Beauty the bald eagle will soon be able to regain the use of her beak for eating, drinking and preening.

The 7-year-old eagle suffered severe damage after her beak was shot off and scientists have built her a prosthetic to keep her alive.

A CNN.com article details the efforts made to save Beauty with a procedure experts aren’t sure will even work.

 (AP Photo/Young Kwak)

That’s the word from the Norwalk attorney M. Jeffry Spahr after finding out his city was being sued by Mahopac mom Kelly DeBrocky.

DeBrocky wants $100 from the city as compensation for having her day ruined (RUINED!!) by having to go through the horror that was her toddler stepping in dog poo in a parking lot near the aquarium.

She says her son’s $54 shoes were ruined and she wants to be reimbursed the aquarium and parking fees.

I don’t have children so I’m not even going to go into why a baby needs $54 shoes, but stepping in poo happens. A lot. I just did it last weekend. And you know what—I cleaned my shoes. I’m not suing my town (granted, it was my own dog’s poop I stepped in) and I’m not appearing in the local newspaper because of it.

And it could have been worse. You guys with dogs out there know what I’m talking about. The barefoot poo tromp. Oh yeah…  There’s nothing like the feeling of dog poo squishing between your toes on a hot summer day.

Did you get your pet from a pet store? Has your cat not yet been spayed or neutered? Does your puppy pee on your rug?

If you answered yes, you may be making a common mistake with your pets. The mistakes, listed in a recent MSNBC.com article from the Today show, include buying dogs and cats from pet stores (which perpetuates the animal trade and a lifetime of abuse and neglect for the breeding stock) and giving your new pet too much freedom.

According this article (and, from volunteering with rescue I can tell you the author is correct) it’s not at all uncommon for a family to make an impulse buy at a pet store, give the puppy the entire house to wreak havoc on and then wonder what is wrong with the puppy.

It’s nice to see advice like this given on a national Web site. The tips in there are what many in animal rescue have been preaching for years. Give pets boundaries. Supervises them with children. Research before bringing Fido or Fluffy home.

And please—get them spayed or neutered. IT WILL NOT CHANGE THEIR PERSONALITIES!

Denver area news outlets reported this week on Lulu, an English spring spaniel who was pulled from the rubble of a Breckenridge, Colo. building that had exploded, critically injuring her owner.

Lulu had been underneath the wreckage of the collapsed building for eight days,  yet suffered only mild dehydration and an eye injury.

Read more about Lulu’s rescue here.

I’d like to say that I’d give a big thumbs up to the Empire State for being the first in the county to outlaw electrocution as an acceptable way of harvesting animals’ fur.

But I can’t believe this was actually allowed in the first place. According to an Associated Press report, People For the Ethical Treatment of Animals is hoping the law, which bans the common practice of electrocuting the animals in their anuses or genitals, will encourage other states to pass similar measures.

Eek! And let me add an “ew” to that for good measure. Just another reason to go faux.

So AOL.com’s shopping site came up with a list of pet items they called “wacky.” Well I can think of someone who has every single item on that list except for the advanced litter pan (and that’s just because I don’t know many cat owners.)

Tear stain remover? I’ve got it in my kitchen cabinet. Hypo-allergenic treats? Ditto. Pet clothing? My dogs actually have entire wardrobes with clothes for every season.

And I’m not alone. A good friend uses a pet stroller on a regular basis. Her dog is blind and this is the way she gets to go on walks in crowded or unfamiliar places.

And I don’t have the exact brand of shampoo touted on AOL, but my dogs are bathed with the line of dog shampoo created by human hair guru Paul Mitchell. Before you roll your eyes too much folks, remember that dogs should not be bathed with human shampoo because the pH balance can cause skin problems.

Happy shopping!

With celebrities and the media making a constant push for blood donation, it’s important to remember that cats and dogs often need donor blood also.

I found this article on MSN.com about animal blood donors and read it with interest.

My Italian greyhound, Molly, has von Willebrand’s disease, a clotting disorder. Animal (humans too) typically have a von Willebrand’s factor of 100 percent or just below. Molly has 8 percent. So any surgery or severe injury could cause her to bleed out quickly.

She’s had three blood transfusions in her five years. The first, at Tufts University outside Boston, was when she was about eight months old. I was concerned about her being spayed, thinking the surgery itself could kill her, but Molly’s veterinarians said she could have problems clotting during her normal heat cycle.

She had her second transfusion at three years old during an invasive test and the third shortly after when she underwent surgery and a biopsy on her liver (Molly also has a congenital liver disorder.) Both those transfusions were done at the County Animal Specialty Group in Yonkers.

Molly’s transfusions consisted of von Willebrand’s rich plasma and I am deeply grateful to the owners who brought in their dogs to give blood. Without those dogs I would have lost my own.

You’d think with the Pennsylvania primary and assorted polygamy news, today wouldn’t be such a slow news day that articles about the most beautiful bulldog have been making the rounds at major news outlets.

But indeed, American media outlets tody are celebrating Buddy, a three-year-old bulldog from Iowa who won the contest that honors the mascot of Des Moines’ Drake University.

His prizes? A crown and a ride in a golf cart Saturday before thousands of adoring fans  at Drake Stadium.

(AP Photo/Kevin Sanders)

New research has come out showing that our pets (you know the ones that give you kisses and sleep in your bed) are contaminated with a multitude of industrial  chemicals.

Not good.

Veterinarians and researchers have said animals test higher than humans because they spend so much time lower to the ground where dust and other particles settle.

This is upsetting on a number of level. First, I keep my home very clean with regular vacuuming, dusting and floor washing. (I have never wanted my house to smell like I’ve got dogs.) And I purposely control the amount of chemicals put into my dogs by researching food ingredients, not using flea and tick medication and only vaccinating them for rabies (and that’s only because it’s required by law.)

But I guess with all the cleaners I use and all the other chemicals in my house (carpet fumes, gas from the lawn mower, etc.) I shouldn’t be surprised at this news. I mean, if they’re ingesting this than so am I, but the problem is that I’m about 10 times bigger than they are.

So my mom lives in a small southern Massachusetts town in a new development that is being expanded all the time. She was one of the first houses up there and enjoyed a thick area of trees and grasses behind her, most of which has been taken down to make way for new houses.

But she still has a strip of see-through forest between her backyard and the next road. And she gets a lot of wildlife that has been relegated to that strip, including fishers, also known as fisher cats.

These are not cuddly animals. According to the New York Department of Environmental Conservation Web site, fishers have sharp nails used for climbing trees and killing prey. And they have been blamed for several attacks on domestic pets including dogs, cats and rabbits.

My mom has a large dog (and my two little dogs visit often) so she was concerned enough to call her local animal control officer—who was basically no help.

The animal control officer’s award-winning idea? Get an airhorn and blast it out the window when she sees a fisher. But, the officer noted, that would probably hurt her dog’s ears so she may not want to do that.

Gee, thanks. I’m sure my mom’s glad her tax dollars are hard at work.

She’s left messages for the state’s wildlife department, but if any of you have suggestions, we’d love to hear them.

(Photo courtesy of the state Department of Environmental Conservation)