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…)

Pulaski County Humane Society volunteer Karen Kelley holds a dog rescued last Friday from a suspected puppy mill. The dog’s hair has grown over its eyes so that it’s mostly blind. Groomers this weekend will cut the hair of all the dogs rescued.

KRISHA WILLIAMS TURBEVILLE
RESCUE IN THE ROCK

40 dogs were seized from a shed in Lonsdale on Sept. 26 by the Humane Society of Pulaski County and the Saline County Sheriff’s Department, which cited a Benton woman for animal cruelty. (more…)

KRISHA WILLIAMS TURBEVILLE
RESCUE IN THE ROCK

Ella and Emma were rescued in mid-September from a pen deep in the woods of western Pulaski County.

For years, all the two dogs had was each other and their elderly owner, who was admitted to a nursing home last year. He could only come out to feed and play with the dogs once a week. Recently, the man died, leaving Ella and Emma with only each other. (more…)

McCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS

LEXINGTON, Ky. — In the same way it has never occurred to you that your cat can run the vacuum, it probably has never occurred to you that your dog can dance — dance with you, in fact.

And yet here, in the gleaming expanse of Uptown Hounds near South Broadway, is a goldish 3-year-old border collie named Hayley running through moves to music, weaving through her owner’s legs on cue, spinning, strutting on her hind legs and finishing on her back, belly bared and with one leg poking dramatically through the air, a border collie ready for a Liza Minnelli-style “Cabaret” turn. (more…)

What makes your pet outstanding? Was she rescued from an abusive environment? Does he do cool tricks? Is she the smartest animal ever? Did he save you from a burning inferno? Tell us about it!

Email me your story and photos of your pet. Be sure to put “Pet of the Month” in the subject line. If selected, your pet will be featured all month as Rescue in the Rock’s Pet of the Month, and you both will get a great prize!

The Pet of the Month for October will be selected Sept. 30 and posted Oct. 1. We’ll be accepting emails from now to midnight Sept. 29. Or you can enter by snail mail: Krisha Williams Turbeville, 121 E. Capitol, Little Rock, AR, 72201.

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

NEW YORK — A fluffy little dog named Lexi is being called a hero for helping to rescue an 85-year-old neighbor who collapsed in his Brooklyn apartment.

Linda Deutsch concedes that she thought Lexi — a white bichon frise (bee-SHON’ free-ZAY’) — was being naughty when she refused to get into the elevator for their walk. (more…)

THE WASHINGTON POST

One of the many transitions thrust on freshman going off to college is saying good-bye to the family pet. But, guess what: Although college dorms have traditionally been known as pet-free zones, a handful are now allowing certain animals in selected residence halls to give students a more homey feeling about their living space. (more…)

KRISHA WILLIAMS TURBEVILLE
RESCUE IN THE ROCK

A passionate animal-welfare activist and magazine editor, Erin Bradford still finds time to create custom pet portraits that are both graghic and personalized.

What started out as a hobby and gift-giving idea has turned into a small business for the 27-year-old. (more…)

KRISHA WILLIAMS TURBEVILLE
RESCUE IN THE ROCK

Don’t waste your money on bunny toys; egg crates, soda bottles with bells in them, or a plain cardboard box are far more appreciated. Not all veterinarians are qualified to care for rabbits, so it’s important to consult approved vets.

These are just a few of the tips offered to 20 people and about half a dozen bunnies who attended the Arkansas Pet Rabbit Network meeting Saturday at the Dee Jones Library. (more…)

KRISHA WILLIAMS TURBEVILLE
RESCUE IN THE ROCK

I’ll share mine with you if you share yours with me – not that I haven’t already told you all about my cats.

When Annabel and I were living alone in an apartment in Northwest Arkansas, she loved to go outside and had a little kitty door in the window so that – for a couple hours – she could come and go as she pleased. (There wasn’t any traffic because it was very late, and she rarely strayed far.)

One night she pops in the window, and I noticed something in her mouth – something furry … and alive! She deposited it right behind the couch, meowing at me for approval. (more…)

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

HIGHLAND, Ind. — A 60-pound tortoise that escaped from a family’s garage last month is back home after a 2 1/2-week adventure that took him through three northwestern Indiana towns. (more…)