Pets

Pets

Three new laws will implement more stringent health and transparency rules in the sale of cats, dogs and rabbits including prohibiting pet sales by brokers in an effort to stop the flow of animals coming from out-of-state breeding operations into California, according to a news release from the California State Legislature. The three bills collectively known as the Stop The Puppy Mill Pipeline legislative package, titled for the infamous dog-breeding operations were signed into law Thursday by Gov. Gavin Newsom.

A team of researchers at Nestle Purina PetCare decided to investigate litter boxes as records of behavior: the pre-squat scratch, the whirl, the precise geometry of the bury. The scientists built a painstaking dictionary of these gesturesa full ethogram, or catalog, of species-specific behaviorsand then identified the distinct moves in feline bathroom habits: grooming, digging, sniffing litter. We landed on 39 different behaviors that cats do in a litter box,

48 Hills is proud to host the 51st edition of the Bay Guardian Best of the Bay! Congratulations to all the winners of this years Readers' Poll, and thank you to the thousands of readers who voted this year. See more winners' categories here. And join us to celebrate the city and independent media on Wednesday, October 22 at our 12th Anniversary 48 Hills Gala and Best of the Bay Winners' Celebration!

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but your cat is not drinking enough water. An easy way to remedy this is by getting a pet water fountain. They require a bit more maintenance; you'll need to take it apart, clean regularly, and change filters monthly, but this is well worth it for the health benefits. The majority of cats are chronically dehydrated.

Photographer Tim Flach's new book is unusually personal: it includes images not only of his cata regal orange-and-white former barn kitten named Lokibut also of his brain, thanks to MRI scans gathered as he looked at cute images. The photographer has dedicated previous books to horses, dogs and endangered speciesand shot photos of songbirds for Scientific Americanbut had been hesitant to take on the notoriously uncooperative felines. My publishers from day one have been wanting me to do a cat book, Flach says.

The Tompkins Square Halloween Dog Parade will be returning for its 35th year on Sunday, Oct. 19. This year, the festivities including a limited-entry costume competition and a parade down Avenue B will be held from 1-4 p.m. There will also be a festival block for participants on 6th Street between Avenue B and Avenue C. Here, Stella & Chewy's, among other event partners, will have some Halloween surprises for the four-legged guests.

In my experience, there are two kinds of dogs out there: The ones who would love to lead their own pack in a nice, long run on a beautiful day outside, and the ones who are far happier to watch from a bench as they enjoy the breeze. My dog would be out there, running with the best of them... but I've known plenty who would take the other option (and maybe even a nap, while they're at it).

A recent review in Scientific American summarized recent research on very smart dogs (mostly border collies). One relatively clear finding was that dogs do indeed develop a "vocabulary" of words. Most dogs can learn simple commands, recognize their names, and the names of items in their daily lives (e.g., "food," "toy") or actions ("walk," "dinner"). In this study, researchers wanted to explore if dogs could go beyond simply learning names for things and actually understand functions.

Given that seeing an orange lobster typically means it is dead and boiled and on a plate, shopper Kyle Brancato did a double take when he spotted the lobster moving among the others for sale at a Tops grocery store in upstate New York. I walked by the lobster tank, and I saw this bright orange lobster, Brancato told WHAM, a local CNN affiliate. Very different from all the other ones in the tank.

Authorities in Bolzano, located in the mountainous Trentino-Alto Adige region, have proposed charging 1.50 a night for dogs visiting the province and 100 a year per dog for resident dog owners. If passed by the provincial council, some of the proceeds will be used to rid the streets of dog poo after a failed policy enacted last year that required dogs to undergo DNA tests in order to identify culprits.