Who doesn't love puppies? I couldn't believe when I came across this live video stream. These six Shiba Inu pups (3 boys and 3 girls) were born on Thursday, April 14th, 2011. They are the cutest things and a dog lovers alternative to the royal wedding hoopla this weekend. Enjoy!

April is Prevention to Cruelty to Animals Month. This seemed the ideal time to reflect on the subject with this first person essay about the Dogs in Brazil from our guest author, Janice Cabral. Her story below shares with us how her compassion for animals, trumps her desire for a leisurely new life in warm South America. She demonstrates clearly how to give fearlessly. I hope you will be inspired by her story and sweet Pluto, the ugly puppy.

In November of 2001 my husband and I left London, England to live in Brazil. We spent many cold and rainy English days imagining our new life lazing by the pool sipping ice cold Caipirinhas [Brazil's national cocktail] in the sun. Of course, nothing ever turns out the way we plan it. We are still here today. We have seventeen abandoned dogs, no swimming pool and we are financially crippled. Life is still very satisfying though and perhaps this desired vision of life was always a bit superficial to say the least.

We started off by adopting a German Shepherd that some friends of ours found wandering amid the traffic in Copacabana. We called him 'Harry'. He arrived very thin, almost bald with mange and too weak to lift his leg to pee. We soon got him better. Then we decided he needed a female friend, along came 'Misty', a traumatized street puppy who still suffers from all sorts of problems until today. Three veterinarians advised me to euthanize her because she could become dangerous. I obstinately refused and she has never bitten us.

We intended to close our little family there. Mom, Dad and two ‘children’ seemed perfect. There was one problem though; we had eyes. I often wish there were blinkers for humans because when I see a hopeless dying animal it is impossible for me to turn my back. I have even brought animals home to die with dignity. Knowing I could not save them. I have also euthanized dogs I have found in the streets suffering to the limit. One was a poisoned dog that convulsed all the way to the vet clinic and bit his tongue off in the back of my car. There was absolutely no hope. You never forget each case, and each face, and all the different ways they suffer.

'Pluto' was one little Puppy that I brought home to die. I was returning from the vet clinic with a brown Labrador, she is still here with us, when I saw what looked like a dead rat as I drove across a speed hump. The body was limp and its head was quite near the traffic flow. I had just collected 'Cassie' the brown Labrador from her surgery for dysplasia. I stopped the car mostly out of curiosity never imagining this could be a dog. To my horror it was a tiny dog and he was not able to move or walk. He moved his little eyes, so I picked him up. He was covered in slime as though he had fallen into a sewer and he smelt the same way. He was limp but alive.

Looking for a nice way to spend your Sunday afternoon? Have you been to the South Beach neighborhood of San Francisco for brunch?  

We love to support wonderful local businesses of all kinds. In this case, we are excited to share a wonderful way to spend May Day in San Francisco.

Come to an adoption event and fundraiser at Pawtrero Hill BathHouse and Feed Co. for Grateful Dogs Rescue.

From 11AM- 3PM come enjoy a sunny neighborhood in the city and support a great local rescue. 

Anna Bettina Johnson is a professional with over 12 yrs experience creating well-behaved, happy, healthy companions. She has an Animal Sciences degree from the University of Hawaii, with a focus on clinical small animal nutrition. While living on the islands she was able to experience the training and handling of many different types of animals, including captive dolphins, sea turtles and tortoises. Her love of animals also led her to start a non-profit rare breed mastiff rescue where she worked to rehabilitate and place these giant dogs.

She has worked with a variety of animals in zoos, animal sanctuaries and even the World Center for Birds of Prey where she cared for and handled large captive birds. She takes her unique experiences and combines them to help you understand your companion on a completely different level.

Anna is a CAP certified instructor (which is currently the only professional certification that actually assesses the skills, abilities and knowledge of the handler). She has a Best Friends Animal Sanctuary certified training center, and is a founding member of the Never Shock a Puppy coalition. She has also been approved by the Truly Dog Friendly association and FearfulDogs.com as a recommend trainer.

She very much enjoys educating people about holistic remedies and healing nutrition. She is a Certified Flower Essence Practitioner, a Holistic Animal Practitioner and Canine Nutrition Consultant. Anna has been featured in the prestigious Utah Business Magazine as well as the local paper, IN This Week. She is locally known and recommended by well-known veterinarians and many well-respected nonprofit rescue groups. Anna has a soft spot for rescue and ran her own nonprofit rescue for six years. She currently sits on the Board of Directors for Utah's pitbull rescue, Have Pittie.

What is your idea of perfect happiness? I LOVE dogs! I work everyday to help people better understand them. Perfect happiness for me is a world of happy, healthy, confident companions. A world where fear, pain, intimidation and force have no place in dog training, and overall health and nutrition includes natural, organic & conscious decisions. 

We know what it is like to have a dog that gets herself into trouble sometimes without meaning to. Here is a cute Easter video that was submitted to us this week. Spoiler alert.. Alana used high-tech special effects, those are plastic eggs.

How can Earth Day be about our pets? We can incorporate the meaning and essential aspect of Earth Day into our lifestyle and home.  There are ways to celebrate all year long, and one important way is by eliminating certain products inside and outside your home that involve our pets.

Betsy Banks Saul, co-founder of Petfinder.com, harnessed the power of the Internet in 1996 with a vision to change the way the public views shelter pets and ensure no pet is euthanized for lack of a good home. As the largest database of adoptable pets, Petfinder is a unifying force for homeless pets online, making them easier to find (and adopt), and is responsible for having found homes for over 17 million pets. Additionally, Betsy's initiative allowed smaller adoption groups without a physical shelter a free way to get the word out about their organizations. Betsy was named by Woman's Day magazine as one of fifty "Women Who Are Changing the World." She holds an advanced degree in forestry resources from Clemson University and serves on the boards of the Alliance for Contraception in Cats and Dogs (bringing about non-surgical solutions for sterilization), the Petfinder.com Foundation, and Asparity Business Solutions. She shares her life with 10 different species, ranging from box turtles to horses -- and humans.

