Denise Flaim, a Newsday staffer since 1994, covers companion animals
– not pets -- every Monday in her Animal House column. Denise
is owned by two Rhodesian Ridgebacks, and is involved in breeding,
conformation (code for "dog shows"), lure-coursing (don’t
worry, no one else knows what that is, either), obedience, agility
and therapy-dog work. She is the historian of the Rhodesian Ridgeback
Club of the United States, and author of "The Holistic Dog
Book: Canine Care for the 21st Century" (Wiley, 2003) and "Getting
Lucky: How One Special Dog Found Love and a Second Chance at Angel’s
Gate" (Stewart, Tabori and Chang, 2005).
Long Island has plenty of dogs, symbols as they are of successful suburban living.
What is doesn't have is a lot of places for them to run.
Suffolk County Unleashed is a local organization dedicated to establishing dog parks throughout Long Island. They recently held a "meetup" at Southaven Park in Brookhaven for dogs, their owners and legislators who understand the political capital of a canine-friendly photo-op.
The group recently announced that a new dog park is in the works for Middle Island, east of the former Kmart property.
Apparently, the penchant for dog-fighting isn't limited to American sports figures. On the other side of the pond, Gaelic football star Gerard Cavlan is reportedly a principal in a fighting enterprise called The Bulldog Sanctuary Kennels, the BBC reports.
Britain, among other countries, has enacted its share of breed bans. The story illuminates how dog fighters get around this -- in part by importing dogs from other parts of Europe as "mixed breeds" to throw off customs officials.
Now this is a dog's life I'd like to lead: Hotel magnate Leona Helmsley bequeathed $12 million to her housekeeper-biting Maltese, the appropriately named Trouble. Her chauffeur got $100,00, and two of her grandchildren got .. zilch.
The wheels of justice grind slow, but this recently news is exceeding fine: The National Football League has suspended Michael Vick without pay indefinitely.
<<Help needed in the Seattle Washington Airport area. 16 month old Red Wheaten Show Male Rhodesian Ridgeback call name Rhett got loose outside at the Seattle Washington Airport today 8/22/2007 at 11:00am.
Avid Chip Number *094*102*077
Owners Edward Balassanian and Molly Larkin
Phone Numbers (206) 390-1946
(206) 465-3690
They are driving around the airport as I send out pleas for help looking for Rhett. Anyone in this area who can help search or pass out flyers will be greatly appreciated. Please give them a call.
<<A man saw what he believes to be Vivi on Saturday, just off the west-bound Northern Boulevard exit off the Van Wyck Expressway. He is a limo driver and remembers seeing the flier around La Guardia airport (thanks to our airport team member for making sure the airport lots are always covered).
Kathy “Bayside” contacted the caller for more info on Monday and emailed him the two photo line-up sheets. He picked Vivi out of both.
The out-of-town team has already begun another round of faxing and emailing businesses in the area. The location of the sighting has already been canvassed and it is a difficult spot to get to by car and you need to be careful if you park and walk as traffic whizzes by. Some of the Vivi Team are out right now searching and will post around the area and repost Flushing Meadow Park and around Shea Stadium.
Guess the motion sensor cameras will be getting new batteries.
The man originally said the dog was the size of a German Shepherd, dirty white coat, brownish markings, and very skinny, but, then again, he did pick Vivi out of the line-ups. There’s ALWAYS a possibility.
Is there a connection between toxic flame retardants and the surge in hyperthyroidism in cats?
Maybe so, said goverment scientists earlier this week, noting that overactive thyroid gland function was a rarity among felines until the early 1980s -- around the same time that brominated fire retardants started being used in a wide variety of consumer goods, from furniture to mattresses to electronics.
While rare in dogs (which commonly have hypothyroidism, or an underactive thyroid gland), hyperthyroidism also occurs in humans.
Marc Morrone, irrepressible turtleneck-wearing owner of Parrots of the World and erstwhile Martha Stewart television pet-expert (you can still hear him on her Sirius radio channel Friday evenings from 8 to 10), called to say that his Rockville Centre store was burglarized in the wee hours this morning.
Stolen were 20 blue-fronted Amazons, 20 African greys, four cockatoos and one baby toucan.
"They were smart," says Marc of the burglars, who he guesses are headed out of the country -- possibly to Puerto Rico, known for its open-air bird markets. "They bypassed the lilac-crown Amazons and orange-wing Amazons, which aren't very good talkers."
