Amanda Bjelland’s early morning stroll turned scary on Feb. 25.

The Montana resident usually starts each day with a walk to the mailbox at the end of her property accompanied by her two best friends: Chloe, 6, a female pug, and Willow, 1, an indoor Siamese mix cat.

“We do this around 6 am while it is still dark outside,” Bjelland, a receptionist in the radiation dept. of a Billings health care facility, said. But something was off that day when came back inside the house, “Chloe walked to the back door and started crying,” she recalls.

Bjelland quickly opened the door so Chloe could run outside. Soon the pug started barking and circling around in a banner of excitement — a sign that something was definitely wrong.

Bjelland, whose husband Ron, was just waking up, noticed that Willow was not in the house and ran down the steps behind the house to find Chloe circling around their koi pond, which is 12 by 22-ft. The 3-ft. deep pond normally attracts birds, rabbits, raccoon and deer.

“I was horrified to see that Willow had fallen through the ice and was struggling to get out,” Bjelland says. “Chloe was telling us that her sister was stuck on ice chunks.”

Instantly, Bjelland, crying and frightened, grabbed little Willow, who is declawed on the front paws, and pulled her out of the pond that had partially thawed from a couple of unusual 40 degree days.

Warming her little kitten in towels, Bjelland held Willow in her arms, but the cat was not interested in cuddling. She was freezing cold.

On most winter mornings, Willow could walk on the ice covering the pond because it was frozen solid. So when she chased a rabbit after their mailbox walk, she immediately fell through the melted ice.

“Finally, Willow shook her paws to get rid of the excess water and I could tell she was feeling better,” says Bjelland. “For the next two days she was lethargic, but by the third day she was feeling fine.”

Chloe was elated that her sister was alive and well. She ran around excited and barking in a happy frenzy.

“Chloe was as happy as we were that everything turned out alright,” Bjelland says. “She is a good dog. And she loves to sleep with Willow each night. They absolutely adore each other.”

The Iditarod 2010 Sled Dog Race has begun!  Seventy-one mushers are on the Iditarod Trail right now, having left Willow, Alaska, yesterday in a 1,150 mile race to Nome, Alaska.

The first checkpoint is Finger Lake, 106 miles into the race.  On this second day of the race, the first musher to leave Finger Lake was Canadian Sebastian Schnuelle.  Three Alaskan mushers have followed, Paul Gebhardt, John Baker and Sven Haltmann.

The Iditarod began in 1973, a grueling test of sled dog mushers with teams of 16 dogs.  It’s the most popular sporting event in Alaska. The annual race has taken from 8 to 15 days to complete.

Most of the participants are Alaskan, but competitors from fourteen countries have raced, including Swiss Martin Buser who won the event four times and holds the fastest time record of 8 days, 22 hours, 46 minutes, 2 seconds.  Two women have won the race, Libby Riddles in 1985, and Susan Butcher, winning four of five years from 1986 to 1990.

A ceremonial start is held in Anchorage, followed by the official start in Willow, Alaska.  There are two routes, north and south routes, which are alternated yearly.

Keep up with the Iditarod 2010 Progress Report here.

[Courtesy of Gather.com]

If you want to take Fluffy or Fido with you on that airplane trip to visit Aunt Millie in Nebraska, the most important item of your journey will be your pet carrier. Depending on the airline, your pet can travel in the cabin with you (for small animals only) or as checked baggage.

When it comes to checking your pet as luggage, airlines have strict requirements for size, type and material (plastic yes, wire no). Show up with the wrong kind of carrier and your pet can be refused boarding mostly for his safety. If it’s collapsible, for example, that’s a no-no, as it could crush your pet in transit.

To be safe, “Always check with your airline ahead of time,” advises Jason Goldberger, chief merchandising officer for Hayneedle.com with sites PetCarriers.com and DogKennels.com.

Having flown our yellow Lab, Ollie, across states and even continents, I’ve tried various means of transporting him. My favorite crate so far is the Pet Mate Extra Large Vari Kennel Ultra.

