John Grogan, author of Marley & MeMost of you have heard of John Grogan. He's the author of the runaway (pun intended) bestseller, Marley & Me.What you may not have heard is that he's now got a new yellow lab named Woodson. Turns out Grogan's a fellow Pennsylvanian (go, Keystone State!), and when he adopted Woodson, a 15-week-old ball of fur, from the set of the movie made from his book, the pup
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Good news for disabled pets!
Maybe things ARE changing for the better, at least a little. We've often mentioned on this blog the fact that disabled pets have a difficult time getting adopted from shelters, and how they constitute the majority of euthanized animals. But today I discovered some GOOD news on this topic and want to share it with you!Dr. Walton Schalick, a physical and medical historian at the University of
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Good night, sweet prince...
Anyone who knows me even a little bit knows that I can be a little obsessive. Nothing indiscriminate; I'm particular about these obsessions -- animals, art, weather, chocolate -- but they are obsessions, nevertheless. And weather, particularly severe weather, is one of the biggies for me. And so, when I read about the recent passing of Nin, the mascot kitty of the weather observatory atop New
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Adios, Gidget. Te amo, little friend.
A bit off-topic here, but significant news in Critterland, nonetheless:Today we say goodbye to dear little Gidget, who crossed the Rainbow Bridge yesterday after succumbing to a stroke at 15. She passed at the Los Angeles home of her longtime trainer, Sue Chipperton.Gidget is probably better known to most folks as the Taco Bell Chihuahua. Playing a male, beret-wearing spokesdog for the
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Bullfighting - What Do You Think?
Okay, apparently I'm just a chatty little wench tonight, because I'm on the third post of the evening...But I was reading about a book that has something to do with Spain and its famous matadors and bullfighting and Hemingway, etc. -- all that excessively butch stuff. And of course, bullfighting is one of those just absolutely lovely inventions of man (and yeah, it's a guy thing -- I just can't
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Puck Needs Help.
Okay, I already posted today, but this is something that can't wait, so I'm adding it now:Kayla and PuckI'm posting about a cat named Puck, who I learned about on Twitter. I'm telling you right now, I don't know this cat, I don't know Kayla, his mom, and I can't even vouch for the veracity of the story. All I can tell you is that I read the blog post at the end of this link and I thought, "There
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From Chop Shop to Edward Scissorhands
Warning: This one's a little hard to take,until you learn of the happy ending.Eddie“We got this phone call from Escambia County Animal Control and they asked us if we could take a dog whose feet, ears and tail had been cut off,” said Nikki Headley, co-manager of New Beginnings, Destin, Florida’s newest no-kill shelter for disabled pets. Eddie was brought to a shelter in Pensacola on July 5 by a
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Ivan - A Love Story
Every once in a while, Barb Techel over at Joyful Paws lets loose with one of her "Occasional Paws" feature stories. I just had to share this recent one about Ivan the Beagle, because it so perfectly embodies what we're about here at Almost Perfect Pets.Those of you who've been following for a while might recognize Barb's name - we featured her blog a bit ago: You know, the one about Frankie, the
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A Neat Publication For You to Check Out!
When Almost Perfect came out last year, one of the first publications to let readers know about it was Bay Woof, a free monthly newspaper for San Francisco Bay area dog lovers.This kewl color paper ran an excerpt in its December, 2008 issue of Bay area resident Vicki Tiernan's essay about her dog Ruby, which is the cover story in our anthology. Yes, that's the irrepressible Ruby, proudly
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Catch me on Steve Dale's Pet World Radio this Saturday!
Hey, Y'all -Well, Steve did call me and we had a nice chat about disabled pets and our book, Almost Perfect. Turns out it was not live, but being taped, so sorry if anyone tried to tune in and couldn't figure out what was going on.What a nice guy. He really cares about critters. And boy, 15 minutes sure flies by fast when you're talking about things you care passionately about! I was bummed not
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Listen for us on Steve Dale's PetWorld Radio Show!
Okay, y'all. Here's one I owe to Ms. Vicki for "suggesting" I send a copy of Almost Perfect to Steve Dale, longtime pet champion, now at Chicago's WLS radio station. Apparently, he dug it, because I got a call today asking if I'd do an interview about the book today at noon CST. Gee, I think I could manage that...Steve DaleFor those of you not familiar with Steve's show, it's called PetWorld
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