vegansaurus!

Yes, your dogs is smiling: Humans can recognize emotions in other animals  »

“Classifying dogs’ (Canis familiaris) facial expressions from photographs,” a study by Tina Bloom and Harris Friedman published in February in scientific journal Behavioural Processes, has shown that people can correctly identify emotions in dogs’ faces. It used a series of photographs of one dog’s face (meet Mal the Belgian shepherd!) and involved 50 human volunteers of varying degrees of experience with dogs, who were asked to identify the dog’s emotional state in each photo. The results?

Both groups [“people experienced and inexperienced with dogs”] were able to read the dog’s emotions. Paradoxically, experienced people were less accurate reading aggressiveness. Experienced people were better identifying behaviorally defined situations.

With only one dog and 50 volunteers, it wasn’t exactly a rigorous study, but … you totally know when your dog is happy or ashamed or surprised, right? And now science totally supports your claims.

[Photo from Casa-Rodríguez Collection via Flickr]

Buy a t-shirt, help animals! They’re dope and available this week only!  »

I totally heart these sweatshirts and tees. It’s the intersection of my love for type, clothes, and animals. The concept behind the shirts is interesting too. This site Sevenly.org runs a fundraiser each week where they sell limited edition (I think) shirts and donate $7 of each sale to the chosen charity of the week. Their goal is to raise money for the charity but also, by making things related to the charity that people can buy and wear, they raise awareness for the cause. And this week, the cause is the Humane Society! So for every shirt sold, seven bucks goes to HSUS. More importantly: you get a cool shirt! I kid, I kid. But looks like you only have until Sunday to buy so you best get on that.

Tiny dog saves his owner’s life, like a boss.  »

I read this story this morning and ‘bout died. It’s so awesome! Over in the U.K., Toby and his 81-year-old owner Derek, pictured above, were on a walk in the woods when Derek slipped on some crazy bridge over a creek and fell into a bunch of mud. He managed to cling to the bridge railing but as he said, “you can’t hold your grip for long at my age.” Scary!

They were walking with his other dog Bruno who apparently just wandered off when Derek fell. It’s OK, Bruno! We all have different stress responses. But Toby knew his owner needed help and he sprang into action!:

He ran a quarter-of-a-mile past bushes and apartments to reach the security office which was manned. Toby barked anxiously and staff knew there was a problem and followed Toby back to the incident scene. The dog led the way and kept stopping for helpers to catch up.

Go Toby! What a hero! To reward him, Derek and his wife are going to take him on holiday (that means vacation in English). You deserve it, little guy. I wonder if Figaro would save me? He’s got a lot of anxiety and I feel like sometimes people with a lot of anxiety are great in emergency situations because, like, they’ve been preparing for it their whole lives while everyone else was busy being normal. Maybe it’s true for dogs as well! I’ll try to slip on a bridge and see. 

Does anybody have a story like this about their dog (or other pet?) I’d love to hear it! 

New favorite site: I Heart My Rescue  »

I ❤ My Rescue is a new site from Brooklyn Animal Action that is all about rescued pets. Here’s one such pet above! This little girl is Hypatia and she was rescued from a dumpster at six weeks old. As you can see, she’s doing great. 

Here’s a description of the site’s mission:

I Heart My Rescue is dedicated to rescued animals and the people who love them. Submit the story and photo of your rescued pal and we’ll post it. Our mission is to spread the word about the many joys rescue animals bring, encouraging folks to adopt a rescue and support their local animal rescue organization.

We’re a project of the all-volunteer organization Brooklyn Animal Action. We are very grateful for your submissions and your support.

If there’s one thing I love, it’s rescued pets! With all the doom and gloom we see, it’s nice to know there are some happy endings out there. Who’s going to submit?!

via Pawesome

Kitty reunited with his owner after a three-day, six-mile hike  »

You heard it! This woman, Oliphant (?!!!) gave her cat Wollie to the shelter when her husband had a stroke. When her husband recovered, Oliphant’s daughter tried to adopt Wollie back, but before she could! Wollie escaped from the shelter and walked the six miles back home! Cray! In three days, no less. I have no idea how you did it, Wollie, but congrats on being reunited with your mama!

