Christmas tree-climbing cat

Earlier, Gaz biz editor Joanna Bean shared a tale about Sicily, the Christmas-tree-attacking cat. Here's an update:

Sicily has steered clear of the thing since she knocked it over earlier this month (see post below). Of course, Sicily is a cat, so we'll never know her real motives. Did the tumbling tree scare her off? Or did she take to heart the stern talking-to from her owners?

She hasn't lulled us into complacency, though. We never did put the fragile ornaments back on the tree. I wonder if she'll be sorry to see the tree go when we take it down.

Does your cat have star quality?

The Colorado Lottery is looking for four-legged superstars with paws, whiskers and maybe even a little fur.

Submit a mug of your master (cat) and he/she may purr from the face of a new "Cat Scratch Fever" scratch ticket.

Deadline to send a photo is Jan. 26. Lottery folks will hold a random drawing to select 30 finalists, then eight winners will be selected by popular vote.

Voting is Feb. 5-19. (The campaign for Darth Gray, right, will begin as soon as she becomes a finalist!) Winners get a year's supply of cat food, and their owners will receive $300 in Scratch tickets.

For infor, visit www.coloradolottery.com.

This is why we love dogs

A world-class Colorado athlete is undergoing surgery today in Denver after an accident that left her stranded in a Utah desert for 52 hours in frigid temperatures, and she owes her rescue and perhaps her life to her dog.
Danelle Ballengee, 35, of Dillon, was running on a short trail outside Moab last week when she slipped on a ledge covered with black ice and fell 60 feet to the desert below, shattering her pelvis. Her dog
Taz, a three-year-old mutt, met rescuers and led them back to the injured runner. Ballengee is a member of the Sportswomen of Colorado Hall of Fame, and is considered among the best adventure sports competitors in the world. She’s a four time winner of the grueling Pikes Peak Marathon and has been on the winning team in three Primal Quest multi-day adventure races. No word on Taz's accomplishments, other than life-saver.

Missing greyhounds

We ran a story in The Gazette a while ago about a Calhan man linked to about 150 missing greyhounds that were to be placed with adoption groups or returned to their owners.

Some greyhound advocates fear the retired racing dogs may be dead. Richard Favreau, 37, who operates Front Range Kennels, has told authorities the dogs have been adopted, but he provided no proof.

Look for an update on that story by reporter Anslee Willett in Sunday's Gazette.

Greyhound advocates nationwide have put up a $10,000 reward for information that leads to the missing dogs (call Greyhound Protection League at 1-800-446-8637).

Do we really need this?

You be the judge, after you waste valuable time browsing www.beedogs.com

What's it about? Dogs dressed as bees, of course. Doesn't everybody know that?

Mini Chi

You've probably wondered: What's the smallest dog in the world? Now you know. It's Brandy the Chihuahua. Brandy, a Florida resident weighs less than two pounds and is six inches long. That size earned her a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records, on the same page as the dog who can fit five tennis balls (or three Brandy-sized dogs) in its mouth. Brandy's owner carries her around in a sheepskin-lined purse, and sometimes dresses her in a pink Hawaiian dress. For a photo of Brandy and the original story about her, go to http://www.sptimes.com/2006/12/12/Tampabay/Her_bark_s_bigger_tha.shtml

Cat + Christmas tree = Trouble

How much do we love our cats, asks Gazette business editor Joanna Bean.

So much, she says, that Sicily will be allowed to keep living in her house - despite the fact that she knocked over the Christmas tree this week.

Joanna writes: "She had that 'Yes, I did it - and it was kinda fun' look on her face when we got home. The casualties included two broken ornaments - and, of course, the tree, boughs were bent at odd angles, splayed out on the carpet. After righting the tree, replacing the ornaments, rehanging the lights and wringing out the tree skirt, we evaluated our options: lock up the kitty or take our chances.

"We opted for the latter - hope springs eternal, right? We're no dummies though - the kids took the fragile ornaments off the tree."

I'll check in with the Bean girls and see how Sicily's behaving.

And I'll try to dig up a photo of our last cat, Sean, perched in the branches of our Christmas tree in California.

Now, with two cats, 2+ years old, we have to sequester our trees. The tall tree sits in a back sitting area off the dining room, behind a closed door. The smaller tree - my Batman/super hero tree - sits on the dresser in my bedroom (behind a closed door). I wouldn't trust Darth Grayder and Black Maul within 10 feet of either tree! (Writer Carol McGraw asks if perhaps we'd given them "calmer" names they wouldn't be such terrors!)

Just because you can...

Does it mean you should?

Pet Butler has launched "Poop Couture" for animal lovers interested in creating and customizing their own "Poop Gear." Company reps say "fashionistas can create their own unique message about dog poop and print it on a t-shirt, sweatshirt, tote bags and more."

One of the suggestions is "Got Poop?" A family suggestion is "We don't mess around."

Is this why so many around the world hate us? What pet poop phrase would you proudly wear about town (or to the dog park)?

Pug In Da Hizzouse!

I figured this blog needed a huge helping of good old-fashioned, home-baked puggy goodness. This is Porkchop the Pug, and she's three! She loves carrots, popcorn and Frank the cat. Isn't that the cutest face EVER? Can I get some pug love here? Send us your puggy pics, peeps! We'll post 'em and drool over 'em. And just a reminder that there's a great event the first Saturday of every month at the Bear Creek dogpark. It's a pug meet-up at 10 a.m. And you know what - even if you don't have a pug, you should go. Watching all these little comical characters skitter about and chase each other or cower by their owner's legs is just hilarious!

Our sistah cat

I shared a photo of one of our "found" cats, Darth Grayder, earlier. Here's her sister and littermate, Black Maul.

