Be your own pet's best friend ... you don't have to be a psychic FL  If you have a pet, you probably have a well established relationship and way of communicating. It seems quite natural that people would want to know just exactly what their pet is thinking about, in people language. While pets can read us perfectly well, we don't always read them as well. I think the best way to communicate with your pet is to consistently take loving care of it and sending it confidence in thoughts and deeds. The following article explores the world of 'pet psychics.'  Telepathic communication with pets draws skepticism [Miami Herald]

Kids reading books to dogs? 'It may seem silly to some, but the results of an innovative Salt Lake City program are no laughing matter. Participating children have shown dramatic improvement in their reading skills, and 14 other states are now following Utah's lead...' Canine Companions May Help Kids Learn to Read  [National Geographic]

Pet Christmas cards online... xtra cool feline cards or adorable pug cards... UK Support a pet charity with your choice of Christmas card. According to UK Pets' latest survey, while surveyed online Pet Shops had little to offer, online charities provided a variety of beautiful and interesting Christmas cards:

'Of the charities we looked at, the People's Dispensary for Sick Animals, (PDSA), the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, (RSPCA) and the National Canine Defence League, (NCDL) all run on the Webb Ivory shop design and carry the usual Webb Ivory ranges. Guide Dogs however has a good range of dog themed Christmas cards available through its new Dogalogue catalogue. Hearing Dogs and the Bluecross use the Combined Charities Christmas Shops format and both have a limited range of animal specific Christmas cards. When we visited the Cats Protection site, its Multiactive EC catalogue had only a tiny collection of 'left blank for your own message' cards. The last charity we looked at was GAL, the Greyhound Awareness League. GAL carries its own short series of greyhound greetings cards but has nothing that we could call 'Christmassy'.   Reviewing Pet Christmas Cards On-line [UK Pets]

Check out UK Pets' superb roundup for more choice cards and gifts.

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Mysterious guard dog deaths in Algeria In September, over 75 guard dogs have died in Algeria's national capital. That number may be outdistanced by October's death roll. The cause? 'Owners believe that a group of people, most likely armed robbers, have embarked on a dog-poisoning spree in the Accra metropolis to make it easy for them to gain entry into targeted houses...' Serial Killing: Who is Poisoning the Guard Dog [AllAfrica.com]

It's a normal day (World War Three Blues) Restaurants on Rockville Pike in Rockville, Maryland, are suffering from the lack of customers, due to the sniper shootings. My spouse called me and said: 'watch your back.'

okay. Let's see. Today's forecast is: 

• weather code: beautiful
• homeland security code: yellow (3) (don't open your mail if there's white powder spilling out)
• sniper code: blue (watch your back, keep children off playgrounds, don't walk the dog in big shopping mall parking lots or huge fields, don't gas up the car, don't get stamps, don't wait at bus stop, wonder if that strange neighbor has a stash of weapons ... )
  
  These strange times feel like Bob Dylan's 'World War Three Blues':

Well, I got up and walked around
And up and down the lonesome town.
I stood a-wondering which way to go,
I lit a cigarette on a parking meter
And walked on down the road.
It was a normal day.

Well, now time passed and now it seems
Everybody's having them dreams...  '

(paraphrased... and no, we don't smoke)

Seems like we're all in a collective nightmare and we'd better wake up and change it. Or, if it's real, we'd better change what's causin' these bad times...

Family dog rescues family, dies in fire... CA A family's back lab dog, Bubba, barked and alerted everyone to a disastrous fire, then crawled in the shower and hid. The family is devastated: ' 'The worst part of it is not losing the house or what’s in the house, it’s losing a part of the family -- losing the dog... ' Everyone else escaped unharmed... Hero dog alerts family to fire, dies in blaze [Santa Cruz Sentinel]

Clumsiest breed of dog UK Insurance statistics in Britain: rottweilers have the most accidents, while poodles remain the least accident-prone... Rottweilers are the most-accident prone dog [Ananova.com News Quirkies] (actually, these statistics seem to indicate the most claims for veterinary care, not accidents... ]