| Offices will go to the dogs when pooch-friendly day hits
Sure, every day can't be the weekend, your dog seems to say. But couldn't I come along and just curl up under your desk? Well, at some companies, he could. And here's your chance to convince your workplace to join the party, at least for one day: June 22 is the ninth annual Take Your Dog to Work Day, as declared by the trade group Pet Sitters International. Your boss may scoff at the idea - the kind of thing they do at those big California tech companies with their wacky, Frisbee-throwing corporate cultures. And it's true that firms like Amazon and Google are well known for their pet-friendly policies. .
Rusty's long trip home
SIX months on the road and he's finally made it home. Rusty, the four-year-old bull terrier-cross, was given up for dead after disappearing from his Canberra home half a year ago. But to everyone's surprise, he has "done a Lassie" and turned up alive and well – just north of Adelaide, 1200km away. Somehow Rusty travelled across state borders to Two Wells, 40km north of Adelaide, before being picked up as a "stray dog" last weekend by the RSPCA after a call from the public. So how did the four-year-old bull terrier-cross cover the huge distance – by plane, train or an automobile? "Well one thing is for sure, he didn't walk," Rusty's owner Shane Gowen, 21, said yesterday as he celebrated the return of his "best friend" after paying $400 for the dog to be flown to Canberra from Adelaide on Friday night.
SOCIAL STOOP
June 10, 2007 -- IT'S funny how dogs make friends out of strangers - like my late neighbor Mitch Pressler. A fixture on East 90th Street for decades, he'd sit on his building's stoop, surveying the block. Passersby stopped to hang with him, especially those on four legs: Savory the miniature pinscher, Paco the pug, Paddy the Lhasa apso, Lincoln the beagle, Lola the bulldog and my pack of pit bulls and mutts all gravitated to Mitch because he loved dogs. Mitch regularly followed this column, too. "Very good article," he'd call out to me from his stoopside perch. Certain stories really got him talking, notably the one about how senior citizens struggle to keep pets in rent-stabilized apartments. He added his voice to the outcry when City Council Speaker Christine Quinn failed to support Intro 13, the Pets in Housing Bill.
Texas boxer is champ as dog show ends
Michael Shepherd's 4-year-old boxer, Monroe, received the all-breed "Best in Show" honors Sunday in the second day of an American Kennel Association-sanctioned all-breed dog show at Jackson Fairgrounds Park.
The Flower Mound, Texas, man is a second-generation dog show competitor, and Monroe is no mere pup.
"It's our 68th all-breed best in show," Shepherd said.
What's the secret to their success?
"Good dog. Good owner. Luck," he said.
Following is a list of all Sunday's champions:
* Hound Group: Beagle (15 inch) Ch Springfield N Skyline's Big Shot, Urbandale, Iowa
* Working Group: Boxer Ch Bayview Some Like It Hot, Flower Mound, Texas
* Non-Sporting Group: Keeshonden Ch Trumpet's Jumpin' Jack Flash, Memphis
* Sporting Group: English Setter Ch Esthetes Fandango, Winchester, Ky.
Pregnant beagle that was shot gives birth to 7 puppies
And Odie's healthy litter of seven, born June 9, are being called miracle pups by their veterinarian. "I would have bet a year's salary the puppies would have been reabsorbed," said Tom Ferstl, owner of the Millington Veterinary Clinic. "Sometimes you just get lucky. I'd have to say the diligence in care from the dog's owner, and the dog, had a lot to do with it." A nightmare turned realApril 15 for Odie and her owners -- Diane Springstube, Amber Springstube, 16, and Katelynn Springstube, 10. The beagle crawled home bleeding with up to 40 holes in her. She'd been peppered with a shotgun; the second dog in the neighborhood that had been recently shot. Diane had been outdoors doing chores at her Sister Lake Road home in Marathon Township when Odie was attacked. The dog plays on their two-acre homestead and is free to roam on the neighbor's cornfield that adjoins their property.
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