THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

FRONT ROYAL, Va. — A Virginia man is facing an animal cruelty charge after police say he skinned a guinea pig and made a head ornament out of it.

Animal control officer Gerald L. Cubbage says 40-year-old Charles Woodson of Front Royal bought the guinea pig at a pet store in February. Neighbors later saw him wearing its hide on his head.

Warren County Deputy Laura L. Gomez said police seized a guinea pig hide including its head from Woodson’s home. They also have a photograph of Woodson wearing the hide. (more…)

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

NEENAH, Wis. — A year ago, Jake the rooster confounded Neenah officials. Now a household of exotic birds has city officials scratching for answers.

At issue is the Roseberry Bird Rescue, a nonprofit organization that cares for as many as 125 abandoned, abused or neglected birds until they can be rehabilitated and adopted.

The business has operated for 15 years from the home of MaryKay Rosenow and Randy Berryman, but it has been in violation of city zoning codes from the start. (more…)

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

VALLEJO, Calif. — A couple charged with animal cruelty and other crimes after more than 90 purebred puppies were confiscated from their home and business face a hearing in Solano County Superior Court on Monday.

Christopher John Derek Ellis and Leanna Rachelle Kamp, both 29, of Dixon, were arrested Dec. 17 after the Solano County District Attorney’s Office received numerous complaints that the couple had been selling sick and sometimes dying puppies. The breeds included Yorkshire terriers, Shiba Inus, Maltese and Shih Tzus. (more…)

THE ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

SPRING HILL, Fla. — Officials on the west coast of Florida are crafting new safeguards after mistakenly euthanizing a woman’s cat.

Maria Velez’s cat “Buddy” had been quarentined for four days at a Hernando County Animmal Services shelter after biting a pet sitter. But when she and her 11-year-old son went to pick up the orange, tiger-stripe cat they found it had been mistakenly euthanized. An animal services worker who thought she was calling Buddy’s owner called the wrong person. That person, who had also brought a cat to the shelter, said they did not want the cat and gave permission to have it euthanized. Buddy was euthanized instead. (more…)

KRISHA WILLIAMS TURBEVILLE
RESCUE IN THE ROCK

A Vilonia woman overwhelmed with at least 35 cats she’d taken in called the Faulkner County sheriff’s office and U.S. Sen. Blanche Lincoln for help.

With no county shelter, officials and Patricia Medley of Vilonia turned to Gentle Souls Pit Bull Rescue. (more…)

PHIL KLOER

COX NEWS SERVICE

ATLANTA — Could you get more ways to hook readers with a title than the new book Ghost Cats of the South?

Randy Russell, a North Carolina folklore scholar who collects ghost stories, has written 22 tales of undead kitties, based on local legends, including a piano-playing ghost cat in Atlanta. It’s a sequel to his book, Ghost Dogs. (more…)

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

PetSmart Charities is on the scene of a large-scale animal rescue effort in Wisconsin, ensuring hundreds of rescued pets have enough food and supplies.

The animal-rescue effort began yesterday and continued today in Cazenovia, Wis., where more than 350 animals including dogs, horses, fowl, livestock and other small animals were taken from a self-described “animal rescue and sanctuary.” (more…)

THE WASHINGTON POST

WASHINGTON — My dad figured he had all the time in the world to take care of Rocky. What he didn’t realize was that he needed quite a bit of money too.

My dad has a decent pension from his job as a cafeteria worker at St. Luke’s Roosevelt Hospital in New York. But all the pet food, veterinarian visits and other expenses are making a dent on his budget. Still, he loves Rocky and won’t give him up. (My mom is not as much of a fan, as Rocky is extremely rambunctious, but she puts up with him to please my dad.) (more…)

MARKETWIRE

PHOENIX, AZ — At about noon today, a PetSmart Charities Emergency Relief Waggin’ trailer, stocked with at least 16 tons of much-needed pet food and supplies, was deployed from the PetSmart Distribution Center in Phoenix, Ariz., to the Santa Barbara Humane Society to assist pets who have been displaced or injured by the Jesusita Fire in Santa Barbara County. (more…)

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

SENECA, Mo. — When authorities raided J.B.’s Precious Puppies, they discovered more than 200 dogs standing in their own excrement, crammed three and four to a cage. Some were so sickly they were missing clumps of hair. The skeletal remains of puppies and adult dogs were found inside pet-food bags.

