A couple of weeks ago a friend, Kyla Duffy, stopped by our house for dinner and she brought Bill. Bill is her Boston Terrier. She rescued him from a puppy mill. He's a true gentleman and just adorable! Kyla asked if she could bring her foster terrier, Olive, also and we said, "Sure." Our dogs love other dogs.

Well, true to form, all the dogs had a ball together. Emily (our treewalker hound) and Chester (our coon  hound) both rescue dogs themselves, thought it was 'keen' having two little buddies to run around with. I'm probably dating myself by using the word 'keen' but...hey, that's what it seemed like to me.

All the dogs chased each other, did the little barking thing ("hey, stay away from my rump!") and basically enjoyed each other's company.

Olive was especially active. She ran around and sniffed the big dogs and just wanted to figure out this new place she was in.

OMG! PetCentric is pulling out all the stops. I bet YOUR dog could win one of these prizes... check out this video!

p.s. hey, does your dog look like John O'Hurley? Send US a picture to share... we're all ears, I mean, eyes, about it!

 Of course they dream! I say that with firm conviction, but, in reality, I only know that my pets seem to dream.  Why, just today, the resident kitty was meowing in her sleep. I must assume she is dreaming. Isn't that what you would think?

Perhaps the question isn't "do pets dream" but, "what do pets dream?" We pet people can surmise certain things about our pets and what they might dream. For instance, I worry that my cat's meowing today, during her morning nap, was a cry in pain. Does that mean she wasn't dreaming? Does it mean she got a twinge somewhere, and called out in pain, as a reflex, not a result of a dream?

My good friend, Roxanne Hawn, whom I met at BlogPaws East in April, is asking for our help in a fantastic campaign she created called "Never Shock A Puppy."

You can read her post here...on her Champion of My Heart blog. The campaign has been created to show that shock collars are a bad idea. It may seem obvious, but it's not. Many good people believe the shock collar is a good way to train your dog. We know these people are trying to do what's best. I do not know anyone who would hurt their dog, ever, for any reason.

I have a small savings account. It just got smaller because we had a minor issue here and I had to tap into the savings account to pay for it. I could have charged the problem to my credit card - and paid the 15% interest over ... however many months it would take to pay it off. In addition to the new charges. There are always new charges, small as they may be sometimes. Weddings, babies being born, birthdays, anniversaries, graduations; they all require gifts and gifts cost money.

I'm lucky enough to say I usually pay off my credit card balances every month. But, if I had put this emergency cost on my credit card, the amount would have put me in debt for several months.

Did you know that women Veterinarians outnumbered men in the profession for the first time ever last year?

According to the American Veterinary Medical Association there were 44,802 women Vets and 43,196 men. It was only a matter of time. Women have outnumbered men in Vet Schools around the country for a number of years. Fully 78% of Veterinary students are women according to the Association of American Veterinary Colleges.

I was walking with Miles up on Boston Hill yesterday and, as so often happens, I ran into another dog walker. I noticed this fellow when he was about fifty yards away and he was trying to get one of his dogs on the leash. Miles was off his leash and my assumption was that his dog might be aggressive with other dogs, so I put Miles on his leash and moved off the trail to let the other fellow and his brace of large mixed breed critters pass.

As I waited I noticed how he was jerking up on his dog's choke collar enough to actually lift his front end off the ground trying to make him sit and pay attention.

Wag-World from Beneful® has been hosting a fantastic contest to award a lucky winner $500,000 for a dog park makeover! Can you say OMG! (that's oh my gosh at my house)

PLUS... the winner also gets $5000 cash, a year's supply of Beneful brand dog food, and the winner's idea for the "ultimate dream dog park" will serve as an inspiration for that large donatin to renovate a public or non-profit dog park in his/her area.

Woohoo, as we say in the blogosphere!

You can view the finalists NOW! Hop over to the Dream Dog Park site and check them out.

This story about Bullet, a rottweiler/Austrialian blue mix, got my attention from the first sentence because he reminds me of my Carmie, (that's her with The Grumpy Old Lady before she was Grumpy and Old) who went over the Rainbow Bridge almost two years ago.

Carmie wasn't quite as good at escaping as Bullet is - at least, if the story is true and I believe it is. Carmie, in her younger years, would bolt out the door at the sound of it opening, and no matter how hard you held it, she would get through. She felt it her duty to check the neighborhood for...I don't really know what... other dogs? Thieves? Cats? Bad squirrels? Whatever drove her to find ways to escape, was something only she knew.

She rarely got through the fence in the backyard, and when I elected to use invisible fencing, she only broke through twice, before she decided to stay away from the border.

My old friend and colleague, Paul Bartishevich has launched a new web site dealing with all things scientific.

Paul is the CEO of Finger Lakes Productions, a radio production company that produces Animal Instincts, among other programs.