Cats & Dogs Are Family

this is my little bit about how they are a part of our family. pets just want love and to love they love you with no conditions. cats and dogs are always like a 3 year old child most of there life, until to old to play you need to take care of them you need to bring them to the vets as you do a child a doctor this care is very important and not to be neglected.. They enjoy being trained that want to understand you as much you do them as well want to please. as well there diet is very important.

enough of that our pets both the cats and dogs make us happy reduce stress are so loving and warm and when I am sad seem to know and at least one if not all are around trying to make me happy. when I can i spoil them with toys a stocking at Christmas. i also allow time to play with them and just sit and pet them each day and when i don't remember they remind me, as i said above like children when there isn't any noise I know something might be wrong. and when one passes it takes weeks not to brake down in tears with the thought of them and still as years go by you share memories of them . I am often sharing child hood tales with my husband of my dog lady and I. this lens is all about cats and dogs I hope you enjoy.

Geriatric researchers from the University of Guelph in Guelph, Ontario published a study showing how elderly people who own pets are more active than those who do not, suggesting that pet ownership has positive effects on physical well-being.
According to a study in the the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, caring for a dog or cat also serves as a buffer against isolation and loneliness in elderly people.
Pet ownership was shown to have a "statistically significant effect on the physical health of older people," according to the Canadian team of researchers led by Dr. Parminder Raina. Raina and colleagues conducted telephone interviews with over 1,000 independently living, elderly Canadians, 286 of whom owned either a dog or cat.
The investigators discovered that pet owners were "more physically active than non-pet owners," scoring higher in their ability to carry out the normal activities of daily living. But the study findings also show that dog ownership, and the regular walks that can entail, was linked to physical activity levels similar to those found in cat owners.
The researchers speculate that the "care-taking role" involved in pet ownership "may provide older people with a sense of purpose and responsibility and encourage them to be less apathetic and more active in day-to-day activities."
The researchers also report that pet ownership "buffered" the psychological impact of social isolation in some elderly individuals. In fact, the authors found that elderly people who lacked strong social support (for example, family and friends) remained relatively emotionally healthy during life-crises compared with non-pet-owners placed in similar situations.
Dr. Parminder Raina and his team believes their findings support the notion that pets provide real health benefits to the elderly. And they call for longer-term studies to further elucidate the "complex relationship" between humans and their animal companions.
(From the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, March 1999)

Inspection round %u2026 Oscar patrols the dementia unit of a nursing home in Providence, Rhode Island.Photo: AP
Colin Nickerson in Providence, Rhode IslandJuly 27, 2007
Page 1 of 2 Single page

OSCAR the cat makes his grand entrances just as life is about to leave.
A hop onto the bed, a fastidious lick of the paws, then a snuggle beside a nursing home patient with little time left. Oscar's purr, when keeping close company with the dying, is so intense it is almost a low rumble.
"He's a cat with an uncanny instinct for death," said David Dosa, assistant professor at the Brown University School of Medicine and a geriatric specialist. "He attends deaths. He's pretty insistent on it."
In the two years since Oscar was adopted into the dementia unit of the Steere House Nursing and Rehabilitation Centre in Providence he has maintained close vigil over the deaths of more than 25 patients, nursing staff and doctors say.
Dr Dosa had an essay on Oscar published yesterday in The New England Journal of Medicine.
Like any feline, Oscar gives a hefty portion of his day to sleep. He likes to doze on stacks of patient reports. Or on the desk at the nurses' station. Or in the linen closet.
When awake, however, the mixed-breed cat shows a solemn dedication to duty, making regular "inspection" rounds of the unit, sauntering in and out of patient rooms - as if checking on the condition of the occupants.
When death is near, Oscar nearly always appears at the last hour or so. Yet he shows no special interest in patients who are simply in poor shape, or even patients who may be dying but who still have a few days. Authorities in animal behaviour have no explanation for Oscar's ability to sense imminent death. They theorise that he might detect some subtle change in metabolism - felines are as acutely sensitive to smells as dogs - but are stumped as to why he would show interest.
In any event, when Oscar settles on a patient's bed, caregivers take it as a sign that family members should be summoned immediately.
"We've come to recognise him hopping on the bed as one indicator the end is very near," said Mary Miranda, charge nurse on the surprisingly cheery floor that is home to 41 patients in the final stages of Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, a stroke, and other mentally debilitating diseases. "Oscar's been consistently right."
Keeping pets has been a trend in nursing home care for several years. The Steere Centre, founded in 1874, has 120 residents, plus six cats, a slew of parakeets and a floppy-eared rabbit. Oscar's sole domain, however, is the locked dementia ward. He came to the unit as a kitten in July 2005, brought by a staff member to replace the floor's previous resident feline, Henry, who had died some months earlier.

