Portuguese water dog ‘Bo’ joins first family

Never have so many gotten so excited about so little. The White House puppy has been appointed, at last, and Washington is in a barking frenzy.

And, of course, it was leaked. Shocking.

The puppy, a Portuguese water dog, as anticipated, is 6 months old and black and white. It was named Bo by Obama’s daughters, Malia and Sasha, apparently in honor of their maternal grandfather, who went by the nickname Diddley.

The Washington Post claimed credit for the name scoop in its Sunday editions while also reporting that it had been itself scooped, upsetting a deal the newspaper worked out with the White House to get “the puppy exclusive.”

Naturally, for this day and age, two websites got there first: the celebrity news site TMZ.com and a heretofore unknown site called FirstDogCharlie.com, which posted a picture Saturday of Bo wearing a colorful Hawaiian lei around his neck.

The White House at first denied that the picture was legit, then released its own picture of the dog, which was taken several weeks ago during a secret White House meeting between the Obamas and Bo. Both pictures appeared to be of the same dog, including the lei.

On Friday, Katie McCormick Lelyveld, press secretary to first lady Michelle Obama, denied there would be any puppy news over the weekend. After the leaks, she released few other details except that Bo will be introduced formally on Tuesday.

Where is Bo now? Was he a gift from U.S. Sen. (and Portie promoter) Ted Kennedy, who has three of the bushy-haired dogs? Lelyveld wouldn’t say, but Kennedy released a statement. “We couldn’t be happier to see the joy that Bo is bringing to Malia and Sasha,” Kennedy said.

Meanwhile, TMZ said it had lots of detail about the dog by late Friday, but Lelyveld declined to confirm or deny any of it on Sunday. It was not known who is behind FirstDogCharlie.com or where its information came from.

If Washington is fixated on the White House puppy, it’s fair to say the obsession was stoked by President Obama, who has repeatedly teased the media with tidbits. As recently as Friday, after Obama made a statement on the economy, a reporter asked about the puppy, again.

“Oh, man, now, that’s top-secret,” Obama said with a laugh.

A secret not so tightly held, as it turned out.

Parrot receives award for warning baby was choking

DENVER (AP) — A parrot whose cries of alarm alerted his owner when a little girl choked on her breakfast has been honored as a hero.

Willie, a Quaker parrot, has been given the local Red Cross chapter’s Animal Lifesaver Award.

In November, Willie’s owner, Megan Howard, was baby-sitting for a toddler. Howard left the room and the little girl, Hannah, started to choke on her breakfast.

Willie repeatedly yelled “Mama, baby” and flapped his wings, and Howard returned in time to find the girl already turning blue.

Howard saved Hannah by performing the Heimlich maneuver but said Willie “is the real hero.”

“The part where she turned blue is always when my heart drops no matter how many times I’ve heard it,” Hannah’s mother, Samantha Kuusk, told KCNC-TV. “My heart drops in my stomach and I get all teary eyed.”

Willie got his award during a “Breakfast of Champions” event Friday attended by Gov. Bill Ritter and Mayor John Hickenlooper.

Best in Show: Stump, 10, stuns at Westminster Dog Show

NEW YORK — Stump stumped the crowd and just about every other dog in the 133rd Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show by winning Best in Show on Tuesday night.

The 10-year-old Sussex spaniel became the oldest Westminster winner in history and the first of his breed to win the silver cup. In one of the most stunning results in recent Westminster history, Stump came out of retirement to win his first show in four years. Owner-handler Scott Sommer decided last Wednesday to bring Stump to the big show, just for fun.

Needless to say, there was no pressure or expectations. “This was like going for a walk with my pet,” Sommer said.

Stump won the Sporting Group in 2004; the next year he nearly died after a serious ailment. “His insides stopped working,” Sommer said. Stump spent 19 days with veterinarians at Texas A&M, who saved his life. “A miracle,” Sommer said. He could have been talking about both feats.

There was no preparation other than a walk around Sommer’s Houston driveway, quite different from the green carpet and bright lights of Madison Square Garden.

Judge Sari Tietjen didn’t know who Stump was or his age when she pointed to him. “I just couldn’t say no to him,” Tietjen said. “He is in fabulous shape.”

As for Sommer? “To bring a dog into the Garden who hasn’t been showing, he was a little insane,” Tietjen said. In 2001, Sommer won Best in Show with J.R., a Bichon Frise, and the two champs are buddies.

When Stump plodded around the ring, the Garden crowd erupted. He celebrated his victory by standing on his back legs and the crowd loved him even more. By winning the prestigious show, Stump proved you can teach an old dog new tricks.