With hand-screws to secure the halves together at the airport, it requires no tools and is light enough for me (a woman of average height and weight) to carry. Some of the tougher hard-plastic models are extremely heavy and difficult to maneuver, though they’re undeniably sturdy.

The Ultra also has proper ventilation on ALL four sides, something some airlines demand, as well as a raised interior with a sort of moat around it so, says Goldberger, “If there is an accident your dog doesn’t have to sit in it.”

Keep in mind that prices and delivery charges will vary widely, and often a pet superstore will be far more expensive. After taking hours to find the best deal, I found DogKennels.com ruled, with $5 shipping (I paid this for a book and a CD last month!) and super-fast delivery, along with the lowest price. (Prices do change, so always compare deals at the time of purchase.) If a carrier on their site doesn’t specifically say “airline approved,” give them a call to check.

“We have a prominent 800-number on the site,” says Goldberg. “We love it when people call and ask questions.”

Cats love to play with little toys that shake, rattle, or smell great. Creating toys that mimic the shape of movement of a cat’s favorite prey is a great way to engage their interest, and help them get some exercise as well. You can make a sweet treat for your favorite feline using these ideas.

Grow Catnip: One of the easiest ways to please your cat is to grow your own catnip! Select a small plastic container to start your seeds, plant, and watch your catnip grow in just a few weeks! Catnip looks just like grass, and like grass, it will continue to grow if you trim it regularly. Once your catnip is established, you can transfer it to another pot, like any of our planters and tubs that suit your particular decor. Your cat will adore the scent of fresh catnip, and you can trim and dry the blades to use in your own handmade cat toys. Drying increases the potency—so your cat will be sure to love her new toys if they are stuffed with freshly dried catnip!

Fabric Mice: Use scrap fabric to quickly whip up a batch of mice for your favorite feline. Cut two teardrop shaped pieces for each mouse, and sew together, leaving an area for turning. Stuff with catnip and a jingle bell if desired. You can use white fabric or felt for the ears, and even add a cute yarn tail (you can also try adding a jingle bell at the end of the tail if you wanted instead of stuffing it on the inside) as pictured. These mice are small enough for kitty to carry around—so don’t be surprised if you find them all over the house!

Knitted and Felted Mice: Don’t want to sew? Make your own knitted mice from wool yarn, and then toss them into the washer to felt. With a small amount of scrap yarn and catnip you can create your feline friend a catnip mouse. Stuff them with catnip when dry, and present to your cat. These are fast and easy to make (search for free patterns online such as Mollie’s Blog of Stuff), and very durable!

Dangly Toys: Cat adore little items like feathers, pom-poms and bells, but these items can pose a hazard to your pet if they are too small. Instead of simply handing a few feathers over to your cat, assemble your own dangler toy with a few simple craft supplies. Paint a 3/16″ x 12″ long unfinished wood dowel, and use flexible wire (remember the higher the gauge the thinner and more flexible the wire will be) or ribbon to attach pom poms, feathers, and other items such as jingle bells. Another idea for the “string” part of the dangler would be to use a small section of a marabou feather boa of your choice. Consider using yarn pom poms to add heft, and a few long marabou feathers to attract your cat’s interest.

[Courtesy of factorydirectcraft.com]

Not a lot of hopeful words can be said about the devastating earthquake that hit Chile on Febuary 27th. Hundreds of people lost their lives and I’m sure the pet community was also hit pretty hard.

But rescue workers did find a little white puppy among the rubble and managed to pull him to safety.

According to this report from MSNBC, the dog was found in a collapsed house. Rescuer Cristian Velasquez went in after the adorable pup and pulled him to safety. Velasquez said he tried to comfort the panic-stricken pooch and gave the dog some food and water.

Hopefully this little guy will survive the whole ordeal and be reunited with his owners. That would be at least one happy ending in his horrific story.

And kudos to the volunteers and rescue workers who are helping people and pets in Chile and Haiti.

[Courtesy of Phillyburbs.com]

The heroine of Disney’s hit movie, “The Princess and the Frog,” kisses a toad and has a wonderful adventure that ends with her finding true love. But for 50 unfortunate little girls around the country, an amphibious lip lock sent them to the hospital.

