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Posts with tag pets

New GPS Collar Lets You Track Your Lost or Stolen Pet

by Terrence O'Brien, posted Dec 4th 2008 at 7:31AM

New Collar Will Track Your Lost or Stolen DogStrapping a GPS tracker to a dog is nothing new, but British start up company Retrieva is offering a smaller and much more feature-packed version that in better economic times might have become quite a hit.

Unlike earlier models, which were so large they needed to strapped to a dog's back, the new GPS collar is worn, well... as a collar around the neck. The collar is waterproof, made of cut-resistant webbing, and has a key-lock mechanism to make it all but indestructible and impossible to remove by anyone but the dogs owner.

The collar uses a built-in cellular radio to send text message alerts if your dog wanders beyond a programable distance from the base station. The unit then sends constant updates about its location, which can be viewed on either a mobile phone or on downloadable mapping software.

This is great for someone who has a dog that tends to wander off or escape on a regular basis. Unfortunately, at £250 (about $370) it's probably only going to make it on the shopping list of the most paranoid dog lovers. [From: Daily Mail]

Cat Takes a Ride on Roomba

by Lee Bains, posted Nov 20th 2008 at 1:49PM



Our dear friends at Engadget posted this video of a kitty taking a joy ride on a Roomba, the world's finest vacuuming robot. As we all know, cats and technology have long been embattled opponents, so we find a lot of hope in this instance of feline-robot cooperation.

In the interest of perpetuating cuteness, we encourage you to introduce your kitty to a Roomba. Just keep him away from this Roomba. [From: Engadget]

Plugged-In Cat Owner Sets Up Twitters for Tabbies

by Lee Bains, posted Nov 7th 2008 at 1:58PM



Mary Hodder, a jack-of-all-social-media-trades, has successfully married her love for Twitter and her love for her cats, the Bits Blog on NYTimes.com explains.

Having launched Twitter pages for each of her four felines (CalibanTheCat, MimiTheCat, Pantherthecat and arielthecat), Hodder ghost-Tweets (that's right, you read it here first) for them, discussing everything from the weather, to politics, to -- of course -- dogs.

Now, everybody knows that we love animals as much as the next blog, so we can see the inherent cuteness in Hodder's wanting to give voice to her kitties. It's when she says, "Cats have something to say. Dogs don't. They are always lying around doing the same boring things," that we start to sense she might be getting into the catnip, herself. [From: Bits Blog]

Most Famous Animals on the Web

by Lee Bains, posted Oct 29th 2008 at 11:53PMFeatured Story



Used to be, animal lovers who were stuck at their office desks all day would express their admiration of critters by festooning their cubicles with bobble-head puppy dogs and that one ubiquitous poster of a kitten dangling from a limb with the caption: "Hang in there!" Thankfully, those days are over. Now, devotees of animals have the Internet and, thus, innumerable pictures and videos of animals at their disposal, which has been giving some of these four-legged folks their 15 minutes of fame. Without further ado, we now present -- in their funniest, freakiest and downright cutest forms -- the Internet's most popular animals.
Engadget

iBone Chew Toy Gives Sneak Peek at Dog-Centric App Store

by Darren Murph, posted Oct 24th 2008 at 2:01PM


We're going out on a limb here and assuming that the Haute Diggity Dog iBone comes jailbroken and ready to rock, or at least that's the impression we get from checking out that heretofore unseen bevy of icons. Customized for the "tech savvy dog on the go," this here iPhone chew toy gives dear Fido access to bark / hand-shake training, posture lessons, Washington Huskies sports updates (it's the Clemson Tigers in all honesty, but work with us here), a mysterious fitness app and a bone application for times when supper just seems too far away. You know your pup's worth the $11.95, you just know it.

[Via textually]
Engadget

Russian PM Tracking His Dog Via Satellite

by Darren Murph, posted Oct 20th 2008 at 8:58AM


Just under a year ago, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin announced his hopes that one day he could pinpoint the location of his black Labrador, Koni, at any time of the day. Today, a dream has been realized. Mr. Putin has finally procured a satellite collar that will enable him to track the lab regardless of which of the eleven times zones she may be in while waltzing through Russia. Once the collar was slipped on, Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov immediately said "she looks sad, her free life is over." Putin didn't miss a beat when snapping back: "In Soviet Russia, GLONASS track you!"

