Yes, Ruby is a pit bull. One of those dogs many claim is a vicious and dangerous dog, unpredictable and prone to attack at any time.

Well, Ruby is a certified therapy dog and not only that, she’s also received the Minnesota Veterinary Medical Association Animal Hall of Fame Companion Award and was recently given an achievement award from the Animal Farm Foundation in New York. And to top of this list of achievements, she’s also taken a turn on the stage in “Cheaper by the Dozen” at the Lakeshore Players in White Bear Lake about a year ago.

Yeah, she’s a scary dog, look how terrified the residents of Croixdale, an independent assisted-living and memory care facility in Bayport, are. She cuddles and loves, get pets and attention and brings joy and smiles to all those the encounters. Scary, hunh?

Ruby’s life wasn’t always so idealic. When she was found as a puppy three years ago she was starving and abandoned in an empty building. Most of her fur was missing and she spent weeks recovering and recuperating before an attepmt could even be made to find her a foster home.

In come the Bettendorf’s. They hadn’t planned to add another dog to their family but after being asked three times to foster, they finally relinquished and agreed to take her for the Thanksgiving weekend. After Thanksgiving dinner, Ruby crawled onto the loveseat and fell asleep in the lap of a family guest and the rest is history.

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Have you ever come home and wonderd just how your dog got out of wherever he or she was safely tucked?? Doors, locks, gates and fences are no deterrent for the determined pooch!! Check their ‘Great Escapes; out!! LOL (make sure you have your sound on, the audio is hystrical!)

Great Escapes - Dog Style!

Just as with the 4th of July, tonight the air will be rife with the sounds and colors of fireworks, celebrating the incoming new year.  Many dogs and pets are terrified of the loud noises so for the safety of your canine companion, follow these fireworks safety tips.

• Make sure your dog has identification on it. Fireworks cause many dogs to panic and reports of lost and missing pets tend to escalate as dogs seek any way possible to escape from the sounds including jumping over or digging under fences, busting through doors or windows.

• Walk your dogs. Play with them. Get them tired.

• Keep all your pets inside the house, give them a ’safe’ area.

• Turn on the radio or the television to mask the sound of fireworks.

• Don’t take your pets to any public celebrations. The events will be crowded and fraught with odd smells and sounds and unpredictable behavior.

• Understand that the fact that a dog had no problems last year means nothing this year. As dogs get older, their ears are more sensitive, and dog’s hearing is already 10 times more sensitive than ours.

For more information on helping to keep your dog safe and stress-free as possible today, check out; Dogs & Fireworks - Some Professional Advise

Do You know what’s in the commercial dog food you feed your beloved dog every day? I think you would be surprised to really find out! It’s scary!

Watch the short video below and learn some things you may wish you never knew but that can save your dog’s life and increased it’s lifespan!!

Then check out DOG FOOD SECRETS! You’ll be glad you did!

A butcher is busy at work when notices a dog in his shop. He shoos the dog away. Later, he notices the dog is back again. He walks over to the dog, and notices that the dog has a note in his mouth. The butcher takes the note which reads, “Can I have 12 sausages and a leg of lamb, please.”

The butcher looks, and lo and behold, in the dog’s mouth, there is a ten dollar bill. So the butcher takes the money, puts the sausages and lamb in a bag, and places it in the dog’s mouth.

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Fortunately for both pet owner and pet, there are veterinarians who can treat these ailments and get pets back on their feet. James Roush, an orthopedic surgeon at the Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital at Kansas State University, is one such veterinarian.

Roush frequently performs orthopedic surgeries on small animals and repairs many different kinds of injuries.

One injury Roush treats regularly is a cruciate ligament rupture, an injury common in large breed dogs, especially dogs that are very active, or in older dogs with arthritis. The rupture occurs when dogs stands on their toes with their knee bent forward, causing the femur to bear down heavily on the cranial cruciate ligament, the only ligament opposing the femur as it pushes down. When the stress becomes too much, the ligament ruptures. Rush likened the cruciate rupture in a dog to a knee injury suffered by athletes when they tear their anterior cruciate ligament, or ACL.

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In October, Roscoe, a German Shepherd mix was seized from his family’s from yard under the guise that Animal Control claimed he looked like a pit bull.

To further add insult, Roscoe had been adopted from the Kansas City Shelter last December and his paperwork listed him as a German Shepherd mix. When Mr. Cockrum took the paperwork the shelter to try to reclaim Roscoe, they changed their story and said he was removed due to neglect.

When that didn’t work, they then said they were keeping Roscoe since he hadn’t been neutered. The Cockrum’s explained the due to a problem pregnancy they had some financial problems but that they would take care of it. They thought they had worked out the problem. They found out this wasn’t so.

“At first he told us, ‘Give me until Wednesday and then I will take him down and get it neutered and everything myself and then you guys can pay for it.’ Fine. OK. Capt. Horn said that,” Cockrum said.

But a few days later, Cockrum said, Horn called back. “He basically told us that we’re not getting our dog back. He’s either going up for adoption or euthanizing.”

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I got a email yesterday about a website called IBuyStrays.com that outright ask people to turn in strays and any unwanted cats and dogs including litters of puppies and kittens to be used for medical research.

Please, take the time to read this and get the word out!!

They actually have an ad on Craigslist;

I Buy Stray Dogs and Cats

---

Reply to: ibuystrays@gmail.com
Date: 2007-12-28, 3:33PM ESTDo you have one too many cats? Or maybe a litter of unwanted puppies?
I can help you out and put a little money in your pocket.http://IBuyStrays.com
Location: Georgiait’s NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests
PostingID: 521795644http://ibuystrays.com/index.html

The website shows pictures of adorable dogs and cats and even tiny puppies and tells people to sell their unwanted pets or strays to them to make some money, rather then turn them in to shelters. Needless to say, I was beyond incensed!!

