Pop Art Pet Unleashed

..Unless of course, the horse has been captured in a beautiful custom portrait! Then the horse becomes a one of a kind, work of art created from your photos. Did you know we also do portraits of horses? We have only had the pleasure of working with a few equines but they do make excellent subjects.

Dreamer got the whimsical, Warhol Style treatment.

Orion looks awesome,  also in Pop Art, but in this single-panel layout.

While Justin looks just amazing in one of our Traditional Style portraits.

All these custom pet portraits were created by our artists using some fantastic photos of these picturesque animals.

We love working with horses and hope to do more in the future. In the meantime, of course, we enjoy our work with dogs & cats - our bread & butter so to speak!

At a Zen Buddhist temple in southern Japan, even the dog prays. Mimicking his master, priest Joei Yoshikuni, a 1 1/2-year-old black-and-white Chihuahua named Conan joins in the daily prayers at Naha’s Shuri Kannondo temple, sitting up on his hind legs and putting his front paws together before the altar.

It took him only a few days to learn the motions, and now he is the talk of the town.

“Word has spread, and we are getting a lot more tourists,” Yoshikuni said Monday.

Yoshikuni said Conan generally goes through his prayer routine at the temple in the capital of Japan’s southern Okinawa prefecture (state) without prompting before his morning and evening meals.

“I think he saw me doing it all the time and got the idea to do it, too,” Yoshikuni said.

The priest is now trying to teach him how to meditate.

Well, sort of.

“Basically, I am just trying to get him to sit still while I meditate,” he explained. “It’s not like we can make him cross his legs.”

Source: Yahoo News

They’re arriving by the thousands every month, homeless, hapless victims of foreclosure. Family pets, their lives upended by the ravaged finances of their owners, are landing in animal shelters in large numbers in some parts of the country.

The precise numbers are unknown, because there is no nationwide standard for recording foreclosure pets and because many owners who surrender animals at shelters tell personnel only that they are “moving” and give no specifics.

But shelters that are experiencing an increase in pet intakes are almost without exception in areas where the foreclosure rate is high. Now there’s growing concern that another, perhaps bigger wave of pet surrenders is in the offing, the result of the worsening economy and growing joblessness that will affect additional homeowners as well as renters.

“The fate of people’s pets tracks with their own financial fate,” says the ASPCA’s Steve Zawistowski. He adds that although some shelters have been largely unaffected, “there are pockets” where so many homeowners are losing their homes that the number of pets relinquished to shelters, turned loose or abandoned is increasing dramatically. The pockets probably will spread with a deteriorating economy, he says.

Source: USA Today 

We have a client currently who ordered a traditional style cat portrait of the lovely Jezebel, as a gift for her friend and neighbor. She went on to explain that Jezebel used to be her cat until Jezebel, all on her own, chose to go and live next door.

Now, we’ve heard a lot of interesting pet stories around here, but this one was intriguing so I asked for the details. Here they are in Jezebel’s first mom’s own words:

“I adopted Jezebel and her sister, Sissy, from a cat rescue about 18 or 19 years ago. They were the dearest little calico litter mates you’ve ever seen. They played, ate, slept together. They looked like bookends.

I’ve always had cats and love them more than anything. Shortly after getting Sissy and Jezebel, a friend moved in who had two older cats, litter mates, male Spud, and female Jordan. They all got along fine.

The next year, I adopted a black and white female and named her Scooter. That did it for Jezebel :-) Scooter was a little kitten with lots of energy–Jezebel was three years old and thought the house that belonged to her and Sissy, was now being made crazy by Scooter.

Gradually, Jezebel would start going to Nell and Joanne’s house next door. The frequency of those visits soon increased–she wanted to go over there every day. She’d wait on their porch. On the weekend, she’d cry to be let out at the beginning of the day and immediately run to their front door. They’d take her in faithfully, they loved her from the start.

They let her in, played with her, and then brought her home at the end of the day. This process repeated itself for several months. They felt guilty that Jezebel loved them more than she loved me. These women are two of my best friends, and I knew we had to trust Jezebel’s instinct, so we discussed a more permanent living arrangement. Jezebel moved in and never looked back–she visited me, but her heart was next door :-)

Jezebel is old now, close to 19. She spends most of her days in her heated bed next to the window. She could not be more loved, her Pop Art Pet picture will be treasured.”

