Dogster

"60 Seconds" - Dogster News (9-17-10)

Hello... I'm Peanutty Crankite reporting on Friday, the 17th of September. This is your 60 seconds of news on Dogster.

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TGIF! It's been a while since I've done the news, but I am happy to be back reporting. Today is "National Apple Dumpling Day", "Citizenship Day", "Constitution Day" and "Yom Kippur."

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World's Largest and Smallest Dog Meet for the First Time

A Great Dane and a Chihuahua walk into New York's Central Park and ... they make history! At least that's how it happened Wednesday, when Giant George and Boo Boo — the Guinness Book of World Records' new tallest living dog and smallest living dog, respectively — joined forces for a photo op in the Big Apple.

Technically, George and Boo Boo met the night before in their Manhattan hotel rooms; Wednesday marked their first public appearance together. "She's not intimidated, she walked right up to him," Boo Boo's owner Lana Elswick said. "George just kind of looked at her at first, then he ignored her. I think that upset her!"

Described as "bossy," long-coated Chihuahua Boo Boo was just 1 oz. at birth (she now weighs 24 oz.) and wasn't expected to survive, according to Elswick. "The vet said it'd be a miracle if she lived because she weighed [so little]." Boo Boo was fed with an eyedropper as a pup, and the now 4-year-old, who also won the “smallest” record last year, stands 4 in. tall and often fights her brother — who weighs a whopping 3 lbs. and measures 4.9 in. tall — for food in the family's Raceland, Ky., home.

Great Dane George, on the other hand, weighed 17 lbs. at birth, and is now an intimidating 245 lbs. "He eats about 110 pounds [of food] a month," owner David Nasser said Wednesday. "It's definitely changed our lifestyle a little bit." Standing 3 ft. 5 in. tall (more than 7 ft. from nose to tail), he's Guinness's tallest dog ever.

The 5-year-old sleeps on his own queen-sized bed at his family's Tucson, Ariz., home, and has more than 55,000 Facebook friends (he has even met Oprah!). "He's a gentle giant," said Nasser, who is also the father of a newborn. "He's very careful about where he steps [around the baby]."

Both dogs are featured in photos and write-ups in the 2011 edition of the Guinness Book of World Records, which is out today, and their families hope to retain these titles for years to come. "I just feel really blessed," Elswick said.

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60 Second's adopted dog of the day

Linglee is a six-year-old spayed female Japanese Chin. This sweet 7 pound pup loves attention and to be held. She is quiet in the house, good with other dogs, and house trained to both the newspaper and a doggie door. Linglee needs a loving furever home. Let's hope that she finds it ASAP! ♥

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Cute Dog Video Of The Day

With A Tongue Like This Who Needs A Leash?

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Who is this?

It's actress Ali Larter. The expectant celeb stays a step ahead of her fluffy pup after a visit to a Hollywood groomer.

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Dog Gift Idea Of The Day

Squish Me Latex Computer Dog Toy

Price: $4.99

This bright yellow computer dog toy bytes back! Tough latex toy features a bitmapped picture of a dog on the screen. Your dog will sink his teeth into this computer with no heart failure from you! For small and medium dogs.

Funstufffordogs.com

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'The Lost Dogs' Finds Hope for Michael Vick's Fighting Dogs

Who cares about Michael Vick's dogs?

The animals, 51 of them, were taken from the football star's property in 2007 after authorities busted a dog-fighting ring that had been operating under the guise of being a legitimate breeding facility. The public was outraged. How could such a talented professional athlete have participated in so brutal an activity? But it seemed the story was always about Vick. What about the dogs?

That's what Sports Illustrated senior editor Jim Gorant wanted to know. So, in December 2008 he wrote a cover story for the magazine about a few of the pit bulls that were taken from Vick's backyard to Virginia animal control, then dispersed to various rescue organizations around the country. Readers responded to the story passionately — they sent more letters about that piece than any other in the magazine that year. One such reader, a pit bull lover who happens to be a book editor, asked Gorant to stay with the story, which turned into the new book The Lost Dogs, out today.

The book, broken into three parts (Rescue, Reclamation and Redemption), unfolds suspensefully. It starts with the forces that led Vick to create Bad Newz Kennels with his friends and associates, then follows agents as they attempt to build a case around Vick. After the bust, the ASPCA and its staff evaluates the dogs. The final third of the book is devoted to the individual stories of the pit bulls and their drastically different lives.

"Just tell the story — that was my approach to it from the start," Gorant says. "Try to approach it as a journalist and a storyteller. It was coming from a place that was not on one side of the equation."

The story, he would find, is ultimately one of hope — hope that the dogs could get a second chance, as pets, as therapy animals, as anything other than fighters.

So, who cares about Michael Vick's dogs?

Gorant's answer might be that we all should. "In order to lift the whole of society, you must first prop up the lowest among its many parts," he writes in the book's introduction. "If you show goodwill and kindness toward those who cannot stand up for themselves, you set a tone of compassion and goodwill that permeates all."

The Lost Dogs ($26) is out now in stores and online.

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That will be it for this edition of the news. '60 Seconds' will return again soon. Thank you for being patient, and thanks for reading! This is Peanutty Crankite, signing off. And that's the way it is.