Animal House

Joanne Anderson of Babylon has been following up on the seven Afghan-hound rescues that were brought to Long Island after being seized with 60 others from a New Mexico hoarder.

Scroll down for some photos of them receiving much-needed veterinary care in a mobile hospital. Each dog was carried into the van, double leashed for blood draws and microchipping.

Joanne reports that the "groomathon" began the next night, headed up by local fancier and groomer Anna Stromberg.

"We discovered that Velveeta served as a pacifier for stressed out sweeties," she writes in an e-mail. "The girls, Jane and Charlotte, were most matted ... and most traumatized by the ordeal .... Frost, Mr. Congeniality, really did not like having his ears shaved....acted like the bucking bronco. Anna always has Plan A, Plan B, Plan C, etc..."

How do dogs say “delish”? Inspired by the home-cooked meals she makes for her pit bull Isaboo, ubiquitous celeb chef Rachael Ray is launching a Nutrish for Pets line of dog food. (A kitty version is in the works.)

All proceeds of the sales are slated for her Rachael’s Rescue group. Among the slated recipients: Spirit, a terrier-mix who made the news recently when he was brutally beaten at the U.S.-Mexico border. Her Web site, rachaelsrescue.org also features recipes that can be shared with your pooch, including Pumpkin Barley with Turkey and Oatmeal with 'Nanas and PB.
— Denise Flaim

Can you hear me now?

Hopefully, Verizon is heeding the tsunami of complaints generated by its unfortunate commercials depicting two raging pit bulls lunging at a man trying to retrieve his LG Dare phone.

The Humane Society of the United States has also stepped in to ask the phone company to pull the 30-second spots -- so far, to no avail.

Now here's a way to channel that prodigious border-collie energy: Gin, one of those relentless herders, performs with her human Kate on the second season of "Britain's Got Talent." Who says Simon Cowell is congenitally cantankerous?

Read it . And watch it. And weep.

Last week, authorities in San Miguel, New Mexico, removed 67 Afghan hounds from a hoarder's home. The Afghan Hound Club of America pitched in with a countrywide rescue effort to find a home for the dozens of dogs, which were living in years' worth of filth and decay.

Unfortunately, 10 of the dogs have already died, some of parvovirus. Three of the female dogs are also reportedly pregnant.

Seven of these exotic Middle Eastern hounds have found their way to Long Island, where they await foster homes. Rescuers have named the traumatized and matted dogs after literary figures: Whitman, Frost, Edgar Afghan Poe, Cyrano, Dante, Charlotte Bronte and Jane Eyre.

Donations and additional foster homes are urgently needed.

It's been bonking around the Internet for a while, but if you haven't caught the 30-something-year-old video of Christian the lion, bought by two Australian guys from a cage in, of all places, Harrod's, click here. It shows the footage of their reunion with him in the wild, and a better case for anthropomorphism you will never find.

Beware, however, the snarky YouTube version that intersperses video of a lion attack with the Christian footage. Some people.

You've heard of Catholic guilt, but this is stretching things some ...

Apparently, pets are a no-no in the Vatican, a tradition that no one has really explained adequately. Now come press reports that Pope Benedict XVI -- an avowed cat lover who fed strays before he was elevated to pontiff -- was loaned a gray kitty on his current Australian trip to help pass the time in the bush.

The pope's spokespeople have refused to confirm the story, and in the past have taken pains to point out that the only cats in the pontiff's Vatican apartment are made of ceramic. But some press reports express curiosity about whether he has spirited some cats therein.

The pope was the subject of a kitty tell-all, "Joseph and Chico: The Life of Pope Benedict XVI As Told By A Cat," an authorized biography of the Pope for young people approved by the Vatican.

Those Rescue Link guys have their motors runnin'. The world's most tattooed -- and softest-hearted -- animal rescuers are sponsoring a Ruff Riders Rally on Sunday to benefit Save-a-Pet Animal Rescue in Port Jefferson Station. Registration is $20. The ride starts at the Brookhaven Amphitheater at Bald Hill, tours along Suffolk's South Shore, and ends at Mulcahy's Pub in Centereach. For more info, visit saveapetli.net or rescueink.org (click on "Events"), or call 631-473-6333.

Here’s the latest salvo in the presidential pet debate: Irked that the American Kennel Club has suggested five potential breeds for the currently dog-less Obama family (see presidentialpup.com), Best Friends Animal Society has launched the rival obamafamilydog.com to encourage the candidate to adopt a shelter dog. “For a candidate focused on ‘hope’ and ‘change,’ adopting a homeless pet is the right choice for the Obamas,” said a Best Friends spokesperson.

You know about freerice.com, the site that donates grains of rice to the United Nations World Food Program.

Now here comes freekibble.com, created by Mimi Ausland, a 12-year-old from Bend, Oregon, who wanted to help feed the dogs at her local animal shelter.

Every day that visitors play a trivia game ("What are the two varieties of the Collie breed?"), 20 pieces of free kibble are donated by the site's sponsors. (It doesn't matter if you get the right answer, which, by the way, is "rough and smooth.")

Close to 3 million pieces of kibble have been donated since April. Go, Mimi, go!

I'm baaaaack ...

Moving right on to current events: Presidential hopeful Barack Obama has reportedly told his two daughters that the family will get a new pooch after November -- no matter the electoral outcome. (His rival John McCain already has a bustling menagerie, including English Springer Spaniel Sam, Yorkshire Terriers Lucy and Desi, mixed breed Coco, Oreo the cat, two turtles named Cuff and Link, a ferret, three parakeets and a tankful of saltwater fish.)

The American Kennel Club, in turn, has countered with five prospective breeds -- all of them with relatively hypoallergenic coats, in a nod to allergy concerns: the Bichon Frise (good luck housebreaking one); the Chinese Crested (the hairless versions are shoo-ins at Ugly Dog contests when they hit senior-citizen status); the Poodle (despite the nice size of the standard version, most men have an aversion to the "pouf factor"); the Soft-Coated Wheaten Terrier (aka Terrier Lite); and the Miniature Schnauzer (the "huh?" member of the Terrier Group).

You can vote at www.presidentialpup.com on or before Aug. 19.

As for your pooch, he can give a candidate endorsement at PetsVote.com. So far, it's Obama, paws down.