Science alert: sea coral for hip replacements Israel Scientists "...predict that they will soon be able to use sea coral for hip replacements and other bone surgery. Researchers at BGU have successfully removed a large section of a dog's femur and replaced it with coral. The dog was walking the next day without infection or rejection... Unlike current expensive techniques, coral bone replacement is as strong as steel. Coral is abundant and cheap and can be harvested without environmental damage...' [Israel Insider] (Hmmm... our dog's two titanium total hip replacements were a total success... what are the advantages of coral over titanium in a hip replacement? Does it last as long? ... will coral make the surgery less expensive?)

Pit Bulls attack and kill jogger IL On Sunday evening, two young pit bulls attacked and ravaged a woman jogging alone in Cook County Forest Preserve.  A second jogger remains hospitalized in serious condition; she alerted police after driving herself to an emergency room.   On arrival in the crime area, Police found the dead woman, two vicious dogs patrolling the jogging path and were immediately attacked as well. Police had to shoot the well-cared for dogs. They are now searching for the owner who had carefully placed a portable dog house and dog food bowls in the forest. What they want to know is why someone would allow vicious dogs to stalk joggers in a public area... 'These dogs had no identifying features that would make it easy to identify their owners...' and no tags to identify them. [Sun Times]

Dog killed after delivering love letter Jordan ' A Jordanian couple who kept up a secret relationship by using a dog to carry their love letters were revealed when the woman's brother discovered one of the notes, sparking an argument in which the pet was killed...'  [Star Tribune]

Petfinder.org's Pet Forums The wonderful Petfinder.org, a nationwide nonprofit pet rescue orginization, features quite a few forums for the pet lover, including emergency disaster planning for your pet. Petfinder helps pet rescues organizations to match up loving homes for abandoned animals. (found via Radioland's handy, dandy referer logs. Radioland, that incredible weblogging application and most useful software on my computer, just passed its one-year birthday on Saturday. Happy Birthday to Radioland!)

Rescuing mutts in a brutal world ... the economics of animal cruelty Stephan J. Lyons reviews Melinda Roth's book, The Man who talks to dogs, which features the founder of Stray Rescue in St. Louis: ...'author Melinda Roth pens an unforgettable and honest portrait of an unlikely hero, 37-year-old Randy Grim, founder of Stray Rescue in St. Louis. Grim has badgered every relative and friend to the point of alienation to take part in his passion. ' My friends, what's left of them anyway, sit me down and talk to me like I'm an alcoholic, you know, in hushed voices, with looks of deep concern...'  [Chicago Sun-Times]

The dog who greets you with a doggy hug ... may just have an embarrassing habit. Robert Scoble writes in his technology weblog: 'I got humped last night by a dog. Don't worry, I'm used to it. I get humped everytime I go to the Pirillos. Sprocket is one happy dog!'  He also notes:  'Oh, Alwin Hawkins says that the Pirillo's dog is really threatened by my presence and his humping behavior is actually telling me something other than he's happy to see me. Oh, don't worry Sprocket, I won't steal your food or your owner.' [The Scobleizer Weblog] (If you want to catch up on computer technology, Scoble's Scobleizer and Pirillo's Lockergnome are entertaining and painless ways to do it.)

From personal experience, I think that dog humping may also signal dominance or just be an ingrained behavior. Any behavior which is rewarding to a dog can become a habit. We once hosted a rescued dog for two weeks. She immediately decided our dog was her personal toy and commenced humping him non-stop. I was beside myself... what could I do? I put a lead on her and pulled her off him with a firm 'no!' every time she began to mount him. (Our dog would try to push her off, but she was pushier and stronger. His back couldn't take it.) That would work until I left... and since I couldn't spend my life pulling her off him, we recommended her for a one-dog home. In her case, her mounting was probably also a signal of anxiety; after all, she had been unceremoniously dumped by an owner who decided white rugs were more important than a long-haired black dog.

Related: Curing your dog's mounting behavior, Dog Secrets