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Animal shelters across the country have reported a sharp surge in abandoned animals, many cut loose by owners who can no longer afford to care for them. Now, Rep. Thaddeus McCotter (R., Mich.) has introduced a bill that would use the federal tax code to help. The Humanity and Pets Partnered Through the Years (HAPPY) Act would allow pet owners to deduct the cost of food, veterinary care, and other pet-related expenses from their income taxes—up to $3500 per year. McCotter says the bill would provide tax relief for pet owners while at the same time strengthening “the human-animal bond.”Leo...

Pictures of the Year 2009: Cute Animals Two five-week-old leopard cubs named Chant and Sloka sit with a one-year-old orangutan named Rishi, at T.I.G.E.R.S. (The Institue For Endangered Species) in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina

In the words of Peaches and Herb, "Reunited and it feels so good!" On December 12, Gayl O'Donnell of Lake Wylie, South Carolina got the shock of her life when her veterinarian's office called and said they had her cat Sonny, reports the Citizen-Times. O'Donnell hadn't seen Sonny since he went missing in the late 1990s while in the care of O'Donnell's boyfriend -- a dozen years ago. “I was quiet for a minute,” O'Donnell tells the Citizen-Times. “They gave me the [microchip] number. I was in disbelief.” Indeed, it was the microchip that Sonny had been implanted with all...

He belongs to Tracie Steger of Spring Hill and disappeared on Nov. 15. Steger searched for hours in the dark. She put up LOST KITTY signs. Neighborhood kids handed out fliers. People walked the neighborhood, calling out the cat's name. A little girl across the street told Steger she saw a car hit a cat and drive off. It had a gray coat. Steger winced. Another day Steger saw whiskers between the teeth of a hungry vulture. She scared it off and saved a kitten that wasn't Giggle-Blizzard. On Thanksgiving night, they heard something yelping on the porch. There was...

Kitty version of the famous "Carol Of The Bells". :)=^..^=

This cute little kitty gets into the Christmas spirit.

Taking the dog for a walk to the store would seem like a more environmentally-friendly option than piling into the SUV. Not so, say two New Zealand scientists whose new book claims pets have a carbon footprint that is about twice the size of the gas guzzling vehicles that have long been a bane of environmentalism. In "Time to Eat the Dog, the Real Guide to Sustainable Living," Robert and Brenda Vale charge that a medium-size dog has a footprint of 2.1 acres compared with slightly more than one acre for a standard sport utility vehicle. The New Scientist Web...

Maybe it was nine lives, but one feline is lucky to be alive after he was found with his paws glued to a Minnesota interstate, KSFY.com reported. A couple saw the cat on the side of the road and thought it had been injured by a car, the KSFY.com reported. But the cat was stuck, though its paw pads were ripped off by the glue when the couple removed him from the road, the site reported.....

1. Video: Feather Dancing Kittehs2. Video: Christmas Tree Kitteh

A British family said their missing cat was discovered on a ferry that traveled to Spain and was treated to a luxury ride home in a $434 cabin. Tim and Patricia Austin , both 67, of Portsmouth, England, said their cat, Sandi, disappeared after they let him outside Thursday night and he did not return as usual in the morning, The Sun reported Wednesday. The couple said they received a phone call four days later informing them Sandi had been found hiding beneath a truck on the P&O Pride of Bilbao ferry as it was being unloaded in Bilbao, Spain....

1. Video: Kitteh Drinking Milk2. Video: Kitten Makes An Entrance

The New Scientist is resorting to science to try to find the truth about cats and dogs. Using a wealth of recent research to measure pets in 11 categories, the magazine has come to the reluctant conclusion that dogs are better pets than cats, by a whisker. The four-legged tug of war was tied going into the last category: utility. A British Journal of Health Psychology study that heralded dog walking as good exercise and a good excuse for social contact put dogs over the top. Here's a breakdown of the categories and the rationale: 1. Brains. Cats are smarter,...

TUALATIN, Ore. -- For once, curiosity didn't kill the cat. A 3-month-old kitten rode beneath a SUV for more than 120 miles Wednesday. Marc Lichty left Olympia, Wash., in his SUV after finishing up a day of work. Along the way to Tualatin, he stopped at a rest stop and heard meowing. Lichty, however, couldn't find any trace of a cat. When he returned home to Tualatin, he stepped out of the car and heard the meowing again, leading him to grab a flashlight. "Sure enough, the cat was up underneath in the spare tire spot up there," Lichty said....

Comic relief for our troubled times.

There seem to be two kinds of people in the world: those who don't understand cats, and those who think cats are kind of douchebags. Unfortunately for cat lovers, science has kind of come down on the side of that second group. Research has revealed that a lot of the quirky and even cute things your kitty does are actually signs that your cat is kind of a d***.

