Pet Auto Safety

Per the United States Postal Service, “In celebration of the new Animal Rescue: Adopt a Shelter Pet stamps, the Postal Service™, together with Ellen DeGeneres and Halo: Purely for Pets, is giving shelter pets around the country a First-Class Meal.” Visit http://www.stampstotherescue.com to buy the adorable Animal Rescue dog and cat 44¢ stamps. You buy the stamps, Halo buys the food for 1 million shelter pets. Photos of five cats and five dogs who were adopted from shelters are featured on these Animal Rescue stamps.

We purchased our stamps. Help homeless dogs and cats by buying yours. It costs the same as other stamps, but you are not just buying stamps – you are buying lives.

The United States Post Office has other Animal Rescue products which you can purchase to help homeless dogs and cats. These include mugs, coasters, and art.

Other “Stamps to the Rescue” supporters include the Ellen Degeneres Show, Halo Purely for Pets, PetFinder.com, American Humane, AdoptAPetGifts.com, and the Humane Society of the United States.

We have discovered great pet portrait art work at ArtPaw.com. Rebecca Collins is the artist. She uses digital techniques to transform your pet’s photo into a fantastic work of art. According to the ArtPaw.com website, “Unlike much digital art that is available today, these works do not rely on one or two simple Photoshop filters, but instead are created one at a time with many hours of hand work going into each piece.”  Visit ArtPaw.com to see more great pieces of pet portrait art – and contact Rebecca Collins for a portrait of your pet.

Trixie is an interesting mix of Malamute and lab. She has the lab head and build, but the Malamute coat coloring, curled tail, and one blue eye. Although Trixie is a high-maintenance dog who needs lots of exercise, she is very well behaved in the car. That is why I never considered getting her a dog car harness – until it was almost too late.It was mid January of last year. It was snowing hard, but my boss insisted that I come to work. I considered leaving Trixie at home instead of taking her to the doggy day care. But Trixie is still young and doesn’t do well when left alone by herself. After making sure the doggy day care was open, Trixie and I got into the car and pulled out of the driveway.

The road was slick. My car literally slid out of the driveway. I considered calling my boss back and saying I couldn’t make it, but an echo in my head told me that I didn’t really want to hear him yell at me. Besides, I thought, I just go new tires on my car. We will be okay.

Even though I was going very slow, my car lost its traction and spun when I tried to turn off of my street. I turned into the direction of the spin and took my foot off the brake, just as I have been told to do by the media and DPS. I cringed as I heard Trixie yelp as she was thrown to one side of the car. Then cringed even more when I heard her cry as the car was jolted to a stop when it hit and jumped the curb.

Trixie was frantic. She kept yelping like she was injured and I feared the worst. I never got out of the car to see what I hit or assess the damage. I was too busy trying to calm Trixie.

Needless to say, I did not go to work that day. After a visit to the vet, it turned out that Trixie was fine – nothing more than a bit of bruising, thank goodness. But for several months afterwards, Trixie was terrified of riding in the car. I have since bought a dog car harness from Pet Auto Safety.com. And thanks to some tips from those at Pet Auto Safety.com, I have been slowly rehabilitating Trixie to ride in the car again. I am happy to say that she has seemingly forgotten the incident and gets very excited when I get out the dog car harness.

(This story is written by us, but with the permission of and in conjunction with Trixie’s owner.)

Check out a story by one of our Pet Auto Safety.com customers. This is about her dog, Mos Magee, and it can be read on our American Dog Blog. 

 Read some great information on the Maltese dog breed at our American Dog Blog.  This article is dedicated to a sweel little Maltese dog breed named Noodle.

Want to read a heartwarming story about a great dog who found a happy family on Easter?  Her name is Caddy and she was named from the Cadbury egg candy.  Her story is at the American Dog Blog.

Our plea for a traveling dog story has not gone unanswered. Patricia (Pat) from Arizona shares her dog, Bruce, with us. Bruce (probably a Labrador retriever mix) was picked out of a litter of puppies on a farm in Oregon several years ago. He was named Bruce, after Bruce Wayne, of Batman (one of the kids named him). As you may know, Oregon and Arizona have a lot in common when it comes to nature trails. Bruce and his family trekked the mountains of Oregon in early life, and continued the quest when they moved to Arizona. The family often takes nature trips in their SUV where Bruce travels in the back behind a pet car barrier similar to the Euro-Bar pet car barrier. Their favorite trip was in Sedona where Bruce investigated nature while off-leash on one of the out-of-the-way nature trails. Bruce found a tarantula in the path but smartly avoided it. Even though the tarantula was probably harmless, Bruce knew better than to mess with wild animals (experience based on confrontations with snakes and skunks). Bruce is a smart and savvy dog. And even though he likes to investigate nature, he is never goes beyond the sight of his family.

(Pat says she has a picture of the tarantula too!  She will have to scan it and send it to us later,though.)

We would like to formally invite you to share your pet and your pet’s story.  It doesn’t have to be about pet auto travel safety products or about a car wreck incident with your pet.  It can be about any sort of travel event, such as a trip you took camping with your dog.  Tell us about places you and your dog have visited.  Tell us which hotels you stayed in and how dog-friendly they were.  Tell us what you and your dog did on your vacation.  Tell us where you take your dog for fun activities, such as to a lake or dog park.

 We LOVE pets and would LOVE to hear about yours.  Who wants to hear nothing but stories about Sephi and Maya all the time?  (Besides me, of course.)

Are you aware that after the holidays animal shelters get overloaded with pets?  Every year, puppy mill breeders work extra hard to have lots of dogs to sell for the holidays.  These dogs are then often given as gifts.  Sadly, however, it doesn’t work out and a many dogs get taken to the shelter.  Dogs who thought they were going to get a happy new home find themselves homeless.  If you are looking for a new dog, consider adopting.  Why buy a dog when you can adopt.

 We did some volunteer work this weekend at the Lawrence Humane Society in Lawrence, Kansas.  We had lots of adorable dogs and puppies to show.  One of my particular favorites was a Masen.  Masen is a three month old sheltie mix (not a lab mix like the website shows).  He is not only extra cute, as puppies tend to be, he is also very smart.  We were able to teach him to sit and lay down in a very short time.  But unless someone takes him home soon, he will forget what he learned.  He needs a new home with someone who has time to play with and train a new and energetic little puppy.

 Check out Masen and other adorable dogs up for adoption at http://www.petfinder.com/petnote/displaypet.cgi?petid=15241182

Nothing makes us happier than to hear that a dog was returned home after being lost. A couple and their three dogs were involved in a car accident just before Christmas. The three dogs left the scene, but luckily two of them were quickly found. Their German Short-haired Pointer, Kelso, was missing. Probably traumatized by an event which he couldn’t understand, Kelso had run off in terror.

Thankfully, ten days after the accident, Kelso was returned home. He had been on his own in very cold weather for nine days before a couple found him. Kelso was cold, tired, and very weak when he got home, but other than a bit of frostbite on his muzzle, he was in good condition.

To read more about this very happy conclusion to a tragic event, check out this article, “Dog in Car Crash Returns Home”.