Various news outlets in more than 25 states have reported outbreaks of salmonella, which causes severe intestinal distress and diarrhea. Inspired by the movie’s iconic smooch, young children — typically girls under 10 — have kissed or licked live frogs and picked up the disease from bacteria harbored on the frog’s skin and guts. It’s a serious disease that can be potentially fatal if left untreated.

Reptiles aren’t ideal kissing partners, either. Turtles, for instance, are also common carriers of salmonella bacterium. In addition, they can carry tuberculosis and campylobacter, which causes serious gastroenteritis, diarrhea, abdominal cramps, nausea, vomiting, fever and can be transmitted through scratches and bites. Fungal and protozoan organisms and external parasites, such as ticks and mites, are other nasty surprises that can be picked up from reptiles and amphibians. According to the Centers for Disease Control, more than 7,000 people a year get sick from handling reptiles.

Even sweet little puppies, cute kittens and other traditional pets can make your child sick. If a child touches feces — or fur that has come in contact with feces — and touches his or her eyes, mouth or an open wound, he or she may come down with any number of maladies, including diarrhea, vomiting, some fever and muscle aches. Cat scratch fever, transmitted through bites and open cuts, causes symptoms such as swollen lymph glands, high fever and a loss of appetite. And if your cat or dog has red patchy skin that it grooms excessively, beware. It could be a sign of ring worm, a highly infectious fungal infection, to which children are highly susceptible.

Children under five don’t have fully developed immune systems, so the best course of action is to avoid direct contact with amphibians and reptiles altogether. And it goes without saying that medical experts recommend parents not allow their children to plant one on a frog — or any other animal for that matter. The American Academy of Pediatrics also cautions parents to make sure children are religious about washing their hands after touching any pet.

A rare Siberian tiger discovered near the Russian border seemed an auspicious beginning to China’s Year of the Tiger, but within days, the emaciated cub had died of malnutrition.

The cub, believed to be about 1 year old, was already in poor shape just after it was found on Feb. 26 trapped in a fence, a security official with the forestry bureau in the northern province of Heilongjiang said Tuesday.

“It lay on the ground and looked so weak. We’ve had heavy snow these days, and it must have been starving,” said the official, who would only give his family name, Zhang.

Siberian tigers are one of the world’s rarest species, with just 300 believed remaining in the wild. In China, killing one of the big cats is punishable by death.

According to the Heilongjiang News, a forestry official named Han Deyou heard his dog barking and found the cub trapped between the metal bars of a fence in his backyard. The discovery came just days into the Chinese Lunar New Year – the Year of the Tiger, according to the Chinese zodiac.

The rescue effort took about 20 hours, and the female cub was fed two chickens and some beef while waiting. She had no apparent injuries.

But, in a report Tuesday, the newspaper said the cub died two days later.

“It was malnourished, and it had heart failure,” Sun Haiyi, an official with the Heilongjiang wild animal research center, told the newspaper.

A 1-year-old tiger should weigh about 110 pounds (50 kilograms), but the cub weighed less than 66 pounds (30 kilograms), Sun said.

[Courtesy of HuffingtonPost.com]

James “Jim” Trefz had recently rescued a dog from a shelter, a white terrier mix named Zulu. Trefz, an avid pilot who liked to fly his plane several times a week, took Zulu with him on every trip.

“He and the dog became instant companions,” Trefz’s friend John Amundsen (pictured) said.

Last Thursday, tragedy struck, when shortly after taking off from the Winter Haven airport in Florida, the single-engine plane lost power and crashed into a tree. Trefz and his passenger, George Azize, both died, but incredibly, Zulu survived, without sustaining any injuries.

“We were stunned, to be honest. He’s just a little, small white dog,” says Amundsen, who runs Accelerated Flight Training at the airport. “We’ve been to too many wrecks over the years, and we were stunned to find the dog still alive.”

Hardly anybody at the scene of the crash was thinking about Zulu given the two human lives at stake, but as members of the Polk County Sheriff’s Department spoke with a group of reporters, pubic information officer Carrie Eleazer spotted a white dog crossing into the scene of the crash.

