Pop Art Pet Unleashed

Happy Halloween !!

From Pop Art Pet !!

This is an amazing rescue story from Wisconsin last week. A disabled woman’s specially trained companion dog, Jesse, saved her life then tragically died trying to rescue the cat as well. The complete, heroic story is from the AP on Yahoo:

Jamie Hanson said her 13-year-old dog Jesse brought her artificial leg and a phone she used to call 911. “She got me outside and then she heard the cat upstairs and she went up there to get the cat and she wouldn’t come back to me,” Hanson, 49, said at a news conference Monday at Aurora Sheboygan Memorial Medical Center, where she was being treated for her injuries.

She received third-degree arm burns in the fire Sunday night at her home in Rhine, south of Elkhart Lake. Both pets died.

Hanson, who lost a leg in a car accident three years ago, said she was on the couch watching television when the cat ran over the back of the couch. “And he jumped onto a table that had a candle on it and tipped it over and lighted the artificial plants on fire,” she said.

Hanson said she fell off the couch and was unable to get her artificial leg from the table, “so my dog got my leg for me and went and got the phone and brought the phone to me so I could call 911.”

This story shows the amazing capacity dogs have for devotion to their families. Jesse was truly a hero.

Hurricane Katrina left thousands of pets displaced, and of those who were rescued only a very small percentage were ever reunited with their families.

This is why the Digital Guardian Angel Pet ID System, and pets-911.com was developed, to help you as a pet guardian be able to recover your pet should they become separated from you for any reason. It is really a brilliant system that utilizes but does not require the latest technology. There are three components to the Digital Guardian Angel System that attach to the pet’s collar:

The Stainless Steel Two-Sided Pet Tag, is a pretty standard identification tag which provides the owner’s contact number as well as the pets-911.com website and the pet’s individual registration number that the rescuer can enter on the website to get more information about the pet and how to contact his or her family. Finally the tag alerts the person who found the pet that there is digital data attached to the collar in the pet wallet.

The Digital USB Flash Drive stored on the collar can be plugged into any computer, whether it runs on Windows or MAC, that has a USB drive. It contains data formatted as both an HTML file and a PDF file to make it virtually universal, that includes pet owner’s multiple points of contact whether by telephone or email addresses, or alternate responsible parties, pet medical history, food, skin and drug allergies and symptoms, lifestyle and behavior findings and pet photos along with the pet owner’s photos for proof of ownership. This way you would not have to worry about your pet being adopted out or euthanized. FYI - the company performs stress-tests on the Flash Drive by tossing it into a six foot chlorinated pool for 20 minutes, driving over it by a two-ton vehicle and twisting it with a pair of pliers. Even with all that abuse, the drive continued to work faithfully. They even offer a 10-year manufacturer’s warranty to ensure long life.

Finally, the Pet Collar Wallet prevents the flash drive cap from coming off while the pet is active. It is both rugged for active use, and weather resistant made from neoprene which is the same material found in scuba diving wetsuits. Being flexible, the wallet easily slides over small to large pet collars and fits almost like a glove. It is very difficult to rip or tear making it an excellent choice for pet use, rain or shine year round.

The creators of the Digital Guardian Angel pet recovery have made this system as inexpensive as possible to maintain, so that you can afford to list and tag all of your pets - for their sake and your peace of mind.

The founder of pets-911.com, Michael Rogers, writes on their website, “Think of how many shelters and vet offices are equipped to scan a microchip or read tattoos. Now try to think how many more potential computers and laptops there are just in your local area? Those numbers are the odds that are stacked in both you and your pet’s favor. That’s a comforting thought!”

Research in the emerging field of animal perception reveals that what we see, hear and smell isn’t necessarily the same as what our pets do. For example, humans have more color receptors than dogs, so we can see better close up and in the dark than they can; while cats can see clearly in conditions six times darker than we can.

The human nose is like an old static-filled, black-and-white TV compared to a dog’s high-definition, state-of-the-art set. If you laid out all our smell receptors (about 5 million), they would fill your average postage stamp. A dog’s receptors (about 220 million) would cover an average handkerchief. Canines are even becoming medical diagnosticians. Researchers at the Pine Street Foundation, a cancer research organization in California, have trained dogs to detect cancer on a patient’s breath. They found that the dogs detected lung cancer with 97% accuracy and breast cancer with 88% accuracy. Maybe some day, you’ll get a dog scan instead of a CAT scan!

Both cats and dogs can hear things you cannot, which is one reason most dogs make such terrific home alarm systems. Cats can hear sounds several times higher than we can, which is useful when they hunt.

