Two more horses broke down and were euthanized over the weekend at Santa Anita, bringing the number of fatalities from racing or training to seven since the meet's traditional Dec. 26 [2008] opening.

The issue has remained heated with the ongoing controversy over the introduction the last two years of mandated synthetic tracks at Santa Anita, Del Mar and Hollywood Park.

Tuesday:  I contributed here today: https://secure.hsus.org/01/acf

It's a dedicated fund within the Humane Society of the United States, earmarked for a reward program for reporting animal fighting.

Such reports appear in news stories such as this one from the Chicago Tribune: Reward up to $5,000 for dogfighting tips prompted by Englewood raid

anastasia: Some follow-up on this story...

Company fires manager of farm where pigs abused

anastasia:  I thought you'd like this L.A. Times article about one group's work with pit bulls (and especially with many of those abused by M. Vick):

Oakland couple rescues pit bulls and works to redeem breed's image

An article from today's Washington Post:

Saving Michael Vick's Dogs

Jim Dandy: Best of luck to both of you.  And keep us posted.

My youngest and I paid a visit to the kitty cardiologist today.  Some insurance coverage might have been helpful!  But she's really okay--nothing wrong that couldn't be explained by her heart beating at about 240 bpm when we visit the vet.  She's just an excitable girl...but a surprisingly good patient.  Now that we've both had ultrasound, we know my murmur's worse than hers.

The Karma of Cats

The judgment of cats is at hand:
how neatly God has arraigned them!

You there, my silken mistress,
how many dead birds must we put
to your credit?  And you, the rangy tomcat
with cauliflower ears and a nose
that's seen better days,
whatever became of those goldfish when
your people were gone for a week?
Oh, how the cries of field mice,
slaughtered in thousands, rise up against you!
Where will you turn?
Where will you turn?  Even now
the furnace of wrath glows hot
for vengeance against your sins.

But Lord, they cry, purring and mewing,
Lord!  with plaintive uplifted faces,
we did not know, we could not help it!
It was our nature to kill soft things,
shining things, whatever would move,
whatever ran from before us!

Well, says the Lord, you may plead
and pray, and say with some justice
that you could not help it, that it was your nature,
but the surprise is, my children,
you're no less accountable
for that!

[Gail White]

(I can't believe this link still works after several years!)

So...do you look like your dog?        http://www.dogdaysproductions.com/lookalike01.html

Jim Dandy: Some other factors and ideas...but no guaranteed solutions, I'm sorry to say.

I've been through this (well, not quite through yet) with one of my

Some ideas I've read (and some that I've tried):

Offering various kinds of litter.  Their textures vary a great deal, and some cats sure can be fussy, can't they?  Wow...box styles vary greatly, as well.  One of my girls can't stand those enclosed ones.  Another likes the enclosed style that's entered from the top!

Cleanliness of the litter box.  One vet insists upon this.  I usually only manage cleaning once per day; some insist on doing so even more frequently than that.

Number of boxes available.  One vet suggests a formula: have (n+1) boxes in the house, where n=the number of cats you have.

One of my girls seems to lie in wait in the middle of a narrow hallway that needed to be passed to get to the usual litter box.  Like some kind of troll one planning an ambush.  I think the girl with "the problem" was sometimes just steering clear of a showdown.

Large sheets of tinfoil placed on areas where the dirty deeds have tended to happen.  (I placed these across half of my bed for a couple of months.  My newest  was peeing there!  At least she's gotten over that problem.  So my bedroom's foil bedspread won't be featured in House Beautiful; no big deal.)

If you can be stealthy and patient, have some idea when it happens, and have good aim with a water pistol, catch your little darling in the act and shoot from a bit of a distance.  I think the idea is to get him/her to associate the unpleasant spray with their activity--but not associate it with YOU being angry.  Don't be yelling...or anything worse...when this takes place.  You've already got one problem to deal with.

I don't know a thing about protection, beyond what little I've been able to see (from linked videos) and read from those of you who understand it.  So please make allowances for my naive questions...  Why do the dogs only seize the padded arm?  Were a real-life intruder to wear such an apparatus, would a trained dog "go" for that, as opposed to some other, softer and more vulnerable areas?    }:-O

Even a horse can dance better than me.

The version I saw showed 5 scores--all of them "10".  I feel safe assuming that's on a scale of 10.

Question posed to Dr. Jeff Nichol, a vet who writes a regular column for the Albuquerque Journal:

Q: Last year my friend's dog got snake-bit. I have a new puppy and we plan to hike a lot and it's already getting warm. What happens if we find a snake? What should I do if my puppy gets bit?

