Hippyshopper

Eukanuba Special Care Dog Food

It used to be that your dog would vomit (and maybe eat it) and there wasn't much you could do but spread out extra newspapers. Now, you can feed your dog Eukanuba Special Care, with Omega-3, Omega-6, and other natural goodness, so that at least his vomit will be more nutritious. So if you find the Dog Deli bespoke stuff a tad pricey but still want to go above the typical high street, it probably won't bankrupt you (but it probably won't clean up any easier than the usual stuff). [GT]

Eukanuba Special Care

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DIY Cat Toys from Marmalade

Cardboard is an ideal material for cat toys, since in my experience all cats ever love to sharpen their claws on or chew it. Since all you cardboard furniture haters say you can cut up any old appliance box into a thing of beauty and a joy forever, you'll love the Marmalade cardboard cat toy DIY - print the template, attach to scrap cardboard, and put together as many cardboard mice, jacks or balls as your feline companion can take. Or you can get a pre-made cardboard mouse DIY kit (if that even makes sense) sent to you in exchange for agreeing to get marketing noise from Marmalade (which isn't a bad deal if for some reason the print-out DIY doesn't work out for you). [GT]

Marmalade cardboard cat toy DIY [via NOTCOT]

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The Canine Cookie Company

Providing organic dinner and treats to the canine gourmand, the Canine Cookie Company (ack, beware that LOUD music!) provides nibbles like Celebratory Bones or After Dinner Mints (for the dog of dubious breath) or dinner cookies from the Variety Jar like chicken tikka mutt-sala. [GT]

The Canine Cookie Company

Related stories: Cookies - the organic, allergy-free variety | 2006 roundup #36: the Catbib saves birds | The Dog Deli premium meaty snacks

2006 roundup #36: the Catbib saves birds

We all have to make sacrifices in the cause of living domestically within wild Nature, and sometimes these sacrifices involve putting reverse capes made of neoprene on our cats. Funnily, the cats don't mind the Catbib in the slightest, and my Bester seemed to actually consider his an adornment. What the Catbib does, though, is disrupt the cat's balance just enough to make it really difficult for them to sneak up on birds, thus preserving the songbird population without need to declaw (boo!) your feline friend. Not only do they work, but they're only $9 USD, and if you send a picture of your pet wearing one, they'll send you a second one free. [GT]

Original story: Review: The CatBib saves birds and makes cats happy

3r Living Eco-shop

It's just barely not too late to order from 3r Living and still get it in time for Christmas (providing you spring for 3 day shipping or faster).  So if you haven't shopped for Cleo or Spike yet - your cat or dog, that is - consider the Hemp dog bone, Oatmeal pet shampoo or Mrs Meyers Pet Litter Freshener.  And somehow manage not to stick reindeer ears on the cat this year?  [GT]

3r Living

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Iams Home 4 the Holidays Pet Adoption Drive

Posh pet nosh Iams (and boy does that cat look like a smaller version of mine own Lacerda) has around 2,000 animal shelters going at the international level in their Home 4 the Holidays drive to place orphaned cats and dogs in loving homes.  Last December, their one millionth pet was adopted - a cat in Florida.  This year's pet drive goes on until January 2, and with your new friend you get an adoption kit with some leaflets and some free pet food.  Kittens are nice, sure, for about six months, and then you've got to live with them for the next ten to twenty years.  Shelter cats, on the other hand, are so grateful that you've saved them from, let's be honest, a situation between death and near-death, that they wake up every day full of astonishment that the world is so fantastic.  (At least, that's how Lacerda behaves; we found him, nigh-starved, in the kitchen one day, bolting down food from the communal cat dish, and he was so incredibly lovely that we couldn't be parted from him.  I've met many wonderful shelter cats since then and although kittens are cute, with an older cat you know what you're getting - with extra love.)  [GT]

Home 4 the Holidays orphaned pet drive

Related stories: Put your chicken (or rabbit, or guinea pig) in an Omlet (Omlet Eglu) | The Dog Deli premium meaty snacks | Eat chocolate, prevent animal cruelty

Fleece Dog lets you clone a taxidermied version of your pet



The Fleece Dog concept is faintly goofy, which is that you mix your pet's hair with wool and use the Fleece Dog kit to make a toy version of it, but then again, so is the actual site. There's a faint aura of Engrishness about the whole thing that makes me wonder if I'm missing something delightful about the notion of brushing your Great Dane, plucking the stray fur from the brush, and rolling it in with cotton batting like so much clay in your divine hands. Oh... well, when I put it that way... Apparently it's easy to do, and irresistible to pose the little voodoo-doll result afterward (would that this was a quick path to training and that it worked on cats). Certainly it's an unusual take on recycling! (And yes, Paris, you do recognize the little fella depicted here.) [GT]

Fleece Dog

Related stories: CatBib saves birds and makes cats happy | Eat chocolate, prevent animal cruelty | Biodegradable poop bags for dogs and cats

Put your chicken (or rabbit, or guinea pig) in an Omlet (Omlet Eglu)

Instead of a typical hand-hewn pet house that looks about as durable as the typical hand-hewn spice rack from Learn to Saw 101, the urban owner of guinea pigs, rabbits, and even chickens or ducks, can just go with the Eglu from Omlet. Designed to allow anybody to own a modest number of either non-traditional pets or, for the more practical, egg-layers, so that you can have your own organic breakfast. They say: "We wanted it to be as easy as looking after a goldfish but more rewarding than owning a dog (you get eggs with chickens!)." And you can even get some certified layers straight from Omlet so you can get up and running just like that. £395 with - which includes feed and also feed plus water containers - or £360 without. Last but surely not least, you can return it for full refund up to 28 days after arrival, in case the urban farm lifestyle is not quite what you'd hoped. [GT]

