Cavelier King Charles Spaniel

There was never a more lovely breed. A champion of women's rights no less! See Stage Beauty (2004), a silly movie that imagines feminist change in the times of Shakespeare: New York Metro review.

Dog Behavior - the toll at home

Americans are angry, and so are the rest of us. We are angry and we are increasingly violent. War, with its unfathomnable brutality, interminable, inestimable suffering, builds callousness; it is acid on our culture, ethics and morals.

If you've experienced fits of inexplicable anger at family, friends or colleagues, you can blame it on the bossa nova if you want, or you can identify the source, helplessness in the face of outrageous, inconceivable horror and pain.

DogsEyeNews - Dogs sacrifice for Katrina's victims

Dog owners across America are coming to the aid of New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Trimming Fifi and Fido's daily food allowance by 20%, buying fewer doggie treats and toys and postponing visits to the groomers will save as estimated $10 billion a year, which will then be diverted to the relief effort. The campaign, orchestrated through pet shops, online services and, of course, the daily gossip at the local dog park, has mobilized massive numbers of dog owners.

In 2004, sales in the pet products industry in the US were estimated at $31 billion, more than the human toy industry ($20.3 billion) and the candy industry ($24 billion). [source]

"We are pleased to contribute in our small way to the relief effort," a spokesperson for the American Kennel Club is reported to have said. "It is the nature of dogs to help, and to make remarkable sacrifices when called upon, so it doesn't come as too much a surprise that their owners share the same instinctual drive." The sustained belt-tightening among American dog owners would, if it were the only relief effort, take approximately six years to pay Katrina's costs. [The current (Nov 2005) cost of Hurricane Katrina ($62m).]