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A Look at Custom Dog Tags
Have you been shopping and shopping for just the right dog tag, without finding what you're looking for to suit your dog's personality? Choose your exact specifications, give them to the manufacturer, and they'll produce a dog tag to your liking....
American Pit Bull Terrier Training: How To Train An Aggressive Dog
Aggressive Pit Bulls can become a very serious problem if not
dealt with in a proper manner. New laws exist that state if a
dog bites or attacks someone, the dog's owner will be held
responsible and the dog put down. This is just another...
Animal Lovers Are Never Lonely
Early childhood is an impressionable period of life in which children are often dog lovers. Parents have a great contribution in the building of their children’s character by encouraging them to be animal lovers and allowing them to have a dog as a...
Dog Grooming - Brushing and Bathing
Dog grooming is the basis for preventive health care for your
dog and puppy. It gives you a chance to see small changes in and
on your dog's body that could lead to health concerns such as a
lump or problems in his ears or with his teeth.
...
Frequently Asked Dog Behavior Questions
Article:
1. Why do dogs eat their poop?
One reason dogs eat their poop is because it just plain tastes
good. Another reason is it could be a vitamin deficiency. One
other reason for the poop eating is that it is an...
Great Danes - Their Origin And Temperament
The origin of Great Danes, like that of many other varieties of dogs, is so obscure that all researches have only resulted in speculative theories, but the undoubted antiquity of this dog is proved by the fact that representatives of a breed...
Jumping Up
from David the Dogman
The ten worst excuses not to spay or neuter a pet are:
Just one litter and then we'll have Fluffy spayed.
(Studies show that virtually the entire pet overpopulation stems from the "just one litter...
Leptospirosis In Dogs
Leptospirosis is a bacterial infection that can affect a dog's blood, liver, and kidneys. The bacteria that cause the illness are carried primarily by rats and other rodents, but dogs that are infected with the disease can infect other dogs as well....
Natural Ear Mite Remedies
Ear Cleaning & Ear Mite Treatment
A healthy ear cleaning program should begin with regular
cleaning with cotton balls and cotton swabs. Remember that cats
and dogs have an L shaped ear canal so you will not hurt the ear
drum.
To clean...
Online guide for training a dog
Online guide for training a dog Guide for training a dog So you can use a guide for training a dog. At one time or another we all did. There's no more joy and a certain amount of fun especially when it comes to helping our new best pet friend....
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The Story of O(scar)
The Story of O (scar)
I don't really know his name. I felt an intense need to give him one, though, so I named him Oscar. In my head, anyway. I never got to call him that, at least while he was alive. My mind often wanders to thoughts of him in those small moments of the day that creep up on me - those tiny moments when my mind isn't really focusing on anything at all. No thoughts of car payments or code fragments or who I was supposed to call but forgot. I see him briefly. That fluffy, lifeless, ginger-colored mass lying by the side of the road.
It was just a normal day. I was out walking my dog along one of the many semi-busy suburban streets that litter my neighborhood. Traffic was whizzing by at the usual 40 miles an hour, the drivers looking to get home in time for dinner or to make it to the store or whatever it is they look to do in such a hurry. None of them paid me any attention. It was just your garden-variety summer afternoon, hazy sun, buzzing insects, and all.
As we walked down the street, my dog became a bit more animated. She craned her head and pulled at her leash a bit, interested in something about 15 feet up the road. Approaching the area, I noticed first the flies. There weren't many, but flies aren't exactly noted for hanging around the side of the road unless there is something there to interest them. Steeling myself against the site of some unfortunate raccoon or possum, I kept walking. But it wasn't a raccoon. Or a possum. There, lying in the shaded grass to the right of the sidewalk, partially hidden by the branches of a bush poking through an adjoining fence, was a fluffy, almost fat, ginger striped cat.
I just stood there, looking at that cat, my dog sitting behind me, oddly subdued, as if she knew this was a solemn thing not to be taken lightly. He was a big boy. I don't even know for sure that he actually was a boy, but my mind won't let me think of him in any other way for some reason, so he's a boy to me. His fur was glossy
and relatively clean; this had been someone's pet. Someone had either let their cat out or he'd escaped for a bit of short-lived freedom. I stood there, thinking of how he must have tried to crawl home, perhaps looking for his family to comfort him in his time of need. He was too far from the road to have been flung there with so little damage and the position of his lifeless body spoke of an animal that had tried to walk, but had fallen over on his side and stayed that way. There were no marks on him aside from a little trickle of blood from the corner of his mouth. Internal injuries killed this lovely boy, I'd say. He was on the opposite side of the sidewalk from traffic and near a fence - was that his home? Did some child cry for him somewhere?
Was he afraid in the moments before his death? Was he crying for his family to come help him? Did the driver who hit him even see him? Did that driver care that he or she had just killed someone's pet? Was he cherished by his family as I cherish my pets? Did his family care about him enough to have tried to keep him inside away from harm, or had they let him wander about and be exposed to just this sort of danger, thinking that he was just a cat and they can get another?
I bent down and very gently touched the cat's fur. I don't know if I harbored a tiny hope that the cat was still alive and able to be saved. I just know I wanted to pet him and let him know that someone cared that he'd died. I didn't cry until I began to walk away. Then the tears came. Sometimes, when I think of him, they still do. I wonder if he's in heaven, or at the Rainbow Bridge, or wherever pets go when they die, waiting for his family. And I think of him as Oscar. Because he deserved a name and someone to cry for him.
-- In memory of all the pets killed by cars every year…
About the Author
M. Nikole Hunn is a freelance writer in her spare time and loves all things cat and dog. Her freelance site can be seen at http://www.ipwebdesign.net/.
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