Dog Clothes Horse

Iams Home 4 the Holidays (IH4TH) needs your help to place 1.5 million pets into loving homes by January 4, 2010!

Last year, the program’s goal of helping 1 million pets get adopted within three months was outdone when 1,202,701 pets were placed in homes — including Rumi, adopted by two-time Academy Award® winner and 2009 IH4TH ambassador Hilary Swank.

With nearly 8 million homeless animals in the U.S. today, and almost half scheduled to be euthanized this year alone, our help is needed now more than ever. And who better to give these animals a voice than Hilary Swank?

In partnership with the Helen Woodward Animal Center, IH4TH is one of the most successful pet adoption programs in the world and brings together nearly 3,500 animal organizations worldwide. Since 1999, IH4TH has helped more than 3 million animals find homes and hopes to continue breaking the goals they set each year.

To learn more about how to make a difference in the life of a homeless pet — such as adopting, volunteering or donating — please visit IH4TH.COM and join us on Facebook and Twitter.

Source: [Iams Home 4 the Holidays]

Selling cars used to be an easier game: Pick a wide swath of the market and advertise your products to as many people as possible. But that's not working so well these days. Customers want products tailored to their needs and desires.

Enter Honda's Dog Friendly Element, a version of the boxy, small sport utility vehicle aimed at dogs -- and their owners.

A $1,000 dealer-installed accessory package on the 2010 model that went on sale today adds a ramp, a soft-sided dog cage, a water bowl, special doggy badges and a few other features to the Element.

[Source: Cleveland.com]

The K-9 police dog purchased by heavy metal rocker Ozzy Osbourne and his son, Jack, made his way to Muncie, Indiana last week to spend time with his partner, Muncie Police Sgt. Jay Turner, and train on the streets of Muncie.

"Jack and Ozzy sure came through for the department," Turner said. "The Osbourne family, they donated the money for the dog without even thinking about it, they just did it, which was very nice."

Turner received two checks in the mail just a few weeks ago. Both Ozzy and Jack gave the same amount: $4,500.

Jack Osbourne became a good friend to Muncie police after he spent time in the city as a reserve officer during the filming of the CBS reality television series Armed in Famous in 2006. He's kept in touch with other officers and earlier this year convinced his father to help buy the department a police dog to replace an aging K-9 officer.

"Obviously with all the cuts in the city, (getting a new dog) is something that hasn't been on a front burner for us," Police Chief Deb Davis said. "When I found out that Ozzy and Jack had agreed to pick up the tab I was a little surprised...it's kind of neat."

Naturally, they named the dog Ozzy.

[Source: The Star Press]

It’s considered impolite, yet everyone slips up occasionally. How can anyone be blamed for mixing up the name of a dog with that of its owner, especially when the dog is Henry and his owner goes by Rags?

Even still, Dick Sebastian resolved he would not make that particular mistake, or any similar one, at the small-dog run in Washington Square Park he started frequenting a few years ago with his wife, Susie, and his dog, Kitty (grounds for more confusion, but that was someone else’s problem). He whipped up cartoony illustrations of all the dogs at the run who, like Kitty, arrived like clockwork for the morning shift, and turned them into a chart labeled with their names. Mr. Sebastian sometimes brought the work in progress to the dog run, and over time, even owners who were not part of the regular crew — many of them part of a downtown, arty scene — asked if their pets could be included, or agreed when approached by Mr. Sebastian.

From there, Mr. Sebastian, a retired surgeon who is now 71, started experimenting with more serious portraiture, sketching some of the dogs he had come to know better than many of his friends’ grandchildren. He started with Sidney, an aristocratic, standoffish pug belonging to Roberta Bayley, a former punk-rock photographer turned dog photographer. Everyone marveled at the images.

“I thought he really captured her weirdness,” said Ms. Bayley, sitting, as she always does, beside her sedentary, aloof pet on a bench. “She’s very into herself and quiet and serenity.”

Mr. Sebastian estimates that in less than a year, he drew and presented around 50 dog portraits to their owners, as gifts — in most cases, to great appreciation.

To read the full story, and see some of the drawings, head on over to [Source: The New York Times.]