Pop Art Pet Unleashed

We’re well into disaster season again, fires, and tornadoes have already impacted thousands of families across the nation; and hurricanes are surely soon to follow. Yet a recent article reports that only 40% of families with pets have an evacuation plan that includes their pets. It goes on to report:

The remaining 60% evacuate without their pets and then risk their own lives by returning home prematurely to rescue their animals.

Foresight and planning can protect both pet owners and their four-legged companions.

Julie A. Calligaro, author of “Protect Your Pet With Preparation, How to Keep Your Pet Safe in an Emergency and at Your Disability or Death” offers these steps from her book to protect pets in a fire emergency:

* Include pets in the family’s evacuation plan.
* Rehearse your evacuation plan repeatedly with your family including your dog.
* Have a Pet Safety Kit ready and keep an extra kit in your car.
* Listen to your dog. Canines have the ability to smell smoke long before humans. If your dog is acting strangely, investigate the situation immediately and be prepared to gather your family and pets and follow your evacuation plan.
* Be sure your fire evacuation plan accounts for dogs in pens and crates. Fire experts say the number one reason dogs perish in a fire is because they are confined to their pens and cannot escape.
* Use Pet Rescue Stickers on windows to inform firefighters that you have a pet inside.
* Research pet friendly lodging to have a place to board your pet if necessary.
* Give a key to a trusted neighbor and make sure they know where your pet or pets are likely to be in the house so they can inform firefighters.
* If your pet was in a smoke filled building or if you can smell smoke on his fur take him to a veterinarian. Toxic fumes can be deadly.

For more information about how to protect pets in a weather emergency and at disability or death, visit www.safeguardmydog.com.

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We encourage you to please remember to think of your pets and be prepared!

A California company has now successfully cloned puppies (finally). But according to this article from ABC News, you might have to live in the dog house with your cloned puppy to be able to afford it!:

Be sure and click here to watch the video too.

When Mira, husky and border collie mix, was born six months ago, she didn’t just look like her biological mother. She was an exact copy — even down to her personality, according to owner Lou Hawthorne.
A California company has successfully cloned puppies.

That’s because Mira was cloned from her mother, Missy.

“This is just an alternative way of initiating life. And after that, it’s life as we have known it and do know it,” said Hawthorne, CEO of BioArts International, the company that cloned the dog, on “Good Morning America” in a broadcast exclusive.

It is only the second time a dog has been cloned and the first time a U.S. company has done it. BioArts International, which plans to publish its research in scientific journals, sits on the cutting edge of science, in part because it’s opening the door to commercial cloning.

The feat represents a chance for dog owners to keep their best friends around indefinitely in an unconventional way — an interesting proposition for those who view their pets as an integral family member and never want to part with them.

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For those of you who can’t afford to spend $100K to clone your dog or cat, consider having us immortalize them in a custom portrait in our popular Pop Art style, cool Comic style, or our tasteful Traditional style!

A great reason actually.. Did you know that spaying or neutering your pet may actually help your pet live a longer, healthier life? According to this article from the NY Times, there are multiple direct and indirect benefits of spaying and neutering:

Giving Pets Long Lives

Q. Do dogs and cats that have been spayed or neutered live longer?

A. “No definitive studies have shown evidence of the extension of life” just from sterilization, said Brenda Griffin, director of clinical programs in shelter medicine at the School of Veterinary Medicine at Cornell. “But the diseases it prevents are very common.”

Also, she said, “Two studies have found that the No. 1 risk factor for a pet being taken to shelter is that it has not been spayed or neutered.”

The many known health benefits for male and female dogs and cats vary by gender, Dr. Griffin said.

“If it is done before she comes into heat, spaying virtually eliminates the risk of breast cancer, the most common type of cancer” in female dogs, she said. In female cats, too, breast tumors are common, and 90 percent of them are malignant. But a cat spayed before age 2 is one-seventh as likely to develop them.

Spaying also prevents ovarian or uterine cancer, uterine infections and other diseases. And it cancels the risks associated with giving birth.

In dogs and cats, males that have not been neutered are at risk for testicular cancer, prostate disease and hernias, among other problems. Neutering also often reduces fighting, roaming and scent marking, behaviors that may land a pet in a shelter, where euthanasia is a risk.

The most recent age recommendation for spaying cats is down to 5 months from 6. That is because female cats are sexually mature and may even have had litters by 6 months. An unplanned pregnancy puts both mother and kittens at risk of being sent to a shelter.

We do lots of portraits with two pets, but occasionally we are asked to do a portrait of a pet with their loyal person. It creates some special challenges for our artists, since skin comes out a lot different than fur with our techniques, but the results are always well-received.

Like this Traditional style portrait of black cat, Bagheera, and his lovely mother, created from her favorite photo of the two of them.

Or this whimsical, Pop style design of Roxy the kitty, and her faithful friend.

And this adorable Comic style creation shows Lily, the Rhodesian Ridgeback, with nothing on her mind but the apple of her eye.

Obviously all our clients love their pets with a passion, so its surprising that we don’t do more portraits of pets and people together. But hopefully this will generate some great gift ideas for those of you who have a loved one who loves their dog, or their cat, or their horse, or their hamster!

Just contact us with your ideas and requests.

No matter how unpleasant you think moving is, it’s always worse than you remembered.. And when you have a small business to move along with a small family, it’s no picnic!

But at least now we do have a little more room to work. And we’re finally starting to get our heads above the boxes and trying to get back to business as usual, and we wanted to say thank you to our current clients for their patience during this time.