Strange foreign objects in dogs' feces Well, I don't know how we got here ... the web can fling you to strange places if you give it an inch... (it must be all those dog poop stories in the news (mostly from the UK) This amusing site will have you in stitches ... SFODF's motto is "SFOIDF In The News
No politics. No death. No violence. Just the important news you're depending on...." All we can say is ...hey, great...

The dog who wouldn’t die Debby Morse writes, "How do you know when it's time to let go? When I get home from work these days, there are no longer any beach towels covering the kitchen floor. There are no damp newspapers in the corner. There is only one dog- food dish now, and it holds ordinary kibbles. There is only one doggie bed, and it ..." [The San Francisco Examiner] (get the hanky out... for a good read)

President Bush tugs on his dog!: Photo  DC ... [Yahoo! News: Strange News - AP] (Yesterday, a local DC news showed the president walking his doggie. The President walked with the dog and waved to the crowd: he accidentally stepped on the dog... it's hard to walk a dog and wave at the same time, especially if you're trying to look presidential... )

Smoking ... can kill your cat and make the dog sick MA "Pet cats are dying of cancer caused by passive smoking," according to a study new study Dr Antony Moore, a Tufts University veterinarian. Cat cancer, known as feline lymphoma, kills three-quarters of its victims within a year. "Cats exposed to second-hand smoke doubled their risk of acquiring feline lymphoma." In a twosmoker household the risk quadrupled. Since the study used cats, the risk to dogs is unknown. However, dogs are  thought "to be at risk of developing asthma through passive smoking." [Western Daily Press - This is Gloucestershire, UK]

Microchip reunites lost dog with owner after six years FL "A dog missing for six years has been reunited with her family after a stranger found her roaming the streets of Cincinnati and used a microchip to trace her back to north Florida."  [cleveland.com]

'Rabbit fever' alert to pet lovers throughout nation TX "State and federal health officials warned pet lovers Tuesday that prairie dogs could be carrying "rabbit fever," but no cases have been reported locally." Some 2000 prairie dogs,  (most originating  from the prairie land of South Dakota), were shipped by a Lewisville business to pet stores and became sick and died. Investigators  found they were carrying the deadly disease called tularemia or 'rabbit fever.' Some prairie dogs were distributed to "Florida, Illinois, Ohio, Virginia, West Virginia, Washington, Mississippi and Nevada, as well as Belgium, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, Italy, Spain, Thailand and Japan." "Last month, Texas health officials alerted Panhandle doctors and city officials to be on the lookout for "rabbit fever" after dead rabbits were found in Canada." "No human cases have been reported yet" in the Texas area; people can contract tularemia from contact with secretions from infected animals or through a bite or a scratch or rarely, from breathing contaminated dust... [The Lubbock Avalanche-Journal]

Scary stuff... Because the disease kills 60 percent of untreated victims, pneumonic tularemia remains a top bioterrorist agent.

"Nowadays when a mosquito bites, you gotta wonder, "Did I just get a deadly virus??" Dave Winer writes in Scripting News today; (We'll take precautions: in Maryland and DC, we have birds dropping dead on our streets, and we're using Deet like crazy and the dog's staying inside when the mosquitoes swarm... our dog has a way of fighting mosquitoes: he tries to bite them out of the air if they swarm around him. Dogs can get West Nile Virus too).

Related: July 19, 2002, Dog News article' Deadly disease confirmed at Martha's Vineyard. Twenty-two (22) cases of tularemia occured on the Island (Martha's Vineyard) since 2000, 17 of which were  pneumonic, the rarer form of the disease; normally, one or two cases occur statewide per year. Scientists will collect dog ticks and trap animals as part of an ongoing investigation.."

Zoo guard fired after stray dogs kill 13 wallabies IN "A security guard who failed to see that stray dogs had entered the zoo and killed 13 wallabies over the weekend has been fired." The dogs killed all but one wallaby, and also a black swan, an emu, and three kangaroos... [Courier-Journal]

The skinny on those skinny sheep dogs NZ "Accusations levelled at farmers with skinny dogs are akin to believing that marathon runners are half-starved ACT Agriculture Spokesman Gerry Eckhoff said today. Sheep dogs need to be sleek and fit to do the work they love doing. Uninformed comment from well-meaning visitors to rural New Zealand is given too much credibility..." Tourists from abroad had complained to authorities about the health conditions of the 'skinny' dogs... Mr. Eckhoff had some harsh comments of his own for the owners of obese dogs... [Scoop Parliament]

Family dog savages baby AU "There was no noise before baby Georgia Dunn's scream. No warning that a family pet of three years was about to turn. Just the terrified scream..." The 14 month old baby narrowly missed death, but will be scarred for life by the horrific facial injuries inflicted on her. Nobody knows why the attack happened, but Australian Cattle Dogs like the family's blue heeler have a higher record of attacks on children than other breeds... [The Courier Mail]

Rocky, K-9 hero dog, shot in paw, nabs suspect  CO "Some humans, alas, can be terribly fickle, cavalierly betraying old friends. Not so Rocky, a Dutch Shepherd K-9 with the Lakewood Police Department who knocked down an armed burglary suspect despite having been shot in the paw..." [Denver Post Editorial (from tip sent in from BlahStuff MegaPortal by Jake Sutton)]

(Don't miss BlahStuff's stuff: you'll find blog resources, journalist resources and interesting articles (including his book review of In the Lake of the Woods by Tim O'Brien). Explore the quirky corners of the 'net... "Y'know...  like  Random Word Generator, Science Daily, and A Large Head... )