If you own a dog that likes to wander away from home, or you just want added protection against losing your pet, there's a new product that uses GPS tracking technology to ensure your dog will never get lost again.
Although there are similar products available for hunters, the Spotlight GPS Pet Locator, developed by Positioning Animals Worldwide (PAW) of Raleigh, N.C., was introduced in July and has the endorsement of the American Kennel Club Companion Animal Recovery.
The device attaches to your dog's collar and includes a tag with an ID number. It can detect when your dog leaves its secure boundary (called a SafeSpot) and alerts the owner via email, text message or both (great if you're at work or away from home). The owner then receives the dog's real-time location as well as turn-by-turn directions to find the dog. There's also a Good Samaritan "rescue button" that someone can press if they find the dog; it notifies the owner and AKC Companion Animal Recovery.
The introductory price of the Pet Locator is $199.99 from the Web site and includes a rechargeable battery, charging cable, collar attachment strap and collar tag with lifetime enrollment in the AKC CAR recovery service.
My dogs would never wander from home, but if you can't be sure about yours, this is worth checking out.
So it turns out there wasn't much going on Thursday night either for or against Michael Vick in Philadelphia. According to the Web site Fanhouse.com, three women held a banner outside the team's stadium that said, "Murderers are not role models," while elsewhere, about a dozen men gathered for what clearly looked like an orchestrated rally in support of Vick.
At the stroke of 6:30 p.m., Fanhouse reported, the men, reportedly from the Philadelphia chapter of the NAACP, turned toward a group of TV cameras so that their leader could speak.
Here's what J. Whyatt Mondesire said: "We're here to show our support for Michael Vick. It's been kind of a one-sided battle, so we wanted to come out and show the other side. We choose our own causes. The dialogue on this has been one-sided and we've seen a lot of racism."
OK, so maybe I'm missing something here. Until now, I haven't heard anyone talk about racism in the Vick case. For those of us who own pets and love animals, it has always been about Vick's use of dogs for a horrendous act called dogfighting and for killing dogs he deemed poor competitors.
It's not - and has never been -- about civil rights or race or even Vick's right to a second chance. The way I figure it, he got his second chance the day he was released from prison. He doesn't have a right to earn millions of dollars playing professional football, and he certainly doesn't have the right to mutilate dogs, regardless of his color.
But at least his so-called supporters got their time on TV. It still doesn't change what Vick did, and it sure won't change the way a rational society thinks of him.
I wasn't really sure if dog lovers would band together and organize a protest when Michael Vick plays his first game for the Philadelphia Eagles, but here's one thing I never figured would happen: Someone is actually putting together a march in support of Vick.
That's right. When Vick makes his expected debut in an Eagles uniform tonight at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia, demonstrators are scheduled to show up and offer support for the disgraced quarterback - despite a request from the team that they cancel their rally.
J. Whyatt Mondesire, president of the NAACP's Philadelphia chapter, told the Associated Press: "We believe Michael Vick has served his time, paid his debt to society and deserves a second chance and the animal rights groups want to hold him hostage for the rest of his life. We think that's patently unfair. It denies Michael Vick's basic civil rights, denies him his ability to make a living."
Besides the NAACP, other supporters include the Black Clergy of Philadelphia and several local civil rights groups.
Eagles security officials are planning for several individual animal rights protests outside the stadium, but there's unlikely to be an organized group. ESPN.com reported that animal advocates were planning a tailgate party on the other side of town for the 2nd Chance Dogs campaign to increase awareness about dogfighting.
"As a lot of people have pointed out, [Vick's] animals never got a second chance," SPCA chief executive Sue Cosby told ESPN. "We need to speak for them."
The blog site Profootballtalk.com points out that it's possible the rally supporting Vick may actually be the idea of the quarterback's people, who figured it might be a good way to offset any likely negative publicity he would attract from protestors.
Cynical? Yes, but very possible.
Some people just don't get it.
Do NOT leave your dog in your car. Period.
These kinds of stories are becoming all too common, and it frightens me to think that pet owners can be so ignorant of a basic tent: Just as a child can die in a hot car, so can a dog.
In Washington state last week, a woman left her black Labrador Retriever in her car for several hours on a hot day on Bainbridge Island. The outside temperature was between 70 and 80 degrees. Inside her car, with the windows rolled up, police estimated it was at least 110 degrees.
The woman told police later that she had been out with her dog in the morning and returned home about 11 a.m., forgetting that the dog was inside the car. She began looking for her pet and discovered her in the car several hours later. By then, the dog, named Bear, was already dead.
This incident comes on the heels of another dog's death in the area several days earlier. A Pit Bull died when its owners, who were attending a festival, were told that dogs were not allowed inside. They left the dog in their car for two hours, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., and when they returned, it had already died from the summer heat.
In both cases, animal control is investigating to determine if charges should be filed against the owners.
I think it's great that pet owners love to bring their dogs with them, but under no circumstances should you ever leave your dog in the car. Not in the summer, and really, never.
I wanted to write this story last week, but I got sidetracked by all the news about Michael Vick - his return to professional football, his appearance on "60 Minutes," his first taste of freedom after spending time in prison for financing a dogfighting operation.
Finally, I can tell you about Jarvis, a Jack Russell Terrier that got separated from his owner and somehow found his way home. And in a way, it relates to the Vick case because it explains something about dogs that many people forget.
It happened this month while Jarvis was on a walk in the south of England with Vivienne Oxley, his owner. As Jack Russells often do, he saw a rabbit and chased after it.
The two became separated, and Oxley, after searching for him for an hour, finally gave up. Little did she know that Jarvis knew the way home.
According to the Daily Telegraph, he walked a quarter mile to a passenger ferry and got on board for the ride across the Plymouth Sound. The park warden, who had been alerted to the dog's disappearance by Oxley, called to tell her that six-year-old Jarvis had been seen boarding the ferry.
Before she could get to the docks and get him, though, she got a call from her husband telling her that Jarvis was already home. He apparently had gotten off the ferry and walked another half mile to the family residence.
"I just couldn't believe it," Oxley told the Telegraph. "I was so relieved. When I got home he just sat in the window as if nothing had happened."
Amazing, right?
People who want to forgive dog abusers so easily often say, "It's just a dog." But think about it: Here's a dog that had the intelligence and resolve to find his way home - from many miles away.
Dogs and cats are smart, and perhaps that's one reason we make them our pets. They understand us. They know when we're happy or feeling blue. They love our companionship. They know our moods in ways that others don't.
That's why I find it so hard to believe that people can't understand why dog lovers are reluctant to forgive someone like Vick, who clearly had (and may still have) such a cavalier attitude about dogs that he thought nothing of willfully killing them.
