So this is pretty funny. The Associated Press reports that neighbors called police Wednesday morning in Trenton, N.J., after hearing a woman’s persistent cry of “Help me! Help me!” coming from a house. Instead of a woman in distress,the police found a caged cockatoo, 10-year-old Luna, with a convincing call. And it’s not the first time Luna has had a visit from the authorities. About seven years ago, after neighbors heard the bird crying like a baby for hours, reports of a possible abandoned baby ended in a visit to the home by state child welfare workers.

It wasn’t just the human victims of Hurricane Katrina that gained attention three years ago; animal rescues also made the news

As Hurricane Gustav continues to strengthen, with worries that it could slam into the Gulf Coast early next week, the Humane Society of the United States is preparing its staff and equipment.

“Our entire animal rescue team has been put on standby to deploy at a moment’s notice if our assistance is needed,” said Scotlund Haisley, senior director of Emergency Services at The HSUS, in a news release. “The Humane Society of the United States has deployed a core team of responders today to begin transporting our specially equipped disaster response vehicles and rescue boat to the Gulf Coast.”

The Louisiana Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in New Orleans and some other humane organizations in the Gulf Coast region already have made the decision to evacuate their animals. Others are expected to follow suit as Gustav approaches.

Arriving on the pet desk today: A copy of “Animal Talk: Interspecies Telepathic Communication” by Penelope Smith. “A newly revised edition,” the accompanying press release says. The book originally was published in 1978.

It apparently isn’t too tough to speak telepathically with your pet, at least according to Smith. Here is a summary of steps, retrieved from Chapter 3:

1. Quietly observe your animal friend while letting your own mnd grow calm, and become open to perceive and receive clearly.

2. Visualize something, and practice sending the image to specific places, including your animal friend’s body.

3. Get your animal friend’s attention, and send a hello or other message or image.

4. Say “hello,” and imagine your animal friend is saying “hello” back to you.

5. Ask a question, and accept whatever communicaiton you receive from your animal companion.

6. Acknowledge the answer.

7. Practice with other questions and other animals.

Talk about your cool cat.

We have a young kitten that we got from the Humane Society a couple of weeks ago. (He’s black and white, just like our three Boston terriers, so he fits right in with the animal landscape.) The other night, we heard meowing, but just couldn’t figure out where it was coming from. The bedroom? Downtstairs? Outside? Finally, my wife figured it out and opened the refrigerator door, and out hopped William the cat. Luckily, he’d only been in there a couple of minutes, apparently slipping in unnoticed when we’d been pulling out some food. Moral of the story: Look for unwanted animal intrusions when opening the fridge.

Slow down!
It’s that time of year when lots of deer are crossing our roads.
And lots of motorists are zooming by them without concern for the animals’ safety or their own apparently.
If you know the stretches of road where they often cross, take care even if you don’t see them.
For example the stretch of Nevada/Highway 115 between Cheyenne Mountain and Cheyenne Meadows is always deer country. They are crossing to the golf course lake.
And there are often dead deer by the side of the road all the time. And there are always speeders on the road. the two don’t mix.
I know sometimes the deer jump out without warning. But many of them would be alive if people were more cautious.
Also , if you see a deer and oncoming traffic is speeding toward them, blink your lights several times to give other motorists a warning.

We loved the Budweiser commercial that has aired during the Olympics. It’s the one where the draft horse is passed up as one of the team members that pulls the beer wagon.

A dalmation becomes his personal trainer and they work out in rain and snow and the horse lifts hay bails and even pulls a box car. Next year, after all that hard work, the horse wins a place on the draft horse team and they high five. The ad was one of the favorites in the Super Bowl, but it seems to fit even better here.

If you haven’t seen it go to youtube.com and plug in Budweiser horse training

If we were so diligent in training our dogs, we’d be better for it. And our dogs would be happier too.

Now we know.

Last week we chided a woman for cloning five puppies from her dog instead of rescuing shelter dogs.

Well, seems the woman had quite a sensational past. Back in 1977 she was a British tabloid sensation because she abducted a Mormon missionary and handcuffed him to a bed making him her sex slave, according to the Associated press.

In a court hearing at that time, she said she had fallen in love with him and tracked him to England. Then she jumped bail and was never tried for unlawful imprisonment. (She’s a former Miss Wyoming that attended the Mormon college, Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah where she met the missionary.)

She says she is innocent, and police won’t extradite her from Utah because the statue of limitations is long gone.

But back to the reason we wrote about her in the first place - cloning five puppies. We questioned that decision, thinking it would have been better for her to adopt five shelter dogs.
But come to think of it, would we want her adopting them? Seems the dogs may be losing out here, either way. But some people might argue just because she abused a missionary doesn’t
mean she is a bad dog owner.

What do you think?

You probably read the story about the American woman whose dog Booger died and so she paid $50,000 to have him cloned in Korea . She said that he saved her life once from a dog attack and helped her while she recuperated from hand injuries.

She said Booger had the ability to reason.

It’s too bad she didn’t use her own reasoning abilities.

She’s keeping three of the five puppies for herself, and donating the others to work as service dogs for the elderly and handicapped.

We know how traumatic it is to lose a pet, and even more so if it once saved your life., and that her donation of the two other pups is all well and good, but…

Wouldn’t it have been much better for her to have rescued five dogs already living and awaiting death row? There are millions of homeless dogs who are being euthenized all across the country because there aren’t enough homes. A lot of the best service dogs have come from shelters.

Then she could have taken that $50,000 that she spent on the cloning and given it to shelters or rescue groups who desperately need funds to fight against puppy mills, dog fighting, abuses, and homelessness.