Meet Chanel: Almost 21, the world's oldest dog
She has cataracts and gets cold easily - but there's life in the old dog yet

By Mike Celizic
TODAYShow.com contributor
updated 10:13 a.m. ET, Wed., May 6, 2009
They say every dog has its day, but this one has had more than most: Chanel, a dachshund mix, is going to be celebrating her 21st birthday (that's 120 in human years, according to Chanel's veterinarian). And though she wears "doggles" for cataracts and gets cold easily, there's life in the old dog yet.

The birthday girl, looking sporty in a pink sweater and the trademark red goggles she wears because of her cataracts, visited the TODAY show set in New York Wednesday with her owner, Denice Shaughnessy.

"She's doing fine," Shaughnessy said of Chanel. "The vet says he's never seen a dog her age do so much."

read entire story and see video here
http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/30596398/
if it doesnt come up just put in search
Meet Chanel: Almost 21, the world's oldest dog

Blown-away pup back, owners credit psychic
There's no place like home for this Chihuahua, who was tossed by wind

updated 2:08 p.m. ET, Tues., April 28, 2009

WATERFORD TOWNSHIP, Mich. - Tinker Bell has been reunited with her owners two days after a 70-mph gust of wind picked up the six-pound Chihuahua and tossed her out of sight.

Dorothy and Lavern Utley credit a pet psychic for guiding them on Monday to a wooded area nearly a mile from where 8-month-old Tinker Bell had been last seen. The brown long-haired dog was dirty and hungry but otherwise OK.

"We were shocked when we found her," Dorothy, 72, told The Detroit News. "You don't know how happy we were. We love her so much."

find the rest of the story here
http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/30458381/

By Laura T. Coffey
TODAYShow.com contributor
updated 3:14 p.m. ET, Mon., April 27, 2009

The squirmy puppy in the cardboard box was so adorable. The fluffy kitten on display at the pet store touched you with her paw. The docile bunny rabbit seemed like such a nice Easter surprise.

Many of us mere mortals fall in love with animals on the spot and impulsively take them home with us. That's not always the wisest move to make, though, especially in economic times like these. It's all too easy for inexperienced pet owners to step on financial land mines before they know what hit them.

Even in flush times, hasty decisions about animals can prove to be hard on the humans and the animals involved. To avoid unnecessary heartache and steer clear of some of the most common mistakes new pet owners make, consider these tips.

see rest of the story here
http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/30392956/

Help pets feed pets rescue pets your clicks matter clcik is all you do no money just please clcik to feed a pet today

http://www.theanimalrescuesite.com/clickToGive/home.faces?siteId=3

please use pet finder when adopting your dog they find dogs in shelters for you who really need a home

http://www.petfinder.com/

Just this side of heaven is a place called Rainbow Bridge.

When an animal dies that has been especially close to someone here, that pet goes to Rainbow Bridge.
There are meadows and hills for all of our special friends so they can run and play together.
There is plenty of food, water and sunshine, and our friends are warm and comfortable.

All the animals who had been ill and old are restored to health and vigor; those who were hurt or maimed are made whole and strong again, just as we remember them in our dreams of days and times gone by.
The animals are happy and content, except for one small thing; they each miss someone very special to them, who had to be left behind.

They all run and play together, but the day comes when one suddenly stops and looks into the distance. His bright eyes are intent; His eager body quivers. Suddenly he begins to run from the group, flying over the green grass, his legs carrying him faster and faster.

You have been spotted, and when you and your special friend finally meet, you cling together in joyous reunion, never to be parted again. The happy kisses rain upon your face; your hands again caress the beloved head, and you look once more into the trusting eyes of your pet, so long gone from your life but never absent from your heart.

Then you cross Rainbow Bridge together....

A wonderful card to with the poem
http://www.indigo.org/rainbowbridge_ver2.html

this is the pet loss site and it helped me I hope will help you
http://www.petloss.com/rainbowbridge.htm

Another wonderful Site
http://www.pawsawhileonline.com/

Please if you lost a pet and have a memorial you would like to post please post here.

