pet connection

Georgia House Bill 1106 would require shelters in the state to scan pets for microchips twice — once when the shelter does their initial animal intake, and then again just prior to the animal being killed, to make sure they didn’t miss a microchip the first time. Opponents have insisted that the cost of scanners would make the bill a financial burden for the state. They can’t argue that any more, though. The American Kennel Club’s Companion Animal Recovery (AKC-CAR) has stepped up, offering the donation of 25 Proscan 700 universal microchip scanners for Georgia shelters. The scanners are worth more than $300 apiece.  From the AKC’s press release:

The pledged scanners read all microchip types sold in the United States, increasing the odds that a pet will be reunited with its owner if it is turned into a shelter. HomeAgain and Bayer also pledged 20 each. This donation ensures that shelters will have the resources needed to ensure that thousands of pets each year will have one more chance at life.

Microchips up the odds of a lost pet being returned home. In the past 15 years, AKC-CAR has helped reunite more than 350,000 pets with their owners. A terrific mission and a donation I hope will help pets across Georgia.

Miss Ellie’s legacy: Miss Ellie was the hairless Chinese Crested who won Animal Planet’s ugliest dog contest last year. She passed away last week at the age of 17, but her legacy lives on. Last year she and her owner Dawn Goehring helped raise more than $30,000 to raise awareness for pet shelters nationwide. Miss Ellie’s (and Dawn’s) mission continues now in the little lady’s memory. Thanks for all you did, Miss Ellie, and thank you to Dawn for all you are still doing.

A salute to Troy and Emmy: Speaking of raising awareness along with raising funds, there’s an Iraq War veteran named Troy Yokum who is hiking 7,000 miles across the country with his trusty Shiba Inu Emmie the SuperDog. They’re working to raise $5 million for military families in need. Troy and Emmie set out on their trek in April, and have already hit four states, three baseball stadiums, and lots of radio shows. They plan to keep walking through August of 2011. You can find their schedule here and say hi when they visit your town.

They were howling for Laurie Anderson Down Under: Laurie Anderson has always been known as an artist who loves to test musical boundaries. Over the weekend she and her husband Lou Reed organized a concert for dogs outside the Sydney Opera House. The Baltimore Sun received a concert review from a loyal reader:

“My canine associate, Mister Pettibone, and i went to the dog concert this morning. It wasn’t quite what I was expecting. in actual fact, it was all very audible.

Ms. Anderson was armed with her violin, keyboard and flute whistle, and accompanied by baritone sax, bass and violin. it was very laurie anderson (ie pithy, funny, enchanting and riveting) and i don’t know whether Mister Pettibone’s exuberance in about the third piece was musical appreciation or merely a lively conversation with some other mutt.
Mr. Reed was present in the front of the stage before the concert began, but appeared to have zilch involvement. incidentally, Ms. Anderson is celebrating her birthday today.”

According to Ms. Anderson, the idea for the show came about from a conversation between her and the legendary cellist Yo-Yo Ma.

“We thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be great if you’re playing a concert and you look out and everyone’s a dog?’” Anderson said. “So I thought if I ever get a chance to do that, I’m gonna do it. And today was it. So this is like a highlight of my life.”

Just meeting Yo-Yo Ma would be a highlight of my life, but that’s just me.

Pawsitive schools: Do you know what Stephens College of Columbia, Mo., MIT in Cambridge, Mass. and Eckerd College in Florida have in common? Answer:  All three schools allow students to bring pets to live with them in dormitories. The New York Times has a story on this that, frankly, makes me jealous. Stephens is a small college for women, where 30 incoming first year students have asked to bring pets with them when they move in this fall.

“I recognize this as being a trend that is tied directly to the whole notion of helicopter parenting,” said Dianne Lynch, who became president of Stephens last year and who is herself the owner of two dogs and two cats. “It’s harder and harder for students to leave home. Bringing this particular piece of home with them may make that separation easier.”

While about a dozen colleges have explicit policies permitting pets of some kind — Eckerd even allows snakes, provided they are “less than six feet long and nonvenomous” — Ms. Lynch predicts that that figure will soon rise.

“Colleges will begin to recognize that this is important to students,” she said, adding that in an increasingly competitive recruiting market for top students, becoming known as pet-friendly is another way for a college to differentiate itself.

Stephens, which began allowing dogs and cats in designated dormitory wings in 2003, said their owners tended to be especially organized and responsible and do well academically.

Players and puppies and kittens, oh my! Three baseball teams, the Baltimore Orioles, Milwaukee Brewers and Houston Astros, are all having rough seasons. As of yesterday, they’re a combined 40 games out of first place. That’s OK, because all three teams are doing something both fun and worthwhile for their fans. They’ve published 2010 (or upcoming 2011) calendars featuring players — and sometimes their wives — with puppies and kittens. The Orioles’ calendar benefits the Maryland SPCA, profits from the Brewers’ calendar will go toward the Wisconsin Humane Society, and the Astros’ 2011 calendar, to be released in September, will raise funds for the Houston Humane Society.

Quick cat quiz: Best Cat Art.com has a fun little quiz to see how well you do with cat trivia. For instance, what breed is known as The Swimming Cat? Meanwhile, the kitteh on the right isn’t too interested in a quiz right now.

I always like to hear from readers, especially if you have tips, and links for interesting stories.  Give me a shout in the comments, or better yet, send me an e-mail.

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Photo credits: Miss Ellie, misselliesmission.com.  Sleepy cat, catster.com

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