“I walked over to him thinking he belonged to one of the bystanders,” Eleazer says. She checked his tag and confirmed that he had belonged to the pilot. “He wasn’t scared. He didn’t seem traumatized. He was just trotting around like he knew where he was, like he belonged there.”

Eleazer handed Zulu over to Amundsen, who carried the dog back to the airport. He says that Zulu was searching for his owner, and at every sound of a plane, Zulu would run around looking for Trefz, who wouldn’t be coming back for him. Amundsen then returned the dog to Trefz’s girlfriend and 2-year-old daughter.

“It can’t make up for everything that happened, but to me, he’s the only good thing that came out of this,” Eleazer says. “Without a broken bone on his body. It’s just amazing. It’s a tiny little miracle. They should change his name to Miracle.”

Every year, irresponsible pet owners abandon animals that they no longer want. The reasons may be financial or practical, but either way, these innocent animals suffer. They may also cause harm. Abandoned animals overrun shelters and wreck havoc on non-native ecosystems. These nine fascinating stories of abandoned pets show why it is so important to always find unwanted pets a good home.

Over the past few years, several towns on Long Island have had problems with packs of feral beagles. The beagles are bought as hunting dogs, but abandoned by their owners if they don’t catch enough rabbits. This year after hunting season, the Kent Animal shelter took in forty of the abandoned pups. While beagles are normally friendly dogs, they can become aggressive towards other animals and people due to cold and starvation.

As more and more people lose their homes due to foreclosure, animal care experts have seen a rise in the number of abandoned pets. Shelters are overpopulated with these animals and often have to euthanize otherwise healthy, tame cats and dogs. Less humane owners have even left their pets in abandoned homes, where they may die of starvation or severe dehydration.

Burmese pythons were introduced to Florida when irresponsible owners abandoned them in the wild. The Burmese python is now thriving and disrupting the delicate balance of the Everglades’ ecosystem. The giant snakes, which can grow to be 200 pounds, have even been observed attacking the native Florida alligators.

California’s animal shelters are over-run with chihuahuas. In some shelters, abandoned chihuahuas make up 30% of the dog population. Animal activists have dubbed this the “Paris Hilton Syndrome” and partly blame Hollywood for turning small dogs into disposable fashion accessories. In an innovative move, some shelters have started flying chihuahuas across country to NYC, where the demand for small dogs to adopt is very high.

The Veiled Chameleon is native to Yemen and Saudi Arabia and was illegally introduced to Hawaii through the exotic pet trade. Although the Veiled chameleon is a beautiful creature, environmentalists are concerned about the impact it is having on the Maui ecosystem. These lizards prey on native birds and insects and are able to reproduce at incredible rates.

The pit bull is a very misunderstood breed. Misconceptions on the part of owners and law makers have led to a major problem with abandoned pit bulls. Some owners adopt pit bulls because of their tough image, but abandon them when they realize the responsibilities and costs involved in caring for their pets. Several cities also have laws against owning pit bulls. Because of this, pet owners will abandon dogs rather than take them to shelters. These owners fear fines or legal punishment.

The lily pond in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park has been over-run by the African Clawed frog. While no one is quite sure how this invasive amphibian was introduced to the pond, officials suspect they were abandoned pets. African Clawed frogs reproduce rapidly and will eat just about anything. Their presence in the pond is threatening to push out all other life.

In towns near army bases, animal shelters have reported a large increase in abandoned animals whenever troops are deployed on military duty. After a 2005 deployment, one shelter near Georgia’s Fort Stewart took in 321 abandoned pets and had to euthanize 119 of the animals. Several programs have been set up to help military personnel make foster arrangements for their pets. The military is also considering making animal abandonment an offense under the Uniform Code of Military Justice.

Feral green iguanas are quite common in many areas of Florida. This non-native species is a serious nuisance. They destroy plants and their feces can spread salmonella. Like many other invasive animals, the green iguana has most likely made it to Florida through the exotic pet trade.

