Boycott Petland Pet Store!!

A puppy mill that Petland buys from in Kansas.


This article comes from the Humane Society of the United States:

The Humane Society of the United States released the results of an eight-month investigation in November showing that pet store chain Petland Incorporated is the nation's largest retail supporter of puppy mills.
Our Puppy Mills team has been working hard in the months since that exposé was released, and today reveals disturbing new revelations about Petland.
The investigation revealed at least two Petland stores in Florida, the Orlando East and Largo stores, still buying puppies from the facility linked to Kathy Bauck, who was convicted on three counts of animal torture and one count of animal abuse in March. We also found some Petland stores still buying from at least two other puppy mills that we filmed and identified as part of our initial investigation.

Our team conducted an intensive six-month search of public records in multiple states and tracked shipments of puppies from massive commercial brokers to more than 95 percent of Petland's domestic stores. We revealed once again that the store chain is misleading customers about dealing with a special selection of breeders. Instead, Petland's franchisees buy most of their dogs from puppy mills either directly or indirectly through large-scale wholesalers, like Hunte.

This deceptive behavior continues to harm both animals and consumers. More than 600 people who purchased dogs from Petland have already contacted us about the class action lawsuit Petland is currently facing. If you haven’t already, please tell us your story if you bought a puppy from Petland.

We’ll continue to keep the pressure on Petland to join other national pet store chains that refuse to sell dogs from puppy mills, until the company does the right thing for animals.

Thank you for your continued support in our campaign to stop puppy mills.

Chow for now!

A Contest I Could Never Qualify For...

Yes it's that time of the year again, time for the "World's Ugliest Dog Contest 2009"! A contest no Maltese could ever win.

Pabst, a boxer-mix with a serious under bite from Citrus Heights, CA, beat out a dozen beautifully fugly dogs to win the crown as well as $1,600 in prizes and a modeling contract. Pabst is the first non-Chinese Crested dog to win the title in 5 years.

Pabst, who was given his name because he had a “ bitter beer face”, according to his owner quickly won the crowd and the judges soon followed. Pabst won $1,600 from the Sonoma-Marin Fair for sweeping all three rounds ($100 for mutt class, $500 for runoff with the pedigree class winner, and $1,000 for World’s Ugliest Dog). This year sponsor House Of Dog upped the ante with another $1,000 in prize money, a table of “bling” that included collars, leashes, and bowls plus a year-round modeling contract that Pabst signed with his paw.

Pabst was a rescue dog adopted by Egstad three years ago. Aww, isn't that sweet!! It was the first time a “mutt” has won the contest in more than seven years. Halligan who is a vet, performed the screening for contestants to make sure all the animals were healthy. Contestants this year had to provide veterinarian releases documenting the health of their dogs. As Judge and Fair Board Member Brian Sobel says, “We were looking for dogs who were naturally ugly.” And Pabst was.

I got Pabst's blue ribbon on my mind, more and more lately I find, I got a taste for living, I'm thinking old blue ribbon, I got Pabst's blue ribbon on my mind.

Chow for now!

Our Guests

Uncle Franzi corrupting a minor


The "adults"

Well I have not been posting lately BUT I have a good excuse. We have had visitors over for the last few days and my days and nights have been full of company and entertaining my Aunty April and Uncle Franz.


Uncle Franz throwing down a brewskie.

In the morning Aunty April and Uncle Franz take me for my daily drag around town. She thinks I am being stubborn but in reality I am just doing a drill for just in case someone decides to try to kidnap me. What concerns me most is that no one else on the street seems to recognize my distress and my efforts to escape her and back into the arms of my loving mama.


Aunty April modeling her new shoes.

Anyway sometimes I was welcomed to come along with the humans, sometimes not and I was left alone. With Judge.


Aunty reaching for kiss.

I have been relegated to sleep with my mom on the couch which I just don't understand as it is my bed and I know if they just gave me the chance that they would see that I quite snuggly. Anyway tonight is the last night I have to stay on the couch which my mom and I quite perfected by now. Tomorrow night I get my bed back and mom gets to stretch her legs whilst sleeping and she is going to need her bed tonight as she starts her intermediate salsa dance lessons tomorrow.


Aunty April telling me I won't be sleeping with them again.

