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How much is that doggie that got stolen? $10K
California couple pony up hefty reward for their beloved Yorkie-Chihuahua
updated 9:26 a.m. PT, Wed., June 10, 2009

When Debby Brown and her boyfriend, Chris, left their 2-year-old pooch, Lexi, to rest in their air-conditioned Escalade, they didn’t think their dog was in any danger. But after grabbing a quick meal at a Concord, Calif., restaurant, they returned to a nightmare: The passenger side window was smashed, and their beloved Yorkie-Chihuahua mix was gone.

"Oh my God, she's not in there, tell me she's in back," Brown recalls saying to her boyfriend. Distraught, the couple called the police who quickly came to the scene — but couldn't take fingerprints because of short-staffing.

So, the pet owners took matters into their own hands. Brown, 40, and her beau put out their own all-points bulletin: a $10,000 reward for the return of the dog — no questions asked.

"Within an hour to 45 minutes of her being gone, we had over 500 fliers up and on every single car at the Elephant Bar," Brown says. "By the next afternoon Channel 5 was good enough to come out and put the story on."

The hefty reward — which the couple says they cobbled together with help from friends — produced dozens of bogus calls. But Monday morning, a person who they believe to be the thief called and sent a cell phone photo of the dog, dressed in a jean jacket adorned with Winnie the Pooh's Eeyore.

"I said, 'Oh my God it's her!'" Brown recalls. They then agreed to meet the caller at a public place that day.

Brown's boyfriend, who has a close connection with the dog ("He doesn't have kids and Lexi is like his child," she says) insisted that he go alone to meet the strangers at a Petco store in Alameda, Calif., with $10,000 in hand. The exchange, Brown says, was quick and without incident: "They gave him the dog, he gave them the 10,000, and nothing was said. That was it."

Now home, it's clear Lexi was a little shaken up by the whole ordeal. She's not eating her favorite treats and she won't leave Brown's side. For her part, Brown, who is concerned about what the thieves fed Lexi and plans to take her to the vet this week, vows that she's never letting the 3-lb. dog out of her sight again. "She's in my arms and she's going to be in my arms from now on," she says.

Snuggie gets new legs with dog version
Company expands product line to include man’s best friend
updated 2:45 p.m. PT, Mon., Aug 3, 2009

First, they took over television with a viral commercial. Then pub crawls were devoted to them. Now, Snuggies have come for the dogs.

Last week, Allstar Products introduced the pup-sized version of the product — a replica of the original with room for four legs.

In an interview with the Chicago Tribune, Anne Flynn, director of marketing for the company explained, "The original Snuggie blanket was such a success, we decided to extend the product line to include the entire family, which, for many of us, means a dog."

And with millions of the original product already in households and many more millions of animal lovers across the country, the product could be a big seller when the cold season returns.

"Snuggie stands for cozy, warmth and functionality ... and dogs need to stay comfy on their morning walks and on those chilly winter evenings too," Flynn told PEOPLE Pets. "Many Snuggie customers are also dog owners, and we didn't want the owners feeling bad about the jealous glances from their pets any longer."

The dog Snuggies are designed similarly to the human version. "We had to keep the back secure like a coat so dogs could walk comfortably in it," said Flynn. "But we wanted to keep the feel of the original Snuggie. It was important to maintain the look, fabric and label."

Flynn shared that since last week's launch, the company has received an "overwhelming response" to the product. Though they're only available online for now, starting in September, Snuggies for Dogs will hit shelves at Walmart, PetSmart, Petco, CVS, Walgreens, Kohls and Bed, Bath & Beyond.

So are Snuggies for Cats in the future? "You never know what we'll come up with next," hinted Flynn.

Keeping your home out of the spiders' web
Most arachnids are harmless, and even helpful, but that doesn’t mean you want to share your home with them. If the idea of 8-legged roommates makes you squeamish, here’s how to keep them at bay.
By Christopher Solomon of MSN Real Estate

Spiders are a lot like snakes. They’re misunderstood, and mostly harmless — even quite beneficial. But you don’t have to be Little Miss Muffet to get a little squeamish at the idea of sharing your tuffet with them. Or your home.

If your home has more cobwebs than a haunted house, what’s the solution? How do you send Charlotte and her web packing?

The arachnid experts have the answers for you.

First, meet your roommates
There are about 3,000 species of spiders in North America. “Most spiders are not truly dangerous. Most spiders are either beneficial or not of any concern,” says Richard Zack, a professor of entomology at Washington State University. So if you find them out in your garden, let them be, he recommends.

And inside? In most cases, “they’re great to have in your house if you can not freak out when you see them,” says Wizzie Brown, extension program specialist in Austin for Texas AgriLife Extension Service. Why? They eat other insects and keep to themselves, usually out of sight. And they don’t damage the house.

