Pet of the Month: Estopinha Rossi

Reproduction from Estopinha's Facebook page

Estopinha Rossi is a Brazilian celebrity dog. The 5 years old girl has more than a million and a half followers at Facebook where she campaigns for pet adoption and shares her photos, moments and videos from her own You Tube channel.

 Alexandre Rossi,  well known as Dr. Pet, name of his first TV show, adopted Estopinha a few years ago. He is very popular animal behaviorist in Brazil with many books published.  Rossi is currently presenting  Missão Pet, a National Geographic channel production. Estopinha works with Alexandre as an assistant and calls her parents "papi" and "mamis". Of course the little one has a very busy schedule. When we sent an email  to interview her (yes, she has a email address ), she barked "yes", and asked for a list of questions. So with you Estopinha's first Petzi interview:

- How did you meet and chose your parents?

The day my "papis" adopted was the happiest of my life. I was returned twice and workers of the rescue didn't know what else to do. They even thought about putting me to sleep. But my "papis" saved me and trained me so now I am an educated girl. When I saw my mom-to-be for the first time, we fell in love. The second time I saw her I liked her so much that I ate her shoe! (Barking out loud)! I enjoyed so much to bring their wedding rings. It was such a special day and I loved making part of it.

- What is your favorite activity?

They are so many! I like to go out on a walk, run, to destroy little dog toys and hide-and-seek. I also love to sleep.

- How come you are so well-behaved?

My dad is educating me all the time because I have a strong personality! I am boisterous and messy, but with papi's love and patience I learned how to follow orders.

-Do you prefer treats, dog food or bones?

My favorites are beef and salami treats! Yummm!

-What would you say for a human who is willing to have a dog?

I think that all humans should have a dog, because a dog brings lots of benefits for the owners (and this is scientifically proven). I understand when people want to buy dogs but I would be happier if they consider adopting one. Here's one tip: adopt an adult dog so you already know her  size and  personality. It's easier to fulfill the owners expectations this way, than buying a pup and not knowing if she is going to be calm or agitated.

Guest Blogger: Bentley, Gifted Wonder Dog

This is a very special Sunday for us here at Petzi. Our first guest blogger is Bentley, the full bred golden retriever featured last week on our Facebook page. Bentley had a little helping hand from Lisa to write the story you are about to read. They have a very special gift to share with us. A real life-changing tale of companionship, hope, love and friendship. 

Bentley

Lisa and Bentley

By Lisa Cunningham*


         Hi! I am Bentley, but my mom Lisa calls me her hero puppy. After wishing for a golden retriever pup  (just like me) every year on her birthday candles, she finally took matters into her own hands three years ago, and found me.

          I was only 8 weeks old when I first came home. My mom woke up every 3 hours and slept downstairs next to my crate until I finally convinced her to just let me sleep with her in a real bed. The trainer told her that if she slept on the floor next to my crate with her fingers through the bars that I would stop crying and go to sleep. I thought  that was just silly. Why would I want to stay in there?!  I knew from the beginning that I was a perfect snuggle pup, so I trained Lisa to listen to me instead! I think that is just working now...

Oh, so back to me being a hero puppy. When I was 10 months old I noticed something really bad about my mom, but I didn’t know how to tell her. I thought about what to do for a while, and even though I knew she would probably be mad at first, I got a little more wild than usual and jumped on her one night while we were playing. She fell and hit her head really hard. These strangers came and took her away in a really big loud car with red lights. I had to wait at home. They were pretty nice and I knew my girl would be back soon. 

              When she came home, she told me that the doctors found a brain tumor when they gave her an x-ray. See! I knew there was something bad, I just couldn’t use my words to tell her. The doctor said I saved her life and they found it before anything really bad happened. She said she wasn’t mad at me.  I knew I was a good boy. I let her hug me a lot and I licked her face to try to make her feel better. She usually doesn’t like when I lick her face, but she let me anyway.

For the past two years I have been in charge of taking care of Lisa. I keep her company when she doesn’t feel good. Sometimes she needs to sleep a lot but I don’t mind because that’s my favorite too! I usually wake her up in the morning by sticking my nose in her face, mostly because I haven’t figured out how to get my own breakfast yet! I follow her everywhere just in case she needs me…really everywhere. I even wait for her right outside the shower! I’m not sure if all dogs do this but I take my job very seriously.

               I take her on walks. Sometimes we just relax and sit outside. I need to sit really close to her, usually on top of her feet. It makes us both feel better even though she tries to tell me I’m too big (I’m not).  I even watch TV with her (I love reality TV --but don’t tell the other pups)!

My favorite thing that we do is going for rides in the car. I never care where we go; it’s always so fun! I cannot ever decide which side has the best smells so I need all the windows open so I can check everywhere. Sometimes if it’s just us, I even get to sit in the front seat!

My mom told me that it’s sleepy time. That means I have to go get in my bed, but I will write more later about my other adventures. I can be a rascal puppy even though I’m 3 and am supposedly a grown up dog now. I have to keep my mom happy, and I know she secretly likes the funny stuff that I do. She she calls it ...being naughty! 

*Lisa blogs at Girl's Best Friend where she shares her stories about Bentley and her journey with cancer.