His next one? No more comebacks. “He really is retired this time,” Sommer said.

With floppy ears and a slow gait, the golden-red Stump beat out a sparkling final field. Sommer guided him past a giant schnauzer that was the nation’s top show dog, a favored Brussels griffon, a Scottish deerhound named Tiger Woods, a standard poodle with 94 best in show wins, a Scottish terrier and a puli.

Nearly 2,500 dogs were entered at Westminster. Last year’s champion, a beagle named Uno, was perhaps the most popular winner ever.

But with a bounce in his step, Stump is sure to win over plenty of people while he reigns for a year and gets extra playtime with his green Grinch toy.

Cop reaches into foamy sewage tank to rescue dog

KALAMA, Wash. – A Kalama police officer reached into a tank of sewage to rescue a dog that had jumped inside. The officer, Jeff Skeie, was able to grab the sinking dog by the ear Tuesday and pull it out by the scruff of its neck. He had waste only on the sleeves of his uniform until the dog gave itself a vigorous shake, spraying him head-to-toe with sewage.

The dog was a stray that took off while its pen was being cleaned. It jumped in the sewage treatment plant’s digester and was unable to swim in the foamy liquid.

After the rescue, The Longview Daily News reported, the officer took a long shower and the chocolate Labrador had a bath. It was adopted later in the day by a woman who named it Hershey.

Labradors fetch top dog honor

The lovable Lab is once again the most popular purebred dog in the U.S., the American Kennel Club announced this morning.

For the 18th consecutive year, the Labrador retriever bested all other breeds in registration numbers by a wide margin.

Registration statistics for 2008 also show that the bulldog, which snagged a top-10 position last year for the first time in more than seven decades, increased in popularity, moving up two slots in the standings into number 8.

The other breeds on this year’s top 10 include, in descending order: Yorkshire terrier, German shepherd, golden retriever, beagle, boxer, dachshund, poodle and shih tzu.

Obamas down to Labradoodle or Portuguese water dog

By Janice Lloyd, USA TODAY

Will the next pooch in the White House be a dog of change?

Sunday, President-elect Barack Obama told George Stephanopoulos on ABC News’ This Week that the family has narrowed the choice to either a Portuguese water hound or labradoodle.

The former is actually known as the Portuguese water dog. It dates back to the 1200s and worked on boats with Portuguese fishermen, according to the website of the Portuguese Water Dog Club of America.

Sen. Ted Kennedy has helped make them famous, returning to the Capitol after brain cancer treatment with his two Portuguese water dogs.

The labradoodle, on the other hand, is a relatively new dog whose cross-breeding between a Labrador and a poodle goes back only to the 1980s.

Poll: 67% of pet owners say they ‘talk’

WASHINGTON (AP) — When your dog says “Woof,” you hear an eager, “Let’s take a walk.” And your cat has a certain entitled meow that you know means, “Put more food in my bowl — now!”

You are not alone.

About 67% of pet owners say they understand their animals’ barks, purrs and other sounds, according to an Associated Press-Petside.com poll released Wednesday. In a finding many parents of teenagers might envy, 62% of owners say that when they speak their pets get the message.

“I speak to her on limited subjects and she does the same with me,” said Stephen King, 63, a retired chemist from Kempner, Texas, who claims to understand his dog Dagny’s repertoire of barks signaling anger, eagerness, contentment and other feelings. “Common sense works 98% of the time.”

King is among the one-fifth of owners who said in the poll that they and their pets understand each other’s sounds completely.

The survey, conducted by GfK, shows that owners’ affection for their pets goes well beyond speaking their language. Even as a recession forces millions of families to curtail their budgets, just one in seven owners said they’ve been forced to trim spending on their pets in the past year. And more than four in 10 said they still plan to buy holiday gifts for their animals — about the same as last year.

“They look to me for food and shelter just like my children do,” said Charlotte Phillips, 40, of Abingdon, Va., a mother of two whose family is cutting spending overall but not for its two dogs and five cats. “They can’t fend for themselves.”

Even so, these tough economic times are taking a toll.

Of the 15% of owners who say they’re having to spend less on their pets, about a quarter say they’ve contemplated giving up the animal. Half or more say they’ve seriously considered cheaper food, fewer toys and delaying routine veterinary visits.

“It would have killed me,” said Krystal Kantala, 27, of Bonneau, S.C., who contemplated giving away one of her two cats when her husband lost his job. They kept it after they took out a loan and he found a new job.

