Seriously. Our home is dog-hair central, and we gave up being anal about it years ago or we’d surely be in the Chock Full o’ Nuts hotel by now. If we combined the shed hair on the floors, furniture and in the car with the hair we amass when we brush them, we could easily fill the Pentagon—annually.

Okay. That’s a bit of an exaggeration, but that’s sometimes how it appears to us. I’d need a vacuum with a canister the size of a beer barrel to get up all the dog hair in one shot. But, just like you, the love we have for our fur kids far outweighs the dog-hair hardship we endure.

That said, there actually is something we can do with dog hair. It probably won’t make us rich quick (or at any other rate of speed, for that matter), but this idea does give new meaning to “puttin’ on the dog.” Here’s a book entitled Knitting with Dog Hair: Better a Sweater from a Dog You Know and Love Than a Sheep You’ll Never Meet by Kendall Crolius and Anne Montgomery. The authors tell you:

• How to make an afghan, beret and other knit items
• How to collect, clean and store your pooch’s fur
• How to modify your patterns to accommodate pet-spun yarn
• How to find experienced pet-hair spinners—a guide to resources and suppliers

How about some dog-hair designs and a video to inspire us? I should be able to open a department store by the end of the year…

“Walk & Wag”  takes place every year near Halloween to help raise money for the organization, as well as for other pet rescue groups. I was there staffing the table for German Shepherd Dog Rescue of Georgia, and I ran into my dear friend, phenomenal pet photographer Pat Thomas of PhotoPhetish. Pat was there, as she always is, to support the organization, take candid shots and hang out with a park full of dogs and their people. (Pat’s as dog-obsessed as I am!) Events include a pet parade, a talent contest and a Halloween costume contest.  I thought you’d like to see some photos of the fur kids we were surrounded by on that beautiful, sunny, autumn day!

A

Who cares? It’s still a robot, so any response to my emotions would be totally artificial. No, thanks.

When it comes to dogs and cats, there’s nothing like the genuine affection you feel when your pet curls up on the sofa next to you and looks at you with complete trust and love. Do you really think you’re going to get that same heartwarming connection from a bucket of bolts with fur?

Researcher Wei-Po Lee says, “With current technologies in computing and electronics and knowledge in ethology. neuroscience and cognition, it is now possible to create embodied prototypes of artificial living toys acting in the physical world.” For me, the operative word is acting.

I don’t want a pet who “acts” like he or she loves me anymore than I want my husband “acting” like he loves me. I’m human, and I can tell the difference.

While I understand that animatronic pets may be answer for people who live in places that don’t allow real pets or are allergic to pet fur and dander, I can’t help but wonder what’s next–substitute humans for people who can’t get along with anybody? Facebook, Twitter and all the other social networking sites have already begun to replace actual human contact with virtual contact, so we all have hundreds of “friends” who wouldn’t know us if we sat next to them on a bus. We’re actually changing the very definition of friends. So someday down the road, when I can buy robotic friends who are programmed to my wants and needs, why would I need the real thing? True, meaningful friendships will become obsolete.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m dazzled by human progress and advances in technology, but–like superior weapons of mass destruction–not all advancements serve humanity in a positive way. When my pooches cuddle up next to me and lick my face, I’d rather feel the love than some cold piece of metal scraping my cheek.

(CBS) A Michigan man says he has his dog to thank for saving his life by chewing off his infected big toe as he lay in a drunken stupor.

For months, Jerry Douthett had refused to see a doctor for the festering digit, in spite of his wife’s pleas and her suspicion that he had out of control diabetes.

About two weeks ago the couple went to a bar, where Douthett told the Grand Rapids Press that he drank four or five beers.

“Jerry had had all these Margaritas, so I just let him sleep,” his wife Rosee, a registered nurse, told the paper. “But then I heard these screams coming from the bedroom, and he was yelling, ‘My toe’s gone, my toe’s gone!’”

Kiko, the family dog, had suddenly become a surgeon.

“It wasn’t an aggressive attack. He pretty much just ate the infection, so he saved my life,” Jerry Douthett said.

He was treated at Spectrum Health in Grand Rapids where physicians said he had type 2 diabetes and was suffering from a dangerous toe infection. Surgeons amputated what was left of the digit.

“Maybe he thought it was not part of Jerry’s body,” Rosie told the Grand Rapids television station WOOD-TV, “that it was a dead animal laying on the bed. But he chewed off the infected part so he knew when to stop, which was great.”