As you can see, she looks nothing like her sibling, though a few of the other kittens in the litter did resemble her. Unlike her gray, short-haired sister, Black Maul has long, silky black and white hair/fur/fluff. She's a real creampuff, too, one of those cats that you can flop across your shoulder as you walk around the house.

Meow.

Can't get enough kitties

Looking for your daily fix of "Awwwwww!"?

Check out The Daily Kitten. Bookmark it and get your daily cute kitty pix fix!

In hog heaven

Life was good for George Clooney. His new movie, "The Good German," opens soon and it's getting tons of press. But then, Max died. Max was the actor's 300-pound pet pot-bellied pig who died Monday. Clooney's pig had become a celebrity of sorts over the years and had lived with the actor for 18 years. Clooney, who said he sometimes shared a bed with the portly pig, was emotional as he talked about Max. He told USA Today there would be no successor because "I think Max covered all my pig needs."

Farewell to Dewey

He had achieved fame around the world, but Dewey Readmore Books was really all about the cheeseburgers. The 19-year-old cat with the goofy name was a mascot for the Spencer, IA, library for 18 years. He died in the arms of librarian Vicki Myron last week after being diagnosed with a stomach tumor. Dewey became a part of the library staff in January, 1988, when Myron nd another librarian found him under a pile of books in the book drop. "We didn't know if someone abandoned him or if a Good Samaritan found him on the street and shoved him in the book drop to get him out of the cold," she said in an AP story. "His paws were frozen. We warmed him up and fed him and he just purred and cuddled. From day one, we felt he'd be the right personality for the public."

Since then, Dewey became famous, with television crews coming from as far away as Japan to do stories about him, Myron said. The cat's name was chosen in a contest shortly after he was found. He was named after the Dewey Decimal System, which is used in most libraries to catalog books.

Dewey's favorite things? Cheeseburgers, boiled ham and chicken garlic TV dinners.

The puppy factor

There's nothing like a new puppy to make you realize that carpet is way overrated. Meet Hunter, a 10-week-old beagle who has joined our household. Hunter has been a part of the family for two weeks now, and in that time, he has: torn through a pile of Newsweeks I was meaning to read, carried every shoe from our closet into the living room, and learned where we keep the dog and cat food. But most surprising of all is the change he has made in the daily routine of Waldo, our 16-year-old Labrador retriever who is the namesake of this blog. We worried that bringing a rambunctious puppy into our house would be too much for Waldo, who struggles daily with old-age issues like deafness, blindness and arthritis. But something miraculous happened. Waldo and Hunter are the best of friends. Waldo still stumbles around the house, but now he has a six-pound escort. It's probably best that Waldo can't hear Hunter, whose beagle-esque vocalizing sounds like a really bad night in a karaoke bar.

Way to go, Ziggy

We love these "Incredible Journey" stories. In this one, a stowaway cat named "Ziggy" survived a 2,000 mile journey over 17 days without food or water after being trapped in a container shipped from Israel to Great Britain. Ziggy's journey started when the container was filled with plastic goods and sealed at a factory in Northern Israel. The fluffy white cat stunned workers when he jumped out of a sealed contained as it was unloaded at a warehouse in the UK. But Ziggy wasn't done - he continued to evade capture for five hours and was eventually lured into a cat trap with some tuna cat food.Workers at the kennel where he's staying have started a fund to raise money to keep him quarantined for the required six months. Meanwhile, officials are trying to find Ziggy's owners in Israel.

Wacky pet names

OK, I'll start it off. This is one of my cats, Darth Grayder. We got them about two years ago, shortly after we moved into our house. She and her sister, Black Maul, were offspring of feral cats near a co-worker's house. We bottle-fed them for the first week or so after we brought them home.

Darth Grayder and Black Mal were named by my son, who was 10 at the time and a huge Star Wars fan. They often are 'otherworldly.'

So what's your pet's wacky name? Comment below. To post a photo (I'll post one later of Black Maul, with her silky long black and white fur), send it to deb.acord@gazette.com

A dog's life in China

It's a dramatic culture clash. The Christian Science Monitor reports that having a dog as a pet is a new fad in China. But that doesn't mean a dog's life in China is carefree. Dogs are also still slaughtered for their meat and sold to restaurants throughout China. Those who choose to be dog-owners must be constantly vigilant, because the government has imposed strict regulations after of a huge increase in rabies deaths among humans and often sweeps towns and confiscates dogs. When that happens, the outlook is grim. Read the whole story at
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1102/p15s01-woap.html

Welcome to Waldo's World...

This blog for pets and pet owners is dedicated to Waldo, a yellow Labrador retriever who has lived long and hard.
If Waldo could talk, he would say, in this order, "Yes, I'm still alive," "what, no biscuits?" and "where did I leave that tennis ball?"
I wrote about Waldo last March in The Gazette. At that time, my family was trying to get used to the idea that this vibrant animal was reaching the end of his life. He was deaf and blind, had lost his sense of smell, and was becoming increasingly arthritic. Hundreds of readers responded to that story of love and loss, of aging pets and realizations that life, especially a life with a dog, is fleeting.
Eight months later, Waldo is still alive. He is in a slow decline, but with that decline has come a kind of peace. Waldo exists because he chooses to. We're letting him hang around as long as he wants to. Each day, he is a little slower. Each night, he sleeps a little deeper.
But his spirit remains strong.
With this blog, let's celebrate that spirit. Let's talk about our cats and dogs, our gerbils and our lizards. And yes, even our rats. Send your stories and pictures to deb.acord@gazette.com or bill.radford@gazette.com
and we'll post them here.