All this suggests that the inexplicable behaviors we may observe in our pets shouldn’t be dismissed as simply nutty. The world they live in is different from ours—but we are growing closer and learning from each other every day.

[Read the entire article on Parade.com to compare more of your pets’ perception to yours.]

Ruth Regina likes to say her business is going to the dogs, but it’s actually just going to their heads. A wig maker to the stars, Regina is now designing hairpieces for dogs - braids, curls, and extensions that can be dyed, highlighted and styled to order for pampered pets.

“I just see now that the little dogs are being carried around in Chanel carriers. They’re wearing tiaras and sunglasses and visors,” she says. “Dogs are just little people in fur coats.” Regina, an eighth-generation wig maker, got her break during the golden age of television. She was the wig master and make-up artist for The Jackie Gleason Show, which filmed in Miami Beach from 1962-70. She was also in charge of beauty for the Miss Universe pageant from 1959-72.

The “Yappy Hour,” a cascade of curls, can be custom made with synthetic or human hair and dyed any color, including pastels. With openings for ears and an elastic band to hold it in place, it’s a good choice for hairless dogs, she explains.

The “Peek a Bow Wow” can fall down over part of a dog’s face, giving a glamorous look reminiscent of 1940s movie star Veronica Lake. It’s a good style for “any dog that has feeling, you know, a sexy dog,” she explains. “There’s some dogs that have the come-hither look,” she says.

There’s also the “Rover R-r-r-rug,” straight hair that can be used as bangs, and “Buddy Braids,” good for a dog with a little hair since they are held on with clips, Regina says.

She did her first dog hair design years ago for her niece’s basset hound, to coordinate with an Easter ensemble and they cost from a mere $18 into the thousands!

And if you’re looking for a different kind of “hair piece” for yourself, or just tired of spending hours with the lint brush, now you can wear loose hairs from your pets proudly, even to work. VIP Fibers in California will spin your dog or cat’s fur into yarn that has been turned into sweaters, afghans, teddy bears, “fur-get me not flowers” and “pettable picture frames,” even bikinis! FYI, according to the conversion tables on their website, for a scarf you need approximately 10 ounces of hair. Wow!

Looking for incentive to do your holiday shopping early? [Yes, that’s right, we said holiday - better look at your calendar!] Order a Pop Art Pet portrait in any style and any size, before the end of October and you’ll get $25 to spend in a custom gift shop featuring your custom artwork!

You didn’t know about our gift shops?? Well, it’s very cool! Once we have designed your portrait, you can have the artwork printed on t-shirts, sweatshirts, coffee mugs and much more. Just browse through the selection of items in our Gift Shops or the collections we have created for other clients to see what we could personalize for you.

With $25 to spend, in addition to the one-of-a-kind portrait that the recipient will treasure forever, you can give them a a gorgeous throw pillow, or an ornament and some greeting cards!
This will allow you to not only appear exceptionally thoughtful this Christmas when you give the pet-lover on your list, the very personal, very original gift of a custom portrait from Pop Art Pet; but to also appear extremely generous when you also stuff their stocking with adorable extras featuring their pet!

So avoid the stress, order early, AND get free stuff! By the way, if it happens to be your pet in the portrait we won’t tell anybody if you keep the free stuff for yourself!

For more information and all the fine print be sure and visit our specials page!

Halloween may still be a few weeks away, but the animals at the Pittsburgh Zoo and PPG Aquarium got a special Halloween treat today!As part of its animal enrichment program, zoo staff put little treats in with some of the animals.

While the meerkats clearly enjoyed their pumpkin treats, snow leopard “Czar” seemed to love hunting and playing with his paper mache pumpkin!

Likewise, toilet paper and some pumpkins provided plenty of fun for everyone in the orangutan enclosure!

Aside from being entertaining to watch as the animals check out the new additions to their surroundings, the zoo says the program helps the creatures use their natural instinct to explore and also allows the animals to interact with their keepers.
Speaking of meerkats.. if you’re a fan of Meerkats, or of anything adorable, you must be familiar with “Meerkat Manor” on Animal Planet. It’s like “The Real World” but features a tenacious family of Meerkats with cameras all over their natural habitat, it’s very cute and very entertaining, and of course educational. Check your local listings and check it out!

The Humane Society of the United States celebrated the news that President George W. Bush - who said during Hurricane Katrina that if he had to evacuate the one thing he would take would be his dog Barney - has signed the Pets Evacuation and Transportation Standards (PETS) Act on October 6, 2006. The act helps ensure that America’s pets and service animals aren’t left behind in the next disaster.