The robbers cut through the glass storefront, disabled the alarm and took off with the already-caged birds, leaving their own cages behind. Since a nearby bar closes at 4 a.m., and Marc arrived at 5:30 a.m., the feather-flapping heist likely occurred in the interim.
"Life goes on," says Marc, relieved that his own personal animals -- like Harry the eyeglass-snatching scarlet macaw and Dante the African grey -- were left behind.
Morrone's now-defunct local television pet show, in which he juggled a tabletop bustling with lop-eared rabbits and chinchillas as he continued a steady stream of Lawn Guylandy patter, attracted the attention of Martha Stewart. She made him a fixture on her "Martha Stewart" show, and he briefly had a Martha-backed show of his own.
Eager to get back on the tube, Marc says he recently hosted a production company interested in doing a reality show about him and his store. But after spending a Sunday amid the fish tanks and bird stands, the TV types begged off.
"They said, 'There's not enough dyfunctionality in your world to entertain people,'" Marc says with a shrug. "People lives are so miserable, they want to see people who are worse off than they are."
Theresa Hoang, the owner of runaway Gracie, sent an email to Team Vivi members thanking them for their help -- from posting fliers to calling veterinarians -- which ultimately made the Italian greyhound's ending a happy one.
"I would like to specially thank all of you for your tremendous help and support" when Gracie was wandering the streets of Brooklyn, she wrote. "I have never seen such a coordinated effort ... I [would love it] if we could meet each other some day."
Meanwhile, as these photos show, Gracie has returned to her life in New Jersey without missing a beat.
Gracie, the Italian Greyhound from New Jersey who was lost in mid-July on Brooklyn's not-so-mean streets, has been found!
Owner Theresa Hogang found out earlier this month that Gracie was taken in by a woman named Maria, who in turn gave the 4-year-old Iggy to an acquaintance named Kevin. The only information Maria had about him was that he was in his mid-20s and lives in Park Slope.
Vivi search coordinator Bonnie Folz, who had been keeping in close touch with Theresa (as have many Vivi-ites), emailed this morning with the rest of the story:
Turns out Kevin is not Kevin at all, but a fellow named Barry who had seen the fliers of Gracie posted, but didn't think they pertained to his new dog -- until a friend set him straight.
He called Theresa last night and she headed out to meet him, steeling herself for what could have been a crank call. (There have been several.)
Instead, she found her dog.
"As soon as Gracie found her family, she leaped into Theresa's daughters' arms!" Bonnie says.
The reunited family returned to New Jersey at 4 a.m., and have scheduled a visit to the veterinarian today to tend to Gracie's paw pads, which, are still in bad shape from her Brooklyn adventure. She will be microchipped when she is there, too.
Bonnie had the best kicker for this story: "One can never give up hope."
It's not pet related, but, heck, they're quadrapeds: For those who didn't catch it on TV last night, this footage of a clash between a herd of Cape buffalo and a group of young lions has been all the rage on YouTube.
Be forewarned: It is not for the squeamish, though there is a seemingly happy ending.
Initial news reports about the death of Canadian scripwriter Jacob Adams at the West Los Angeles home of "Pulp Fiction" star Ving Rhames called it a "mauling." But now, it appears Rhames' four mastiffs are being vindicated, as a coroner's report shows that Adams did not die of bite wounds.
A police official sonjectured that the superficial bites found on Adams could ahve been the result of the dogs trying to help him or pull him toward the house.
Still, it's too little too late for mastiff lovers, who lament that the news story has lost its luster and the new details are not being reported as, er, rabidly as when "dogs gone wild" was the news peg.
"Mastiffs are well know for giving 'love nips' to their owners (it isn't always fun to be nibbled on, but it is a display of their affection)," writes dee dee Andersson, author of "Mastiff, Aristocratic Guardian," in a press release to media. "They would also literally do anything and everything to bring a human they consider theirs to a place of safety, including but not limited to body-blocking, herding, pulling, nipping."
She says a likely scenario is that the dogs tried to drag Adams with them after he suffered a heart attack, creating scratches and nip marks in the process.
Andersson added that only two of the dogs appear to be mastiffs, a reference t the classic English breed; the others are likely a Fila Brasiliero and a Spanish bulldog.
It had to happen, though we didn't expect it quite this quickly: the Michael Vick chew toy. A portion of proceeds benefit the Jacksonville Humane Society.
Meanwhile, the Southern Christian Leadership Conferences says it will not abandon its plans to recognize the Atlanta Falcons quarterback at its 49th convention this week in Atlanta.
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