Every day, animal shelters wastefully exterminate valuable dogs and cats. Shamefully, the medical need is so great, while the supply of quality test animals are so few. I beg you not to destroy the trial subject who can make the difference between life and death for a real live human being.

Animal research has played a vital role in virtually every major medical advance of the last century and now YOU can be a part of that proud tradition and make money at the same time!

It uses money as the hook for greedy, sick people who could care less the cruel torture and suffering these experiment inflict on innocent and defenseless animals. It tell how animals are nothing but property and you can do anything you want with them, yes, even sell them for medical experimentation.

Are you an individual who regularly finds himself with too many cats and dogs on hand or maybe you’re just in need of cash. Whether you’ve got a whole unwanted litter of mutts or just one cat that doesn’t get along with the rest, Email me and do a good deed. Keep it up and you can earn bonus money for quantity.

Still, Don’t believe me??? Animals are your property which you can dispose as you please. Check it out for yourself:

http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p33882_index.html

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Baldwin County, FL - Playing children heard whimpering coming from a dumpster on Upper Bryant’s Landing Road in Stockton. They alerted an animal control officer and when he investigated he found a MinPin-Chihuahua and her 6 puppies in a wooden box thrown inside the dumpster like trash.

The mother dog and her puppies, who were estimated to be only two weeks old, were taken to Baldwin County Animal Control. They will stay there until the puppies are old enough to be adopted in February.

“Pets are not garbage.” said Kathy Eddy, the executive director of the Baldwin Animal Rescue Center. “This is not the right way to deal with unwanted puppies. I’m saddened to think someone couldn’t take the time to take the mother and pups to an animal shelter where they would have been treated humanely.”

Whomever is responsible faces animal cruelty charges. “Under the Gucci Act, a six month sentence can be imposed for each of the seven abandoned dogs,” Eddy said.

This was a cruel, heartless and senseless act!  Luckily these babies and their mother were found before it was too late.  How easily they could have gone into a trash truck and been killed if no one had heard their planitive cries.

Someone out there, aside from the person who did this, knows something.  There’s no telling what someone who is so devoid of conscience could do next.  Please, anyone with information about this, call the Baldwin County Sheriff’s Office at 251-937-0202.

Source - WKRG

Now, there are quite a number of animal welfare organizations out there and to be honest, the main goal of some of them just seems to be how much money they can amass. They don’t actually put that money toward helping animals in need. Oh, they’re big and they’re rich and talk us a nice line but when it comes to getting in the trenches and actually getting their hands dirty, few do. The ASPCA is one of them that actually does and I have great respect for them and they are the only organization I actually donate money to aside from local shelters or rescues where I know money actually goes to the animals, rather than to an orgainzation’s already overfull coffers.

This is from the ASPCA

This year posed some tough challenges on the animal protection front—and the ASPCA was right there, offering our expertise in new, effective ways. After aiding in the federal investigation of Michael Vick we unveiled the country’s very first mobile animal forensics investigation unit to a hugely positive response. And now that we’re founding an ASPCA Anti-Cruelty Institute, the next few years promise enormous breakthroughs in the fight against animal abuse!

We invite you to join in our exciting new developments by taking the pledge to fight animal cruelty. Just a click will help you learn how to identify and report abuse, stay up-to-date on the latest animal cruelty news and learn how to write letters to your legislators in the name of animals—and taking this special step for homeless pets will let us know you’re committed to our cause.

Please take the time to email this to friends and family. The more people we can make aware of the problems, the more can be done about them. We are the only voices innocent and defenseless animals have, shout it out!!

This is just a quick story, short on details and names but I wanted to share it with you to show you the hearts of those in rescue and they never stop, no matter what day it is or time of day.

On Christmas Eve night about 11:30 PM I got a desperate phone call from a dear friend in California.  Another friend of ours in Minnesota had gotten an email from a woman about a dog in dire straits.  This dog, Cody, a beautiful 9 year old German Shepherd, was going to die simply because his owner didn’t want him, didn’t want to take the time to care for him and was worried about getting in trouble due to the conditions he was kept in.

The owner planned on having Cody euthanized early the morning after Christmas. Now Cody is a healthy, extremely well-bred, well trained German Shepherd and simply on the whim of his uncaring owner was going to have his life ended.  The owner was adamant that she was not going to take him to a shelter or do anything to help him in any way.  She kept saying that ‘it was too much trouble’ and she was just going to have him euthanized…. period!
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OMG!! Imagine one dog with 19 puppies!!! This was Julie Nelson’s holiday surprise as her Great Dane, Kenya, gave birth to her litter of puppies 2 days before Christmas.

Kenya actually delivered a total of 21 puppies of which only 19 survived.

The birthing, which was a planned breeding, began in the kitchen of Nelson’s Boulder Creek home. After 12 hours and 10 puppies, Nelson decided it was time to take Kenya to the hospital. One more puppy was born on the way and 4 hours later there was a total of 21 puppies.

Nelson said that although it was a planned breeding, she never expected so many puppies!

Kenya came very close to breaking a world record of 23, the largest puppy litter ever born, a three-way tie held by a Great Dane, an American foxhound and a Saint Bernard, according to four dog Web sites. Several of those puppies died shortly after birth.

The record for the largest number of puppies in a litter to live - 20 - is held by a Neapolitan mastiff, according to the four sites.

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