Cincinnati Enquirer | Cincinnati Photo Gallery | Cincinnati.Com

The My Dogs Got Talent show was held at Montgomery Park, Saturday, September 26.
Cincinnati Enquirer | Cincinnati Photo Gallery | Cincinnati.Com

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HallZOOween

HallZOOWeen                                                            

October 10-11, 17-18, and 24-25

Little ghouls and boys can enjoy a spooktacular weekend of fun, from noon – 5 p.m. It's so fun, it's scary!
Activities include:
Trick-or-Treating around the Zoo (children 12 and under only)
Back by popular demand - Phil Dalton's Theater of Illusion
Animal Pumpkin Pandemonium
Frisch's Big Boy Pumpkin Patch
Giant Pumpkin Carving Demonstrations
Spooktacular Train Ride and Scare-ousel

NEW this year:
Frisch's Big Boy Costume Parade
Beauty Shop of Horrors
The Curse of Skull Rock - 4-D adventure
Kids are encouraged to wear a costume during HallZOOween, but it is not required.

Help the Zoo Go Green! Please Bring Your Own Treat Bag!

Pet Blessing this Saturday!!!!

Pet Blessing

Registration begins 10 a.m. Celebration of Feast Day of St. Francis of Assisi. Blessing by Father Jack Wintz. Each animal receives certificate of blessing, along with treats for both pet and pet owners.

Presented by Mercy Franciscan at West Park
Retirement community.
Type of event: Religious - Community

Where
Mercy Franciscan at West Park
2950 West Park Drive
Cincinnati, OH 45238
Phone: 513-451-8900

When

Saturday, Oct. 3, 2009
10 a.m.- 11:30 a.m.

Glamourpuss - The Enchanting World of Kitty Wigs

Glamourpuss - The Enchanting World of Kitty Wigs

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Our way to say thank you to the fire departments and police departments

Best Friends Petcare would like to say thank you for doing what you do to support our city! We are giving 10% discount on boarding to all fire departments and police departments of the Cincinnati area.

Cincinnati Enquirer | Cincinnati Photo Gallery | Cincinnati.Com

Wiener dog race. Biscuit (right) wins his heat during the Running of the Wiener Dogs race Friday on Fountain Square.

Cincinnati Enquirer | Cincinnati Photo Gallery | Cincinnati.Com

Bark in the Park

Sept 15th, 2009 the hotdogs weren't the only dogs at the Cincinnati baseball stadium. Each year the reds invite Cincinnatians to bring their bestfriends to the ball game.

Homeless Woman's Story Generates Support

By Krista Ramsey • kramsey@enquirer.com • September 4, 2009


Almost from the moment Julie Jordan’s story went up on the Enquirer’s Web site Thursday, calls of support poured in for the 66-year-old homeless woman and her dog Lucky.

Jordan and Lucky have been living in her car in the parking lot of a suburban store since June after Jordan filed bankruptcy, then lost her job and her home.

Readers who saw her story called Warren County Community Services, which is coordinating aid, to pledge everything from a spare room in their home to a year’s supply of veterinary care for Lucky. The more than 60 calls came from as far away as Chicago and Columbus, where one donor offered a radio and batteries since Jordan’s car radio no longer works.

“People are donating everything from money to a year’s supply of dog food to a hand-made blanket,” said Sue Miller, family service director of Warren County Community Services. “It just gives you hope. With the economy as bad as it is, we’ve been delighted by the outpouring by the community.”

A number of callers offered Jordan free use of a rental property – including a four-bedroom house in Delhi Township – or care for Lucky if Jordan found temporary housing where she couldn’t take the dog. One 84-year-old caller said she was having trouble making ends meet herself but wanted to make a small donation to Jordan.

Social services workers Friday were going to the parking lot where Jordan spends nights and the public parks where she takes Lucky during the day to make contact with her. Various Warren County agencies were coordinating services to help her with housing, food and medical needs.

“There are lots of social agencies in the area, and they’re all like, ‘We can do this,’” said Judy Wells, director of care management and intake services for the Warren County Elderly Services Program.

Miller said her agency was especially pleased that Jordan’s story led a handful of other homeless people to call and ask for help. “To have that many people call in on a single day is really amazing,” Miller said.


If you would like to donate to Julie Jordan and her dog Lucky, call Warren County Community Services at 513-695-2249 or visit www.wccsi.org.

Angel walks to the rescue

Angel walks to the rescue

By Cliff Radel • cradel@enquirer.com • September 16, 2009

MADEIRA - Late one night, Mathew Cook decided to fetch his dog, Potter.

His plan had four flaws: 1. Potter, a Lab-Golden Retriever mix, sat 3.7 miles away in Madeira; 2. Mathew was spending the night in Madison Place with his older brother and sister-in-law; 3. Mathew is eight years old; 4. He has Down's syndrome.

But, he went anyway. And that's how he met his guardian angel, a 30-year-old cake decorator named Erin Wolfe.

Until help arrived, she watched over him for the length of his one-hour, two-mile trek. She followed him along heavily traveled, unlit streets with no sidewalks and plenty of weeds taller than a blonde-haired, blue-eyed, eight-year-old boy.

"It took me a minute to catch up to him," Wolfe remembered. "He was hoofing it down the street."  He was dressed for a walk, shorts, T-shirt, red-and-black Crocs. She was not.

Wolfe was barefoot. Before she took off after Mathew, she had been sitting on her front porch, relaxing with her sister-in-law.  They were enjoying the stillness of a late summer night. Inside the red-brick home she shares with her husband, Robert, their 2½-year-old son, Raspberry, was fast asleep.

