I have two pictures that will tell you pretty much all there is to know about my two dogs.

First, there’s the Golden Retriever mix, a shelter dog who was scared of her own shadow when I first brought her home, and who now things the bed, the couch, the chair, and anything else that feels soft, was made especially for her.

In fact, any time she’s not immediately near me, either on a couch or on the floor, all I have to do is look at my bedroom door: if it is open, she’s in there, in bed, sound asleep.

I can respect a dog who happens to be a couch potato.

But then there’s her polar opposite, the cocker spaniel, who is constantly looking for new ways to cause trouble.

He’s a smart little dog, smart to the point of being crafty. If he can pull a fast one when no one is looking, you can bet he will try. Every time.

I imagine maintaining such talent requires a great amount of energy, as would constantly coming up with new ways to drive me crazy.

And as you can see, he doesn’t mind picking up some of that missing energy from my coffee cup. I can’t even leave that lying on a coffee table unattended.

They get along very well, in fact, considering how different their personalities are. I suspect this is some secret alliance that should worry me. Maybe he’s getting her to distract me so that he can get into trouble without being caught.

Somehow, it wouldn’t surprise me!

The surprise hit of last week?  CBS’s Greatest American Dog, which beat most shows for the night.

So this means that you can immediately expect more dogs on television.  After all, the entertainment industry is all about trying to give people what they want.  (Or at least what people tell the entertainment industry, via what they watch, that they want.)

As I was writing this post, by coincidence, I was watching a Tivo recording of this morning’s Today on NBC, promoting a special report coming this Monday on the healing power of pets, and guess what:  all dogs…not a cat, hamster or goldfish to be found in the short promo.

Fox will probably come up with a reality show about a family’s madcap search cross-country to find a lost dog.  I expect ABC to launch a series about desperate dogs prowling around the cul-de-sac with mating in mind.  Maybe, NBC’s Dateline will do an exposé on puppy mills.  I’m sure they have before, but there’ll have to be a new one, possibly even the biggest…ever.

Then maybe Animal Planet will launch a Meerkat Manor-style reality show about dogs at play in an animal shelter.

I can see the promos now.

Cocker Spaniels can be quite entertaining.  I found a great example on YouTube. Here is one dog who doesn’t care for the sound of his family’s ringing telephone.

Maybe it’s just interfering with his nap time.

What a sad world it would be without our four-legged friends.

I’m on Dean Koontz’s mailing list because he’s my favorite author. A few times a year, I receive a newsletter from him that mentions his upcoming releases, like The Darkest Evening of the Year, which came out today.

As is often his custom, he includes photos of Trixie, his beloved Golden Retriever that he adopted years ago. Trixie was to have been a service dog, but had a joint problem that required surgery; once a dog has joint surgery, it is no longer eligible to be a service dog, so Trixie was “retired” from the service, and that’s how Dean and his wife, Gerda, were able to adopt her.

The cover of this latest newsletter had a collection of eight photos of Trixie in various poses. There was one with a big smile — the kind only an ever-happy Golden Retriever can give, Trixie in a Santa hat, Trixie wearing Easter bunny ears, and Trixie wearing Sunglasses and doing her best at looking glamorous.

At the top of the page in bold letters, it read, simply, “Trixie Koontz.” The first time I looked at it, my eyes immediately went to the photos of this beautiful dog. It took me a moment to notice the second line:

5 October 1995–30 June 2007

When it comes to animals, particularly those of the canine persuasion, I’m a sap. The biggest sap in the world, in fact. I suppose that not many people would admit that. So to say the least, that line didn’t exactly raise my spirits.

It turns out that Trixie had developed an agressive form of cancer, and facing a painful death as the illness progressed, the Koontzes decided to put her down.  At his website, he describes how Trixie loved to have her head held in his hands while he rubbed her cheeks; Dean and Gerda were holding her when she passed.  And that’s when they learned firsthand how devastating the loss of a dog can be:

“That Saturday was the hardest day of our lives. The pain is more intense than any we have known before. The house seems empty without her, and we feel lost.”

