Frequently Asked Questions

A: Every person has been a child, and every dog has been a puppy. While the species have many interesting similarities, there are differences as well. When puppies are born, many of their organs aren't fully formed. This includes the brain, and puppies are very fragile. They spend the first few weeks of their lives developing rapidly. Puppies are born with their eyelids shut, because their eyes aren't developed. A newborn puppy's eyes are extremely fragile. Never attempt to open a puppy's eyes; they're sensitive to life and can sustain damage for life. Newborn puppies are also deaf, and relative silence is crucial for their developing ears. Forcing the puppy's ears to respond to sound inputs before they're fully developed could cause great damage. It usually only takes a couple of weeks before the pup's eyes open and they hear well. They still shouldn't be removed from their mother until they're at least eight weeks old. Some animals are born with the ability to leave thru mothers right away, but dogs are more like humans in this context; they need time with their mom in order to develop and be taught.

A: Dogs being color blind is an old myth, but a lot of people still think animals experience the world as gray. They see other colors than we do, but they definitely see colors. Dogs' eyes are focused on a spectrum containing yellows, blues, and violets. Red, green, and orange as we see it would appear as yellow or blue. It's interesting how many dog toys are yellow, orange, or red, because this lets us see them better. From the dog's point of view, a blue tennis ball might be much more visible than a yellow one. They find them anyway, because dogs have a great sense of spotting movement. Image source: //www4.uwsp.edu/psych/dog/la/davis2.htm An eye contains two types of photoreceptors: rods and cones. A human eye has many types of cones, which allows us to see many different colors. A doggie eye has more rods. Thus, dogs have much better night vision and ability to track movement than the human eye. On the downside, they see fewer colors and less details. There's another big difference between a dog's eyes and a human's. Their eyes are placed on the sides of the head while ours face forward. This means that they get a visual field of 250 degrees, and humans only have a field of 190 degrees. Image source: findretrievers.com They have much better peripheral vision than we do, but we can focus and judge the distance to an object better.

A: Cats and dogs have accompanied humans for millennia. Dog fossil records go back around 40 million years, and cat fossils around 12 million years. To the best of our knowledge, dogs have been domesticated for at least 12,000 years. This is a long time walking side by side, and it makes sense that our ancestors did their best to accommodate their furry friends just like we do. In the beginning, the cat door was a hole in the wall meant to invite feral cats to come in and hunt rodents. We know the people of Cyprus had pet cats 9,500 years ago. They might very well have had cat holes too. In more recent history, 14th century writer Geoffrey Chaucer described a cat hole in his Canterbury Tales, where a servant knocks on a door, no one answers, and he peeks in through the cat hole. Nowadays, Sir Isaac Newton is most often accredited with inventing the pet door. He allegedly cut two holes in the wall; one for his adult cat and a smaller one for the kittens. It sounds like an urban myth created to show how even an incredibly intelligent person can have moments of stupid and not realize the kitten would follow their mother through the big hole... Anyway, according to legend, Newton covered the holes with felt to keep excess light from coming in and disturbing his experiments. This would have been a predecessor of the modern cat flap.

A: Here are some random but fun dog facts. The Greyhound is the fastest dog on Earth, and can run 45 miles per hour. 45 is also the percentage of US dogs who sleep in their owner's bed. The world's oldest known dog was an Australian cattle dog who lived to the age of 29 years and 5 months. Dalmatians are born white and develop their spots as they grow. Three dogs survived the sinking of the Titanic; two Pomeranians and one Pekingese. The Pekingese was very important in ancient China. The emperor's last line of defense was a small Pekingese hidden in his sleeve. The smallest dog in the world - according to the Guinness book of world records - was a Yorkshire Terrier who at the age of 2 weighed only 4 ounces. 70% of Americans sign their pet's name on greeting cards. Hyenas aren't dogs. They're more closely related to cats. Spiked dog collars were invented in ancient Greece as a means to protect dogs' throats from attacks.