What is your idea of perfect happiness? The little slice of time I sometimes find on a Saturday or Sunday morning when I know all 23 inhabitants of my farm are fed and feeling good and I get to spend a little time doing nothing but enjoying green grass below me and a blue sky above. Then, for just a little while, my mind empties and all the challenges of the world slip away so I can feel deliciously small and inconsequential! I suppose this is just a momentary fantasy of the real perfect happiness I hope for -- when love and respect rule everyone's hearts and minds.

What Do Peach Pits, Watch Batteries, and Avocados Have In Common?  They Can All Harm Your Dog!

You already know that chocolate and poinsettias can harm your dog, but how about mouthwash and ordinary vitamins? Many dogs do tend to have strong stomachs, but you’d be amazed by all the common items in your home that can actually harm your dog.

• Chocolate – can be toxic to your dog’s nervous system

• Peach Pits – can cause choking and digestion problems

• Antifreeze

• Tylenol/vitamins – Made for human bodies, not dogs.

• Household plants, including poinsettias, aloe, lilies, ivy, ferns

• Avocado

• Fish/chicken bones – Can cause choking and cuts in the digestive system

• Raw eggs

• Moth balls

• Watch batteries – can cause an ulcer in your dog’s stomach in as little as a few hours

Today is Blog The Change For Animals and it takes place on the 15th of January, April, July and October annually. Have a blog? Write about a cause near and dear to your heart. Inspire your audience to get involved!

What I really appreciate about Blog the Change for Animals is that it is quarterly. For some reason that is the perfect amount of time to pass by, before I am introduced to a new and wonderful group, cause or just inspiring person that I want to share with everyone I know.  

Since the purpose behind Grouchy Puppy is the educate, inspire and motivate through humor and storytelling, it has been a wonderful experience to uncover groups like Open Paw.  I learned about the shelter program through my Kelly Gorman Dunbar Influence Positively interview. She is the co-founder and creative force behind this unique non-profit.

From our Kelly Gorman Dunbar Influence Positively interview:

Your proudest achievement so far?  Developing and spreading the Open Paw Shelter Program. Hands down. Open Paw is not your typical shelter program. For one, we're not a brick and mortar shelter, but rather an educational resource for all shelters, rescues, and even boarding  and daycare centers.

Eleven years ago we realized that while most shelters and kennels were very good at preventing and addressing the physical health of their resident animals, with rigorous cleaning protocols and guidelines, few facilities had sufficiently address the mental health needs of their charges. In fact, providing things such as companionship and environmental enrichment to kenneled animals was often seen as mutually exclusive to keeping animals physically healthy! 

This is a new guest post from Elisa Leyva-Guerrero about pet fostering and pet adoption. Read her first story "Nolan Teaches us about Faith"

Within the last two months the group that I have volunteered for in the last year and a half, the St. Louis Senior Dog Project, has rescued dogs that came in pairs.  These recent rescued foster dogs reminded me of Bubba and Bella, a brother/sister duo that we fostered over a year ago, who displayed a sweet familial affection for each other.

Were Bubba and Bella biological brother and sister? The animal control where they were housed stated that the person that had turned them in thought they were from the same mom but they could not state for sure. All I can tell you is that they loved each other as a brother and sister would. 

Bubba would once in a while humor her, and other times he would just sit still and patiently watch his sister’s antics. Almost every night they would clean each other’s ears and faces, it was such a sweet thing to watch.

Nancy always felt there was a huge disconnect with pet professionals on Long Island. After years of networking with other really great organizations, she decided to start a group solely for pet professionals – alas Long Island Pet Professionals was born and currently has over 120 members.

Nancy also created and teaches Free! Responsible Dog Ownership Classes (education and training) in the Towns of Islip since 2008 and taught it in Huntington from 2008 – 2010, currently starting the 4th year with Islip. Working with dogs for over 20 years, she is dedicated to educating and teaching people about dogs. In June of 2009, she was awarded an “Outstanding Citizen” award by Supervisor Phil Nolan of the Town of Islip for her work with the Responsible Dog Ownership Classes.  In May of 2010 she was honored as one of the Fortune 52 Women by Long Island Press for her work in the pet community.  She is also a committee member for Special Needs Dobermans and consultant with Uniting Against Lung Cancer and has worked on both “Kites for a Cure” events in Southampton for the past 4 years.

Nancy owns an awesome American Pit Bull Terrier, Max, who she adopted as a puppy from Out of The Pits. Max is now 9.5 years old.

What is your idea of perfect happiness? Right now would be a vacation I am always very busy, which I love, but a getaway, road trip or discovering a new place would make me very happy right about now. But seriously, perfect happiness is so different to everyone; it could be in a small moment of success, seeing a loved one you haven’t seen a while, having that “aha” moment or the absolute joy of uncontrollable laughter with a friend over the silliest thing. :)

Sunday, April 10, 2011

Time:  12:00 - 15:00

Location:  Petco store on 16th, near Bryant (tons of parking!)

In recognition of Petco's National Adoption Weekend, we'll be at the store with some of our lovelies on Sunday! Please stop by to say hello... come visit the dogs... they love to play with people, get treats.... you'll learn more about rescue. We *can't* do this alone!

Please consider volunteering or fostering! You WILL save lives... Not ALL of the dogs and pups attend the sunday adoption event.

IF you are coming to see a particular dog please email in advance so that we have the dog on site! This is because our dogs are currently in foster homes.... and not ALL of the foster families can attend each event.