The bill - which was introduced in the House by Rep. Tom Lantos (D-Calif.) and Rep. Chris Shays (R-Conn.), Co-Chairs of the Congressional Friends of Animals Caucus, and in the Senate by Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) and Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) - requires the inclusion of companion animals in disaster planning at the state and local levels. It was approved by unanimous voice vote in the U.S. Senate on August 4 and the U.S. House of Representatives on September 20.

“We’re tremendously grateful to the House and Senate leaders who reacted swiftly by introducing the legislation, and shepherded it through the committee process and floor votes to today’s signing by the President,” said Wayne Pacelle, president and CEO of The Humane Society of the United States. “While Katrina wreaked so much devastation and disruption, it also highlighted the remarkable bond between this nation and our pets and service animals, and the need for public policy to echo that appreciation of animals.”

The final bill that the President signed contains provisions to help with disaster planning, including:

-requiring that local and state emergency preparedness authorities include plans for pets and service animals in their disaster plans to qualify for grants from FEMA;

-granting FEMA the authority to assist states and local communities in developing disaster plans to accommodate people with pets and service animals;

-authorizing federal funds to help create pet-friendly emergency shelter facilities; and

-allowing FEMA to provide assistance for individuals with pets and service animals, and the animals themselves, following a major disaster.

“People victimized by disasters should not suffer needless additional injury by having to abandon their household pets or service animals to their fate,” said Rep. Tom Lantos. “With the cooperation of state and local authorities under the mandates of this new law, nobody will ever again have to confront the choice between personal safety and that of their animal companions.”

“During Hurricane Katrina, tens of thousands of animals became homeless or perished. Many pet owners stayed with their pets and perished,” added Rep. Chris Shays. “Today, we ensured that won’t happen again. Communities across the nation are now required to include pet owners and their pets in emergency evacuation plans. I am grateful for the advocacy of The Humane Society of the United States and the bipartisan, bicameral support of this measure.”

HSUS disaster experts note that evacuations will run more smoothly if pets are included in pre-disaster planning. “People lost their lives in the wake of Katrina because government responders told them their animals had to be left behind and they couldn’t bear to abandon their pets,” said Pacelle. “For many people who face losing everything, their pet is the only comfort they have left.”

There are over 358 million pets in the United States residing in 63 percent of American households. A recent Zogby International poll found that 61 percent of pet owners say they would refuse to evacuate if they could not take their pets with them.

“We learned many important lessons from Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and Wilma. One of these lessons was that we must put procedures in place to evacuate not only residents in areas impacted by a natural disaster, but also pets and service animals,” said Sen. Ted Stevens. “This legislation is an important step forward in our efforts to mitigate personal suffering during times of disaster.”

Source: HappyNews.com

A unique animal shelter in Encinitas, California is helping abused women by helping care for their pets. The shelter works in conjunction with women’s shelters to provide abuse victims with a safe place for their beloved animals. It’s something most of us don’t even think about, but there is a big need for this kind of program across the country. Domestic abuse shelters will not take your pets, which makes it that much harder for women in abusive relationships to leave; they are already dealing with so much trauma and loss, the thought of leaving their pet behind too is unbearable.
When someone is in an abusive relationship, every family member suffers, including the pets, who often become pawns in the relationship, used to exert power and control. The abusive party can use the animal to keep that person in the relationship, and may even abuse the pets. At the Rancho Coastal Humane Society, they’ve seen the impact this can have on pets. They’ve housed more than 400 pets in their Animal Safe House Program, while women get themselves back on their feet.

Recent statistics show close to 40 percent of battered women believe they have no options. Many are so concerned about staying with their pets, they put off finding help. This program offers victims a chance to get out of a bad relationship and save their animals, and takes in 50-60 pets a year. The animals of domestic violence victims can stay at the shelter for up to three months at no cost, as long as that victim is staying in a shelter.

While Halloween is a fun time for families and kids, it can be stressful or even dangerous for your pets, so keep your animals off the lawn and in the house for Halloween. For outdoor cats, especially black cats, keep them inside for several days before and after Halloween. If left alone, your pets could be injured, stolen, or even killed by pranksters.

Also, keep your animals away from harmful items. Chocolate is poisonous to many animals, and candy wrappers can be hazardous if swallowed. Pets should be kept away from lit pumpkins as well, for they may start a fire or harm themselves.

Costumes can also be harmful if you put them on your pets. Make sure the costume is not annoying or unsafe to them. It should not constrict its movement, hearing, or ability to breath or bark. And make sure there’s nothing on it that your pet could chew off and choke on.

When trick-or-treaters start to come by, keep your pet in a separate room. If you keep the pets around the kids, they may become scared or run out the door.

And as always, please make sure they’re wearing identification in case the pets become lost.