But, of course, “it really depends on a person and their comfort level,” Brown says.

Among the thousands of spiders, there are a few that people fear out of proportion to their actual danger because they have a venomous bite: The hobo spider (.PDF file), which generally lives in the Pacific Northwest; the black widow (.PDF file), which lives all over the nation and whose adult female is known for her red hourglass marking on a black body; and the brown recluse, which lives in the central Midwest from Nebraska south to Texas and east to north central Georgia.

Though the bites from these spiders can cause some harm to humans — “There are reported deaths in children which were probably due to brown recluses,” says Rick Vetter, a professor of entomology and a brown recluse expert at the University of California-Riverside — the fear far exceeds the reality. Spiders suffer from a public-relations problem more than anything else, Vetter says. Spiders don’t want to mess with you; they bite only when they’re threatened. (Vetter likes to mention a woman in Lenexa, Kan., who collected 2,055 brown recluse spiders in six months in her 1850s-built home. Her family of four has been living in the home for eight years without any evident bites, he says.)

Dispatching your unwanted tenants
Let’s say you’ve got lots of spiders in the house, though … and you’re tired of them. Now what?

The experts have some advice:

1. Put down that can of Raid. When it comes to our eight-legged friends, “Pesticide control is difficult and rarely necessary,” says the University of California’s Integrated Pest Management Program. Spiders are pretty resilient; you’ve practically got to fire the spray right at them. And why fill the air with pesticide when you can just whack ’em with a rolled-up newspaper? (Seriously — that’s one of the methods the experts suggest.)

2. Suck up those suckers. Another preferred method for dealing with spiders and their webs: the good old vacuum cleaner. “Sucking them up with a vacuum cleaner is actually a really easy thing to do,” Brown says. The experience is tidy for you, and it kills the spider. Moreover, says Brown, if you stay diligent and keep sucking up a spider’s web (even if you don’t get the actual spider), the spider often either dies or moves to a more hassle-free place.

3. Toss ’em (outside). If you don’t want to smoosh them, do what Brown does: Simply toss the spiders outside. But, if you do that, she says to make sure you’ve sealed up your house so they don’t waltz right back in. (See below.) Don’t want to handle them? We don’t blame you. Try this: Slip a jar over the creature. Then slip a piece of paper under the jar. Voila!

Keeping spiders at bay
OK — so you’ve tossed the spiders out of the house. Now how do you keep them out?

Turns out it’s not so easy.

“There are no sure, long-lasting control measures for spiders,” Vetter writes. The best defense, experts say, is to create a home that’s not hospitable to them. To that end, there are several things you can do:

1. Close the door. “Try to close all of those openings that a spider can come into,” Zack says. Walk around your house and think like a spider: Where could you slink in? Spiders frequently use the door — or the gaps around one, Brown says. “If you can see daylight around the door, it’s not a good seal.” Check whether screens are repaired.

Now look more closely around the house’s base. Air vents should be covered in fine hardware mesh that allows for circulation but keeps spiders out. Seal cracks in the foundation. Weep holes around pipes should be stuffed with steel wool, caulked or filled with foam. “That really will go a long way toward solving your problems,” Zack says.

2. Pull it back. Everybody likes a smooth path toward home. That goes for spiders, too. Deny them that. Trim shrubs adjacent to your house. That “will discourage spiders from first taking up residence near the structure and then moving indoors,” according to the University of California. And look up: Cut back tree limbs several feet from the house, Brown says. (That’s also good advice for keeping squirrels at bay.)

3. Clean up your act. “Both inside and outside, you want to just eliminate as much debris as possible,” Zack says. Why? Spiders generally don’t like wide open spaces. They prefer to hole up in dark little nooks and crannies. Behind stuff. In between things. Under clutter. “Human beings are very, very good at creating ideal situations for critters that were intended to live out of doors,” Zack says. When you remove hiding places, you make a place less inviting.

Outside: If possible, get rid of woodpiles (especially next to the house), tin cans, piles of cardboard and plywood. “Those are perfect places for insects,” Zack says.
Inside: Don’t make a pile of shoes in the closet — that’s practically an apartment complex for a spider — but instead hang them on one of those back-of-door shoe hangers, Zack says. Keep items from accumulating on the floor, including books. “Don’t allow things to build up,” Zack says. “Those are great habitats for spiders.

“A little organization will go a long way to helping to eliminate the problem.”

4. Take away their food. You can’t take away everything spiders dine on, experts say. But you can remove some of the obvious insects that make your home a supermarket. For instance, some outdoor lighting attracts insects, which then attracts spiders. “If possible, keep lighting fixtures off structures and away from windows and doorways,” says the University of California.

Next, figure out whether you have insects in the house, from flies to earwigs to fruit flies — and determine how to reduce their numbers, Brown says. If you have a lot of flies inside, you can reduce your spider population by fixing your screens, covering food and taking out the trash more often.

