Archive for October, 2008
Most Oz-some Pet Trio Halloween Costumes Ever !…
Happy Halloween from Pop Art Pet!
ps: Holiday promos coming soon, stay tuned!
Halloween should be fun for everybody but can be pretty scary for your pets. The following are just a few precautions recommended by the ASPCA:
No Chocolate: Even if your pet has a sweet tooth, ingesting chocolate—especially baker’s and dark chocolate—can be dangerous for dogs and cats, possibly causing vomiting, diarrhea, hyperactivity and even seizures.
No Sweets for the Sweet: Candies containing the artificial sweetener xylitol can be poisonous to dogs. Even small amounts can cause a sudden drop in blood sugar, which leads to depression, lack of coordination and seizures.
Dangerous Décor: Keep wires and cords from electric lights and other decorations out of reach. If chewed, your pet could experience damage to his mouth from shards of glass or plastic, or receive a possibly life-threatening electrical shock.
Don’t Play with Fire: Keep your pets away from jack-o-lanterns with lit candles inside—knocking the pumpkin over can easily cause a fire. And curious kittens can get burned or singed by candle flames.
Costume Caution: Please don’t put your pet in a costume unless you know that he or she loves it. Costumes can cause skin irritations, obstruct a pet’s vision or impede his breathing.
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I don’t know if Kylie loved being the “Queen of Cool” last Halloween, but she sure looked cute!
This is an amazing report from Yahoo news about a new veterinary hospital for animals who have served in the military hospital:
A new $15 million veterinary hospital for four-legged military personnel opened Tuesday at Lackland Air Force Base, offering a long overdue facility that gives advanced medical treatment for combat-wounded dogs.
Dogs working for all branches of the military and the Transportation Safety Administration are trained at the base to find explosive devices, drugs and land mines. Some 2,500 dogs are working with military units.
Like soldiers and Marines in combat, military dogs suffer from war wounds and routine health issues that need to be treated to ensure they can continue working.
Dogs injured in Iraq or Afghanistan get emergency medical treatment on the battlefield and are flown to Germany for care. If necessary, they’ll fly on to San Antonio for more advanced treatment — much like wounded human personnel.
“We act as the Walter Reed of the veterinary world,” said Army Col. Bob Vogelsang, hospital director, referring to the Washington military medical center that treats troops returning severely wounded from Iraq and Afghanistan. The dogs can usually return to combat areas if they recover at the Military Working Dog Center, he said.
Before the center opened, veterinarians treated and rehabilitated dogs in a cramped building that opened in 1968, when the military trained dogs for work in Vietnam. The hospital was already overloaded by Sept. 11, 2001, but since then, demand for military working dogs has jumped dramatically. They’re so short on dog breeds such as German shepherds, Labrador retrievers and Belgian Malinoises that Lackland officials have begun breeding puppies at the base. Lackland is training 750 dogs, which is nearly double the number of dogs there before the Sept. 11 attacks, Vogelsang said.
To treat the trainees and injured working dogs, the new hospital has operating rooms, digital radiography, CT scanning equipment, an intensive care unit and rehab rooms with an underwater treadmill and exercise balls, among other features. A behavioral specialist has an office near the lobby.
“This investment made sense … and somehow, we were able to convince others,” said retired Col. Larry Carpenter, who first heard complaints about the poor facilities in 1994 and later helped to launch the project.
Training a military working dog takes about four months. With demand outstripping the number of dogs available, hospital and veterinary workers were trying to keep them healthy and working as long as possible, Vogelsang said. Working dogs usually enter training at 1 1/2- to 3-years-old, and most can work until they’re about 10, he said.
Then, the military tries to adopt them out and “station them at Fort Living Room,” Vogelsang said.
Recently within a couple of days we got an order for a Pop Art portrait of a horse, then a goat; and then when we got an order for Pedro the burro we thought maybe we should start a new business.. popartfarm.com! Then when we got photos of Pedro we got an even bigger surprise – Pedro isn’t an actual, real, live burro, he’s a little burro figurine!
He also happens to be a mascot of sorts for a couple of best friends, and he even has his own MySpace page!