More than seven in 10 women but fewer than six in 10 men say they and their pets understand each other’s efforts at communication. Older and lower-income people are especially likely to say they and their pets get the message.

On the flip side, men are twice as likely as women to say they and their pets are clueless about what each is saying to the other. All told, those folks include fewer than one in 10 pet owners.

“It’s kind of like, ‘What are you doing?’” Edwin Oto, 47, of Moraga, Calif., says of his futile efforts to figure out what his dog, Shilo, wants when she keeps barking after he lets her into the house.

Dog owners prevail over cat people when it comes to claims of successfully speaking to their animals: Three in 10 dog owners think their pets are baffled when they speak to them, compared with nearly half of cat owners who say the same.

When it comes to communicating in the other direction, cat owners do better: 25% say they completely understand those meows, compared with 16% of dog owners who claim to be totally fluent in barks.

Jane Starring, 48, of Barrington, R.I., says she and her family are confounded by their 8-year-old cat, Flannel, who often chases people about the house meowing.

“We’re not sure we’re making much progress understanding him,” said Starring. “I don’t know what his point is.”

William Miller, a professor of veterinary medicine and medical director of Cornell University’s Companion Animal Hospital, says it’s not unusual for many owners and pets to understand some of each other’s speech. He said animals and people learn to communicate over time by associating certain sounds with actions, such as a particular bark when a dog wants to go outside or the soothing tone many people use when petting their cats.

“It’s not like you’ll sit down and have a U.N. conversation with them” spoken in different languages, Miller said.

Some 74% of all pet owners have dogs, and 46% have cats, according to the poll. Men and women were about equally likely to own either kind of animal.

About 12% of pet owners have fish, 7% have birds, and 2% or fewer have horses, rabbits, rodents, turtles, lizards or other pets.

Even with economic cutbacks, 43% said they would buy holiday gifts for their pets — 48% of dog owners but just 28% of cat owners.

The AP-Petside.com poll was conducted by GfK Roper Public Affairs & Media from Dec. 3-8 and involved landline and cellphone interviews with 1,129 randomly chosen pet owners. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus 2.9 percentage points.

‘Dewey, the Small-Town Library Cat’ gets a successor

By Michael Crumb, Associated Press

DES MOINES — Vicki Myron intended to wait a year or two before getting another cat.

Her best-selling book, Dewey, The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World, was keeping her on the road most of the time and she didn’t have time for a pet.

An orange and white kitten found on a snow-covered road changed her mind.

“I fell in love instantly,” Myron says.

The little tabby was found Dec. 16 by Sue Selzer, who works for the school district in Myron’s northwest Iowa hometown of Spencer.

“I was out and about and met a truck that swerved in the road,” Selzer says. “I saw something and thought it was some garbage or something but when I got close I saw it was a kitten.”

Selzer pulled into a parking lot, then walked into the street to pick up the cat.

“It was snowing quite heavily and she was covered in snow. She had ice chunks hanging from her. She had twigs and leaves tangled in her fur,” Selzer says. “I took her back to my office and dried her off, put some warm water on her and cleaned her up.”

Two days later, she took the cat to the Spencer Public Library, where Myron was meeting with a Japanese television crew working on a show about Myron and Dewey.

Myron’s book (written with Bret Witter) chronicles the life of Dewey and the Iowa farm town of about 11,000, where Dewey had served as house cat in the library ever since Myron plucked him from a book deposit ban on a frigid January morning in 1988.

Dewey Readmore Books, named after the Dewey Decimal System used by libraries to catalog books, quickly became famous in Spencer and attracted attention worldwide. He died on Nov. 29, 2006. A granite marker sits outside the library, where his ashes were buried beneath the lawn.

Myron named the new kitten Page.

“That was from a fan whose son suggested that name because I’m turning over a new page in my life,” says Myron.

The library, where Myron served as director for about 20 years before retiring last year, has decided not to adopt Page as its new boarder. Kay Larson, the library’s current director, says the board will discuss getting a new cat at its Jan. 8 meeting.

Myron said that since she took Page in, the kitten has thrived.

“She’s a sweet, loving cat, very affectionate, very easy going,” she says. “She’s definitely a girl but eats like a pig, probably because she was a street cat that probably had to fend for herself.”

Although her book, which reached No. 1 on The New York Times list of nonfiction best sellers earlier this year and remains at No. 2, has kept Myron on the road promoting her work, she didn’t hesitate taking the kitten.

“I knew if the right one came along at the right time I’d get one, but I was hoping it would be a couple of years down the road because I’m not around much,” she says. “But here she is. We kind of found each other.”