5. Take the fight to the bedroom. Small children and infants can be more vulnerable to the bites of spiders. And small children also spend more time in bed, where spiders seem to like to hang out. (Some brown recluse bites occur when a sleeping person rolls over on one, trapping it, says the University of California.) If you’re nervous about spiders in the bedroom, try these simple strategies:

Move your the bed away from the wall.
Remove any skirts or ruffles that would give a spider an easy ladder up onto the top of the bed.
Put sticky traps beneath the legs of the bed; they will stop spiders from reaching the legs.
If really nervous, hang a mosquito net over the bed.
Don’t store items under the bed; keep it clean and empty.
Finally, don’t leave clothes and shoes on the floor.
6. Spray anyway? “If you are seriously afraid, and you do have problems with spiders — say you have an old home and you can’t close all of those openings — then I would talk to a reputable pest-control operator,” Zack says. A company can put perimeter sprays around the house — barriers that the spiders can’t cross, at least until the sprays wear off with time and weather.

Inside, the pros have “sorptive dusts containing amorphous silica gel (silica aerogel) and pyrethrins,” according to the University of California. Those dust particles dry out the spiders and insects that they touch. “When applied as a dustlike film and left in place, a sorptive dust provides permanent protection against spiders. The dust is most advantageously used in cracks and crevices and in attics, wall voids and other enclosed or unused places.

But Zack says to be wary of the promises that pest-control companies make. “Talk to the person who’s coming out to do that and get a feel for what they can help you solve,” he says. “Does someone say they’ll come spray your yard for spiders?” he asks. “You don’t need that; that would be a waste of your money.” And be realistic, experts say: You’re not going to banish all spiders from your home — especially an older home.

Living smartly in SpiderLand
Once you come to terms with the idea that you’ll never get rid of all your home’s spiders — and that the ones that remain don’t want to hurt you — the less anxious you’ll be. Still, you should practice a little common sense with your remaining housemates, say the experts:

1. Suit up. If you’re going to be thrusting your hands into darker, less-traveled places — into woodpiles, under manhole covers, into attics, under beds — buy and always wear a good-quality pair of leather or thick cotton gloves,” Zack says.

2. Wash and wear. If you’ve stored clothes in the attic or put winter sweaters in storage, spiders may have crawled inside to hang out. Launder or dry clean them to kill what’s in there, or at least shake them out thoroughly, Brown says. Ditto with shoes from the back of the closet: Shake them out before wearing.

3. Seal it up. An unsealed box “is an ideal spider habitat,” Zack says. When storing things in your basement — such as those clothes — store them in sealed plastic containers, not just cardboard boxes, where “it’s easier for them to crawl in,” Brown says.

4. Heads up. “Be aware of what you are doing,” and don’t be on autopilot while working, Brown says. Many bites occur when the spider gets put in a bad spot — say, when you pick up a piece of firewood that it calls home, and then you press the kindling to your body.

5. Keep it clean. If you do get a spider bite, wash it thoroughly and apply an antibiotic, if possible. (Studies today are starting to cast real doubt on old ideas that some spiders have “necrotizing” venom that killed the flesh around the bite; the truth may simply be that the victim got a bacterial infection at the spot, Zack says.)

If you do fear you’ve been bitten by a venomous spider, wash the wound and go to a doctor immediately. If possible, take the spider with you.

But most of all, the experts say, try not to get too spooked. In the end, you’re probably managing your own irrational discomfort as much as you’re managing spiders.

Grizzly mystery: Who shot big Montana bear?
Federal authorities offering ‘substantial’ reward for information
updated 9:36 p.m. PT, Sat., Aug 22, 2009

GREAT FALLS, Mont. - The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is offering a reward for information leading to the conviction of whoever illegally shot and killed what officials say was one of Montana's largest grizzly bears.

The carcass of the big grizzly, called Maximus because he stood 7 1/2 feet tall and weighed about 800 pounds, was found Aug. 12 on a ranch in northern Montana. The bear had been dead about a month.

Special Agent Brian Lakes said Friday that he didn't know what the exact size of the reward would be but it would be "substantial."

"We are following up on some leads at this time," Lakes told the Great Falls Tribune.

In 2007, the 9 1/2-year-old bear, officially identified by authorities as No. 4273, was captured accidentally by the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife & Parks. At the time, the department had set out to catch females for a study.

Maximus then weighed 765 pounds and was the second-largest bear managers had ever captured in the state, said Mike Madel, a grizzly bear management specialist with the department.

A remote camera snapped a picture of the same bear in the fall of 2008, and Madel said it looked as if the bear had grown to more than 800 pounds. He said the bear likely weighed more than 800 pounds at the time it was killed.

Typically, he said, male bears in the region average around 600 pounds.

