We are featured again!

We did not know of this website till the webmaster emailed us to tell us we are featured on this website!

Dog health problems attract over 200,000 unique visitors a month and we are happy to be featured there. Now more people will know about us and what we do. YAY!

To see our blog feature listing, please go to http://dog-health-problems.org/blog_awards/index.php?id=2191.

Pet Groomer Jailed for Hitting Dog

PET groomer Sun Hu was jailed two weeks for using a clipper to hit a dog last month.

The three-year-old Maltese terrier died of head injuries while still on the grooming table.

A district court heard on Friday that Sun, 24, had been working for a year at the Strawberry Pet Shop in Corporation Road in Jurong.

On Sept 13, Mr Deva Rajan Kamalasanan, 47, brought his pet, Junior, to the shop for grooming. About 30 minutes later, he received a phone call telling him that his pet had died.

A post-mortem by the Veterinary Pathology Branch of the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA) revealed that the dog had been hit on the head.

The maximum punishment is a $10,000 fine and a year in jail.

http://www.straitstimes.com/Breaking%2BNews/Singapore/Story/STIStory_445747.html

Finally, justice is served for Junior's family. The pain Junior's people went through must have really hurt.. No one can understand that better than M.

Hopefully this would be a deterrent for other dubious groomers.

As a groomer, M knows it can be frustrating to groom dogs sometimes. But under NO circumstances should you abuse a dog. A light hit on the bum will not kill a dog, the killer would have to deal a greater blow. Please becareful when bringing your dogs to groomers outside.

The main reason M learnt grooming was so that she could groom us. Thankfully..

I rescued a human today

Here's a story on how some of us dogs think, M thinks its a great one. Due to copyright issues we cant post it here, so here is the link.

http://www.petplace.com/dogs/i-rescued-a-human-today/page1.aspx?utm_source=dogcrazynews001et&utm_medium=email&utm_content=petplace_article&utm_campaign=dailynewsletter

Life of a Puppymill Bitch

A bitch (female dog) in a cage so cramped that she can't stand up straight. She has never seen daylight. Covered in her own faeces, she wonders what her purpose in life is..

Footsteps approach. The rusty cage door swings open and two greedy hands reach out for her. She is nearly choked to death as the man holds her up by the chain on her neck.

She is brought to another place. There stood a male dog. Same breed, same condition. This was her purpose in life. To breed and give birth to as many puppies as possible. Puppies which she would never see again after they were weaned. Puppies - some were lucky enough to find a good home, others would suffer the same fate as their parents.

Have you bought from a pet shop or farm? The parents of YOUR puppy were most likely suffering this fate.

Our Blog is Featured!

The Greyhound Companions of New Mexico (GCNM) has featured our blog in their bi-seasonal newsletter!

We didn't expect our blog to be featured because we did the Greyhound Stories (see below) but it was a pleasant surprise when Judy Paulsen, President of the GCNM emailed us. All that's said, we're just happy to help the greyhounds.

Their newsletter touches on many Greyhound issues from racing to rescue to health issues and even features (ones like ours and even more!)

Anyway, here's what they wrote about The 5 Rascals.

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Singapore Animal Welfare Advocate Blogs for Greyhounds

The plight of the racing greyhound reaches around the world and a visit to http://the5rascals.blogspot.com/2009/01/about-greyhound-racing-adoption-and.html is proof of this! Singaporean, Nicole Han has never been to the United States, but she is well aware of the crisis surrounding the American racing greyhound.

Sensitive to issues related to animals in general, Nicole even blogs about saving the whale shark! But you can tell her heart is with the greyhounds by the extent of research she has done. Greyhound Companions of New Mexico is prominently featured in her blog as well as other greyhound welfare groups working to end the suffering of the racing greyhound. Visit Nicole’s blog for a concise review of greyhound information she has accumulated from various reputable sources.

Thanks, Nicole, for partnering with us to educate the public on the plight of the racing greyhound.

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To read the entire GCNM newsletter, go to:
GCNM Newsletter Spring & Summer 2009

Read the two stories we did on greyhounds:
http://the5rascals.blogspot.com/2009/01/ban-greyhound-racing.html
http://the5rascals.blogspot.com/2009/01/about-greyhound-racing-adoption-and.html

FDA Confirms Investigating Nutro, Reasons not to feed Natural REBUTTED!

