Australian Bank Issued Credit Card to a Cat

An Australian bank has apologized for issuing a credit card to a cat after its owner decided to test the bank's identity security system. The Bank of Queensland issued a credit card to Messiah the cat when his owner Katherine Campbell applied for a secondary card on her account under its name. "I just couldn't believe it. People need to be aware of this and banks need to have better security," Campbell told local media on Thursday. The bank said the cat's card had been canceled. "We apologize as this should not have happened," it said in a statement.

Children's Songs Calm Rescued Parrot

By Alex Lewis

A parrot has been transformed from an aggressive monster to a docile and friendly pet with the help of recorded songs using her name - Lucy.

When the blue and gold macaw was rescued from an unsuitable home by Annie Simmons, a 52-year-old disabled Harpenden woman, three years ago, she was almost impossible to live with.

Annie said: "She had had a lot of traumas and was absolutely evil.

"She has 700 pounds of force per square inch in her beak, which can take your finger off with one snip.

"Now she is cuddly, tame and my best friend.

"She can talk whole sentences, sing and dance."

Lucy's apparently magical change of personality stems from a tape of children's songs which Annie bought a year ago.

Every morning, she break-dances merrily as she hears: "Get up Lucy it's morning, start of a brand new day."

In the evening she drops off to the strains of a lullaby, quietly repeating: "Night Night, Lucy."

She gets on well with Annie's two dogs, both rescued from unsuitable homes, and enjoys strolling round the north Harpenden garden and using the washing line as a trapeze.

Annie, a life-long animal lover who needs crutches after breaking her back when rescuing a large dog, said: "She has given me a new lease of life.

"A few years ago, I was in so much pain and I was really poorly.

"When Lucy started to become my friend, I has something to look forward to.

"We can't be separated."

The tape which cured Lucy, also available on CD, was produced by Silver Balloon and can be ordered at www.silverballoon.com

Rescue Shelter Displays Animals at the Mall

Lucky Paws, a municipal-run pet store, is scheduled to open in October or November 2006 at the Coronado Mall in New Mexico.

Lucky Paws will enable the city to offer shelter animals for adoption in a pleasing environment. Instead of chain-link kennels, people will be able to view animals behind a window and they can visit with the animals in the sitting and playing areas.

The animals will already be sterilized and ready to be adopted. The cost to adopt a pet from Lucky Paws will be $82, which is the same fee charged at the shelters.

Melanoma Awareness For Pets

Source: http://keyetv.com/seenon/local_story_209181842.html

(CBS 42) While you know the importance of checking yourself and your kids for melanoma to make sure you're all cancer free, experts say there's one member of the family you may be skipping.

Pet lover Lesly Beck rushed her pug Tarzan to the vet after finding blood in his water bowl.

"I was scared, I was really scared," Beck said.

An exam showed Tarzan had a mass in his mouth.

"It was oral melanoma. The worst of the worst,” Beck said. “I didn't know they could get melanoma."

While it's shocking to many pet owners, it's actually not that uncommon.

Veterinary oncologist Mary Kay Klein says she sees it all the time, and melanoma can be just as deadly in pets as in people.

"The most common site for dogs and cats to develop malignant melanoma is in the oral cavity and in the nail beds," Klein said.

Then it can spread to the lymph nodes and lungs. As with all cancers, early detection is crucial. Klein says pet owners need to regularly check for lumps.

"Go ahead and get your hands all over them,” Klein said. “Take a look in their oral cavity when they're playing with their toys."

Lumps are either flesh tone or black. Other warning signs are blood in the water bowl or unusually bad breath. If you find anything suspicious, go to the vet right away.

"When we treat our melanomas aggressively, we can still have our patients live a very long time," Klein said.

Tarzan had surgery to remove the tumor along with several chemotherapy treatments. He's doing just fine now, but Beck does everything she can to keep a close watch on her precious pug.

"We keep our fingers crossed,” Beck said. “Now it's up to him to stay healthy."

Klein says, unlike in humans, the sun is not thought to be a major risk factor since pets usually get melanoma in areas that don't get much sun exposure.

Pets Don't Have to Stay Inside to Stay Cool

Alison Struve

A stretch of hot weather really takes its toll, so we have to take care of ourselves and keep an eye on our furry friends as well. But that doesn't mean you have to keep them cooped up inside an air conditioned house.

This stifling heat won't stop some tails from wagging, but veterinarians still see those pets that get a little light on their paws.

"You always do," says Dr. Karla Sathre, Associate Veterinarian at Wausau Animal Hospital. "Actually, with any being when it gets hot."

Dr. Sathre says staying cool is pretty simple.

"Water's the biggest one, making sure there's always plenty of water available and some kind of shelter."

If you have a pretty rambunctious dog, you don't have to keep him inside just as long as you're careful."

"I've seen a lot more heat stroke problems with the bigger, high-energy dogs because they don't know enough to stop," Dr. Sathre says. "So we, as their owners, have to take responsibility and make sure that they're not doing more than they should."

If you see your dog slowing down or panting a lot, it's time to take a break, especially in the midday heat.

"That's when you don't want to be doing your walks or exercising. You want to do early morning or late evening, that type of thing."

And when it's time for a ride, leave your pooch at home if you have to park your car.

"Even if you crack the windows. I mean, that makes it get to maybe 130 instead of 150," Dr. Sathre says. "Still not good."

Dr. Sathre says keeping your pets cool comes down to common sense so tails will have plenty to wag about. If you don't have a dog, Dr. Sathre says any pet can be stressed by the heat, so keep them out of the direct sun as well.