Egyptian sculpture at the LouvreMain articles: History of cats and Cats in ancient Egypt
Cats have been kept by humans since at least ancient Egypt, where Bast in cat form was goddess of the home, the domesticated cat, protector of the fields and home from vermin infestations, and sometimes took on the warlike aspect of a lioness. The first domesticated cats may have saved early Egyptians from many rodent infestations and likewise, Bast developed from the adoration for her feline companions. She was the daughter of the sun god Ra and played significant role in Ancient Egyptian religion. It has been speculated that cats resident in Kenya's Islands in the Lamu Archipelago may be the last living direct descendants of the cats of ancient Egypt.[91]

Freya and her catsSeveral ancient religions believed that cats are exalted souls, companions or guides for humans, that they are all-knowing but are mute so they cannot influence decisions made by humans. In Japan, the Maneki Neko is a cat that is a symbol of "good fortune". Although there are no sacred species in Islam, it is said by some writers that Muhammad had a favorite cat, Muezza.[92] It is said he loved cats so much that "he would do without his cloak rather than disturb one that was sleeping on it".[93]

Freyja - the goddess of love, beauty, and fertility in Norse mythology - is depicted as riding a chariot drawn by cats.

There are also negative superstitions about cats in many cultures. An example would be the belief that a black cat "crossing your path" leads to bad luck, or that cats are witches' familiars used to augment a witch's powers and skills. This belief led to the widespread extermination of cats in Europe in medieval times. Killing the cats aggravated epidemics of the Black Plague in places where there were not enough cats left to keep rat populations down. The plague was spread by fleas carried by infected rats.

An exaggerated fear of cats is known as ailurophobia.

Nine lives
According to a myth in many cultures, cats have nine (or sometimes seven) lives. The myth is attributed to the natural suppleness and swiftness cats exhibit to escape life-threatening situations.[94] Also lending credence to this myth is that falling cats often land on their feet because of an inbuilt automatic twisting reaction and are able to twist their bodies around to land feet first, though they can still be injured.

The domestication of the gray wolf took place in a handful of events roughly 15,000 years ago in central Asia. The dog quickly became ubiquitous across culture in all parts of the world, and was extremely valuable to early human settlements. For instance, it is believed that the successful emigration across the Bering Strait might not have been possible without sled dogs.[3] As a result of the domestication process, the dog developed a sophisticated intelligence that includes unparalleled social cognition and a simple theory of mind[citation needed] that is important to their interaction with humans. These social skills have helped the dog to perform in myriad roles, such as hunting, herding, protection, and, more recently, assisting handicapped individuals. Currently, there are estimated to be 400 million dogs in the world.[4]

Over the 15,000 year span that the dog had been domesticated, it diverged into only a handful of landraces, groups of similar animals whose morphology and behavior have been shaped by environmental factors and functional roles. As the modern understanding of genetics developed, humans began to intentionally breed dogs for a wide range of specific traits. Through this process, the dog has developed into hundreds of varied breeds, and shows more behavioral and morphological variation than any other land mammal.[5] For example, height measured to the withers ranges from a few inches in the Chihuahua to a few feet in the Irish Wolfhound; color varies from white through grays (usually called "blue'") to black, and browns from light (tan) to dark ("red" or "chocolate") in a wide variation of patterns; coats can be short or long, coarse-haired to wool-like, straight, curly, or smooth.[6] It is common for most breeds to shed this coat, but non-shedding breeds are also popular.

The domestic dog was originally classified as Canis familiaris and Canis familiarus domesticus by Linnaeus in 1758, and is currently classified as Canis lupus familiaris, a subspecies of the gray wolf Canis lupus, by the Smithsonian Institution and the American Society of Mammalogists. Overwhelming evidence from behavior, vocalizations, morphology, and molecular biology led to the contemporary scientific understanding that a single species, the gray wolf, is the common ancestor for all breeds of domestic dogs, however the timeframe and mechanisms by which dogs diverged are controversial.

The current consensus among biologists and archaeologists is that no one can be sure when dogs were domesticated. There is conclusive evidence that dogs genetically diverged from their wolf ancestors at least 15,000 years ago but some believe domestication to have occurred earlier. The bulk of the scientific evidence for the evolution of the domestic dog stems from archealogical findings and mitochondrial DNA studies. The divergence date of roughly 15000 years ago is based in part on archaeological evidence that demonstrates that the domestication of dogs occurred prior to 15,000 years ago, and some genetic evidence indicates that the domestication of dogs from their wolf ancestors began in the late Upper Paleolithic close to the Pleistocene/Holocene boundary, between 17,000 and 14,000 years ago. But there is a wide range of other, contradictory findings that make this issue controversial.