Sherry, our client, was almost embarrassed about ordering a portrait of an inanimate object but we were intrigued, we had to know the story. So here is Pedro the burro’s story according to Sherry:
I am originally from Detroit, I moved to Leadville, CO in November 2006 to buy and run a bed and breakfast. I am from the big city, the concrete jungle as I call it and moving here was a big culture shock but definitely one of my better decisions. I love it here and I’m always writing and calling home to tell people how different (weird) things are up here at 10,000′. One day last summer I called my best friend (Jill) and told her that there was a guy walking down main street with a burro on a leash, just like a dog. I was cracking up because it was so odd, but so normal for Leadville. Jill said, what the hell is a burro? Which led to a discussion and her googling the word burro. Well I figured that since she had never seen one and didn’t know what one was, I needed to get her one. So I found Pedro in one of the shops in town. Jill came to visit at thanksgiving and before she left I hid (stuffed) him in her luggage. I didn’t hear anything for weeks and I thought surely she had unpacked her suitcase and found him. Alas, my question was answered when I got him back in my Christmas present with his own passport. Well now the game was on. Pedro has had many adventures this year, he went car shopping to find a car to drive to Mexico and protest the making of burro-itos, which he thinks is a conspiracy to make burros extinct. This spring he traveled back to Michigan and visited all his friends and hid out in a closet. Then he found his way back to Leadville this summer.
The portrait I ordered from you is a combination 30th birthday present and house warming present for Jill. She just bought her first house. I figured a picture of her favorite ass was absolutely appropriate for the occasion.
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Charlotte!
We would like to thank all of the participants, their pet parents, and friends for making it such an exciting contest for us. We hope you all enjoed it as much as we did, and we hope to see you back again next year!
Can’t get enough of that campaign coverage?? If you think it’s a close race for the president, check out the current results for our Pet Photo Contest..
Only 20 votes separate first place from sixth – it’s definitely anybody’s race! The winner will receive an 18″ custom pet portrait from Pop Art Pet, so please visit our Contest Page to exercise your rights and vote now!
But hurry, at 11:59 pm mst tomorrow, sunday the polls will be closed.
We almost forgot about October’s most important happening.. but we were reminded by Dog Hobbyist:
“October is Adopt a Shelter Dog Month and The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) suggests people who are looking for “man’s best friend” to check out the millions of dogs at local shelters across the country. However, responsible pet ownership requires more than simply agreeing to take an animal into your life; the potential adopter should be ready to make a commitment that will enhance the lives of both the human and the animal.
With nearly 10 million animals entering local shelters across the country each year the Adopt a Shelter Dog 
Month helps focus attention on the pet population problem we face in this country.
Renowned dog trainer Joel Silverman also says that shelter animals make good pets, and that proper training is the key. Silverman’s many canine pupils have starred in commercials, television shows, and feature films and often come from shelters. According to Silverman, pet owners that train their dogs have better relationships with their pets and less problems in the home.
“Most people don’t realize that training is not as difficult as they think,” says Silverman. “Training should be fun for both the pet owner and the dog and, in fact, usually strengthens the bond between them.”
In a recent study conducted by the National Council on Pet Population Study and Policy, researchers surveyed people turning animals in to 12 various shelters around the country to try to find our exactly why animals end up there. The study was published in the current issue of the Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science, and can be seen at The ASPCA’s Web site (http://www.aspca.org). The study’s researchers reviewed reasons why people gave up their dogs up for adoption, and found the following frequency of answers:
# 29 percent surrendered their dogs due to behavior problems
# 29 percent surrendered their dogs because of the family’s housing situation
# 25 percent surrendered their dogs citing incompatibility with the family’s lifestyle
# 15 percent surrendering their dogs due to the family’s preparation and/or expectations.
According to The ASPCA, people bringing a companion animal into their lives need to thoroughly review their lifestyle and their readiness to take responsibility for the animal’s care. The ASPCA advises people to consider the five questions below before they adopt a dog:
1. Am I ready to make a long-term commitment? Adopting a pet means being responsible for it’s health and happiness for the rest of his or her life, which could be up to 15 years for dogs.
2. Is the animal right for my household? A strong, active pet may be too much for a young child or elderly person to handle. Small pets may be too delicate for rough play with children. Always make sure that everyone in the household agrees to adopt an animal.
3. Who will be the primary caretaker for the animal? One adult in the home should be designated as the primary caretaker so that the pet’s needs do not become lost in the shuffle of busy schedules.
4. Can I afford the animal? The cost of a pet is more than just the purchase price or adoption fee; remember to include the cost of food, pet supplies, veterinarian bills and training.
5. Am I ready to commit to making this dog a good canine citizen? A well-trained dog is a pleasure and is welcome in public parks, on walks, and as a visitor. Research shows that people who take the time to train their dogs are more likely to keep them longer than people who don’t.
Looking for a dog to add to your family? Consider adopting a shelter dog!”
Our Second Annual Pet Photo Contest is finally back on track and now you can help choose a winner!
Just visit the Contest Page and you can read about each of our twelve adorable finalists (see below) and you can vote for your favorite once a day.
Voting will continue through October 12th and the winner will receive an 18″ custom portrait from Pop Art Pet.
Good luck to all the contestants and thanks for playing!
