
We all agree that pets
cheer us up when we're feeling sad, but can they also tell when we're ill?!
Beamish, this Rottweiler, did just that when his increased attention to a mole
convinced Chris Tuffrey to get it checked out. The pooch kept nuzzling, licking, and trying to lift his owner's arm and it turns out the mole was a melanoma .
According to the results of a recent investigation, it turns out that the largest chain of pet-selling stores in the US is also the nation's largest retail supporter of puppy mills.
An
eight-month evaluation by the Humane Society of the United States uncovered that Petland stores are purchasing and selling puppies from horrific conditions despite promises that the dogs come from known breeders with only "the highest standards of pet care." Many hail from massive commercial facilities or are purchased from large scale "pet distributors" (read: puppy brokers) .
2524939It's easy as one, two, three for these lil boys! While two of the cheetahs recently born in Cincinnati will go off to Columbus, one will remain at the Cincinnati Zoo as part of the Cat Ambassador Program — I have to mention that he's only 3 weeks old and has already started his very own blog,
Cheetah Days! His name?

Glenn Close hosted an event last night to honor pups that have served in combat, and with returning veterans, for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The benefit celebrated the brave men and women (and dogs!) and raised awareness for the organization that makes it all possible,
Puppies Behind Bars.
The prison-based nonprofit trains dogs to be explosive detection canines and service dogs for the disabled with their newest initiative, titled “Dog Tags: Service Dogs For Those Who’ve Served Us”,
offering these inmate-trained canines to help soldiers readjust to civilian life.

Monkey baby, hooray! Just so you know, I totally said those words super silly so they all sounded the same (Monk-ay bab-ay hoor-ay). Call me crazy, but I'm going loopy from gazing into the eyes of this lil cutie pie.
Well, well, well, isn't Monifa already quite the little media darling? I was already
drooling over her piccys, and now this video. Just.

Well looky here, baby! Meet Monifa – just one-month-old and already ready for the spotlight. It's shining brightly, too, as she's the first Pygmy Hippo born at Sydney's Taronga Zoo in the past 23 years .
Don't get jealous lil guy! Seems like Barney (one of the two Scotties belonging to George W. Bush) may sense that another pup –
one that we haven't even seen yet! – is already at the top of everyone's list.

Even if you don't exactly
consider your pet to be your "child", experts say many people are as dedicated to their animals as parents are to children . . .

Like I said before,
spiders give me the creepy-crawlies, but I have to give them some respect –
they're among the oldest creatures around, with recently found fossils dating back at least 130 million years!
If you think that's old, wait 'til you get a load of this number: 450 million years. That's when the first arachnid was said to have appeared on Earth, based on genetic research recently published in the latest issue of Experimental and Applied Acarology.