Related stories: Organic Equine pet supplies | Eat chocolate, prevent animal cruelty | Review: The CatBib saves birds and makes cats happy

Monday's ethical celeb: Jackie Chan autographs for PETA

During rabies outbreaks in China, massive culls of strays are all too common. As part of PETA's Humane Rabies Control in China, Jackie Chan has donated a handsomely autographed card for auction on eBay which runs until September 9. All proceeds donated to help ensure dogs in China have up-to-date rabies shots, that those dogs which must be euthanised experience humane methods, to educate the public, and ensure those who are bitten get immediate post-exposure vaccines. [GT]

Jackie Chan Personal Handmade & Signed Greeting Card

Related stories: Eat chocolate, prevent animal cruelty

The Dog Deli premium meaty snacks

Treats good enough for you to eat yourself (though your taste may not be the same as Rex's), the biscuits produced by The Dog Deli are made from human-grade beef, chicken, lamb or rabbit, and low in fat with no added salt, sugar, artificial preservatives or colourings. Each full 200gram meal - chicken, beef or rabbit goes for £1.50 and is made specially to order. Packages of Lamb’s Liver and Carrot Muffins, Beef and Garlic Snax, Chicken Brown Rice and Seaweed Crunchies and others are low fat, involve foods which your pet will regard as special (how often does he eat rabbit?) range from £1.50 to £2 per packet with bulk discounts available. [GT]

The Dog Deli

Related stories: Organic Equine pet supplies | Review: The CatBib saves birds and makes cats happy | Tortue Rouge aromatherapy for pets

Organic Equine pet supplies

Offering safe, natural and organic products for your cats, dogs and, er, horses, Organic Equine has everything from Shampure herbal shampoo (suitable for cats, dogs and horses) to De-Stress horse tranquilizer.  (Presumably of the non-Quaalude variety.)  [GT]

Organic Equine

Related stories: Review: The CatBib saves birds and makes cats happy | Tortue Rouge aromatherapy for pets | Eat chocolate, prevent animal cruelty

Eat chocolate, prevent animal cruelty

Animal Aid campaigns against cruelty to animals.  To get involved, there are a number of things you can do.  You can join up as a member - becoming a premier member only costs £5 a month, and gets you discounts, an 'Against All Animal Cruelty' t-shirt, an Animal Aid badge and window sticker, a subscription to Outrage magazine (published quarterly) and a heap of discounts.  Or, you can eat chocolate.  (We've all got to do our part!)

Animal Aid has a great big lovely assortment of organic and fair trade and vegetarian and even vegan chocolate. (There's even a plain hemp granola-style bar option - perfect for emergency breakfast.) Every purchase gets sweet sweet cash donated to Animal Aid, and gets you a big chunk of cold hard candy. Make mine Montezuma's Emperor: Orange and Geranium Bar. I've never eaten geranium, but they do smell lovely. [GT]

Review: The CatBib saves birds and makes cats happy

There's no doubt that the CatBib - $9 USD from Cat Goods Inc with free worldwide shipping - looks goofy.  But there are two really amazing things about it: one, it does keep cats from eating birds without interfering with them unduly otherwise, and two, cats actually like wearing it.  Shut up, I'm being serious.  I put it on Bester, who is sleek and black and handsome and evil and full of vanity from the tip of his tail to the end of his nose, and he treated it like it was some fabulous and exclusive new piece of bling that made him all sexified.  He lolled on the grass and encouraged all three of the young ladies of the house to come and rub his magnificent belly.  He loves it, even though it keeps him from eating birds.  (I said he was handsome, not that he was smart.  He gets by on his looks.)

Basically, the CatBib is a neoprene triangle with a velcro tab.  The velcro attaches around the cat's collar, so the bib hangs down over the cat's front legs.  Having this thing dangle over the front legs prevents the cat from being stealthy enough to eat birds, without having to engage in that most heinous of feline crimes, declawing.  But don't believe me (although I have seen it).  There's a study from Murdoch University in Perth, Australia, showing that "CatBibs stopped 81% of cats from catching birds, 45% of cats from catching mammals, and 33% of cats from catching herps." It's available in Royal Blue, Red, Teal, Burgundy, and Purrple (but the colour was proven to not change its efficacy).  "Most cats (86%) adjusted almost immediately to wearing a CatBib, 10% took a day or so and only 4% took longer."  They have over eighty testimonials and none of the cats look particularly perturbed by the CatBib.  Have more than one cat?  "Send in a picture of your cat wearing her CatBib with a brief testimonial and you'll receive a FREE CatBib!  Mail a photo or email a jpg image."  And as they say, "Thanks for caring about cats and birds!"

[GT]

Tortue Rouge aromatherapy for pets

If you've ever felt your pet could benefit from aromatherapy, you'd probably also prefer the essences were 100% organic.  In that case, Tortue Rouge has got your back.  They have an extensive listing of animal health complaints and recommended aromatherapeutic solutions.  (Theoretically at least; I couldn't get the list to work on my browser.)

They say that most animals appreciate aromatherapy, but also warn you to never force an animal to smell something it doesn't seem to want to.  If you do, they note, it probably won't benefit anyhow.  (I am wondering, though, how they can have aromatherapy for pets but also say "no animal testing" on every page?)

[Gabrielle Taylor]