Oh well, it's been fun to have Aunty April and Uncle Franz stay with us. The Rivera family motto is "the more the merrier" so we hope in the future they come and visit us again as it has been a lot of fun. Hopefully next time they stay with us our place is a little bit bigger and they get their own room.


Christ I'm cute!

Come back Aunty April and Uncle Franz, come back!!


Judgey McJudge

Hope you enjoy the pics of my guests!

Chow for now!

Happy Father's Day!!

Although Father's Day can easily be swept under the rug as a Hallmark holiday, I think it's important to acknowledge the important people in our life, especially our family and most especially our parents and parent figures. So today on Father's Day I salute all the fathers of the world, especially the ones that have stepped up to the plate and have embraced what it really is to be a father or father figure.

President Obama made a statement about how important it is to be a good father as he had an absentee father throughout most of his life. However he had his grandfather as his father figure so he himself has been inspired to be a good father by both someone that was there and someone that was not there.

It's a big responsibility to be responsible and care for others and to make sure that they make it through life unharmed, happy and productive whilst keeping your own happiness intact. This is the job of both parents. However as mothers have a closer physical bond with their family as nurturer, fathers can easily walk away from this hard task at hand (and many do). To stay there for your family and make sure that their needs are met always makes me as a dog admire humans as my daddy was a breeder who after knocking up my mom was never to be in my life again. Klaus was my birth daddy and Uncle Adrian was the closest person I have to having a daddy. We are actually quite alike, I am the son he has yet to have.

My mommy has a daddy (I call him Papa) and he has been the daddy to not only my mommy and Aunty Lillian but all his sisters and brothers, step-daughters and many of his nephews and nieces. He has been a pillar for his family and because of him we have been able to go on with our lives and follow our dreams and goals because we know that if anything ever goes wrong, we have a home to go back to that he provides for us. He has been our safety net and in this hard world, especially lately, that fact does not go unnoticed by any of his family. We love him very much.

My mommy also has a step-daddy, David, who has been there for her and Mema's other children. He never lets us down and he is just a pleasure to know as a human being. He is one of the kindest and patient people I know as I love to sit with him and watch football when I visit my family in California. These men help make living in this world much easier and for that I salute them!!

So Happy Father's Day to the men who deserve it (and they know who they are!). I love you Papa and David!!

Chow for now!

Not Too Shabby!!

Here is the official portrait of the Obama's family dog, Beau. I must say he is looking quite dapper. From this picture it is quite obvious that Beau is very happy and has adapted to living in the White House. And what's not to adapt to? A big lawn, many handlers, all the food you can eat, little girls to squeal over you and walks from the most powerful man on earth (although I am sensing he is not the one holding the pooper scooper).

We here at the PPP are happy that Beau is such a strong, positive presence in the White House as we feel with the need of so many dogs needing to be adopted he is a good role model on how most households in America should experience the utter happiness of owning a dog as a pet.

Well, my mom and I are going to go out now and take advantage of the weather before it starts raining and I am cabin-bound. Yesterday she and Aunty April dragged me all around downtown shopping with them. I didn't mind. I was happy to be out and about and I would like to think I was responsible in a way of helping them chose their outfits and shoes as I like to consider myself a pretty good stylist (something I learned from living with a woman who LOVES her shoes).

Have a great weekend and enjoy the beginning of summer!

Scientific Proof!

What I and millions of dogs have known over the years have finally been proven by the scientific community, dogs ARE smarter than cats!

The thought processes of 15 cats were tested by attaching food to the end of lengths of string and observing whether they could figure out that pulling the line brought the treats closer.

The cats had no problem with tackling single pieces of string. However, when faced with two options, experts discovered that unlike their canine counterparts, cats were unable to consistently pick a baited string over a dummy.

Psychology lecturer Britta Osthaus, who conducted the study, said the findings shatter the myth that cats are smarter than dogs. "This finding is somehow surprising as cats regularly use their paws and claws to pull things towards them during play and hunting. She added that the results show that cats do not understand cause-and-effect connections between objects.

The experiments involved attaching fish and biscuit treats to one end of a piece of string, placing them under a plastic screen to make them unreachable.
They were tested in three ways, using a single baited string, two parallel strings where only one was baited, and two crossed strings where only one was baited.
With two crossed strings, one cat always made the wrong choice and others succeeded no more than might be expected by chance.