Our artist, possibly inspired by Jezebel’s story, came up with some eye-catching new backgrounds for this custom calico creation.

It helped that we were given carte blanche and just asked to design something as dynamic as Jezebel herself… we were privileged to do so!

Dog Bark Park is home to Toby and Sweet Willy, the World’s Two Biggest Beagles. Toby, a 12-foot tall beagle statue, was built by Dog Bark Park artists Dennis Sullivan and Frances Conklin.

Sweet Willy, officially known as Dog Bark Park Inn, is one of America’s latest additions to the type of roadside architecture popular in the early days of automobile vacation travel when travelers would often buy gas, eat meals or stay overnight in a building that looked like something else. Remember coffee pot or teacup gas stations, milk bottle shaped restaurants or the shoe and duck houses? (neither do we) For today’s travelers Dog Bark Park Inn offers a glimpse into those bygone days with all the comforts of our modern days.

Treat yourself to a weekend getaway of discovery, relaxation & enrichment. Stay one or more nights at our famous big dog and take a one-day personal enrichment class such as candle making, soap making, or dutch oven cooking. And of course you can visit the Chainsaw Art gift shop and pick up a carving of your favorite breed - very cute!

Dog Bark Park is located in north central Idaho on US Hwy 95 at Cottonwood, Idaho. Visit their website for reservations today!

The Hartz Mountain Corp. of Secaucus, N.J., is voluntarily recalling a second specific lot of Hartz Vitamin Care for Cats due to concerns that bottles within the lot may have been potentially contaminated with Salmonella.

The product involved is 739 bottles of Hartz Vitamin Care for Cats, lot code SZ 22771, UPC number 32700-97701.

Recent sampling conducted by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration detected the presence of salmonella, although it had not been detected under normal testing by Hartz and manufacturer UFAC (USA) Inc.

Hartz recalled a specific lot code of the vitamins late last year due to similar concerns. Both lot codes were manufactured by UFAC in 2007 and were removed from distribution last November. However, bottles from the second lot had been shipped to customers prior to it being removed from distribution.

At press time, the company had not received any reports of animals or humans becoming ill.

Hartz is offering reimbursement for purchased products. For details, contact Hartz at 800-275-1414.

Source: Pet Product News

A firefighter in West Monroe, LA performed CPR on a dog, saving its life after responding to a mobile home fire. When firefighters arrived at the scene, a resident of the house approached firefighter Stephen “Odie” Odom and told him two dogs were trapped inside the burning house.

Odom put on his air pack and headed for the room where the two small dogs were kept.

After searching through a smoke-filled bedroom, Odom located the two terrier dogs in carriers underneath some blankets and removed them from the burning home.

When Odom removed one of the dogs from the carrier, he noticed it was not breathing and his tongue was hanging out. The firefighter removed his face mask and placed the dog’s head inside so the oxygen could blow in its face.

When this didn’t work, Odom began performing CPR on the dog by “cupping my hands around the dog’s snout and blowing until I could feel his chest expand,” he said.

“I then did chest compressions similar to that of infant CPR. After approximately one minute of doggie CPR, I noticed the dog trying to breathe on its own.”

Five minutes later the dog began looking around and was given to the owner of the house, Linda Lewis. An oxygen tank was left with the pup.

Fire Prevention Officer Curt Meachum said he is glad the dog’s life was spared. We do not know the dog’s name, but we could just call it ‘Lucky,’” Meachum said.

Source: Yahoo News

Zoombak, a new device introduced at last month’s Global Pet Expo, uses high tech to keep free-wheeling dogs in check. You strap the lightweight locator device on your dog’s collar, set up the quadrants of your neighborhood’s safe zone on the Web, and then create a notification tree of yourself, other family members or neighbors. The device incorporates Advanced GPS , which uses satellite and cellular technologies, to locate your dog when he leaves the safe zone. Then you get an email alert or a text message on your phone, such as “Lucky has left the zone. Here is where he is now.”

The rechargeable Zoombak locator (which weighs 2.5 ounces and comes in a water-resistant pouch) is made for pets about 15 pounds and over. A smaller version is in the works, which will work for small dogs and possibly some cats, according to Michael Glickman, spokesman for Zoombak.

The device retails for about $199 and has a monthly service fee of about $10 a month. It will be available at Petco and PetSmart in March. Or go to www.zoombak.com.