Animal House

Buddy's owners are busy looking for their missing black Labrador retriever. He was last seen in Amityville, on Suffolk County's South Shore. Have you seen him?

If you want an eye-popping visualization of the plasticity of the canine genome, check out this YouTube video of an endless conga line of purebred dogs. More mesmerizing than a lava lamp.

"Conan" is a neutered, microchipped pitbull/rottweiler mix has been missing since April from the East New York section of Brooklyn. He was sighted on September 18, one block from where he was lost by a volunteer from Spay Neuter Intervention Project (SNIP).

Conan is believed to be in the Hyland Park/Cypress Hills area, the same cemetery-carpeted section of Brooklyn where Vivi was last seen more than a year ago.

If you are interested in joining a search team for Conan, contact SNIP at SNIPNYC@aol.com.

Now it's we BARFers who get to be paranoid.

From http://www.bravorawdiet.com/recallinfo.html:

Connecticut-based Bravo! announced a voluntary recall of select tubes of three of its poultry products for cats and dogs. The pet food is  being recalled because two of the products have the potential to be  contaminated with Salmonella and Listeria monocytogenes, while the  other product has the potential to be contaminated with Listeria  monocytogenes.

Both Salmonella and Listeria are organisms which can cause serious infections in dogs and cats, and if there is cross contamination, in people, especially small children, frail or elderly people, and others with weakened immune systems. Healthy people with Salmonella  infection may only suffer short-term symptoms, such as high fever,  severe headache, vomiting, nausea, abdominal pain, and diarrhea. Long  term complications can include arthritis and other more serious  ailments. Healthy people with Listeria infection may only suffer  short-term symptoms such as high fever, severe headache, stiffness,  nausea, abdominal pain, and diarrhea. Listeria infection can cause miscarriages and stillbirths among pregnant women.

The company has received no reports of illness in either people or  animals associated with any of the three products.

The recalled products are distributed nationwide to distributors,  retail stores, internet sales and directly to consumers, and they can  be identified by the batch ID code located on the hang tag attached  to the bottom of the plastic film tubes. The recalled products should  not be sold or fed to pets. Pet owners should return unopened frozen  tubes of food to the store where purchased for a full refund. Pet  owners should dispose of opened tubes of product in a safe manner  (example, a securely covered trash receptacle) and return the washed  plastic batch ID tag to the store where purchased for a full refund.

Recalled Pet Food:

Product: Bravo Original Formula Chicken Blend frozen raw food
Product Numbers: 21-102, 21-105, 21-110
Sizes: 2 pound, 5 pound and 10 pound tubes
Batch ID code (on hang tag): 236
Reason for Recall: Salmonella, Listeria

Product: Bravo Original Formula Turkey Blend frozen raw food
Product Numbers: 31-102, 31-105, 31-110
Sizes: 2 pound, 5 pound and 10 pound tubes
Batch ID code (on hang tag): 236
Reason for Recall: Listeria

Product: Bravo Basic Formula Finely Ground Chicken frozen raw food
Product Number: 21-212
Size: 2 pound tube
Batch ID Code (on hang tag): 226
Reason for Recall: Salmonella, Listeria

Other Batch IDs for these same products are not involved in the recall.

As any purebred fancier knows, holding dog and cat shows on Long Island is a challenge at best. Exhibitors from off-Island are repelled by astronomic hotel-room rates and equally cosmic traffic delays. Venues with the space and inclination to welcome animals are fewer and fewer.

This year, the cluster of Queens-based dogs shows held in late October was forced to leave Flushing Meadows Corona Park. It was bad enough that the Bronx County Kennel Club had their Sunday show in Flushing, but at least it was the same area code. Next month, the Bronx club's show is in Augusta, New Jersey.

And the Queensboro shows on Friday and Saturday have moved to ... West Springfield, Massachusetts? Who knew that the towering Unisphere at their old Queens digs would turn out to be so prophetic: Now you almost have to travel around the world to go to a Queens dog show.

The latest local casualty is the Paumanok Cat Fanciers show. Joan Bernstein reports that the January 2008 show is now "no longer a reality."

With the loss of their regular show site, Sports Plus is Lake Grove, the popular Long Island cat show has gone looking for a new home. "I've called everywhere," Joan says. "No high school gymnasiums -- allergies. For hotels, no animals on the premises where food is served."

The biggest obstacle, not surprisingly, is cost. The only local university with a reasonable rental fee required that the show hire their "decorators" and purchase $20,000 in carpeting for "floor protection." A popular catering hall said yes, but because they'd lose two weddings and a bar mitzvah, the rental would be $60,000.

The Paumanok show needs a "gate" -- that is, admission fees from spectators -- in order to break even. When your show is in January -- they can't change it, as other dates conflict with other cat shows -- a bad case of the flurries can mean thousands in lost revenue.

Joan isn't hopeful about finding a site on Long Island, Walt Whitman's fish-shaped Paumanok, for 2009. Angels of mercy can contact her at joanbernstein@optonline.net.

The Greenies class-action suit has reached a settlement, reports Business Week. The company, whose distinctive chlorophyll-colored treats were reported to have cause intestinal blockages in some dogs that did not properly chew them, have since reformulated the wildly popular chewies.

The initiators of the lawsuit were the owners of Burt, a rescued Dachshund who allegedly died after ingesting one of the treats.

Come on, now. An Arabian saddlebred horse should be easier to find than a whisp of a whippet!

"J.J." went missing from his barn in south coastal Massachusetts after he was spooked by nearby cows. His owner worries he might get hit by an automobile.

Contact Perry Paquette Equestrian Center at (508) 993-7578 or the Fairhaven Police Department at (508) 997-7421.

In happier news, the Ridgeback missing out West was recovered by his owners.

This  post on Craig's List has been making the Internet rounds, and for good reason: It sums up the anger and disappointment rescuers and adopters feel toward those who treat their animals like "disposables."

Oh, to come back in another life as that poster's dog!

Where oh where has our Newsday blogger gone? Oh where oh where can she be?

Snuck off to the Somerset Hills/Westchester dog-show circuit, I did, for five days of back-to-back shows.

So ... catching up ... the microchip debate rages, with the AP reporting on some statistics that made the rounds months ago about microchips causing cancer in some laboratory mice.

The statistics gave me enough pause earlier this year that I held off microchipping my puppy, Lola. And now I might just opt for a tattoo -- for her, that is. My dolphin-on-the-ankle days are long over!

The latest hoopla in the Michael Vick saga is over Whoopi Goldberg's comments on "The View" that his alleged involvement in organized dog fighting is "not an unusual thing for where he comes from," presumably referring to the South's traditional tolerance for bloodsport.

And then there's Newsday's own Les Payne, whose defense of Vick seeks to put him on a bar with owners who dump their animals at shelters because they have a new baby or move into no-pets-allowed apartments. I'm still getting emails on that one.

You've got a lucky number -- how about a lucky puppy? Japan-born "Heart-kum" is a long-haired Chihuahua with a heart-shaped marking on his flank. It's not a PhotoShop job, it's Mother Nature. Meanwhile, his breeder is not selling him, citing the "good fortune" he brings.

It's the canine version of snagging a handicapped parking spot when you are perfectly able-bodied: passing your dog off as a service dog when he's just a regular Rover. The San Diego Tribune reports that service-dog vests are  available for the asking, and federal law prevents merchants from asking for proof of a dog's service-dog status. Coupled with the fact that a service dog's function might not be readily apparent -- any animal, not just a canine, can be used for "emotional support" -- and that leaves lots of loopholes through which the unethical are willing to jump. Sort of agility for losers.