Mrs Osthaus added: "If we know their limits we won't expect too much of them, which in turn is important for their welfare.

"I am not trying to say cats are stupid, just they are different. We are so anthropomorphic we can't see the world through their eyes."

Well to be honest with you I never really met a cat up front before so I can't tell you from experience but I do know from watching cartoons with my mommy that dogs are always portrayed as the dumb oafs and cats are the smart manipulated creatures. I am glad to have this study so next time some snug cat owner tries to belittle my brilliance I will go to this post to rub it in their face the same way my face was rubbed into my urine when I had an accident as a puppy.

Well, off to sniff other dogs bums! Chow for now!

Do Not try This At Home!

Poor little Dyno stuck in waste for four hours!!

Oh the horror!!

This is every dog's worst nightmare! A four year old boy (aka DAMIEN!!) decided that the new family puppy (a one week old cocker spaniel named Dyno) needed a bath so he put him in the toilet and PULLED THE CHAIN!! Dyno was stuck in a waste pipe for nearly four hours before he was rescued by a drainage pipe company after the firefighters failed to free him.

Eventually, using specialist camera gear, the firm managed to locate the puppy who was stuck some 20 yards from the house.

The tiny cocker spaniel was trapped in a waste pipe for nearly four hours after Daniel Blair, four, decided he 'needed a wash' and put him in a toilet before pulling the chain.

Eventually, using specialist camera gear, the firm managed to locate the puppy who was stuck some 20 yards from the house.

Trapped: The puppy was nudged along the pipe to a manhole with the camera until he could be grabbed by a firefighter

He was then gently nudged towards a manhole cover before being plucked to safety.

Their mother Alison, 40, told the PPP: 'Daniel told me the puppy had gotten muddy so they put it in the toilet and pulled the chain to give it a wash.

'I ran to the bathroom but the dog was nowhere to be seen. I assumed it was dead. I went into the garden, managed to lift up the drain cover and was amazed to hear him crying.'

Onlookers broke into cheers after the rescue was completed.


Daniel said he was 'so, so sorry' after flushing Dyno down the toilet. 'I won't do it again,' he added. Umm, yeah I heard that before!! This is why you have to be especially wary of having small children and small dogs together, we are not toys. Poor Dyno! What a welcome to planet earth. It really is a miracle that he survived so hopefully his family will cherish him from now on.

CORRECTION: Uncle Saad actually ran 1:05:40, not 1:06 as previously reported.

Chow for now!!

You Snooze You Lose

Mom and I have been working on an invention lately that we felt every woman who wears heels would have loved. Flip Flops or ballet flats that roll up and can be carried in your handbag as an emergency set of shoes for when your feet are killing you.

We loved the idea, our female friends loved the idea and apparently now someone else loves the idea as a man in England invented a vending machine that dishes out flats for girls in nightclubs who are suffering from footpain or blisters!! Genuis!!

Our idea did not require a vending machine we were just thinking of packaging it like a very tiny umbrella and it would be a pair of shoes you can carry around at all times because it could fit into your bag. It was a little like the "Skins" idea (which I never thought would be successful with women the way it was packaged) but with much smaller packaging. Here is the website for the product called Rollasole:

http://www.rollasole.com

There is a word although I cannot recall it now for when people around the world are working on similar types of ideas completely unaware of each other and I am guessing we just had a case of that now.

Oh well, it's important to write your ideas down when you have them and to act on them quickly because ten seconds of a good idea can change your life forever.

Maybe next time! Chow for now!!

And The Winner Is...

Saad Hajidin!!! He ran his first 10k race yesterday and he came in at a very respectable 1, 06. His personal best btw. The picture is not of Uncle Saad, it is of the actor Ben Cross crossing the finishing line in "Chariots of Fire" as I didn't get a shot of Uncle Saad crossing the finishing line so I thought this image would do.

My mom and me went to see Uncle Saad run the race but we couldn't figure out where to find him so we camped out on the grass near 102nd Street and were lucky enough to spot Uncle Saad, Uncle Michael and a friend of theirs that also ran the race. I was very excited to see them as I haven't seen them in awhile and I knew this would be a good story for the PPP (btw, I am sorry I haven't been doing daily posts, all I have to say is it's my mommy's fault for not being home this week!!!). I had multiple stories I wanted to post but to no avail. Hopefully this week I will be able to post daily.