The bear that was killed didn't have a history of feeding on livestock or having run-ins with people, said Madel, and was shot outside of black bear hunting season. Hunters sometimes mistake grizzlies for black bears.

Lakes said he is also investigating two other illegal shootings of grizzly bears.

Chanel, world’s oldest dog, dies at age 21
Owners: Wirehaired dachshund had cataracts, but was otherwise healthy
updated 11:51 a.m. PT, Mon., Aug 31, 2009

Chanel, the wirehaired dachshund who held the Guinness World Record for oldest dog, died Aug. 28, PEOPLE Pets has learned. The pooch celebrated her 21st birthday on May 6 — that's 147 in dog years, according to the Guinness Web site.

Earlier this year, the dog's owners, Karl and Denice Shaughnessy of Port Jefferson Station, N.Y., said that the canine, who wore sunglasses for cataracts but was otherwise in good health, still had plenty of pep.

"While I go to work she sleeps all day until I come home and then when I get home she is like a ball of fire,” Denice told U.K.'s Telegraph.

But, just like humans of a certain age, Chanel occasionally had senior moments. "Sometimes I will find her walking around at night and I have to give her a little snack and then she goes back to bed,” her owner, Denice told the Telegraph.

In other interviews, Denice, who adopted the dog in 1988, said that treats from privately owned dog food company Dogswell contributed to the dog's longevity.

"We were saddened to learn of Chanel's passing on Friday evening," Marco Giannini, founder and chief executive officer of Dogswell told PEOPLE Pets in a statement. "Our team at Dogswell had built a great bond with Chanel, as well as her owners, who show great love and care for their pets. We were thankful to have had some part in making Chanel’s life a little more comfortable and enjoyable. As the World's Oldest Dog, Chanel touched many lives and inspired pet owners around the globe. She will be missed."

Another geriatric pooch named Max made headlines in early August after his family saw a story about Chanel celebrating her 21st birthday. Owner Janelle DeRouen of New Iberia, La., contacted Guinness about her terrier mix, who had a bash for his 26th birthday on Aug. 9. No word yet on whether Max will receive the title.

Drought, poaching kill 100 elephants in Kenya
Threatened animals draw 1 million tourists each year to country's savannah
updated 6:57 a.m. PT, Wed., Sept . 9, 2009

NAIROBI, Kenya - Poaching and drought-related hunger have killed more than 100 of Kenya's famous elephants in the north of the country so far this year, conservationists say.

Zoologist Iain Douglas-Hamilton, who founded Save the Elephants, said the drought is Kenya's worst in 12 years. The dry conditions pose a serious threat to the large and majestic animals, whose striking silhouettes across Kenya's broad savannah draw around 1 million tourists each year.

"When (elephants) do not have enough food they also seem to be vulnerable to disease, their immune system weakens and they catch all sorts of diseases," Douglas-Hamilton said Monday. "Elephants, particularly the young and the old, have begun to die."

Poaching increased
Douglas-Hamilton also says poaching has increased, and links the surge to last year's decision by international regulatory body CITES to allow Zimbabwe, Botswana, Namibia and South Africa to conduct one-off sales of their confiscated ivory stockpiles.

The body had previously banned such sales. Conservationists fear illegal ivory may find its way into those stockpiles.

Although Kenya was not included in the sale, Douglas-Hamilton said any ivory sales immediately push up global demand, since elephants could be killed in Kenya and their tusks smuggled into a foreign stockpile.

Around 23,000 elephants live in Kenya but populations can be devastated by poaching within a couple of years. A recent survey in Chad showed its elephant population had declined from 3,800 to just over 600 in the past three years.

"The drought is one of nature's big events," he said. "It hits all animals, elephants, people and others but the ivory trade is much more serious and could do much more damage if it remains unchecked."

Patrick Omondi, head of conservation at the Kenya Wildlife Service, has said the number of elephants killed for their tusks in Kenya could double this year over last. That follows a doubling in 2008 over 2007, he added.

A combination of high ivory prices and the fact that wildlife crime is a low priority for most law enforcement agencies means that poaching and trafficking has attracted the interest of international criminal syndicates, the wildlife service said.

Teen cheerleader takes out 10-foot alligator
Updated: September 16, 2009, 4:22 PM EDT

Move over, Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Cammie Colin is a 16-year-old cheerleader who isn't afraid to take on a toothy critter herself. In this case, a 10-foot alligator.

The South Carolina teen was out hunting in a swampy area with family and friends on Saturday night and shot the 353-lb. reptile with a crossbow after luring it close to their boat.

"I was very shocked when it got to the boat that it was that size," Colin told local TV station WLTX.

The group then taped the gator's mouth shut and took him to shore.

The White Knoll High School cheerleader has hunted for deer with her father before, but this was her first time hunting alligator.