If Armageddon Comes, What’ll You Do with the Cat? Take a Workshop and Make a Plan!  »

Zuki could eat for like a year on all that food.

Have you thought about how you would take care of your pet/friend if shit got real? I’m talking Hurricane Katrina, Japan Earthquake, Four Mile Canyon Fire kind of real? 

Of course not; no one likes to think about that stuff—except survivalists, Mormons, and extremely responsible people, which we are not. Luckily there’s a class to make the thinking easy, in Milpitas on Wednesday evening. Deets below. 

For those of us can’t/won’t/refuse to make it to the class, here are the basics, care of the ASPCA and FEMA (go to their sites for the real details, this is just my cheeky summary):

• Have a plan. All good heists and rescues start with a plan. What’ll you do with pet/friend if you have to evacuate? DON’T ABANDON YOUR KITTY/DOGGIE! Take ‘em somewhere safe, like “with you.”
• Stash stuff. Like food, litter, leashes, toys, water, medical records. Maybe put it all in one place, like a kit. You’ll thank yourself later. Maybe you should have a kit for yourself, and put the pet stuff there too. Maybe you should get a better job so you can pay someone to worry about stuff like that on your behalf. 
• Bring pets indoors in a crisis. That way you can watch them and they won’t freak out as much.

Or to for real learn things:

“Santa Clara county Activists For Animals Presents:

Title: “Be Pet Prepared,” a Workshop for disaster pet-preparedness 
Date: Wed., March 7
Time: 7 to 8:30 p.m.
Location: Milpitas Public Library Auditorium, 1400 Main St., Milpitas
Phone: (408) 355.0436 
Notes: We have lots of disasters in the Bay Area—earthquakes, fires, and floods. If you share your home with companion animals, are you ready to meet their needs in a disaster as well as your own? Come and find out more about how to be prepared when the unexpected happens. Take home a list of supplies you’ll need for your animal disaster kit, and see demonstrations of some useful techniques for taking care of your animals in a disaster. You’ll also find out how to volunteer as a disaster responder for animals.

Our own Lisa Towell will be our speaker:
Lisa Towell is a trained animal disaster responder. She has been deployed to help dogs and cats in disasters in three different states. She has also worked with Humane Society Silicon Valley and Santa Clara County to improve our local plans for helping animals in the event of a disaster. She lives with two cats, and has an emergency kit filled with cat supplies all ready to go.

Please RSVP to make sure we have enough literature and handouts for everyone! And please do not call the library.

TV channel for dogs! Genius!   »

No really, I think this is a great idea! I often would leave the TV on for my Figaro because he has separation anxiety and he barks a lot. So the TV works great as a way to drown out little noises that might make him bark and I thought it would kind of keep him company too. But I never know which channel to leave it on! I try to leave it on kids’ channels because I figure they aren’t going to have loud noises and there will be a lot of high octave, happy voices. But this new dog channel, DogTV, has hundreds of shows based on all kinds of research:

DogTV has created nearly 800 programs for dogs, each around three to five minutes long to fit with a dogs’ limited attention span, and is constantly creating new content. The programs are designed to “relax, stimulate and expose” dogs to situations they come across in daily life, like car rides and romps around the park. Other programs include animations of moving objects, nature scenes set to soothing music, and dogs sleeping or resting.

They tried cats and barking noises and stuff they thought dogs would like but that only irritated them. 

Now you may be wondering if dogs actually do like to watch tv, this is the first question in their FAQ:

Do dogs really watch TV?

The channel is currently only available in San Diego but seriously, if this channel was available everywhere, I’d use it all the time! It will have a $5.00 monthly subscription fee because, as the creator pointed out, they can’t really sell ad space. Which I think is good because I hate when loud commercials come on—not relaxing for Fig at all! 

Here’s an example of their relaxing shows:

Can’t see the video? Watch it on Vegansaurus.com!

I’m relaxed! But I’m really hoping they have shows like Mr. Belvedere but where Mr. Belvedere is a dog. Right?