Koontz had made Trixie one of his most popular marketers.  She would write messages to her master’s readers that would be crafted in a style that a dog might use, if a dog could actually write:

“Is big week for me because I am dog. Every week is big when you’re a dog. Every week is full of joy, kibble, plush toys, tennis balls, cookies, tummy rubs, wriggling in grass, and more, when you are dog. Dad doesn’t get kibble or plush toys (don’t know why, except maybe he hasn’t been good boy, good), and he is too embarrassed to wriggle on back in grass, so only fun he gets is having new book in stores.”

He has written a new message from Trixie in which she talks about waiting for her human parents at  Rainbow Bridge.  (If you’ve never heard of it, follow that link at your own risk; I can never get through it without tearing up.)

One of my uncles had owned dogs for years.  But they were outside dogs.  And while he fed them and took care of them, they didn’t spend much time indoors, and there wasn’t a great deal of one-on-one contact.  That changed years ago when he got a poodle mix that he named Petey.  Petey was an inside dog who followed my uncle everywhere.  My uncle suddenly realized that there’s something special about dogs.  Unfortunately, Petey was hit by a car and killed.  When the accident happened, my uncle grabbed him and sat in his living room cradling the dog in a daze.  His son called my parents and asked them to come over quickly, thinking that my uncle might actually die from the shock of the loss.

If you can’t imagine experiencing a loss like this, I genuinely feel sorry for you, because it must mean that you have never allowed yourself to get close to a dog.  Man’s relationship with these wonderful creatures dates all the way back to the caveman days according to early cave drawings.  Though cavemen never had dictionaries, encyclopedias or the internet, they were at least smart enough to recognize that these four-legged mammals were indeed friends.  And all these centuries later, there”s still nothing quite like a good dog.

Comedian George Carlin once said that every cute little puppy should come with a sign that reads, “Warning: This will end badly.”

And yet those of us who love dogs keep walking into that situation, because we’d rather have those precious years with our pets than live without them.  Dogs like Trixie ask for so little, and give so much.

That’s what makes them so special.

Del Monte has now announced a voluntary recall for some of its dog treat products:

“The Company took this voluntary recall action immediately after learning this morning from the FDA that wheat gluten supplied to Del Monte Pet Products from a specific manufacturing facility in China contained melamine. Melamine is a substance not approved for use in food. The FDA made this finding as part of its ongoing investigation into the recent pet food recall.”

Affected Del Monte products include Jerky Treats, Gravy Train Beef Strips, and Pounce Meaty Morsels. There are also other private label brands involved, including certain varieties of the Wal*Mart brand, Ol’ Roy. Visit Del Monte’s website for their complete list.

So how many people are now thinking that table scraps might be better after all?

When a commercial can touch people through emotion, you often — not always but often — have a successful advertisement. The Pedigree dog food brand tapped actor David Duchovny to voice spots for an image campaign to promote the company’s donations to animal shelters.

Here is one of the original commercials you’ve probably seen:

One of the dogs featured in some of the spots, and particularly some shorter :15 versions, was what appeared to be a Jack Russell Terrior mix named “Oliver.” A brand new spot strikes another emotional chord with animal lovers:

Whether you have pets or not, and whether you buy Pedigree or not, I hope you’ll consider making a donation to an animal shelter near you. There are far more animals than homes available, and these hard working people are doing everything they can to take care of unwanted animals that may never be as lucky as Oliver.

The Menu Foods pet food recall that originally seemed to include only Iams brands actually includes more than forty brands!

