Pet Pawfection

My Human Mama's Shelby, Taken By Cancer

November is National Pet Cancer Awareness Month. VPI Pet Insurance declared it as such in 2005 to "empower pet owners with knowledge about the prevalence, detection and treatment of pet cancer." Cancer does not discriminate. It kills humans and pets. My human mama's furry friend Shelby, a beautiful hound mix, died of cancer a few years ago. There are countless stories of lost loved ones and those who won their fights. We celebrate those victories as we continue the struggle to save as many lives as possible.

VPI is doing its part this month by donating $1 for every new Like of the VPI Facebook page. For those of you in the Long Beach, California area, the fifth annual VPI K9K Pet Cancer Awareness Walk will take place on November 15, 2011. All registration fees will be donated directly to the Animal Cancer Foundation.

A recent discovery at North Carolina State University provided some good news in the fight against cancer. Researchers found that chromosomal "breakpoints" in canines are associated with cancer. So what are breakpoints?

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Dogs need not fear losing guide dog jobs just yet but humans have moved one step closer with the latest version of a robot that looks kind of like a dog. Tokyo-based NSK recently showed off the third prototype of their "guide dog" robot leading a blind-folded human over a set of steps. Very impressive, and much better than the first two prototypes, but the pace is still slow going.

NSK is working on voice recognition capabilities to provide quicker control of the robot. They hope to commercialize it in 2020. I have no doubt that this robot will find some good use in the future but it will be hard to replace guide dogs. Not only are they the best at what they do, they are much cozier at night than steel and rubber.

Two paws up to Plastic Pals for the scoop!

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Photo Credit: Mdzananda Animal Clinic

Warrior, a disabled crossbreed stray, was buried alive in a five-foot deep hole last week at Luhlaza Secondary School in Cape Town, South Africa by two school caretakers. According to the caretakers, who are being charged with animal cruelty, "one of the school's senior supervisors had told them to get rid of the dog as it was being a nuisance by hanging around the classrooms."

Witnesses recalled watching the helpless dog yelping in vain as the school caretakers buried him alive. A local animal clinic received an anonymous tip about the incident. Two people from the clinic, a veterinarian and an animal welfare caregiver, rushed to the scene and confronted the two men. Our fur brother was barely alive and gasping for air when they finally pulled him out. The picture shows poor Warrior covered in sand after his head was uncovered.

Warrior recovered from what is being called "one of the worst reported cases of animal abuse in Cape Town yet," but still has a bad limp from an earlier traffic accident. This is one tough pup! We are so thankful to the wonderful humans who tipped off the animal clinic and for those humans at the animal clinic who helped Warrior recover.

Two paws up to IOL News and the UK Daily Mail for the scoop!

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