Hello furbies and hoomans. This is a piece of news we read from DoggieSite and would like to share with all of you.

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Title: FDA Confirms Probe of NUTRO Pet Food Deaths, Illnesses

By Lisa Wade McCormick
ConsumerAffairs.com
Copyright 2009 © All Rights Reserved

The lead:

April 20, 2009
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has confirmed that the agency is investigating NUTRO pet food, following a series of unexplained illnesses and deaths. Consumers have been complaining for more than two years that their pets have become ill after eating NUTRO products; many have recovered when they were switched to other foods. The company has steadfastly denied that its food is to blame.

Please read the entire article @
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2009/04/nutro_foia.html
especially if you are feeding your furbie killer crap in a bag commercial pet food!!


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Auntie J from the land of far far away has warned us about consuming Nutro pet foods before but we were already on BARF and thus was not worried for ourselves. However, we worry for all the other millions of pets world wide that are still eating killer kibble!

We are really SURPRISED to hear that the investigation has JUST been CONFIRMED. The charge if any, will come probably much much later. Meanwhile, many pets may still fall sick =(


M can never stress enough, the importance of feeding NATURAL foods. Foods prepared in your own kitchen. Foods you can eat yourself. Although we eat raw food, we understand that some people may feel squeamish about it (Apollo: I dont! Its the best thing since.... tennis balls and bread), home cooked foods will do as well. At the VERY LEAST, you KNOW WHAT IS IN YOUR FOOD.

Reasons not to feed Natural - REBUTTED!

Lets tackle some of the excuses reasons why people do not want to feed natural foods but feed crappy killer kibble instead, or feed PARTIAL natural only.

Reason No 1: Home cooked food/BARF?!?! But I cant ensure that the diet will be 100% balanced! I rather feed kibble.

Solution: In our very honest opinion, we would rather an UNBALANCED NATURAL DIET rather than kibble which may kill us. Besides, look at all the rubbish in kibble. Salt, by-products preservatives, food coloring.... Is that ensuring 100% balanced nutrition? Puh-lease. What my M gives me is way better. Besides M did alot of research before embarking on the BARF diet. If my lazy lazy M can do it, so can anyone.

Reason No 2: I give partial HCF/BARF and partial commercial rubbish. That way i wont be afraid if I cant balance the diet because the commercial crap will be balanced.

Solution: Absolute rubbish. The BEST way to ensure a balanced diet is to feed ALL NATURAL.

Reason No 3: My pup is still very young! She wont be suitable to eat HCF/BARF at such a tender age. Wait till she's older.

Solution: Excuse me, we dogs plus our ancestors wolves have been eating all NATURAL foods since the day God created us. Kibble was only created about 50 plus years ago. Kibble is the un-natural diet that we were not meant to eat at all.

Reason No 4: I've got no time!

Solution: We dogs are your kids too. Just like your baby. Please tell me if you will feed your baby commercial food and NEVER home cooked for the rest of its life. Having cute furkids like us to shower love on you requires commitment.

Besides, have you got no time to relax? No time to sleep? No time to bathe? No time to eat? EXCUSES! Time can ALWAYS be found if YOU MAKE IT.

You can simply buy frozen meats once every month (or even every 2 months) then pack and freeze so every meal all you have to do is take out 1 serving (that you already packed) and defrost it. How hard is that? You can even defrost it in the fridge the night before!

For home cooked meals, you can even cook once a week and freeze the rest of the meal IF you really really have no time.

Reason No 5: I cant afford it! Look at the food bills your M has to pay!

Solution: If my M who works part time can afford it, you can! Okok, I know. You got housing bills, car bills, electricity bills, fine dining bills, buy Hugo Boss bills yada yada.

Frankly, natural feeding costs only just as much if not LESSER than commercial.

Our food bills are expensive cos M always buys free-range and organic whenever possible, even then it is cheaper than what we cost on a commercial crap diet.

Our commercial food bill was at $380/month for Apollo and I only! It was cause we were so fussy that M had to buy a very expensive wet food, as well as supplements for our skin problem.

NOW, our food bill is $300/month including occasional organic and quite a substantial bit of free range organs/bones/meats!