Here is the complete list of brands, lifted from CBSNews.com:

Cat Food

• Americas Choice, Preferred Pets
• Authority
• Best Choice
• Companion
• Compliments
• Demoulas Market Basket
• Eukanuba
• Fine Feline Cat
• Food Lion
• Foodtown
• Giant Companion
• Hannaford
• Hill Country Fare
• Hy-Vee
• Iams
• Laura Lynn
• Li’l Red
• Loving Meals
• Meijer’s Main Choice
• Nutriplan
• Nutro Max Gourmet Classics
• Nutro Natural Choice
• Paws
• Pet Pride
• Presidents Choice
• Price Chopper
• Priority
• Save-A-Lot
• Schnucks
• Science Diet Feline Savory Cuts Cans
• Sophistacat
• Special Kitty Canada
• Special Kitty US
• Springfield Prize
• Sprout
• Total Pet
• Wegmans
• Western Family
• White Rose
• Winn Dixie

Dog Food

• Americas Choice, Preferred Pets
• Authority
• Award
• Best Choice
• Big Bet
• Big Red
• Bloom
• Bruiser
• Cadillac
• Companion
• Demoulas Market Basket
• Eukanuba
• Food Lion
• Giant Companion
• Great Choice
• Hannaford
• Hill Country Fare
• Hy-Vee
• Iams
• Laura Lynn
• Loving Meals
• Meijers Main Choice
• Mighty Dog Pouch
• Mixables
• Nutriplan
• Nutro Max
• Nutro Natural Choice
• Nutro Ultra
• Nutro
• Ol’Roy Canada
• Ol’Roy US
• Paws
• Pet Essentials
• Pet Pride - Good n Meaty
• Presidents Choice
• Price Chopper
• Priority
• Publix
• Roche Bros
• Save-A-Lot
• Schnucks
• Shep Dog
• Springsfield Prize
• Sprout
• Stater Bros
• Total Pet
• Western Family
• White Rose
• Winn Dixie
• Your Pet

If a brand you use is there, you can find a link to the manufacturer’s site on the CBS News link. From there, you can click on the brand and see the specific flavors, sizes and expiration dates you need to confirm whether your pet’s food might be covered by the recall.

It has all the makings of a nightmare.

Stormtroopers invade neighborhood after neighborhood, making noise in the night, luring family pets to bark, alerting their owners to potential danger. Except that the only danger is to the dogs themselves, who are tracked down by their bark and slaughtered in front of their horrified owners.

Tragically, it’s no Orwellian short story: it has happened in China, where 50,000 dogs have been killed in one of the world’s most outrageous over-reactions in history. Granted, China had the second-highest number of rabies deaths last year — 2,375, according to the Chinese Health Ministry — and only a 3% immunization rate among rural families.

But you can’t rid yourself of rabies by wiping out the dog population: you have to vaccinate. Dogs are far from the only animals that can contract the disease, and you can’t wipe out all wildlife, no matter how hard you try. Wild animals can get protected by food laced with the vaccine that can be left in lures. Dogs can be vaccinated even easier, and if they are indoor pets, their chances of contracting rabies are fairly remote.

Given a choice, I’m sure most residents would rather spend the money for the vaccine, or would bring their pets to be vaccinated if the government would provide it at a reduced cost. Unfortunately, the only choice families seem to have is whether they kill their own pets or whether their government comes in and does it for them. If they kill their own dog, they get a whopping 63¢ for their effort. If the government does it, they’ll club the animal to death, far from a humane treatment. (CBS and ABC both have photos showing a dog lying prone on a street as officials club it, so I am not linking to either of those sites. The NBC site I linked to above contains a link to a second story in which the same picture also appears, so be warned.)

I assume that there are no animal cruelty laws in China, because I can’t think of a more cruel way to treat an animal than to take it from a loving family and beat it to death. If there are animal cruelty laws there, the government needs to lock itself up until it comes to its senses.

There are many people who don’t “get” dog ownership. They don’t understand the bond that people form with their dogs (or cats, for that matter). Some of them, unfortunately, are parents who think that they’re better than people who aren’t parents, who know more about everything, and because they are parents, experience the greatest emotional bond one can have: the bond between parent and child. I’ll give them that last one, but not the other two. But for people who don’t have children, their relationship with their pets is similar. Not the same, of course, but as close as a childless person can get. There’s nothing wrong with that, no intent to slight parenthood implied in that sentiment. It’s just reality.