The ghastly scene deep in the Ozarks has become far too common in Missouri. (more…)

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

PINE GROVE, Pa. — A woman stockpiled cat food donated to her purported animal sanctuary and resold some of it, leaving dozens of animals to go hungry, to finance a drug habit, police said.

Virginia Kresge Justiniano, who had run the Cats With No Name sanctuary since 1996, was charged with drug possession after being stopped for a traffic violation Saturday. (more…)

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

The Arkansas Senate easily passed a tough animal-cruelty bill Thursday that lawmakers had deadlocked over two years ago.

By a 34-0 vote, the Senate approved legislation that makes aggravated cruelty to cats, dogs and horses a felony on first offense. Currently, animal cruelty is a misdemeanor. (more…)

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

For the kittens dashing and tumbling around the room, the Washington Humane Society’s first Kittengarten class is all about the playtime.

But for the humans and the shelter there’s a bigger goal: making sure that cats are healthy and happy in their adoptive homes — and that they stay there. (more…)

DETROIT NEWS

Good news, Fido. Tough break, turkey: Some auto insurance companies have quietly begun offering free coverage to four-legged friends, paying medical bills for pets injured in car crashes.

But just as dogs and cats rule the roost at home, they also top the insurance pecking order. The handful of insurers that offer the coverage with comprehensive collision policies are drawing the line at cows, pigs, sheep, goats, chickens, turkeys and other animals kept for profit or food — although Farmers Insurance Group will cover ferrets, rodents and reptiles. (more…)

Dressed as Chi-Obama, Bonbon, a Chihuahua, is held up by his owner Ada Nieves of New York (unseen) as he poses for a photograph during the fourth annual Times Square Dog Day Masquerade on Sunday in New York’s Times Square. The canine costume contest, in which Bonbon was named “Miss Congeniality”, was held to raise awareness for Animal Haven’s Adopt-A-Pet program.(Photos by AP)

ST. PETERSBURG TIMES

This isn’t a political diatribe. It’s just our way of saying be original if you decide your dog needs to sport a Halloween costume. (more…)

A dog and his owner enjoy the festivities at the Humane Society’s Howl-O-Ween Festival on Saturday at the Clinton Library. Click here to view our gallery of this event. (Photo by Focus/BRYAN THORNHILL)

The Clinton Library was overrun with about 75 dogs of all shapes and sizes Saturday as animal lovers brought out their pets for the Humane Society Walk for the Animals at the Howl-O-Ween Festival. (more…)

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

OPELIKA, Ala. — Five veterinary clinics in eastern Alabama received 32 surprises in the last week: Healthy cats in containers and carriers, along with notes from an anonymous donor saying she is dying from cancer.

The notes signed by “Miss R” beg the vets to find her pets new homes. (more…)

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

DES MOINES, Iowa — He was a yellow tabby with twinkling green eyes, who arrived in the overnight drop box of a farmland library one frigid January night. Dewey Readmore Books became the library’s star boarder and an international celebrity.

Now he’s the subject of a best seller that chronicles the struggles of the library worker who found the trembling kitten, the town that embraced him and Dewey himself.

Dewey, the Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World, by Vicki Myron and Bret Witter, has 336,000 copies in print and has quickly climbed to the top 10 on The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Publishers Weekly and other lists of best sellers.

“It has great appeal,” Paul Ingram, buyer at Prairie Lights bookstore in Iowa City, says, comparing it to the hugely popular Marley & Me, about the joys and headaches of a difficult Labrador retriever.

Ingram says that Dewey attracts an odd mix of pet lovers and history buffs thanks to its weaving of the cat’s exploits with the history of a small town and Iowa. (more…)

Photo by Russell Powell/ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE

THE ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE

Corgis. Pomeranians. Shelties. Yorkshire terriers. Miniature poodles. Basset hounds. Mixed breeds. All dogs, all small in stature.

All eligible to compete in “teacup agility” — those diminutive dogs can indeed jump. Not always high, but with varied measures of grace and enthusiasm. (more…)