[Courtesy of HuffingtonPost.com]

When vaccinating our dogs, most of us rely on our vets, trusting that their advice is up-to-date and not biased by economic or political concerns.  Unfortunately,  unless vets stay current on veterinary journal reading (no easy task) … and actually assimilate new findings … and decide to forgo significant vaccination income, their advice may lag well behind many years behind what experts now advocate.

Vaccination is a serious medical procedure with the potential for adversely affecting health, both in the short and long term. Experts now advise us to vaccinate each dog according to his or her individual needs.  But  how do you cut back without endangering your dog’s health?  Here are 10 ways to eliminate unnecessary shots while actually improving pet health.

1. Always consider locale, lifestyle, risk and vaccine effectiveness. Bordetella (kennel cough) is for dogs in poorly-ventilated close quarters (like kennels), not for pets sometimes playing with others. Leptospirosis is a disease of wetlands and woodlands, and the vaccine may not protect against the actual disease in your area. Lyme is only for dogs in areas with Lyme disease. Furthermore, each of these vaccines has dangerous side effects and their efficacy is questionable. Don’t give them without proven need and benefit.

2. Eliminate vaccines on the “not recommended” list of the American Hospital Association’s Canine Vaccine Task Force as well as most veterinary organizations and schools. These include Giardia and Coronavirus (found in many combination shots).

3. Say no! to combination shots. Combo shots (called names like DHLPPC) assault your dog’s immune system with five or seven vaccines at once. Given for (false) economy and convenience rather than health or safety, combination shots are linked to autoimmune disease and other major health problems. Also, they invariably contain unnecessary and even dangerous vaccines.

4. Stop vaccinating against diseases for which your dog may already have immunity. Blood serological studies show that parvovirus vaccines given to dogs over 15-16 weeks of age generally give at least 7 years of immunity, as does the Rockborn distemper strain. (The Onderstepoort strain gives 5 years.) Ask your vet which vaccine your dog received.

5. Don’t allow your vet, kennel owner or groomer to intimidate you into giving unnecessary shots. Suggest titer testing for parvovirus or distemper — or go elsewhere.  Require written proof from experts that your dog needs any shot. Your dog’s lifelong health  is at stake.

6. Test immunity; don’t automatically re-vaccinate. Titer tests (pronounced TIGHT er) are blood tests measuring antibodies to disease. Renowned pet vaccination expert Dr. Ron Schultz believes that titer tests yielding strong titers for parvovirus and distemper means not vaccinating against these diseases for years and maybe life. (Note: Don’t expect everyone to accept test results in lieu of vaccination. This subject is complicated, and most people are programmed to think of vaccination as “the gold standard.” Also, the absence of strong titers does not necessarily mean that a dog needs a “booster.”)

7. Never vaccinate sick dogs.  All vaccine labels state that they’re to be used in healthy animals.  Unfortunately, vaccine labels  don’t define “healthy” and most clients don’t know about this admonition.  As a result, sick pets, immune-compromised pets, pets undergoing chemo and surgery, and even dying housebound pets are vaccinated.  Any shots given to an unhealthy animal may well not provide immunity and will likely cause an adverse reaction, even death. Regarding the rabies vaccine: chronically ill or immune-compromised pets may be eligible for a rabies shot exemption for a specified period or even life.

8. Don’t vaccinate puppies too early. Vaccinating pups who still have maternal immunity is unnecessary and ineffective. Most vets suggest waiting until at least 8 weeks of age.  Some experts suggest waiting until 3-4 months to vaccinate puppies, keeping pups away from public places and strange dogs until immunity is proven by strong titers.

9. Insist that your vet documents any adverse vaccine reactions in detail. Someday you may want to apply for rabies vaccine exemption.

10. Make copies of dog licenses and vet files and store them in a safe place. Clinics lose records, go out of business, leave town, etc. Without your dog’s records, you may have vaccinate sooner than necessary because of lost or missing records.

Ready to make a change?  Best case, find a vet concerned about over-vaccinating to advise you.  Educate yourself and go to the vet armed with information.  Most important: actually advocate for your dog; don’t just intend to advocate.