Dogs don’t hold grudges; they’re always happy to see you, whether you’ve been gone for an eight-hour workday or a ten-minute trip to the grocery store. They, unlike people, don’t put conditions on loving their owners. They aren’t petty. They don’t look for arguments. In short, they’re better than most people.

If this government ever gets some hairbrained idea about ridding itself of rabies by exterminating dogs, I’ll take my vaccinated pets and move somewhere else.

There most definitely is a better way.

It’s been a mildly frustrating weekend. First, one of my cheap bookcases purchased from one of those mega-retailers who shall remain nameless decided to fall apart, sending books everywhere and Zack running for his life. (Zack was not near the bookcase when it decided to fall apart, so I can’t blame him.)

Then, the toilet’s flusher lever snapped. More cheap plastic inside the tank.

And if that wasn’t enough, I’m in the process of switching from Cable internet, which is fast but far too expensive, to DSL, which is supposed to be nearly as fast. (I’m a Mac person, remember, so I don’t really talk computer lingo, but my cable internet was supposed to be delivered at a rate of 4 megabits per second and I purchased the “up to 3 megabits per second” DSL option.

Let’s just say that I have had pages load up faster back in the dial-up days of AOL. Something’s definitely wrong with this picture somewhere, so I’ve spent parts of the weekend on the telephone to their tech support. (And to add insult to injury, after telling the “automated attendant” that I’m on a Macintosh, the cyber-witch still connects me to the PC department just for spite! I’d like to rip out her electronic guts!)

They’ve put in a “repair ticket,” which I assume is more email than paper, and will dispatch a crew to check the lines. I’ll keep my fingers crossed. I’m so ready to give my cable internet the boot!

Nice way to start a week!

The latest Round Robin Photo Challenge is “Silly Animals.”

I’m a dog person. Always have been, always will be. I’ve found that dogs can be a lot like people, especially when they’re sleeping. No one has to show them what a pillow is for: they’re smart enough to have figured that one out on their own with no assistance at all. And if you let them, they’ll take yours happily.

A couple of months after I adopted Zoey, I walked into the bedroom and saw her taking a nap. She was beginning to reach the point of understanding that she was in her “forever home,” as animal shelters like to call it, and was getting more and more comfortable.

She had sprawled out across a body pillow almost as if she had been trying to attain some kind of dramatic effect, and I couldn’t resist snapping her picture. The animal shelter I adopted her from got a copy and they ended up running it in a “success stories” column in their newsletter.

My parents taught me at an early age to love animals, and they’ve always had pets themselves. Their current inside dog is Jesse, who likes to twist himself into odd shapes resembling question marks. I caught him in one of his familiar sleeping positions, comfortably zonked. Even the flash didn’t wake him up!

Those are my picks for “Silly Animals.” Visit the Round Robin Photo Challenge page for links to the other participants!

Meet Rusty, an unfortunate little guy who is a featured pet at a local animal shelter. I call him unfortunate not because he is missing a leg, a fact that is easy to miss at first (most of us look at the face first rather than counting feet); but because he does not have a home to call his own.

Rusty is a gentle dog, sweet, loving and laid back. He likes to be petted, and will even get up and move closer if he thinks he might get an extra few seconds of love for the effort. (The shelter, incidentally, isn’t sure about what happened to him: it seems that Rusty and another dog were thrown over a fence into the shelter’s property and found the next morning…the amputation had already been done and the wound healed…so the speculation is that he might have been hit by a car when young.)

Watching him interact with two little girls who fell in love with him on the spot, I marvelled at how this dog doesn’t seem to be bothered by the fact that he’s missing a leg. He hops around a bit because of the missing leg, but he doesn’t pout over it. Unlike many people facing some kind of trauma in their lives, Rusty doesn’t wallow in self-pity. Rusty’s just a dog, of course, but when it comes to common sense and the ability to see past life’s little unfairnesses and worry about the really important things, he’s doing better than many of his human counterparts.