Archaeological evidence plays a large role in this debate. In 2008, a team of international scientists released findings from an excavation at Goyet Cave in Belgium declaring that a large, toothy canine existed 31,700 years ago and ate a diet of horse, musk ox and reindeer. The morphology of the skeleton and the context in which it was found led researchers to hypothesize that this canine was an ancient domesticated dog. Prior to this Belgium discovery, the earliest dog fossils were two large skulls from Russia and a mandible from Germany, that dated from roughly 14,000 years ago.Remains of smaller dogs from Natufian cave deposits in the Middle East have been dated to around 10,000 to 12,000 years ago. There is a great deal of archealogical evidence for dogs throughout Europe and Asia around this period and through the next two thousand years (roughly 8,000 to 10,000 years ago), with fossils uncovered in Germany, the French Alps, and Iraq, and cave paintings in Turkey.

This ancient mosaic, likely Roman, shows a large dog with a collar hunting a lion.Thus, the archaeological evidence suggests that the latest dogs could have diverged from wolves was roughly 15000 years ago, although it is possible that they diverged much earlier.

DNA studies have provided a wider range of possible divergence dates, from 15,000 to 40,000 years ago, to as much as 100,000 to 140,000 years ago. This evidence depends on a number of assumptions that may be violated. Genetic studies are based in comparisons of genetic diversity between species, and depend on a calibration date. Many estimates of divergence dates from DNA evidence use an estimated wolf-coyote divergence date (roughly 1 million years ago) as a calibration. If this estimate is incorrect, and the actual wolf-coyote divergence is closer to 750,000 or 2 million years ago, then the DNA evidence that supports specific dog-wolf divergence dates would be interpreted very differently. Furthermore, it is believed that the genetic diversity of wolves has been in decline for the last 200 years, and that the genetic diversity of dogs has been reduced by selective breeding. This could significantly bias DNA analyses to support an earlier divergence date. The genetic evidence for the domestication event occurring in East Asia is also subject to violations of assumptions. These conclusions are based on the location of maximal genetic divergence, and assumes that hybridization does not occur, and that breeds remain geographically localized. Although these assumptions hold for many species, there is good reason to believe that they do not hold for canines.

Genetic analyses indicate all dogs are likely descended from a handful of domestication events with a small number of founding females, although there is evidence that domesticated dogs interbred with local populations of wild wolves on several occasions. Data suggests that dogs first diverged from wolves in East Asia, and that these domesticated dogs then quickly migrated throughout the world, reaching the North American continent around 8000 B.C The oldest groups of dogs, which show the greatest genetic variability and are the most similar to their wolf ancestors, are primarily Asian and African breeds, including the Basenji, Lhasa Apso, and Siberian Husky. Some breeds that were thought to be very old, such as the Pharaoh Hound, Ibizan Hound, and Norwegian Elkhound, are now known to have been created more recently.

There is a great deal of controversy surrounding the evolutionary framework for the domestication of dogs. Although it is widely claimed that "man domesticated the wolf," man may not have taken so proactive a role in the process The nature of the interaction between man and wolf that led to domestication is unknown and controversial. At least three early species of the Homo genus began spreading out of Africa roughly 400,000 years ago, and thus lived for a considerable period in contact with canine species. Despite this, there is no evidence of any adaptation of canine species to the presence of the close relatives of modern man. If dogs were domesticated, as believed, roughly 15,000 years ago, the event (or events) would have coincided with a large expansion in human territory and the development of agriculture. This has led some biologists to suggest that one of the forces that led to the domestication of dogs was a shift in human lifestyle in the form of established human settlements. Permanent settlements would have coincided with a greater amount of disposable food and would have created a barrier between wild and anthropogenic canine populations
Wikii

beleive it or not you pet doesnt look for the best toy on the market comercials nope . unlike children they dont see all those toys advertized at the holidays here are some great ideas for toys pets love

First cat toys

Paper or ping pong ball - Believe it or not, your kitty can have hours of fun with this. Simply take a large piece of paper, crumple it into a ball and throw it.

String toys - Attach a feather to a piece of string or use a fishing pole with fun creative lures at the end, such as bells or lights.

Bag toys - Never use a plastic bag for these homemade cat toys, but instead use a large paper bag from a supermarket or department store. You can also do this with a cardboard box, just be sure to remove all staples and tape

or take a childs sock fill with more socks with holes that you might throw away ad cat nip and you have a throw toy like those mice you buy in the store;

box toy tak a box not to big but that your cat can sleep in put it on its side make 2 holes on rop and put one end of string through one hole and other through the other and add a feather to on and a bell or something to the other

dog toys

old stuff toys no buttons or pull off eyes on them
knotted rope

take an old shirt might trow away and draw a bone about a foot long
cut it out and then trace to make another sew to peices togethe and fill with socks

socks did I hear socks stuff socky inside a sock and ti knot in the end