Jerry Douthett says Kiko, a white terrier with brown ears, is a hero. Now that he knows he is diabetic, he has given up drinking.

Most dogs are able to run and get help, drag an owner to safety or something heroic like that, but I’ve never heard of a dog being able to make a phone call!  But, that’s exactly what she did.

Seeing her owner Kevin Weaver of Indianapolis, IN lying unconscious on the kitchen floor from a diabetic seizure, she immediately fetched the cellphone and bit down on the number 9.  It had been pre-programmed to call emergency services. Belle repeatedly barked into the phone at the emergency dispatchers, who immediately sent help. When paramedics arrived, they found that Weaver had suffered severe hypoglycemic shock and had collapsed on the floor.  As they rushed him to the hospital, Belle rode along in the ambulance to make sure her “patient” would be okay.

How’d she get so smart?

It seems that Weaver has had type 1 diabetes most of his life, but when the seizures became more frequent a year ago, he enlisted the aid of his faithful friend, Belle, and trained her to become a diabetes alert dog.  It took about nine months, but as you can see, the specialized training paid off.

Impressive?  But that’s not all!

As if being one of the first dogs to actually dial a cell phone in an emergency wasn’t impressive enough, she can also help monitor Weaver’s blood-sugar levels.  With a keen sense of smell, she is able to detect when levels are abnormal.  The dog periodically licks Weaver’s nose to take her own reading of his blood-sugar level.  If something seems off to her, she will paw and whine at him.

“Every time she paws at me like that I grab my meter and test myself,” Weaver said. “She’s never been wrong.”

Every good dog has its day!

Her good deeds haven’t gone unnoticed. She is the first non-human to receive the VITA Wireless Samaritan Award. The Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association awards the VITA award to individuals who “demonstrate the courage and instinct to think of their wireless phones as a life-saving device during demanding emergency situations.” The name VITA (which is Latin for “Life”) is so appropriate since that’s what she gave her owner a second chance at.

~Max

According to new research described in Discovery News, Peter Pongracz, a behavioral biologist at Eotvos Lorand University in Hungary, recorded growls from 20 pet dogs while engaging in three different activities:

1. Watching a threatening stranger approach
2. Playing tug-of-war with their owners
3. Facing off with another dog for a bone

Not really detecting much audible difference between the more aggressive growls, he played the recordings to other dogs as they chewed on meaty calf bones to see if they would detect a difference.  Reportedly, the dogs that heard tapes of the bone-guarding dogs backed away from their bone in direct response to the threatening growls.  Recognizing the difference between the sounds, the dogs that heard the playful growls kept on chewing.

Upon further investigation, Pongracz and his team analyzed the growls with a computer and found some notable consistencies.  The playful growls were typically shorter and higher pitched than the threatening growls, according to Discovery News reports.  But, even as technologically advanced as computer are, they’re no match for dog ears because the computers still couldn’t detect the difference between the two threatening growls based on pitch, volume, etc.  (Go dogs!)

Chalk it up to our super-sonic hearing and the ability to say–er–growl what we mean.

That’s because the US Postal Service just launched their Animal Rescue: Adopt a Shelter Pet commemorative postage stamps as part of their Stamps to the Rescue promotional campaign.

Animal advocate Ellen DeGeneres announced the program on her show April 30, when the stamps went on sale nationwide. The loving pets you see in on the stamps are actual shelter pets photographed by veteran stamp photographer Sally Andersen-Bruce. She chose five cats and five dogs, and I’m happy to announce all ten animals were adopted from a shelter in New Milford, CT.

Postmaster General John E. Potter said, “This campaign will increase public awareness about sheltered pets, and our hope is that it will encourage pet adoption and promote humane and responsible pet care.”

Amen. Every year 6 to 8 million cats and dogs end up in animal shelters and, of that number, nearly half are euthanized. If everyone who wants a furry, four-legged companion chooses to adopt a shelter pet and spays/neuters their pet, we’d move toward eliminating not only a horrible end for these poor, sweet, defenseless animals, but we’d also help put unconscionable puppy mills out of business.

You can order the stamps from the postal service at StampsToTheRescue.com or by calling 1-800-STAMP24 (1-800-782-6724.) If you’re like me, you believe there’s nothing as wonderful as a beloved pet licking your face. Well, here’s your chance to lick back–and give another sweet pet the chance to love and be loved.

Thank you, US Postal Service, for caring so much, and thanks to every one of you who adopts your pets from shelters and animal rescue organizations. We have two incredibly loving rescued pets at home, and we simply can’t imagine life without them.