This is a Christmas present that started out as a great idea and took a turn for the worse. Even new batteries did not help. Talk about a nightmare before Christmas! (Was he drinking? Was it his circuit board? Or is he truly a cousin of Zuul, minion of Gozer?)
We hope that Dogster readers’ Christmas gifts work better than this one. At least it appears the dog still has a receipt flapping about his left ear. There’s no way I would let this creatures stay overnight at my house for fear he’d somehow turn on in the middle of the night. He would make the Twilight Zone’s Talking Tina look tame.
Below are models of the dog that work as they’re supposed to. This version is good for small children, and very sensitive dogs and Dogsters.
We’ve all seen children who are terror stricken at the mere idea of sitting on the lap of a stranger with an odd red suit and a beard that is so 1800s. But we haven’t met many dogs who have reservations about Santa. (When St. Nick slides down our chimney tonight, Jake will welcome him with a wag, show him to the plate of treats, and continue with his nap. It must happen like this, because every year the plate of treats we leave out is gone on Christmas morning, and Jake is fast asleep.)
But in the above appealing video of 4/5 of the First Family, Bo Obama seems to have a little trepidation about Santa during a gathering at the Children’s National Medical Center. He just isn’t quite sure what he’s all about, it seems. Has your dog met Santa? Does s/he give a bark about him?
Click here, or on the image to the left, to get a very cute doggy Christmas e-card. (We had posted the “live” version of the card on the blog for a couple of days, but since the music came on as soon as anyone looked at the page the blog appeared on, we opted to remove it. Heaven forbid anything interfere with the singing possessed dog’s performance in the video a few posts north of here!)
Harry (right) and Sally look a little traumatized to us, contrary to what humane society officials say. Oh wait...Pugs always look this way. (AP photo)
When Harry met Sally, things were good. They played, they hung out, they got to eat dog food every day at their suburban Omaha home. But when Harry’s and Sally’s person committed suicide earlier this month, they had nothing to eat. No dog food, no can opener to open goodies in the pantry, no way to get into the fridge.
After a few days of no food or water, and a few days of their person lying there, they did what any other dogs who want to survive would do. They began to make a meal of him. His body was not discovered for two weeks. (It is very sad that this poor man was not missed earlier.)
The pugs were taken in by the Nebraska Humane Society, and evaluated for adoption. They were deemed well adjusted an in excellent shape. Their temperaments were great — nothing like a stereotypical “man eater.” So they were put up for rehousing.
But would anyone want to adopt animals who had been part of such a macabre situation?
Amazingly, the shelter was flooded with people who wanted to take them in. Some 250 families and individuals applied to be their new guardians. A couple from Indiana won the pug lottery. They had raised pugs before, and were looking to adopt more. Harry and Sally met the couple today in Indiana.
Humane society officials say the pugs should suffer no long-lasting psychological effects, and will be excellent pets. We just hope that they’re not the types (as Jake is) to do that chewing thing when they sleep. That would be a bit creepy at first. But they’re so ridiculously cute we’re sure we’d get over the heebie-jeebies pretty quickly.
We hope their poor owner is finally at peace, and that this time the pugs’ home will indeed be a forever home.
This pug doesn't seem to appreciate this sweater. Oh wait...Pugs always look this way. (And no, this is not Harry or Sally, of the previous post.)
Humans love ‘em. Some dogs do, too. Others dogs are so embarrassed or frightened by them that they can’t move.
Welcome to the canine Christmas sweater. They come in all shapes and sizes, and run in three styles: The good, the bad, and the ugly (the latter two are pretty much synonymous in the land of Christmas sweaters).
We’re looking for photos of any Dogster pooches in their Christmas sweater of any of the varieties mentioned above. The best one — good, bad, or ugly — will be featured on this blog, and will receive 50 Zealies.
Email your photo and send a little description (include your name, your dog’s name, how he/she got the sweater, what your do thinks of it, and if you consider the sweater wonderful, tolerable, or terrible) to arfarfarf@sbcglobal.net by 5 pm Pacific time Monday, Dec. 28. The winner will be announced Wednesday, Dec. 30.
