When you get a pet, suddenly you notice animals everywhere.  It’s worse when you get two pets, trust me.  Here’s an animal-focused post.

First we have a story (from Wilson, dammit we missed the mailbag post) about a 1 week old cocker spaniel puppy who was accidentally flushed down the toilet by his 4 year old master.  Credit goes to the drain company that sent a camera down the pipe and was able to push the sad and pathetic, but still alive, puppy to the next manhole where he was recovered and is (amazingly) doing OK now.  Well worth a watch, go to the company’s website for the way cool video account of the rescue (the accent of the narrator is perfect).  Lucky dog…

Cougars (not the terrifying Maxwell’s-on-Elgin-smoking-leathery tanned-voice like bourbon boiling on a tailpipe kind, but rather the natural predators, with scary teeth and claws, of the feline variety) are scary.  Very scary.  But then again, maybe not so scary as this mighty 10lb chihuahua, who managed to scare off a cougar 10 times his size.  Similarly, a mom in BC got all chihuahua on another cougar’s ass.  The mom’s comment?  “Now she knows what a cougar is.”  Sheesh.  It’s a bad week to be a cougar, getting knocked down a few pegs on the terror scale.

It’s also a bad week to be a fly in the White House, cause Obama brought the bam down on a ‘Housefly.  Tiredly, PETA made the appropriately disapproving noises, but really folks, you would have greater, ah, impact if you focused on the animals that somebody somewhere might find cute.

It’s a very good week to be a pet on some Air Canada flights, cause now you will be allowed into the cabin with your people.  Predictably, the comments on that article alone are polarized between “pets should ride strapped to the wings” and “I love pets more than you whiners, they don’t kick people in the seat back, etc.”  I personally find no problem with having pets in cabin, makes sense to me.  Personally I can’t wait to travel with Lloyd and Harvey in the airplane seat with me.  Nearly three hundred pounds of dog in the seat with me shouldn’t be a problem, should it?