I hope you all had a great weekend! My mommy had a great weekend and she feels like a lucky gal to have so many great friends in her life.

Chow for now!

Sunday Sermon - The Best of Intentions

Hi All! I hope you had a great weekend. In New York the weather was magnificent and whilst I was playing and chasing squirrels in Central Park I thought how long it had been since I had done a Sunday Sermon. It was then as I rolled around in some funky scent that the topic of my sermon came to me, Intentions.

I am an animal that lives on pure instinct so whatever I am doing is pretty much my pure intention whether it be eating, sleeping, chasing squirrels or cuddling. I don't stop to contemplate, "Should I be nice to Judge today so he can feel like he can come into the living room without any drama from me?" When Judge comes into the living room there is a pretty good chance I am going to try and attack him especially if he comes close to my mother. I can't help it, I don't care if he is behaving. I am an animal.

However humans are a little bit different from us animals even though you are technically considered animals too. Over a few millions years I hear that your brain evolved and even though you still have instincts, you now have more complex feelings and emotions that make you not trust your instincts anymore. You stop and think about things before you do them (at least in theory). Then you act out your intentions.

The definition of the word intention is "a determination to act in a certain way". This means you take the free will that the universe gives you, you make a decision on how you are going to act and then you follow through (that's too many steps for a dog to think through).

My mommy tells me that intention is very important to consider in your relationships. For instance someone could hurt you but their intention was not to hurt you so that should be considered if you plan to forgive them or not.

Some people do things to hurt you and they definitely mean to hurt you. That is what we should look out for in our lives. Forget about words, just look at people's actions and the meaning behind their actions. How do you feel when you are with them? That is the way to figure out what some one's intention is to you. Do you feel special? Loved? Joy? Laughter? Fear? Pain? Hurt? Lonely? Superior? Inferior?

This guy my mommy used to like hurt her feelings a few months ago and then got in contact with her a few days ago like nothing ever happened. Although my mommy and I use to like him a lot, we now know that he is capable of hurting us. However at the same time we are pretty convinced it wasn't his intention to hurt us so instead of telling him to go to H-E-double hockey sticks, we let him know he hurt us (if you hurt my mommy, you hurt me, grrr) but we aren't sure about how he fits into our life anymore. Hopefully he will thinks about blending his actions and intentions more successfully in the future and will learn to avoid hurting others and act more with his good intentions which I am sure he has plenty of.

My mommy has been thinking about bringing someone from her past back in her life. She was always suspicious of this person's intentions towards her but she has a lot of people from her past coming back in her life and it brings this person along too. My advice to her is to think a little like me and act on her instinct (or as my mema likes to call it, "intuition"). If this person has to be back in her life again, listen to her intuition about how this person's intention makes her feel and act from there to protect herself. Are they the best intentions?

Well, there I go again getting all deep and it had been such a lovely weekend! Sometimes it's just easier being a dog.

Chow for now!

Hansard Possum

No this is not a post about making possum stew. This is a post about a very "special" type of possum who has gained some notoriety in Hansard, Australia. So much so that he is now referred to as the "Hansard Possum".

He's been wreaking havoc at Parliament House in Australia. HP has been breaking in, stealing food belonging to staff members and pooing on the floor (umm, sounds like Judge). He usually takes a siesta in the Hansard Department which is how he got his name.

They have caught and evicted him several times, but the crafty possy keeps coming back! So they decided to build a little house for him in the back on a fig tree. They give him bananas every day. For some reason, there's a law that states he can't be moved to the bush. It's estimated that it has cost taxpayers around $2585 to keep HP in check. The building manager said, "We are not going to evict him and leave him, we are trying to look after him. He has a possum house, we keep it topped up with fruit. He loves bananas."

Well I am not surprised that a country that was colonized by prisoners would be so forgiving to this animal that has committed multiple misdemeanors and actually reward it with a home and food. That would never happen here (I guess except for me??).

I don't know, once the weather starts getting cold I have a feeling that the HP will start finding his way inside the building again and start "gifting" everyone. He has tasted human comfort and that he will not forget or give up. I should know, I have my mother sleeping on 1/4 of her bed as I have claimed most of her home and Judge has pooped on the remainder of it.

Well hopefully the weather is better this weekend as I had cabin fever today and it would be nice to be outside in the sunshine again.

