Mickey Rourke: chihuahuas

I’m sure we all remember when Mickey Rourke’s chihuahua died. I felt so sorry for him! In a recent interview Rourke talks about what his dogs have meant to him, during the bad times. In a word: everything! (more after the jump)

>>>Mariah Carey dogs have own entourage!

“I lost everything at the same time — my wife, my career, my house, my credibility — and all I had left (were) the dogs (..),” the rebounded star stated in a recent interview with the Daily Mail. “I was living under the mat — being known and then being known for being out of work, for having fallen from grace. You go and buy a pack of smokes and people say, ‘Hey, didn’t you used to be that actor?’ So it was a very shameful place, and the dogs were my friends.”
Yep, dogs will stick with you!
“A lot of people you meet out there turn their backs on you once you’re down,” Rourke added. “But the dogs don’t.”

Louis Vuitton dog carrier

Marc Jacobs is not only a very famous designer, he’s also a famous doglover! So much so that when he was asked to design something for a Red Cross auction at Sotheby’s, he designed a Louis Vuitton dog carrier.

“The kennel was a bit of a joke really.” Jacobs said in a recent interview. “Antoine Arnault [the director of Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy] came to me with the idea of designing something that could be auctioned off for charity and this is all I could think of.”
Of course, having been designed by Marc Jacobs himself, this was no ordinary dog carrier:
“I have to say in terms of workmanship, the kennel was quite a challenge.”

>>>Mariah Carey dogs have own entourage!

Jennifer Aniston dog Norman sick

Reports suggest that America’s sweetheart Jennifer Aniston is facing heartbreak once again: her beloved dog Norman may be terminally ill.

Earlier this year Norman almost got hit by a car and was saved by a paperazzi. This time around there may be no help for 14-year-old corgi-terrier Norman.

A ource told reporters: “Norman is old and hasn’t been doing well. She’s (Aniston) terrified her best friend could soon be gone."
Let’s hope it won’t come to that yet.

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Leighton Meester & dog Jack

While we are all speculating on wedding bells for Gossip Girl Leighton Meester and her boyfriend Sebastian, Leighton has been planning her own wedding. For her dog that is!

Isn’t that an adorable dog? His name is Jack and apparently she is engaged. Yep. To co-star Dreama Walker’s dog! Dreama (what the hell kind of name is Dreama btw?) plays Hazel on Gossip Girl.
Maggie and Jack are set to walk down the isle together. There is however a catch, Dreama told reporters: "has been asking me for a dowry," Dreama has seen to it: "I bought her dinner one night, so I said that was the dowry!"
I’d sure like to see the wedding pics of that particular couple!

Silly? Of course. But fun as well. I bet Leighton’s dog will be the better dressed, and Blake’s will have better hair!

>>>How to Train your cat to use toilet

>>>Dog-friendly wedding for Anna Paquin!

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Pet owner obedience class

In DARWIN, an animal shelter is preventing people from adopting homeless dogs and cats, until they have taken a course on how to look after their new pets properly.

I think this is a wonderful idea (and should apply for parents as well btw). Lots of people just think pets are cute and have no idea how to behave around them.

The shelter’s manager Lisa Hansen said: "What we were finding is that someone would take home a cute little puppy and three months later bring it back."
Some people, after taking the course, actually decided not to have a pet. I think that’s a good result, because those people would never have taken the time to properly train their dogs or cats any way.
Or as Lisa Hansen says:
"If you want to buy a kitten today and someone says you have to … do a seminar, and you say ‘no, that’s too much effort’ – how much extra effort is it to look after a cat?"

>>>How to Train your cat to use toilet

>>>Dog-friendly wedding for Anna Paquin!

Cute puppy Cherry Pie: latest victim of crisis

It just goes to show that pets are always the ones who really suffer from any crisis. This adorable puppy’s owner’s simply abandoned it, left her behind, after fleeing their creditors when the bank foreclosed on their house.

I do hope they track those people down and fine them! How can anyone be so irresponsible? The poor 12 week old pup was left alone, without food or drink, for four whole days until the foreclosure eople came and found her. Poor baby. She also has cherry eye, which is why the animal rescue people have named her Cherry Pie. I love that name!

Cherry Pie is still looking for a new home, so if you live in Florida, contact Paws2help .She’s so cute and she really deserves a second chance after her previous owners treated her so badly.