A. This is a subject that strikes fear into the hearts of most of us. The type of snakes you might run into has everything to do with the part of the country where you plan to hike. Coral snakes, like those found in the eastern and southern portions of the United States, are shy and mostly active at night so they are seldom a problem. Rattlesnakes, copperheads and cottonmouth water moccasins, on the other hand, are known to be more aggressive.

So which pets are at risk? Most injuries result from a curious dog playing aggressively with a snake. Bites are usually found on the head. The amount of venom injected into the pet is influenced by the size of the snake and just how mad he's gotten. But the activity of the pet after the bite is an even greater factor in recovery.

Remember the old cowboy movies when they would suck out the venom to save the patient? We have since realized that venom absorbs much too fast for this to help. More to the point, allowing the pet to be active after a bite will cause the venom to be carried to other areas of the body faster and increase the risk. So the best first aid is to control activity and to get the pet to a veterinary hospital as quickly as possible. Knowing what type of snake caused the bite is important because the antidote, called antivenin, is specific to the venom. In New Mexico, most snake bites result from pit vipers like rattlesnakes. In addition to antivenin, the doctor will also treat a snake bitten pet with intravenous fluids, antibiotics and pain management. Other problems resulting from rattlesnake bites include shock, bruising of other tissues due to poor blood clotting, tissue death at the site of the bite and a whole lot of pain.

The best defense against snake bites in pets is to keep them on a leash while hiking. As responsible pet owners, we must use common sense because very often our pets are just too goofy.

Ewe: I would definitely clip one of the  before going for a visit to the vet.  Two of them are perfect patients, but one is not.  She's strong, and cut the doc pretty badly when being given an injection.  I'll also trim their dew claws, which can come pretty close to growing round in a circle.  Might trim them if I see them chewing on their nails, too.

But lately, there's been less need for trimming, because of a happy accident.  They finally stopped shredding my nice furniture almost completely once I brought home a rug bought on sale from Ikea.  This certainly wasn't my plan, but all three of them love sinking their claws into it--especially the underside of it for some reason.  It gets 99% of their scratching attention, and I will happily sacrifice another rug just like it next time I find them on sale.  Isn't that the craziest thing?  I keep it rolled up, with the underside out--and they're absolutely loving it to pieces...

Rose: I try my best.  Plenty of brushing for my girls--one of them in particular.  Part of their food is a special hairball formula, plus they get occasional treats to help deal with that.

The one who has the worst problem is a funny eater, too.  She eats very quickly, and would be at least a kilo heavier if I didn't monitor her food intake and watch to make sure she doesn't poach from the slower eaters around here.  She'd love finding some scraps or a variety of other cat foods and snacks, but doesn't tolerate changes in her diet at all!  Even new bags of her ordinary food are sometimes enough to upset her delicate tummy...amazing.

I enjoyed this story from (U.S.) National Public Radio this evening, and thought some of you might, too.

"Commentator Julie Zickefoose has had many cars that have become homes to mice. She explains how to spot whether your car is desirable real estate for the furry little creatures."  [Running time is about 3 1/2 minutes]

Look for a red "Listen" icon just beneath "Signs a Mouse Has Been in Your Car":

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=14033114

srnity: Those are some funny tales, srnity!

Mornings here require some planning: must set out cat breakfast so I can have 5 minutes free to shave at a bathroom sink.  I'm not sure why some of the girls would much rather drink what drips out of a faucet, than what they can get from their cool cat fountain.

Then I've got to race back to where breakfast is served, to make sure that the fast eaters don't start poaching from the more leisurely eater.

Ever seen some of Nicole Hollander's cartoons?  In one of her works, a news reporter informs us that scientists have finally managed to crack the secret of cat communications.  In essence, all of their vocalizations mean one of two things:

1. Everything here is mine

2. Hurry up with that dinner, will ya?

srnity: I like seeing the ferrets at local stores.

Tomorrow, there will be an experiment in wetware manor: all cats will be given the option to join me in the shower.  I'm guessing: there will be no takers.  But these girls aren't done surprising me, so who knows what may happen?  A couple of them are usually waiting for me to emerge afterward, one of them does most of her day's vocalizing at that moment--I have no idea why.  Maybe she's wanted to join me all along, and I just never realized it.  Or maybe she's telling me how brave I am to voluntarily battle the spraying water-beast...