Missing pets can cause adult owners to worry and bring an absolute heartache to kids. Aside from missing the companionship that pets offer, their owners may agonize over the misfortunes that may befall their beloved animal when the pet is not in their care. Now imagine your favorite dog gets lost in the war-torn recesses of Afghanistan!
A bomb-sniffing dog that went missing during a turbulent battle in Afghanistan was found and returned to its unit earlier this week after being gone for more than a year, the Associated Press reports.
Sabi, a black Labrador, accompanied a joint Australian-Afghan army patrol that was ambushed by Afghan rebels in the beleaguered Uruzgan province in September 2008.
Once the fighting quieted, Sabi was nowhere to be found, and months of searching proved futile.
But on Thursday, officials at the U.S. Department of Defense reported that an American soldier discovered the retriever at a patrol base in a different part of Uruzgan. The dog was promptly returned to the Australian base, where Prime Minister Kevin Rudd was paying a visit.
"Sabi is back home in one piece and is a genuinely nice pooch as well," Rudd told the news source.
According to the Missing Pet Network, about 10 million owned animals wind up in shelters each year.
Blog posts Categorized under ‘Amazing Pet News’
Heroic dog found in Afghanistan
Protesters rally for life of dog that survived rooftop dive
Animal lovers and welfare activists are demanding that a dog that survived a six-story fall this summer be allowed to live, despite calls to euthanize her.
The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) said last June officers found a 1-year-old, brown and white pit bull mix named Oreo at the foot of a Brooklyn building with two broken legs. The dog had been beaten by its 19-year-old owner and thrown off the roof of the six-story building, the Associated Press reports.
Though Oreo has been physically rehabilitated, the ASPCA announced plans to euthanize her because of unpredictable bouts of violent aggression.
On Friday, protesters rallied outside the organization’s building in New York City, insisting the organization spare Oreo’s life.
"The aggression thing is a dumb excuse because all dogs can be worked with," Emily Danks, a protester and self-described animal rescuer, told the news source.
Claiming a wealth of experience handling dogs like Oreo, the ASPCA considers the pit bull’s aggressive behavior to be a public safety risk and has stood by its decision.
Oreo’s assailant, Fabian Henderson, has pleaded guilty to aggravated cruelty to animals and is scheduled to be sentenced on December 1.
Acupuncture for cats? One vet’s pet health secret
Anyone who has heard a cat mournfully bellow during a car ride to the vet’s office or watched it cower from the terrors of the vacuum cleaner probably wouldn’t choose felines as suitable candidates for acupuncture. But to one California veterinarian, squirming animals pose no problem in the practice of a treatment she believes can reduce stress and prevent disease in pets.
Dr Hilary Wheeler practices veterinary medicine in a California town appropriately named Los Gatos. Wheeler insists that a combination of acupuncture and herbal remedies can control pain in animals with joint and bone problems and reduce the side effects of allergies, inflammatory conditions and autoimmune disorders, the Weekly-Times reports.
In her practice, the vet focuses on preventing, rather than treating, diseases through exercise, diet and stress management. Acupuncture has become her favored technique to limit stress and promote pet health.
"Surprisingly, cats do very well with acupuncture," Wheeler told the news source. "It causes endorphin release and it relaxes them. Some fall asleep and some just become very relaxed."
One pet owner, Joyce Taylor, noticed that her dog Dewey could move significantly better after a single acupuncture treatment administered by the California vet.
According to the American Veterinary Medical Association, the average veterinary expenditure per households with pets in 2006 was $366.
Teacher’s pet, teacher’s pet!
In times of economic distress, some families will do anything to gain a little extra income. Some households may cancel magazine subscriptions or spring into a coupon-clipping frenzy. The truly enterprising family, however, may sign their pets up for an MBA degree in hopes of getting some free investment advice. The news blog boingboing.com has reported that a new page of the online reference guide Wikipedia keeps track of dogs and cats who were awarded fraudulent degrees from diploma mills, en route to exposing the company’s scam.
According to his application to the online college, Trinity Southern University, Colby Nolan is a part-time babysitter who has worked at a fast-food restaurant, maintained a paper route and completed several courses at community college. In reality, Colby is the housecat of a Pennsylvania deputy attorney general.
In 2004, Colby was awarded an MBA degree by the Texas-based diploma mill in exchange for $299. The cat, according to a Trinity transcript, had achieved an amazing 3.5 grade point average! A year later the fraudulent company was ordered to cease operations and was assessed hefty fines.
Other pets who received similar degrees include high-school graduates Kitty O’Malley and Oreo Collins and the expert in neuro-linguistic hypnotherapy known as George the cat.
Elephant tries to forget collision with SUV
An Oklahoma veterinarian got a big (really big) surprise when he was asked to treat the wounds of an elephant that was hit by an SUV after escaping from a nearby circus.
Bill Carpenter and his wife were driving home from church late on Wednesday when the driver swerved all too late and wound up sideswiping a 29-year-old female elephant in Enid, Oklahoma, the Associated Press reports.
"I didn’t have time to hit the brakes. The elephant blended in with the road," Carpenter explained to the news provider. "At the very last second I said ‘elephant!’"
Thankfully, the couple was not injured, but the 8-foot-tall, 4,500-pound elephant was brought veterinarian Dr Dwight Olson on Thursday to be treated for a broken tusk and leg wound. The animal’s tusk punctured the side of the vehicle, tearing through the sheet metal.
I don’t believe there’s a broken bone," said Olson, "but I don’t have an X-ray room big enough to examine it."
The elephant was identified by the Family Fun Circus, which performed at the Garfield County Fraigrounds earlier that day.
According to the American Veterinary Medical Association, the average veterinary expenditure for pet care on cats or dogs in 2006 was $366; the organization does not keep statistics on pet elephants.