Here's wishing you a great weekend! Chow for now!

Only In Jamaica!

Although I like to keep the PPP mostly about animal stories, sometimes I hear a human story that is quite hilarious so I have to post it.

This time the story is about a little thing called, "Daggering". It's a dance that Jamaicans do and the dance has cause a threefold jump in the incidences of men breaking their penis's. Yep! Only in Jamaica folks. My mom hates Jamaica because she had a bad vacation in Jamaica. She got mugged, the people had a chip on their shoulders, they couldn't get service in the restaurants, the vendors would hike the prices of the souvenirs she would try to buy. So when she heard of this story, she thought it couldn't have happened to a more deserving group of men.

The dance has been called “dry sex” on the dance floor, which usually includes the couple simulating various sexual positions, and often times, rough sex, to the beat of the music. Because of the obviously suggestive nature of the dance, it is not surprising that it has become popular activity in the bedroom, too. A Kingston doctor has said, “During very rigorous intercourse, the man can hit the woman’s pubic bone and sustain a fracture. There is a loud popping sound, excruciating pain and swelling.”

The problem of broken penises has become so widespread that the Jamaican government is considering a ban on daggering, including music with daggering lyrics. Below is a link of the dance on YouTube (the PG rated version), just cut and paste into your browser:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JtRDezPmc_o&feature=player_embedded

Only in Jamaica, only in Jamaica. So the next time you are on the dance floor and someone moves suggestively against you offending you, just think it could be much worse, they could try to dagger you.

Chow for now!

An Ounce of Prevention...

No this isn't a post about birth control for horn dog City Folk, this is about a potential killer that hits dogs and pets in the summer, heat stroke!!

Lately with the temperatures rising I am counting more and more on my mommy carrying my water bottle in her bag (forget the clutches) as I tend to get overly excited in the first place so I need lots of water in the summer.

People are used to hearing about dogs dying in cars on hot summer days when owners don't crack a window but do you know you can have the window open and we can still easily die? There are potential problems whenever a dog is left in an enclosed space with no shade or no water on a sunny day.

Here are some tips from The Telegraph's Peter Wedderburn:

Dogs do have sweat glands in the pads of their feet but the most important heat-losing process is panting. The breathing becomes rapid and short (up to 400 breaths per minute), the mouth is opened and the tongue becomes enlarged as its blood supply is increased. The movement of air causes evaporation of water from the surface of the tongue, which carries with it excess heat from the body.

Panting is an extremely effective process of heat loss, but it uses large amounts of water, which is why it's essential that dogs have access to plenty of fresh water in hot weather.

The most obvious signs are panting and an increased pulse rate. Affected dogs stand still, looking anxious, panting rapidly, and unable to do anything else. They feel hot to the touch and the body temperature may be over 104'F, and up to 109'F. If a dog is not treated, the body temperature will continue to rise until the dog collapses. Vomiting and diarrhoea may occur, the dog enters a coma, and will often die.

This is a situation where first aid can be life saving. Obviously, the first thing is to remove the dog from the overheated situation - get into the shade and out of the sun. The dog should then be immediately immersed in a bath of cold water. If this is not possible, soak the dog with cold water either from a hose or using a bucket. The skin should be massaged vigorously, and the legs flexed and extended, to maximise the blood flow to skin and limbs.

The owners should rush the dog to the vet as soon as possible after a 10 minute cold bath. The vet will be able to give other treatment to bring the temperature back to normal.

Ten rules for dogs in hot weather.

1. Never leave a dog alone in a car
2. Be aware of keeping your dog cool when on car journeys together e.g. leave a window open for fresh air and stop regularly to check your animal properly
3. Always ensure a plentiful supply of drinking water.
4. Never leave a dog in a sunny place with no shade.
5. Give long haired dogs a short clip.
6. Exercise the dog out of the heat i.e. morning or evening.
7. Take your dog for a cool swim rather than a walk.
8. Give your dog 10% less food than normal.
9. Give the meals at cooler times of the day e.g. morning and evening.
10. Carry water with you when out on hot days, and give your dog frequent small amounts.

So next time you see a dog on a hot day overly panting, whether it is your dog, your friend's dog, a stranger's dog or little old me please check for symptoms of heat stroke and offer us a glass of H2O.

Chow for now!!