A: When Mrs Nancy Cowen in Westcott, England, had to move into a nursing home, she left her cat Cleo in the care of the neighbors. Normally, that would be that, but Cleo had plans of her own. A couple of weeks after Mrs Cowen's arrival, the staff at the nursing home noticed a friendly cat hanging around the house. The cat would sleep on benches outside the facility, and they thought she was a stray begging for food. It took another couple of weeks before one of the carers picked the cat up in the company of Mrs Cowen, who said, "That looks like my cat. But my cat lost part of her tail in a traffic accident." Of course, the kitty hanging around the facility also missed a part of her tail - because she was Cleo, who miraculously managed to track down her human. Cleo has been welcomed into the nursing home, and the staff will provide her with a loving home for the rest of her life. Image from //www.dorkingandleatherheadadvertiser.co.uk

A: Nearly half of the US states have laws saving pets from abusive relationships in cases of domestic violence. The laws allow courts to order the protection of pets using the same statutes that protect the pet's owner with restraining orders and similar. That means that if a dog's owner is the victim of domestic violence and gets an order of protection against the abuser, the pet is safeguarded under the same order. Many pets get stuck in the middle of abusive relationships where the abuser use their victims' dogs and cats as pawns - often killing them in the process. 70 percent of victims of domestic violence report that their abusive partner has threatened to hurt or kill a pet. Some women's shelters in the USA allow women to bring pets when fleeing an abusive situation, but many cannot offer this service, and nearly 50 percent of women in an abusive relationship  stay to protect their pet. Without these laws, the abuser can keep the pet or try to take it. The abuser can also try to get visitation rights. With the law, pets can be placed in safe foster homes until their owner gets settled.

A: People love their pets. Coming home to the waiting cat or dog can be the highlight of the day, and many experience separation anxiety if they have to leave their pet for an extended period of time. A new study shows there is a biological explanation to our connection to pets. The study compared MRI scans of brains of mothers looking at images of their dogs and images of their own children. Both types of images activate the same areas of the brain - with two differences: the photo of the child activated a region associated with forming bonds while the photo of the dog activated an area associated with facial recognition. The next step will be to replicate the experience with men and women without children. It is too early to conclude exactly what this means, but we already know pets are good for physical, emotional, and psychological well being. Many studies show pet owners live longer, have lower blood pressure, and get other physical advantages to non pet owners.

A: Have you ever wondered why it would be like to be a cat? While no one can truly experience the world like another species does, here are some highlights of the differences between humans and cats. A cat's vision is quite different from a human's. Cats see colors, but not in the same way we do, and the muted colors make it easier for them to see movement. They also see well in light conditions that would render a human virtually blind. On the other hand they can't focus on anything that's closer than a foot away, and they use their whiskers for detecting objects close the their bodies. Cats also move quite differently from humans. They have a unique skeletal structure that lets them scale vertical walls, balance on the top of fences, and land on their feet. Their posture allows them to move quietly as well as absorbing the shock of falling from heights many time their size. In addition to all this, their back legs work almost like springs and can propel them upwards and forwards at great speed. The cats' ears are also different from a human's. They can rotate their ears independently up to 180 degrees, and they can hear a wider range of sounds than we can. A cat with normal hearing can detect 11 octaves, which is two more than a human and even more than a dog. They also have a much larger number of neurons between the ear and the brain than most other mammals, so they can decipher all this information quickly. So, what about the sense of smell? A cat has a sense of smell at least 100 times better than a human, and it can distinguish between thousands of smells. They also have a secondary scent organ above the roof of their mouths to help them detect odors when they breathe.

A: If you have a dog - or several - life tends to revolve around the furry friend. Here are ten signs you're a dog person. 1. Your house is littered with old tennis balls, chewed toys, squeaky stuffed animals, rawhide bones, and maybe even sticks from a nearby tree. 2. All efforts to keep windows clean fail - the nose art just keeps reappearing. 3. You know the names of dogs in the neighborhood, but not of the people. 4. You're always finding empty plastic bag in your pockets and purse. 5. People with dogs are more attractive than people without dogs. 6. If someone says they don't like dogs you don't find them trustworthy. 7. You don't care what happens to people in movies, but you worry the dog might die. 8. ASPCA commercials make you cry. 9. Your dog gets wrapped Christmas presents, and maybe even their own birthday cakes. 10. When you travel, you miss your dog more than your family. Did we miss any points in the list?

A: A couple of years ago, Teddy the Golden Retriever was alone in a state park in Livonia NY, slowly starving to death. Teddy was lucky - he was rescued, and adopted by Ms Vanzandt who nursed him back to health. When Teddy's owner headed out of the country for a short trip, she dropped the dog off with her son and his family. Little did they know how important the dog's stay would be: he woke them up in the middle of the night, just in time to escape a blazing fire. The fire started downstairs when flames in a fireplace melted through the mortar between the bricks. Without the dog, the family sleeping upstairs would probably never have woken up. Just minutes after everyone made it out of the house, the building was a ball of flame. All their belongings are gone, but thanks to Teddy no one in the family was hurt.