"Those who don't believe in magic will never find it.” - Roald Dahl

(via DIGG)

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Karma the Corgi says it's all about attitude not altitude: Read the rest

This is adorable. Last year, a woman drilled three strategically-placed peepholes in her fence so that her neighbor's dog Penny could look through.

She writes, "Got tired of my neighbor's German Shepherd jumping to peek over the fence so I made her a peeking spot. I think she likes it!"

Someone come save me, I'm dying from the cuteness!

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This is Zsa Zsa, the English bulldog who this weekend took home the top prize at the 30th annual World's Ugliest Dog Contest in Petaluma, California.

"Nine years young with a swaggering tongue, Zsa Zsa delivered a shower of slobber as she claimed this year's title," said a news release.

From CNN:

A function of the annual Sonoma-Marin Fair, it seeks to demonstrate "the pedigree does not define the pet." By raising awareness about the benefits of adoption, "the contest speaks to the importance of advocating for the adoration of all animals," even those not blessed with Lassie's movie-star looks.

Many of the pups taking part in the contest were rescued from kill shelters or puppy mills, organizers say.

That includes Zsa Zsa, your 2018 queen, who spent five years at a puppy mill in Missouri before being purchased by the nonprofit Underdog Rescue.

Zsa Zsa resides in Anoka, Minnesota with her human Megan Brainard. Read the rest

“If you are going through hell, keep going.” ― Winston S. Churchill Read the rest

Anthony Rubio dressed up his chihuahuas Bogie and Kimba in costumes inspired by this year's Met Gala theme: Heavenly Bodies. The result is, well, heavenly. Now he's compiling a book and needs your help. Read the rest

Hey, remember a few months back when we told you about the dogs of Chernobyl? If not, long story short: when the nuclear power plant lost its shit back in the 1980s, everyone was evacuated so quickly that they were forced to leave their pets behind. The dogs living in the area were irradiated, but continued to breed. They went feral. Their numbers grew. But, when crews returned to the power plant with plans to clean the joint up, the dogs remembered that people were mostly OK. As such, the pooches decided to hang out. There was talk of a cull, but the workers at the plant refused to participate. A charity stepped in to keep and care foe the dogs. They’re currently living the best life many of them will have ever known.

For a handful of the wild pups, things just got even better.

According to Meduza, Ukraine State officials are planning on taking up to 200 of the dogs out of the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. After holding them in medical quarantine for 45 days, the puppers, provided will be flown to the United States, where they’ll be put up for adoption. Provided they’re deemed to be free of radiation poisoning or any other weirdness, the first 12 dogs will be flown to the United States for adoption this June. There’s no word on where the dogs will be put up for adoption, but maybe that’s just as well: the dogs should be adopted because they’ll be lovable, loyal companions and not because of their irradiated pedigree. Read the rest

PBS asked experts a question intended to inflame the masses: Which is smarter, a dog or a cat? Read the rest

For ten years a band of locals hijacked a Tribeca public dog park and charged for access.

In 2008 the NYC Parks Department partnered with a local dog owners group to help manage the Warren Street Dog Park. Dog Owners of Tribeca (DOOT), decided to turn the public park into a private one and charge fees for its use. They also established a Fight Club-style list of rules to keep their utopia private.

Via the NY Post:

In the absence of public funds and services, our group will help make sure that this park does not become a stain on the neighborhood,” the group proclaimed in their incorporation papers filed with the state attorney general.

Members said it also allowed them to restore canine order in the neighborhood. “At public dog runs, people let their dogs run wild and act aggressively,” said member Lenore Sherman, 61, who has a golden retriever named Huck. “Here, owners are held accountable for the behavior of their dog.”

One member had no idea the park was public.

“That’s crazy,” said John Ellett, 33, a professional dog-walker. “They even require the dogs to wear special tags, so I thought it was totally private.”

When the dog run first opened, the Parks Department tasked the DOOT to help run the park.

“Dog runs are maintained through barknerships between NYC Parks and community groups,” said Sam Biederman, a Parks spokesman. “NYC Parks dog runs are meant to be open to the public — charging for entrance is prohibited.”

Parks officials snipped the lock Friday, after receiving a complaint.

In 1912, Don the dog took American vaudeville by storm. A European immigrant, Don spoke German, or at least 8 words of it. He reportedly said things like kuchen (“cake”), hunger (same word in English and German), and his own name. A celebrity and media darling, Don went from the stage to starring in newspaper ads for Maltoid Milk-Bone dog treats. Over at Smithsonian, Greg Daugherty tells the whole story of this curious canine:

Off stage, Don’s purported ability to talk was taken seriously even in academic circles. Lending some credence to the notion that a dog might actually converse, the inventor Alexander Graham Bell had once claimed that as a young man he taught his Skye terrier to say “How are you grandmamma?”

On a 1913 visit to San Francisco, Don and his handlers called on J. C. Merriam, a respected paleontologist at the University of California at Berkeley, who, if contemporary newspaper accounts are to be believed, was “astonished” and “declared his belief that the dog can reason and think for himself.”

Earlier, the respected journal Science had another explanation, based on statements by a University of Berlin professor who had also examined Don. His conclusion, the journal reported in May 1912, was that “the speech of Don is… to be regarded properly as the production of sounds which produce illusions in the hearer.”

How the hell does he know though? Did he ask Don? Read the rest

Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, is one of very few (and apparently the most populous) to publish data on its dog registrations. Nathan Fulton, a student at CMU, offers a summary of Pittsburgh Doggos By the Numbers, though it should be noted that it excludes those within city limits. (With 300k humans in town and a million more out in the burbs, assume we're missing at least a quarter of the doggos)

Ten Most Popular Dog Names in Allegheny County Name Count Bella 708 Lucy 474 Buddy 469 Molly 435 Bailey 424 Sadie 398 Max 393 Daisy 370 Charlie 328 Cooper 305

My Great Pyrenees gets thirsty on long hikes. This dog-walking water bottle keeps him peppy and moving, cause when he decides to stop walking things get rough.

Great Pyrs do this thing when they get tired of walking where they become one with the Earth. My 120lb buddy, Nemo, just lays down and hugs our planet when he wants a break. Usually, he is thirsty, warm and just wants to cool off for a bit. I want to keep walking. Giving him a few laps of water from this portable dog watering bottle often does the trick, and he will slowly get back up and we get on our way.

Before I figured out Nemo wants water there would be very long, very frustrating for me but hilarious for other hikers, sessions of begging him to get up and go.

The Gulpy is easy to use.

Gulpy Water Dispenser, 20 oz. via Amazon

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My fourth-favorite ASMR fad is dogs eating popcorn. Lots of treats for pups lately! Sadly, the wave has already crested and the garbage YouTuberati is burying the good stuff with rented animals and 7 minutes of titles, music, jibber-jabber and other monetization padding. A good rule is to only click on videos uploaded by actual dogs. Read the rest

I hope they track down the monster responsible. As posted on Twitter but embedded below: [via] Read the rest

For her Stardust and Ashes project, Shannon Johnstone wanted to memorialize local shelter animals "with nobody to mourn their passing," so she used their ashes to make cosmic cyanotypes. Read the rest

Meet Will. The music is from The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion. Read the rest

"It took quite a while to finally get her to howl," writes Hugh Nibley, "and when she did we were not prepared for the majesty of her regal voice."

Is it just me, or is that dog a dial-up modem? Read the rest