Pet Health

Some cosmetic makers still test their ingredients on rabbits, guinea pigs, mice, and rats, forcing substances down their throats and applying them to the eyes or skin of test animals. Often, the testing protocols do not require pain relief and animals suffer terribly The Humane Cosmetics Act (H.R. 2790), sponsored by United States Representatives Martha McSally (R-AZ), Don Beyer (D-VA), Ed Royce (R-CA), Tony Cárdenas (D-CA), Frank LoBiondo (R-NJ) and Paul D. Tonko (D-NY), will end this unnecessary cruelty by prohibiting animal testing for all cosmetic products manufactured or sold in the U.S.

Pepper is coming into his own at two months – curious, playful, affectionate and utterly fearless. He keeps trying to make friends with the older cats and dogs in his foster home, but they are uniformly cranky and just ignore him. So, he needs a home where he can make new friends.

I had my yellow lab, Ginger, shaved earlier this summer because she always seems so hot and she seemed to like that, but I noticed yesterday when we got home from the beach that the skin on her back seemed a little red. Could she have gotten a sunburn?

BeBe is a handsome and affectionate youngster, who’s just desperately eager for his very own home. Some no-goods were found trying to take advantage of his sweet and trusting nature, hence the name, BeBe, yes that’s right. But he was rescued just in time by a kind passerby and escaped uninjured. Now, he is ready to share his sweet nature with you!

You know the children’s rhyme that goes, “There was a little girl and she had a little curl, right in the middle of her forehead. And when she was good she was very very good. And when she was bad she was horrid.” That was really about Peaches the cat. She is calm, amiable and affectionate most of the time. She’s fine with strangers and other cats.

We’ve featured Buttercup before. But, he still needs a home, especially now that one of his “foster sisters” is stalking him and he has to hide in the basement a lot to get away from her. He has an interesting story. Sometime in the late spring, he manged to get inside the home of his foster mom, unbeknownst to her, and take up residence in the basement.

A recent survey by the Indiana University Media School of 7000 people (both cat people and dog people) found that; after watching online cat videos they were more energetic and had fewer negative emotions such as anxiety or sadness, that they often watched them at work or while studying and that that the pleasure from watching the videos outweighed any guilt about procrastinating.

Do you know anything about so-called Thundershirts? I think they are like a straightjacket for dogs and I cannot imagine then being healthy. They sound like they are just a money-maker being sold to well-meaning dog owners thinking they are helping their pets.

We’ve featured Gabrielle before, but she is still hanging out at the OCHS office. She is tired of being an office cat. She wants to be a house cat! Gabby was surrendered to the Humane Society by a well-meaning but not very well-equipped “cat lover” who had acquired 24 cats.