[Image courtesy of Picasa, thanks MJ]

10 Funny Pet Web Sites

by Blake Besharian, posted Oct 19th 2008 at 12:01AM

Perhaps one of the most popular things to do on the Internet is upload and broadcast pictures of your beloved animals. Everything from pictures and videos to podcasts of pet shenanigans have found ample homes online. Unfortunately, the vast majority of pet sites are of the nausea-inducing "cute" variety. Since pets can induce hours of laughter (regardless of whether they're wearing Groucho glasses or ladies' hats or not), we here at Switched decided to scour the Web for funny pet sites, and we found quite a few. What follows is a sampling of our favorite funny pet sites, some old, some new. Funny, of course, depends on the mind of the beholder, but we'd be lying if we didn't admit that we pretty much guffawed at every last site on this list. Check them out....




1. Lolcats
Lolcats are funny pictures of cats doing dumb things with broken, misspelled English captions placed over them. The result is often hilarious, such as a cat jumping out of a toilet with the following caption: "I'M IN UR TOILET USIN' UR FACILITIES." The central hub for all things lolcat, icanhascheezburger.com, is currently enjoying a resurgence of popularity after a few months of hype-trend-overload. The site has been online for two years and now includes a constellation of sites for lolcats, loldogs and political lolz -- the same thing, but for dogs and politicians.
If you're wondering how to make your own Lolcat, which is as simple as taking a goofy picture of your cat, adding a caption, and uploading it here, then check out the site's "wiki" tutorial designed to help people learn lolspeak, the broken English used on the site. The site also has a "lolz builder," which allows you to create your own lol-based-image with minimal effort and no software (they even supply pictures for you to caption). This means that there are new lolz posted all the time, which makes Lolcats the ultimate place to go for hilarious cat humor.

Dog Gets $18K Bionic Leg

by Terrence O'Brien, posted Sep 19th 2008 at 5:15PM

Dog Gets $10,000 Bionic Leg
We understand that dog is supposed to man's best friend, but we couldn't possibly imagine dropping nearly 20 grand on a bionic leg for one of our beloved pups. Don't get us wrong, we love our canine companions, but we could buy a pretty nice car or dig ourselves out of credit card debt with that kinda cash.

We assume that Reg Walker has money to spare since he spent £10,000 (a little more than $18,000) to fit his eight-and-a-half-year-old American Bulldog, Coal, with a specially-designed prosthetic limb. What makes the implant unique is that the titanium alloy used mimics animal hide, so the skin and bone will grow and seal the prosthetic to Coal's body.

The successful surgery means that Coal can return to his normal place by his owners side. "He goes everywhere with me - he goes on tour, he's the only dog to have allowed into Live 8 and the only dog that has ever been backstage at the Royal Albert Hall," Walker said.

That's one lucky dog! [From: Daily Mail]

Dog Calls 911, Saves Owner's Life

by Tim Stevens, posted Sep 16th 2008 at 2:57PM

We've all seen the "I've fallen, and I can't get up!" commercials and chuckled, but what if you actually did fall and weren't able to get up? What if you couldn't even push a button to call for help? What would you do? That's the situation Scottsdale, Arizona resident Joe Stalnaker found himself in this past weekend, and thankfully someone else -- his dog -- was there to help him .

Joe suffered a head injury during military training ten years ago, and has had crippling seizures ever since. He adopted his dog Buddy at the age of just eight weeks, and trained the now 18-month-old German Shepherd to check on him and to press a button on the phone to dial 911 in case of an emergency. Over the weekend when Joe suffered a seizure that left him unable to move, Buddy made the call. Amazingly, this is the fourth time since Joe has owned him that he's managed this feat.

You can hear a part of the call, and Buddy's whimpering for help, in the above video -- it's enough to make even a jaded blogger misty-eyed. [From: Telegraph.co.uk]

Dog Swallows Owner's Cell Phone -- Whole

by Terrence O'Brien, posted Sep 9th 2008 at 6:30PM

Dumb Dog Swallows Cell Phone
People love to talk about how smart their dogs are. They'll tell you about how Fido can identify their car just from the sound of the engine, that he knows when he has done something wrong and that he'll punish himself, or that he can do so many amazing tricks. The sad truth of the matter, however, is that dogs are stupid. Adorable? Sure. Friendly? Sometimes. But smart? Not so much.

Take the case of Nero, a Doberman-Great Dane mix, from Valhalla, South Africa, who got himself into a little hot water when he swallowed his owner's cell phone. Driekie Boojens, daughter of the dog's owner Marie Matthews, was feeding Nero when he snatched the woman's Nokia handset right out of her daughter's hands and swallowed it whole.

Nero was rushed to the local animal hospital and had surgery the next day to remove the phone. While they were in there, vets also found a small collection of rocks in the dog's stomach. More evidence of the intelligence of our canine friends.

Nero is fine now. The twelve-year-old mutt has a large scar on his abdomen, but is otherwise healthy. The Nokia on the other hand, had to be put down. Nero's stomach acid simply proved to be too much for it to handle. [From: Telegraph]

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