Good luck. And if your dog doesn’t have a sweater, don’t get too unraveled. We’ll be running another photo contest of a different variety next month!
This is an odd and touching story. A dog walking by a New York City apartment building got zapped badly by a freak combination of faulty electric wiring and salt and water conducting the electricity to her feet. Princess is shaken, but doing OK. But her person, who is 80, says the shock almost took his life, too. It seems Princess is all he has. “I lost too much in my life,” he says in the Fox NY video. “I don’t want to lose no more.”
Some photos need a set up to be properly captioned. Others do not. Can you guess which kind this is? To enter the contest, simply comment on this post. The winner will be announced next Monday, December 28th and receive 50 Zealies.
Happy Holidays, everyone!
Yesterday we told you about Oscar, a globetrotting dog who spread the word about adopting animals around the world. If you didn’t read about him, click here for his extraordinary story. Oscar hit 29 countries on five continents, and a lifetime worth of landmarks in his six-month odyssey with his person.
Nutmeg, on the other hand, does not go globetrotting. That doesn’t matter to her, because her people, Sarah Pearcy and her partner, Ginger, take her all over California on road trips. (They use my book, The Dog Lover’s Companion to California, as their guide. They are obviously a brilliant team.)
But on a recent road trip, Sarah and Ginger did not take their adorable pup. It was a last-minute vacation, and they just couldn’t. But Nutmeg had a way of letting them know, upon their return, that this should never happen again.
“We pulled the California map out to look at something, and left her alone in the room with it, to return to find it like this,” says Sarah. “She has never chewed ANYTHING else in the house that wasn’t a dog toy. The message was pretty clear!”
Nutmeg, your communication skills are to be envied. We are pretty sure that the next time you hear a suitcase being zipped, you will be hopping into the car shortly thereafter. If not, we have Oscar’s email address, and you can write to him and ask his advice. (He has probably chewed a couple of globes in his past…)
Most people who want to send a message about the importance of adopting pets do it by volunteering at shelters. Or donating to shelters. Or even writing about them.
But not Joanne Lefson. She sold her home and took her rescued dog, Oscar, on an around-the-world trip most people only dream about. She wanted their six-month, $400,000+ journey to call attention to the fact that there are some amazing dogs waiting to be rescued at shelters across the globe.
Lefson adopted Oscar from a South African shelter just one day before he was to be euthanized.
“When I discovered what a wonderful dog Oscar was, it broke my heart to think how many ‘Oscar’s’ are still out there and simply just don’t get that second chance,” Lefson told the Telegraph.
So she packed up their bags and brought the message of adoption across the globe on what Lefson dubbed their “World Woof Tour.”
They visited 29 countries on five continents, and had major photo opps at some of the planet’s most famous landmarks. Among them: The Eiffel Tower, the Taj Mahal, the pyramids of Egypt, and the Great Wall of China. According to an article in the Mirror, Oscar left his mark on the wall. Yes, he did a leg lift on the Great Wall.
There were adventures along the way, including being chased by Italian police, and making their way through crocodile-infested waters. And there was love, as is befitting any epic journey. In Bucharest, Oscar is purported to have fallen for a stray named Zara. He will soon be reunited with her, thanks to his person working with the Romanian Animal Rescue to have Zara flown to their home in Capetown, South Africa.
We want to learn more about their journey. There must be a book or a movie in this somewhere: Dog gets rescued one day before he is to be put down, dog goes on worldwide adventure, dog saves countless other homeless dogs by raising awareness of the great animals available at shelters. It has Disney written all over it…
Well, Dogsters. Many apologies for the late results on our last photo caption contest. All is well, I’ve just been snowed under by last-minute requests for holiday card photo sessions. Without further ado, the winner of the 50 Zealies is Sybil Marie with her spot on quote for the scenario at hand. Congrats, Sybil Marie.
Everyone else be on the lookout for one more Christmas-themed contest tomorrow before we bid adieu to 2009.