Graphics only; need to visit the link.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1EbqDp9T6M Video of my cat(s) :)

What do cats do when their owners are away? There was one way to find out — "cat cams." Fifty house cats were given collar cameras that took a photo every 15 minutes. The results put a digital dent in some human theories about catnapping. Based on the photos, about 22 percent of the cats' time was spent looking out of windows, 12 percent was used to interact with other family pets and 8 percent was spent climbing on chairs or kitty condos. Just 6 percent of their hours were spent sleeping.

Video at link.

A feisty Chihuahua chased a cougar out of a Philomath yard earlier this week. As Pete Springer reports, it’s the third cougar sighting in the area in the past year. Chiquita the Chihuahua and Rosie the border terrier charged the cougar after it jumped a backyard fence. The mountain lion pinned Rosie down but Chiquita kept barking incessantly at the big cat until it jumped out of the yard and ran off. The house is next to a wooded area where Philomath police have posted cougar warning signs. Roger Furhman is with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. He...

HEMET, Calif. (CBS) ― Size really doesn't matter, as a trio of Chihuahuas proved by cornering a full-grown, adult mountain lion in their owner's garage. Ana Lee Spray of Sage, near Hemet, heard her three Chihuahuas barking in her garage and went to check out commotion. Spray was surprised to see the massive, angry cat hissing at her and her dogs and immediately took her pets inside. Spray called 911 and officers from the Department of Fish and Game tranquilized the mountain lion. The big cat had to be tranquilized again after running from the garage.

About 14 percent of the U.S. population is infected with Toxocara, or internal roundworms, contracted from dogs and cats. That's according to the results of a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) study announced at the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene in Philadelphia. The CDC study shows the transmission of Toxocara from dogs and cats to people is most common in young children and youth under age 20, and more common in non-Hispanic Blacks than in Mexican Americans and non-Hispanic Whites of all age groups. It is highest in lower socioeconomic and less-educated populations. All children, however,...

The workers at the Teller County Regional Animal Shelter in Colorado stopped at nothing to revive a frozen kitty who came to them on the last legs of its nine lives. On a recent snowy Friday morning in Woodland Park, Colo., animal control received a call about a cat that may or may not have been alive under a deck. When they arrived they found the cat nearly frozen to death. According to shelter worker Sharon L. Peters, who told her story to USA Today, the black and white cat's eyes were closed and it wasn't moving. But when it...

An Associated Press-Petside.com poll shows 52 percent of pet owners plan to buy their animals a holiday gift — up from 43 percent last year.

CARROLLTON - If cats have nine lives, one local feline's life span was reduced by at least a third on Monday. Curiosity almost killed the critter when it wandered into the electrical substation serving the city of Carrollton and tripped a fuse that caused power to crash for some 1,500 customers. The event was "cat"-astrophic enough - but it wasn't fatal. "The cat lived through it," Ameren spokeswoman Victoria Busch said. When workers responded to their first call at 1:45 a.m. Monday, they discovered the animal still on the ground, where it had been blown several feet after coming into...

Video at source - no text.

Title and link only: http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/christchurch/3080895/Shylas-a-purr-fect-little-mum

Pharoah the cat has survived after stowing away in a container on a merchant ship that arrived at the British port of Felixstowe after a 3,000 mile journey from Egypt.

video 1:59

Buddy Lou, a 10-year old tabby cat, has become the first feline death from H1N1 in the United States. It appears the cat acquired the H1N1 virus from the owner’s niece who had been sick with an influenza-like illness the previous week. H1N1 in cats: Buddy Lou’s illness The cat was brought to the Animal Clinic in Lebanon, Oregon, on November 4, with labored breathing and was initially diagnosed with pneumonia. His breathing worsened by the next day and the cat was admitted to the veterinary clinic for treatment with antibiotics and oxygen. Buddy Lou did not respond to treatment...

Stroking a pet can help patients cut their amount of painkillers in half, according to a new study. The research found that patients who had undergone hip or knee replacement operations needed less painkillers if they used pet therapy. It is well known that animal owners are generally healthier than non-pet owners because they can help reduce stress and encourage exercise. In Britain a charity called Pets and Therapy has been taking animals into care homes, hospices, hospitals and children's wards to help patients recover and reduce stress levels since 1983. A conference in America has heard that patients recovering...

What a cat-astrophe! A ferocious feline turned her owners into a pair of scaredy cats in their Midtown apartment yesterday, holding them hostage at claw-point until the cops came to their rescue. Rosa Davila and her son, Victor Marte, 27, cowered behind a bedroom door at their pad on West 42nd Street about a half an hour while the raging Russian blue held them at bay.

Hilarious dashcam video from Taylor, TX. :^)

Ever seen a fight cat ? This cat is training for a big fight !

IT WAS stray cats and dogs she loved, so in the end Daina Silins gave them her $3 million estate. The former dentist from Newport, in Sydney's north, was found slumped in her armchair three days after her death last November. The first sign she had died was when a neighbour's dog, which she used to feed, was found scratching at her door, The Daily Telegraph reports. The tall Latvian-born woman with long dark brown hair never married and never owned any animals, but animals were always on her mind. Her cluttered Barrenjoey Rd home had dozens of books on...