Star Dogs

Watching Beverly Hills Chihuahua 2

Some people meditate, go to a yoga class, breathe deep, go for a walk in the forest, or just hang around doing nothing. For my children and me, the way to relaxation is on the screen: we watch dog movies. It's the only kind of movie that will please all with no arguments. The only downside? We all want to have a dog after watching it. And, of course, I keep wondering what happens about the real dogs behind the screen. Unless they are, like Lady, an animation.

Before having children, I confess I would rather watch a French art movie other than anthropomorphic "talking dogs" movies.  I thought they were silly and not worth of my time. Of course I loved Lassie, Snoopy and Snowy (as known as Tintin's Milou), all very cool dogs that never had to use words to be a success.  But I've found that thanks to special effects, it's almost impossible to find a contemporary dog movie without a dog that talks. Unless it's a documentary based movie or an independent production, there are not many Rin-tin-tins out there.

My boys tell me that doesn't matter if dogs talk or not on the movies.  They are cute, mostly always they have a happy ending and they are just plain fun to watch. But after the entertainment we are also happy to consider adopting a dog. And we all know that there aren't many dogs like Snoopy, Buddies or Beethovens available. On the other hand, chiuauas like Papi and Chloe are all out there, at least in one of our closest California adoption shelter.
         

For a good selection of dog movies, I recommend to check out the Humane Society's website movies review list, offering an extensive list of movies certified by the "No Animals were Harmed". In the list you'll have access to backstage info about all sorts of movies that include animals on set.  If in doubt if your movie choice is a good one for the little humans, check out what Common Sense Media has to say about it.

And, just in case you need a little help choosing, here are some options of the ones we watched lately, and our fast reviews about them:

• Good Boy - What if dogs are aliens and don't want to be pets anymore? Sounds like a tragedy, but it's actually a comedy. Even if the critics don't like it, we enjoyed some of it. Specially Vanessa's Redgrave voice over of The Great Dane! 
• I Heart Shakey - The story of some dog parents when they have to relocate. It has some not so funny scenes, but overall it has some good advice. 
• Step Dog - Scruffy dog and spoiled pooch meet in a surprising adventure.

Claws Power

By Anna Muggiati

Juju, always proud of her claws!

One more force joined the claw power movement. The American Veterinary Medical Association recently advised that declawing is a major surgery and that other alternatives should be considered before that major surgery.

I call my cats to "think" about this. If they were on a " talking cats" movie they would probably say: "I don't need that", would answer my white noble Turkish Angora cat, who is able to hide his claws and sleep handling paws with me. Juju, my black Egyptian goddess would be more straightforward: "Hissssssssss! No cats are cats without claws", she would probably say. 

The American Veterinary Medical Association release  goes further:  "The revised policy describes onychectomy (declawing) as an “amputation” and stresses the importance of client education about normal feline scratching behaviors, what the procedure involves, and alternatives to declawing."

As a kid I understood that dealing and living with cats included a "goes without saying" item of being scratched. There was Picolino, a feral cat given to me, at the late 70's. He was a wild creature and not being nurtured didn't help on his behavior. Yet, I didn't care being scratched or attacked by him. He was playful and very alive - I still have a scar on my leg, which makes me remember of my furry and wild cat. 

Declawing is illegal in most European Union countries, in Brazil and Israel. Some Californian cities (yay!!) had ruled  that declawing a cat is illegal, thanks to the Paws Project. I tell this to may cats. They love it. After all, their claws are useful for many other things such as cleaning their litter box and kneading my husbands belly when they feel like it. Keeping cats as whole cats is so fashionable in Hollywood. So why not in everybody's home?

Some alternatives: 

Those will help your cat to have fun somewhere else other than on your furniture or your legs. My favorite is the scratch board sold for  U$ 6.99 at Trader Joe's. But I will soon review Amazon's best seller PetFusion. Fashionable indeed!

Some people are lucky to be able to trim  the tips of their cats's nails when they are still a baby, and that keeps like something they know about it. Some use a rubber coats like Soft Paws, and some (like me) just accept that claw power belongs to them and live with it. My bed wood frame can tell the story...

If you really need to share some advice with someone who is considering declawing, just send them this link, a little movie by Jackson Galaxy. And there you will find good information. And please tell us if any strategy you had to avoid destructive clawing at home.

Unconditional Match Maker

What happens when animal rescue meets dating online agency?
Love.
Right?!
Some cool interns at creative ad agency in New York had the brilliant idea of partnering the matchmaking Tinder with Social Tees Animal Rescue, so that puppy love also can have a happy end turn.
The result is this wonderful video here:

Because of this awesome idea, some pets already found true love. And some humans, unconditional love.

I just LOVE this concept. Don't you?

That's why the Lady isn't a Tramp!

"Take me with you" , Photo by Daniel Feldman

I just love when happy ending stories like Lady The Lab emerge from social media and hit the big news. A senior black lab walked about 30 miles to find her former owners. She was rejected and, once again, returned to the Chautauqua County Animal Shelter, in Kansas. Before that, she was on the same shelter available for adoption, as her previous parent had died (at that time she was known as Ma Kettle.
The news about the darling dog spread through Facebook, and Lady had her fortunate day last Thursday: Helen Rich, heir of the Wrigley company, saw her and sent her personal assistants by private jet to go to her rescue. Tonight, Lady will have a peaceful night and probably won't try to walk 30 miles again... Now, maybe you are inspired and might have a look on this article by the ASPCA: 10 reasons to adopt a senior dog.