This is already on the high side although not as high as The Natural PawPals who feeds an ALL ORGANIC diet. Their M is not earning 10k/month as well but she does give them the best she can.

It usually costs only $30/month to feed a small dog and $100-$150 a month to feed a big dog. Just know where to go and get your meat. Dont be lazy and get from supermarkets. Tekka has pretty good bargains from what everyone tell us.

Natural is GOOD and CHEAP now. What other excuses have you got? Bring it on in our comments page. We would appreciate it very much.

M's letter to Kola

M:

Less than 6 days have passed since you left me, I still remember the first day I met you.

It was at my grooming instructor's pet shop. You were there for grooming. I still cant forget the way your eyes shone, how you wanted to jump on to me, despite the situation you were in. Did you even understand how much trouble you were in? Or were you still happy because you knew someone would save you.

You could say the reason I opened my heart to you was partly becaused you reminded me of Cocoa. But i knew you were different. You may be the same breed, same color even, but you look worlds apart to me. Your personalities were like chalk and cheese.

Still, I decided that you should not die because of a human. I was determined to rescue you. We tried so hard to find you a nice home. There were so many applications i rejected because I knew they were not the right ones. Just when I thought I got you the best home, you bit their kids. Not once, not twice. Many times. Once you even bit your M at that time. Despite them trying, you just didnt seem to behave.

Auntie J took you back for boarding and wanted your ex-M to pay the bill. Up to this day I still remember her SMSes. She told me to bring you to SPCA and that she will never part with a cent for you. She even scolded me for SMSing as it cost 5cents, as opposed to the FREE email. I couldnt believe it. It was your life we were talking about and she wanted to save 5cents and spend more time emailing?

D took you home again, because Auntie J refused to keep you without being paid. We tried so hard to accomodate you, but obviously D's place wasnt big enough to accomodate two dogs. Chinese New Year was coming... I pleaded to bring you back home.

"Until D comes back", I told your Grand-Mommy.

Days passed since D landed in Sunny Island again, slowly months slipped away. At times Grand-Mommy got angry with you, so did Grand-Daddy. It was because you bit people.. And not to mention, fought with Candy and bullied Apollo. The house was topsy turvy with you.

I pleaded with them, and they relented. Actually, deep down inside, I know that they miss the topsy turvy you turned this house into as well. It is so quiet now Kola...

We really miss you so. People keep telling me, that you are in a better place now. You dont need to suffer. You wouldnt want to see me like this. You would want me to move on.

I know all these, but letting go isn't easy. I know that it wasn't easy for you to let go as well.. Especially since you finally got Home.

I will live on happily, I promise you. I just need time... I will get over the grief, but i will never stop loving you.

More than two years have passed since Cocoa left me, I still think about her everyday. And now, i will think of both of you... And see you in my dreams.

Goodbye Kola, run free. Remember, I love you.

A Poem To Kola-la

M wrote this poem for our beloved Kola-la. We really miss him so.

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A Poem To Kola

You came to me, as a homeless.
We tried to find you a home,
Although there were many who were heartless.
We knew you didn't want to be alone.

Thus we brought you back.
In the morning, you would wake me up.
Before you raided the rubbish for your daily snack.
At night, you would lie just like a pup.

There were good times and bad times.
At times, you bit, fought and scratched.
But you would also win hearts with your whines.
I thought you and I were the perfect match!

Everyday you would wake me,
By scratching at the door to go out.
When your antics, no one would see,
You would sit there and just pout.

Christmas Eve, I remember,
You running about greeting guests,
How I wish that moment would last forever,
For now, all i think about is your zest.

When I received the call,
I remember my heart beating faster.
They said you had no chance at all,
because of the dreaded cancer.

I asked to see you again,
I wanted to say goodbye.
But when I saw you in so much pain,
All I could do was cry.

When your time came,
And God took you away,
I cried out your name,
Without you, how could I get through a day?

I was with you till the very end.
Until you breathed your last.
Even though my heart may never mend,
In my life, I am thankful for your cast.

In Heaven, where all dogs go,
You can run with freedom,
Across the green meadows,
Without your joints being a burden.

There you can finally be happy,
You eat without having a price to pay
Past each day without a worry,
As i'm sure we will be reunited one day.

I love you endlessly,
And I know you love me too,
With a heart so pure and plenary
And a love so true.

- M to Kola