My Glamorous Life No. 81: A Little Death Death slid over her like a sheet of ice. Jeffrey Zeldman's moving account of the last hours with his cat, Peeps... [Jeffrey Zeldman Presents: The Daily Report]

Keeping your pet safe in frigid weather MI The best thing to do is to bring pets inside, when it's very cold outside. Some recommended tips include:

• It's okay to skip the evening walk, if it's incredibly frigid outside.
• Supervise the dog when it's outside; frostbite can take hold quickly.
• Even artic dogs need a shelter that's out of the wind, dry, and warm.
• Check your dog's paws for ice build-up. Check them anyway: snow can cover sharp objects which Fido may step on ...
• Keep water above freezing
• Blankets freeze outside and are mostly useless, compared to dry sheltered straw.
• Never leave a dog in a cold car; it can freeze or develop hypothermia. Think of an unattended car as a coffin and you'll be less tempted to deposit your pet there.
• A usual first sign of illness: lack of appetite...  [Bay City Times]

Flu can be ruff on pets, too AZ [Tucson Citizen]

Dog investigation grows OH [Cincinnati Post]

Politics goes to the (dead) dogs... Canada  The Liberal Party vows to remove a dead dog from their membership list.... [National Post]

Lack of funding forces Guide Dogs of the Desert to close operations AZ "These are hard times for nonprofits. There’s a lot of competition for the donated dollar..." [The Desert Sun]

Quin Parker's  polar bear photo looks just like a chow chow dog. [if you live here, you would be home by now] You too can post your own personal terror alert level and have Bert's face make it all laughably bearable. [geekandproud.net found via Quin's handy links]

LinkSwarm's motto may be 'the web moves quicker than humans, catch up' but it won't bore you; here, you'll get clued in to some of the funniest reads on the web.... and the wackiest... Linkswarm is the brainchild of megarad.com, home of ultimate underground technology news.

Only a few weeks ago, Washington DC enjoyed warm sunny days with temperatures up to 72 degrees. Now a bitter deep freeze grips the entire Northeast and with the wind chill, it feels like 20 below freezing. To get through this morning's frigid dog walk, I layered up with warm tights, two pairs of socks, three layers of pants, undershirt, shirt, sweat jacket, outer jacket, neck warmer, ear muffs, eye protection, hood, and thick insulated gloves.

Even though our dogs are double-coated chows, they both need protection from the artic winds. For now, the two dogs share one quilted dog coat; I bundle one dog up in a coat, stumble around in the cold with her until she's ready to go back inside, wrap up the other dog in the same coat, and stumble around outside some more. Naturally, he's so chipper, he wants to stay outside and play, so we do, until he's exhausted and I can't feel my kneecaps any longer. I'm buying another dog coat today.

During these horribly cold days, we soak our dogs' food in hot water and let it cool to warm temperature,  so the dogs lap it up enthusiastically. Dog bedding includes dog beds in the bedroom, out of drafts, off the floor, with soft berber blankets placed on both dogs. A make-shift fence surrounds one dog's bed and we draped it with blankets, so the drafts won't bother her. Although her double knee surgery occurred over three months ago, her normally thick coat is virtually non-existent. Our other dog regularly receives an overall trim, a price he pays for visiting nursing home facilities, where he would otherwise overheat. He looks wussy in his little quilted coat, but his two titanium hip replacements warrant the added insulation.

A humidifier hums away, adding back moisture to the dry indoor air; otherwise the dogs would get shocked by static electricity. Both dogs lay stretched out at my feet, snoozin' away, without a care in the world...