Animal Lovers

Raja now and when she first arrived at the shelter A loving dog who lost her family due to divorce has greeted every potential family with a smile and wagging tail, but after waiting for months in the shelter, that hopeful smile is starting to fade. Old Dog Haven posted this beautiful eight-year-old dog on Facebook, stating that she has been waiting at the Humane Society for Tacoma and Pierce County in Tacoma and she's so ready to do home. Old Dog Haven's Facebook post stated: "Meet Raja! This happy 8-year-old girl is looking for a new family with an outlook on life equally as cheery as her own. This girl’s tail NEVER stops wagging, and she greets every person she meets with her trademark grin!" But while Raja's intake photo looks joyful, complete with a red ribbon, a more recent photo shows that time at the shelter has taken its toll on this joyful girl. One person wrote: "Come ON, people! Why is she still there? Even Raja the cheery is beginnin...

Shelters can be the first step on a dog's journey to a new home — but for so many dogs, the wait is almost unbearable. A 2-year-old Chihuahua was found wandering around a McDonald's parking lot in California, running in the path of cars. Many people tried to catch the little guy to no avail. When an animal control officer arrived to help, he was having trouble, too, and it looked as if the dog would never be caught. A concerned passerby, Rose Gallardo, saw the dog running away from the officer and decided to try and help. "The officer was trying to catch him by feeding him, but the dog was too smart and kept running through the parking lot," Gallardo told The Dodo. She got out of her car, knelt down near the dog and held out her hand — and somehow got him to come over and let her pet him. Everyone, even the animal control officer, was shocked that after trying all day to rescue the dog, Gallardo was able to do it in no time at all. "He was amazed at how ...

My father lived alone, so I decided to buy him a little dog, something to look after and to love, take for walks and get a bit of exercise. I got a shih tzu, they are good companion dogs and it was the only suitable breed the pet shop had. Before the day came to give him his gift I toilet trained the little thing, first getting him to do his biz on newspapers then moving the papers to the door then outside. He got the message eventually. When he had an accident he'd hide under the bed in shame and have to be coaxed out. He was the perfect gift, my dad wasn't parted from the dog till his death, 14 years later. I inherited the now elderly dog. I was a bit resentful, I had a young family and enough problems, but the little dog got under my skin and became my favorite member of the house. Always pleased to see me, jumping up and running in circles when I walked in the door from work, always happy. As he aged he wouldn't be able to rush up to greet me, and had to be c...

This vet recorded an incredible tribute to one of his tiniest patients. Broken the kitten arrived at Carlos Rodriguez's veterinary practice last week after being abused by a group of children. They had thrown and kicked the little kitten around like a ball, leaving her with terrible injuries. They broke her femur and completely destroyed her abdominal wall — the first time Rodriguez had ever seen such damage. Sadly, after a week of treatment and multiple surgeries, Broken passed away. And Rodriguez captured his incredible response on camera. The video isn't in English, but his message is perfectly clear.

A puppy who was once terrified of being touched is now learning to love the feel of a caring hand. The young dog, named Kayne, has captivated social media users around the world after Monica Mitreanu shared video of him at an animal shelter in Romania last November. So extreme was the untold abuse he suffered prior to being rescued that he literally screamed out in terror at the notion of being petted. The distressing clip has since been viewed millions of times online, making Kayne an unwitting icon for the horrors of animal abuse. But his story doesn't end there. Perhaps due to confusion about the puppy's name ( which has been reported elsewhere as Priscilla), it wasn't immediately clear what happened to Kayne. Thanks to a Facebook update from animal rescuer Kerry Wollacott, who works to help save dogs in Romania, now we know: Kayne has been transformed. More recent footage shows the puppy happily being petted. And there will be plenty more of that going fo...

If  you've ever owned a dog, you've probably wondered just what your canine does behind closed doors when no one's home. However, this guy got to the bottom of it when he attached his buddy's GoPro camera to his pup. He might've expected the dog to steal food off the table or chew on dirty clothes in the hamper, but the reality of the situation was quite different. According to animal expert, Cesar Milan, there are specific ways to help dogs cope with separation anxiety. The "Dog Whisper" recommends walking your pooch before you leave the house because exercise calms it down, physically and emotionally tiring it out. An exhausted pet has less energy to stress! He also states that giving your dog plenty of toys to play with ensures it won't start chewing contraband items out of boredom. However, Cesar stipulates that you shouldn't "rely on toys with treats hidden in them [because] once the dog eats the treat — which could be in minutes — h...

Any time a shelter animal finds his or her forever home, it's always a cause for celebration — except, of course, for those they leave behind. For the better part of a year, this deaf pit bull named Marshmallow had shared a kennel with her best friend, Scooby, at Unleashed Pet Rescue, in Kansas. There, amid the uncertainty of a life without a family, the pair were able to find solace and joy in one another. But sadly for Marshmallow, that recently all changed. Earlier this week, Scooby's long wait at the rescue shelter came to an end as she was selected by a loving family, but unfortunately they were not able to take in Marshmallow as well. Suddenly on her own for the first time in months, the lonely pup was inconsolable. "Marshmallow is crying and has been non stop since yesterday," Unleashed Pet Rescue wrote on Facebook. "Her roommate and best friend Scooby was adopted, she is very confused and sad. What she needs is a forever home to heal her heart....