Rescued pets getting a second chance

Animals adjust nearly a year after Katrina

By Heather LaRoi
Post-Crescent staff writer

Harry, a standard poodle-mix, has seen a lot in what's guessed to be his two years of life.

Rescued from flood-ravaged New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, where he was either separated from or abandoned by his family, he was eventually picked up by volunteers with Best Friends Animal Society and ended up at their home base in Kanab, Utah, with hundreds of other animal refugees.

Alas, somewhere along the way, poor Harry, no doubt traumatized by the hell that pretty much destroyed the world as he knew it in August, had picked up a few bad habits. Things like aggression around food and aggression toward anybody trying to pet him, things that pretty much made him undesirable as an adoptable pet.

Enter Joanne Hjella of Larsen.

Hjella, a dog trainer and behaviorist for about 30 years, took up Harry's cause. Looking at the skinny, scruffy, lovelorn Harry, she saw a dog not to be written off, but a dog to be saved.

"So many dogs are being euthanized for absolutely the wrong reason when they can be rehabilitated. And people are not giving them a chance," Hjella said. "I just want people to know these dogs can be rehabilitated.

"These dogs are not born screwed up. They're born very stable and balanced, but it's the people who mess them up. They make matters worse, too, and they don't realize it because they try to communicate with (their dogs) like they're people. They use human psychology when they're not humans, they're dogs."

Hjella, who runs Canine Academy, and husband John have five other dogs, but Harry's her first foster dog. They eventually hope to find a permanent home for him.

"Harry's a special case, a special guy," she said. "We've only had him a couple weeks, but he's already doing a lot better. We can actually pet him when he's eating now and he doesn't growl as much. He's doing real well."


Harry is regaining some of his bounce — literally. When visitors enter the backyard, Harry repeatedly leaps high into the air in greeting, a trait that has earned him the nickname "Boing-Boing."

"He was a pistol, let me tell you, when we first got him," Kjella said. "I put him on the grooming table because he had hair hanging in his face. They had shaved him because he was all matted, but you couldn't see his face or his eyes and of course I can't train him unless I can see what he's thinking. I reached for him to brush the hair on his face and he about tore my face off. He missed, but he was like a vicious junkyard dog.

"Nobody could pet him on the head. He would just reach out and bite. I think, really, it stems from fear. And the food aggression you can almost understand. He was probably roaming the streets of New Orleans for quite a while, trying to find food. It must have been so scary."

Hjella figures she has another couple months of work with Harry before he's ready to be placed in a new home, but she's confident he'll get there.

"I couldn't touch him before but now I can hug him and pet him. He's really an extremely sweet dog."

Hjella, too, wishes Harry could talk.

"It'd be so much easier to train him," she said, with a laugh. "And you could reason with him like a person or a child. I tell him all the time, I say, 'Harry, you don't have to worry about where your food's coming from. You're always going to have food. Nobody's ever going to hurt you again, right, Harry?'"

Harry's long tail, with its lion-like tuft at the end, wags.

Heather LaRoi can be reached at 920-993-1000, ext. 238, or at hlaroi@postcrescent.com.

Dog Craving Doughnuts Blamed for Fire

http://www.washingtonpost.com/

RIDGEFIELD, Wash. -- A dog with a craving for doughnuts was blamed for starting a house fire in this city north of Vancouver.

According to Clark County fire investigators, the homeowners had left a box of doughnuts on the stove on Sunday. The dog jumped up onto the stove to get to the doughnuts and accidentally flipped on a burner.

"The burner set the box on fire and the fire spread from the kitchen to the attic," Fire District 11 Capt. Ben Meacham told The Columbian.

Investigators said the fire caused about $75,000 worth of damage.

The dog, home alone when the fire started, escaped injury.

Dog receives award after dialing 911

ORLANDO, Fla. - A 17-pound beagle named Belle is more than man’s best friend. She’s a lifesaver.

Belle was in Washington, D.C., on Monday to receive an award for biting onto owner Kevin Weaver’s cell phone to call 911 after the diabetic man had a seizure and collapsed.

“There is no doubt in my mind that I’d be dead if I didn’t have Belle,” said Weaver, 34, whose blood sugar had dropped dangerously low. Belle had been trained to summon help in just those circumstances. She had been taught to bite down on the number 9 on his cell phone contacting 911.

Belle was the first canine recipient to win the VITA Wireless Samaritan Award, given to someone who used a cell phone to save a life, prevent a crime or help in an emergency.

Using their keen sense of smell, animals like Belle can detect abnormalities in a person’s blood-sugar levels. The dog periodically licks Weaver’s nose to take her own reading of his blood-sugar level. If something seems off to her, she will paw and whine at him.

“Every time she paws at me like that I grab my meter and test myself,” Weaver said. “She’s never been wrong.”

Heather Mills Persuades Paris Hilton to Stop Wearing Fur

PARIS HILTON has abandoned her fur-wearing ways after SIR PAUL MCCARTNEY's estranged wife HEATHER MILLS made her watch horrific footage of animal cruelty. The hotel heiress was previously pelted with flour by members of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) after sporting real fur at this year's (February 2006) London Fashion Week. But it was animal rights campaigner Mills who managed to persuade Hilton to turn her back on wearing animal skins for good. She says, "I am not going to be wearing fur anymore. "I met up with (Mills) and she showed me videos of how badly the animals are treated. It is just disgusting. I am an animal lover."