Happy Friday!

Engineers may think they can analyze, design and wonk their way around anything. But they may have met their match with cats, as the Engineer's Guide to Cats proves.

Take a Friday afternoon break and watch Oscar, Ginger and Zoey put engineers Paul and TJ through their paces as the cats demonstrate such arts as feline floral regurgitation and cat yodeling. You also will learn such helpful skills as learning how to calculate the internal volume and aspect ratio of your own cat, to better determine wind resistance and leaping capability.

And speaking of TJ: It was our own SSS! reader TJ who recommended this viral vid a few months ago. Thanks!

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Happy Friday!

Long ago, in a cubicle far, far away...

My then-podmate Lona (whose young daughter's first pet had her smitten with all things hamster) e-mailed me something that came to be known as the Hamster Dance. Created and launched by a Canadian art student 10 years ago this month, this Internet meme was a very early (and very simple) version of what we now call a "viral video" -- an infectious bit of Internet nonsense that winds up circling the globe a few million times, delighting Friday cubicle-rat procrastinators around the world.

Nora is a teen-ager now and her pet hamster long gone. But the Hamster Dance is alive, well and in multiple versions on YouTube. Click here for a close copy of the original. Back in the day, it was known as the Hampster Dance -- for the creator's pet and muse, Hampton the Hamster.

Below is a massively upgraded model, sort of like what a Broadway musical might be to a high school play.

Happy anniversary Hamster Dance!
You changed my life, and my Fridays, forever.

Click here for Hamster Dance history from Wikipedia.

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Two pit bulls -- ears close-cropped to sinister points, one in a spiked collar and both draped in heavy chains -- loll in the sun at a junkyard. They quickly come to life when a young man leaps the fence, drawn by a glistening high-tech cellphone that somehow got left behind. The dogs rush with teeth bared as the man races to the phone...

Edgy commercial? Or pit bull stereotyping, definitely un-PC in the age of Michael Vick?
The latest ad for Verizon's new LG Dare phone is drawing plenty of comments from both sides. Watch it for yourself, if you haven't seen it already.

SSS! reader Jenni thinks the spot is "disgraceful" and glamorizes animal abuse, of which pits are some of the most frequent targets. She also is appalled that the ad targets young consumers -- the ones that need to be taught chaining dogs, and turning them into fighting machines, is wrong.

Verizon spokeswoman Brenda Raney said the ad was just a fictious, over-the-top presentation designed to get attention.

If you agree with Jenni's view:
Click here to sign an online petition, being sponsored by the ASPCA Online Community. It asks Verizon to "show more compassion" about stereotyping a breed often unfairly judged and to not use any live animal performers in the future.

So: What do you think about the commercial? Is it just broad-brush, harmless satire? Or harmful to pit bulls and promoting animal abuse?

And keep reading for Jenni's comments.

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Happy Friday!

And speaking of happy -- take time today to make Kenzie, a Wheaton-colored Scottish terrier from Seattle, WA., exactly that.
Kenzie, you see, has a bad case of puppy love. A big crush. On Barney, the nation's First Dog. As you can see from this little poster she made.

The fact that Barney, a black Scottie, soon will be moving out of the White House has not deterred her. Kenzie, with the help of her Scottie brother Boone, has been relentlessly pursuing her dream date with the Barnster. She has launched a YouTube video campaign, asking Barney to please phone. Watch and you can see Kenzie is quite a catch: She works out, is an actress and world traveler, and quite cute.

Kenzie tried sending Barney a Valentine and has been on national television, pleading her case. Barney's family acknowledged her advances last year, and even sent some gifts: Pawtographed photos of the Presidential pets, Nylabones, etc. But alas, no date.

Here is where you come in.
Click here for Boone and Kenzie's Web site, Scottie Tails. You'll see a link where you can e-mail the White House on Kenzie's behalf.

A girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do.

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Happy Friday! And Happy Fourth.

You hopefully aren't at work today, so you don't need something that can deliver some serious procrastination time. Instead, take a quick break from blowing things up, pump up the volume and watch kitties morph to the beat.

From PhotoAnimationGuy.

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Happy Friday!

Here's why every dog needs a yard -- with a swimming pool. What your dog does when you're not home.
Thanks, TJ.

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Yes, we know our pals at the Sun-Sentinel's new FloriDUH blog broke the news earlier today that the new holder of the coveted World's Ugliest Dog title is a Floridian! From St. Petersburg. Aren't we proud. The contest, held yearly at the Sonoma-Marin Fair in Petaluma, CA. always draws more photo coverage than a Paris Hilton night on the town.

But what we'll also tell you here at SSS!: Not only is Gus, a 9-year-old Chinese Crested, ugly. He is one-eyed, three- legged ugly. The eye went in a fight with a cat and the leg was amputed due to skin cancer. Gus' owners told the judges they would put their dog's $1,600 in prize money toward radiation treatments.

Here is a video clip of Gus doing the traditional Ugly Dog contest celebrity spot on the "Today Show." The contest was on Saturday.

And if you can't get enough of all things Gus...

Click here for a complete photo gallery from our friends at Animal Crazy, the Orlando Sentinel's pet blog.

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This little Boston is guilty about something. What does your dogs do when you're away?

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Happy Friday!

A funny take on a serious subject.

Oh, all the bodacious kitties in this production were from a foster home. And the cat in the car was driving on a closed course.

Thanks for sharing, TJ.

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Nothing like a constantly barking dog to drive you berserko. The solution for one Oakland Park 23-year-old guy? He's in jail, without bond, on charges that he shot and killed his neighbor's mixed-breed Boxer because the dog's constant baking interfered with his studying. Click here for the full story.

But BarkingDogs.net, an extensive online resource dedicated to what it calls "the barking epidemic," has its own suggestion:
Shame 'em on YouTube. Use a camcorder, not a gun.

The advantages of this method?

You can vividly show your neighbor's dog in all his full, barking glory -- and send it to everyone you know. Like your city council members, law enforcement, other neighbors and, of course, the dog's owner.

Not to mention you avoid jail time.

Here's an example. Think this would work?

Here's the link to YouTube's Barking Dog Video Group.

Yes, this problem is annoying so many of us, it has its own group.

By the way: Turns out dogs taking a bullet for sounding off isn't that uncommon. Just a quick search turned up three stories of people, driven over the brink by incessant barking, who went gunning for their neighbor's pets.

Isn't this the owner's fault? Yet BarkingDogs.net claims that people who try to deal with the barking issue by going through the legal system rarely get satisfaction.

Here's: "Barking dog shot, killed outside its home." (Staten Island, NY. July 2007)

And here's: "Dog shot dead by neighbor because of barking." (Atlantic Beach, NY. March 2006)

And: "Man arrested for allegedly shooting barking dog." (Albuquerque, NM. January 2005)

Feel free to share your own tales of "barking hell."

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A dog, a cat and a rat --
If they can live in balance, why can't we? Check out this amazing video of what a Colorado self-proclaimed "animal trainer" says is a model for world peace.

Thanks, Karen, for sharing!

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Happy Friday!

No cutie pie calendar kitties for me! I like my cats, well, catty. Which is why I LOVE this thing by Corey "Mr. Safety" Williams, a Los Angeles-area independent video producer inspired by his newly adopted cat. It's a paean to all things feline: Watch Sparta drink out of the toliet, stalk Corey through the halls of their apartment, and practically unhinge his jaw, like a python, trying to stick Corey's entire hand inside his mouth.

Oh, and the song is a total head spin.
"Hey Little Sparta, what's with all the fight?
Little bitty kitty wanna bite, bite, bite."

Keep reading for the surprising back story about Sparta.

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