the serious Oxford University Press journal Analysis.
In May, we were wishing Bobi a happy birthday, his thirty-first – by far more birthdays than any other dog had ever celebrated. We’re sad to report that there will be no more, as Bobi has passed on after three decades.
Escaped murderer Danelo Cavalcante was finally nabbed this week after two weeks on the lam. US Marshals and the Pennsylvania State Police deployed search teams, armored carriers, horses, helicopters, and aircraft equipped with thermal imaging to catch the killer, but the ultimate hero in the capture was Yoda, a 4-year-old Belgian Malinois.
The mayor of Béziers, a small city on France’s southern coast, has had it with dog poop. Robert Ménard has decreed that dogs walking on the main streets must have their DNA on file with the local government, so that negligent owners can be tracked down and fined when they fail to clean up after Fifi.
This week the goats returned to Riverside Park on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. Charlie, Chico, Cowgirl, and Mallomar launched their summer’s groundskeeping job with a “ribbon chewing” ceremony to open the park’s new compost site, to which the four will be contributing over the next two months.
Scooter is a 7-year-old hairless Chinese Crested dog with some issues: a shock of unruly gray hair (the “crest”), a tongue that’s always hanging out his little maw, and a pair of hind legs facing the wrong way. Because of all that, Scooter has been crowned this year’s World’s Ugliest Dog. Congrats.
There were puns aplenty when Loki, a 5-year-old Rottweiler from Maryland received her “dogtorate” from the University of Maryland-Baltimore this week. With her new dogree confurred, Loki is now officially a dogtor, as declared on the school’s website.
In January we lauded Spike, the 23-year-old chihuahua recognized by Guinness Records as the world’s oldest dog. Now we learn that Spike is a mere puppy compared to Bobi, a Portuguese breed of livestock guardian dog known as the Rafeiro do Alentejo, who clocks in at a whopping 31 years old.
Balto was a world famous Siberian husky, the lead sled dog in a 1925 mission that delivered life-saving medicine to Nome, Alaska in abominably frigid conditions. Now scientists have analyzed Balto’s DNA to find out what made him so tough.
Over 2,500 dogs from more than 200 breeds vied for the coveted title – Best in Show – but only one would prevail. That would be a petit basset griffon Vendéen named Buddy Holly, the first of his kind to take top honors at the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show.