Dogs & chocolate: a toxic combination

I was at a friend’s this weekend and as she was seeing me off, her 14 year old terrier gobbled up half a plate of chocolates. She got him to the vet just in time but he could easily have died, because pure chocolate is highly toxic for dogs!

Not everyone is aware of this, but pure chocolate and dogs really don’t mix. The purer the choc, the worse it is for your mutt. So be careful, not only at christmas and easter, chocolate fests if ever there were any! but also on normal, average days: 40 grams of pure chocolate will kill a 50 pound dog within 80 minutes.

The best thing would of course be to avoid chocolate all together, or switch to milk varieties, but even if you’re an addict to the pure stuff, there’s no need to banish all choc from your life. Just don’t leave it lying around where your pooch can get at it. And don’t think that just because you have a well-trained, saintly dog she will never dive into a plate of sweet choc, because she just might and do you really want to run that risk????

My friend’s dog is a very well behaved dog and would never have swiped anything from a table, but he’s getting on and these days there’s no knowing what he’ll get up to.
So:
1) Be careful with pure chocolate
2) Don’t put out platters with easter eggs, christmassy, chocolate things where your dog could possibly get at them
3) educate your kids, your friends, your parents, that chocolate will indeed kill the dog. Often when you say you don’t want people to feed your dog they’ll think you’re being over zealous, but if you explain it’ll stop his heart, they’ll sit up and take notice!
4) Dog has gotten at the choc after all? Try and guess how much he’s gobbled up. Try and get him to vomit.

Useful data on choc & dogs:
This is from Kirk and Bistner’s Handbook of Veterinary Procedures and Emergency Treatment (6th edition):
* The half life of choc in a dog is 17.5 hours
* The Toxic dose in a dog is 100-150 mg/kg.
o A kilogram (kg) = 2.2 lbs.
o A milligram(mg) = 1/1000 of a gram

The concentration of theobromine varies with the formulation of the chocolate so:
* Milk chocolate has 44mg/oz (154mg/100gm): toxic dose for 50 lb dog – 50 oz of milk chocolate.
* Semisweet chocolate has 150 mg/oz (528mg/100gm): toxic dose for 50 lb dog – 15 oz of semisweet chocolate
* Baking chocolate 390mg/oz (1365 mg/100gm): toxic dose for 50 lb dog – 5 oz of baking chocolate

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Muffy the Micro Chipped dog

Muffy, an Australian dog that was lost for nine years turned up in Brisbane, almost 2000 miles away from where she used to live! Watch the video after the jump.

When she was found by the RSPCA Muffy was looking quite the worse for wear, a flea bitten bag of bones, with a bad skin condition. When the RSPCA noticed she was micro chipped they tracked down the owners.

“It’s amazing that the original owners had microchipped her as it wasn’t that common nine years ago and it is amazing that she had come 2,000 km from home,” Pilgrim told Reuters.


The owners were delighted to finally get their dog back. “They were initially shocked and confused, but when we mentioned the name Muffy – which is part of the microchip information – and gave them a description of her, they knew it was their pet lost so many years ago.” said the RSPCA.

Muffy is being flown home, VIP-style, later this week.
Let that be a lesson to all of us dog lovers to get our dogs micro chipped asap!

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Michael Vick dog killer

How on earth can anyone want to see this monster play again? NFL player Michael Vickused to host dog fighting on his 25 acre estate and killed the dogs who did not perform well in horrible ways.

He was only convicted to 23 months for animal cruelty, the last five of which he got to spend in the lap of luxury in his ranch. Why oh why is animal abuse taken so lightly?

I was slightly mollified to hear that a couple of big teams, New York Giants and New York Jets, have already said they have no intention of hiring this monster. Good. Hope he never plays again.

Simon the Dog

A British family is so distraught after losing their 10 year old dog Simon that they’ll go to any lengths to get their beloved pet back. Even if it means leaving a urine trail to their house.

The members of the Baltesz family, of Clifton, Bristol, all "chipped in" to the urine sample. They then diluted the urine with water and left two trails.

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It’s a very creative idea, but not everybody is overjoyed. A Bristol City Council spokeswoman said: "We would not consider this to be a good idea from an environmental health point of view."

Mum Louise Baltesz said she didn’t care anymore what people thought: "If everyone peed in the street it would be disgusting, wouldn’t it? But it’s very, very diluted."
So far, Simon hasn’t showed up yet. But maybe you’ve seen him?