"We almost went in the backyard and built a fire," Wolfe said.  As she spoke, she sat on her front porch. Her bare feet touched a chalk drawing by her son. He had drawn a heart, an appropriate sign at the house of a guardian angel.  Recalling her meeting with Mathew, she added: "It was a last-minute thing to sit out here on the front porch."  Lucky for Mathew.

At first, a passing motorist tried to stop him. "Where are you going little boy?" she asked from her car.  "Home," he said. "To get Potter."  Off he went. The motorist went on. Wolfe got off the porch.  She didn't think she would be gone long. So, she left her cell phone behind.

She asked Mathew where he lived. Not stopping, he replied: "Got to get Potter."  Mathew and Potter are pals. They sit on their front porch in Madeira after Mathew comes home from school. He's a second-grader at Madeira Elementary.  Mathew likes to rub Potter's ears. He whispers "good dog," into the furry flaps on the side of his pal's head.

The 100-pound dog outweighs him by 50 pounds and is trained to help children with Down's syndrome.  "If Mathew melts down," said his mom, Mary Ramirez Cook, "Potter's trained to calm him." If Mathew tries to run away, Potter knows how to put on the brakes.  The four-legged protector wasn't with his master on the night Mathew took off for home. The little boy's sister-in-law is allergic to dogs.

Mathew's brother and sister-in-law went to bed early that night. Her cell phone rang at around 11:30 p.m. She awoke to find Mathew missing. Her husband called 911.  By then, Mathew was long gone - with Wolfe in pursuit and both of them in danger.

"When he turned the corner to go onto Plainville Road," Wolfe remembered, "he was in the middle of the street." She directed him onto the sidewalk.   "I didn't want to grab him," she said, "for fear of him freaking out" and darting into the path of an on-coming car.  They ran out of sidewalk before busy Plainville Road turned into Camargo Road. But, Mathew kept running.

"Plainville's real dark," Wolfe said. "No street lights and we're running along the wrong side of the road."  So, she coaxed him to the side of the street facing southbound traffic. While playing guardian angel, she tried to flag down on-coming cars.  "About 10 to 15 passed," she said. None stopped. But each car veered out of their way.

Finally, one car slowed. The driver asked what was wrong. Wolfe told him. He said his name was Ben and called 911. By this time, five police departments were searching for Mathew.  "Then he turn around and followed us with his hazard lights on," Wolfe said.

"I never did get his last name," she added. "But I was grateful that Ben showed up. He sure made me feel a lot safer on that dark road."  She was wearing a dark blue top and a long, black skirt. "I was hoping my pale skin would reflect on something," Wolfe said as she brushed a stray strand of flaxen hair from her face.

Mathew's jaunt ended with a twist of fate. A van slowed by the side of the road. The door opened. Mathew hopped inside and sat on a woman's lap.  "He knew the woman," Wolfe said. "He sat there until the cops arrived."

Two days after the happy ending, two moms met. Mary Ramirez Cook gave Erin Wolfe flowers and a gift card.  "Nothing I could ever afford to give you, no words I could ever say," she told Wolfe, "could ever repay you for what you did."  Wolfe thanked her, gave her a hug and told her no gifts were necessary.

"I'm very shy," said the woman whose shyness extends to declining requests to pose for photos. "I don't need any recognition. I was just following a little kid and making sure he got home OK."  Mathew's mom thinks Wolfe is being too modest.

"I always thought my son was protected by a guardian angel," Cook said. "Now, I know there's one and her name is Erin."

Smoka the Cat Survives 26 Days Buried Under Rubble

This amazing story comes from http://www.wlwt.com/ and http://www.peoplepets.com/. 

"The last time Sandy LaPierre saw her cat, Smoka, was on Aug. 9 when a fire ripped through the apartment building where she lived in Franklin, Ohio.

"Whenever my neighbor kicked the door in to get me out, she hid under the bed and that was the last I've seen of her," she told the local NBC affiliate.

LaPierre and the community are now stunned that Smoka has been found a whopping 26 days after the disaster. The lucky feline was discovered when a crew came to tear down the three-story building on Sept. 4 and one of the workers spotted the cat's head under a pile of rubble.

"We was digging through it and we found that cat 16 feet underneath the debris pile, in the burnt ashes and wood," Clarence Witte, owner of Stark Wrecking Company tells PEOPLE Pets. "And we had already done run over the top of it a dozen times with the excavator — and that thing weighs about 40,000 pounds. I don’t know how that cat survived underneath all that stuff."

Witte, who says that the 1-year-old feline "looked dead" when she was pulled from the rubble but started moving within minutes of being freed, believes the cat was underneath the rubble for the entire 26-day period, without food or water. The top floor of the building, where LaPierre lived with the cat, was completely lost in the fire.

"It's just a miracle," says Witte. "That cat had willpower, I guess, and just did not want to die."

Smoka was immediately taken to a vet where they found the cat was dehydrated, had a small infection in one eye but was otherwise in good health, Witte says.

Now reunited with her owner, Smoka is "doing great," says Witte, who adds that LaPierre is staying at a nearby apartment but needs to find a new one that accepts pets. "You would never know that cat was laid underneath here that long. But she said it's eating everything, she said it's eating like crazy.""

Doggy Day Camp in Cincinnati is a Blast!

   

LOOK at these babies sleeping so peacefully!

1 FREE NIGHT of boarding

Best Friends has a new policy for all of their new "best friends." The first boarding night is free for all new pups! For more information, please give us a call at (513)489-6300

$10 Puppy Bath Package

Bring your puppy for his first bath with us ONLY $10.00. This includes the bath, ears cleaned, nails trimmed and sanitary trim.

Puppies must be 5 months or younger