Video at link.

Galeforce gusts blew this Maltese-shitz right off Brighton Pier in Victoria, Australia. Sue Drummond could only look on helplessly as her dog, ironically named Bi Bi, was swept into the angry waves. Luckily, Raden Soemawinata was nearby and took action. Raden stripped down and dove into the bay to save helpless dog. Raden was a humble hero about the situation saying, “It was pretty cold and windy, but it wasn’t such a hard decision to jump in, it wasn’t such a great feat.” He also added, “I’m a part-time model, so getting into my jocks isn’t so different to what...

A deer was fatally injured Sunday after jumping into a lion enclosure at the National Zoo, as visitors looked on.

By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor WASHINGTON (Reuters) - People who think they may have H1N1 flu need to stay away from work, avoid sneezing on their spouses and children and now, they have someone else to worry about infecting too -- their pets...

DURHAM, N.C. -- Despite their fearsome fangs, male sabertoothed cats may have been less aggressive than many of their feline cousins, says a new study of male-female size differences in extinct big cats. Commonly called the sabertoothed tiger, Smilodon fatalis was a large predatory cat that roamed North and South America about 1.6 million to 10,000 years ago, when there was also a prehistoric cat called the American lion. A study appearing in the November 5 issue of the Journal of Zoology examined size differences between sexes of these fearsome felines using subtle clues from bones and teeth. The researchers...

Vets in the US state of Iowa said Wednesday that a household cat had tested positive for swine flu -- the first known case in the world of the new pandemic strain spreading to the feline population. The domestic shorthair, a 13-year-old castrated male, apparently caught A(H1N1) off its owners -- two of the three members of the family had previously contracted the deadly virus. "This is the first cat that we are aware of with the pandemic H1N1," said Brett Sponseller, an assistant professor of veterinarian microbiology who helped treat the pet at Iowa State University's College of Veterinary...

DUDLEY, Mass., Nov. 4 (UPI) -- A Massachusetts town outlawed owning three cats without a kennel license after a man complained his neighbor's felines were hurting his lawn. Voters at a Dudley town meeting Tuesday night approved the addition of the new language to a town bylaw, which will impose a $100 per day fine for violations, after a local man complained that some of the 15 cats owned by Mary Ellen Richards had destroyed his grass, the Worcester (Mass.) Telegram & Gazette reported Wednesday. Richards said at the town meeting that she now plans to put her house up...

On Tuesday, the Board of Supervisors voted 9-2 to enact a ban on the declawing of cats. Supervisors Sean Elsbernd and Michela Alioto-Pier voted against the legislation. “It is well-documented and well-understood from a medical prospective that [declawing] is torture. It is a form of animal cruelty,” said Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi, who introduced the legislation.

A bank robber put the cat amongst the prison yard pigeons by demanding visitation rights for a pet moggie - who he claimed was the reincarnation of his dead mother! With her green eyes and soft fur, Gisela the cat is much more than a pet to jailbird Peter K. - and she has caused a prison farce in Werl, Germany. The 46-year-old bank robber was sentenced to five years imprisonment in 2007. Behind bars, it's his cat Gisela that the devout Buddhist misses most. And the reason is that he believes the feline is the reincarnation of his dead...

This is just too funny. Putting the joke-subtitles asside, what kind of cat behavior is this??? ...and I thought Hitler Obama-Hitler-You-Tube paradies were funny :) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnY6k1ybTHg&feature=player_embedded

Our 7-month-old kitten was hit by a car today behind our house. She was killed instantly. She was my 12-year-old son's precious baby. He is inconsolable. We are so utterly sad tonight. I thought I would share photos of this most beautiful, intelligent, adorable little one whom we shall miss so much every single day.

I had to put-down Schmeckel Kitty today. He was a remarkably sweet friend to me for 13 years. He had tough luck. We found him nearly starved to death in 1997 at a roadside stand. He looked like a kitten, all bones. We brought him home, cleaned him up, and he became the sweetest, most loving kitty. He had a lot of bumps along the way. His bowel was removed in 2000. We saved him. He was hit by a car in 2006 and lost a rear leg plus got a herniated diaphragm. We saved him. Early this year he...

New book -- "Time to Eat the Dog" -- claims golden retrievers have the same carbon footprint as SUVs As provocative titles go, "Time to Eat the Dog: The Real Guide to Sustainable Living," is a doozy, guaranteed to ensure outrage and oodles of provocative blog post headlines. As summarized in The Telegraph, New Zealand-based authors Robert and Brenda Vale have calculated the carbon footprint of pet-ownership and arrived at some disturbing conclusions. A medium-sized dog has the same impact as a Toyota Land Cruiser driven 6,000 miles a year, while a cat is equivalent to a Volkswagen Golf.... [The...