If you’ve ever visited Dogster’s For the Love of Dog blog, you’re familiar with Bo, who’s just penned his first book, Bad to the Bone. In it, he describes life with his beleaguered feline roommate, Moose, and his humans, Dogster bloggers Horst and Lisa. We’re thrilled that the book has been officially released so that we can all get a dog’s eye view of Life with Bo.
Here’s the post from the For Love of Dog blog:
“You’ll laugh, you’ll howl, you’ll practically wag with pleasure….Bo is truly the voice of his doggy generation” – Dr. Marty Becker
“Witty commentary and hilarious observations.”—Dog Living
“A real treat. Bo is so distinctively adorable and funny, that no other dog will be able to follow in his pawsteps”- Tracie Hotchner
Let’s get this clear right away: I’m a dog.
I’m 1′10″ and weigh 63 lbs, and although I’m a mutt on the outside, I’m a purebred on the inside. My good nature comes from the Golden Retriever side of the family, while my stubbornness is clearly from my Chowchow bloodlines. I’ve got Rastafarian ears, a black tongue for licking, and paws that should be on a dog twice my size.
I type 60 words a minute.
My name is Bo, and this is my story.
From shelter dog reject to beloved pet and popular doggie blogger, Bo Hoefinger’s life has been anything but ordinary.
Join this incorrigible canine as he welcomes us into his life, complete with his wacky “parents,” a constipated feline housemate, and chipmunk warfare. Bad to the Bone is an unforgettable, laugh-out-loud tale of love and loyalty that reveals the true heart of a modern American family.
A frequent contributor to local fence post 12, Bo continues his nonprofit work with the Beneath the Fence Society. In his spare time he dabbles in knocking over garbage pails, barking uncontrollably, and generally being a helpful force around the house.
He lives in Atlanta.
Grab a copy of BAD TO THE BONE for yourself and then a few for your dog loving friends. Can you think of a better gift for a dog lover than a book written by a dog? The holidays will be here before you know it and Bo thinks every dog in America, and beyond, should wake up x-mas morning to find a copy of his book in their stocking. It also works well as a gift for Hanukkah and Kwanzaa, Bo doesn’t discriminate against any breed or holiday.
Bo’s book is now available, you can order online at Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com, BooksaMillion.com, indieBound.org, borders.com, or your favorite retailer. Spread the word to all your pup pals so they can get themselves a copy of the first memoir written by a dog ever published in non-fiction.
A big thank you goes out to the fine folks at Dogster HQ’s for all their support and help. A note of gratitude to all the Dogsters out there who believed in us and wanted to see a book written through a dog’s eyes, it’s you guys that helped make this happen.
Thank you to all!
Bo, Horst and Lisa
Concats on the publication, and we’ll look for Bo on the New York Times bestseller list!
It’s not unusual for cats to want to go to school, but it is unusual for cats to graduate with high school diplomas. Oreo C. Collins has done just that, earning her sheepskin from Jefferson High School Online. Remarkable enough for a cat, but at two years old she is also the youngest ever to graduate from Jefferson.
Superachiever Oreo comes from the most humble of beginnings. Found in a roadside ditch when only a couple of weeks old, the Collins family of Macon, Georgia, adopted and nutured her.
Kelvin Collins, who is the president and CEO of the Better Business Bureau of Central Georgia encouraged Oreo in her scholastic efforts by helping him investigate online diploma mills.
He helped Oreo sign up to work for her diploma online, and even paid the $200 tuition fee for her.
Oreo was a star pupil, earning mostly “A”s in her classes, including credits for an essay she wrote about her “life experiences.” Collins did provide some support in helping Oreo complete her coursework, help she probably wouldn’t have needed if she’d been born with opposable thumbs. It didn’t hurt that anytime Oreo missed a test question, the test provided a helpful hint at the answer.
Oreo was rewarded for her academic prowess with extra treats and a self-cleaning litter box.
Unfortunately, Oreo’s diploma is not the same as a GED diploma. GED tests cannot be taken online. Collins says that Oreo’s “degree” serves as a warning to those ready to buy worthless diplomas. “We (the BBB) do a lot of stories on these diploma mills, but a lot of times consumers really don’t get it until you show them an example of how they (the diplomas) aren’t worth much.”
Like many recent graduates, Oreo is unemployed and living with her family. But Collins insists that we need not worry about her future: “Like Oreo wrote in her test essay, she always lands on her feet.”
68-year-old Betty Macaluso doesn’t wake to the sound of an alarm clock. Like many of us, she’s awakened by a hungry cat or two, who gently knead her arm when it’s time for their breakfast. Unlike many of us, she wouldn’t be able to hear the alarm clock even if it did ring; she’s deaf, and her cats are her ears.
She adopted Tom 2 (an orange and white tabby) and Tiger (a heavier gray and black tabby), both now about a year old, from PetSmart in Lawrenceville, Georgia, when they were 12 weeks old.
“They know I can’t hear,” Macaluso, 68, said through a sign language interpreter. “They hear for me.”
She remembers one morning when Tom 2 stood on her stomach, gazing intently at the ceiling above her bed. Over the course of the following week, he continues to stare at the same spot. She grabbed a flashlight and took a closer look, discovering a thin, round line of clay on her ceiling. She immediately called a pest control company. Tom 2 had spotted termites.
Macaluso said the exterminator was puzzled as to how she found termites in the wall, since she’s deaf and could not hear them. “I smiled and pointed to my Tom 2.”
He told her she was lucky to have a cat like Tom 2; she could have lost her home if he hadn’t detected the termites.
Tom 2 and Tiger also notice the flashing lights that signal the doorbell or video phone is ringing and alert their owner.
Since Macaluso can’t hear her cats when they meow, the two have already learned to paw at her leg to get her attention.
Macaluso’s parents were also deaf, and she grew up in a home with cats. She recalled one evening when she was sitting down with her mother on the swing on their porch, and their family cat began acting very strangely. They couldn’t figure out why.
About that time, the cat jumped a rattlesnake that was five feet from Macaluso and her mother, keeping them out of harm’s way.
“I will never … live without two cats because they always helped me by (hearing what I cannot).”
In Georgia, the Athens Area Humane Society will stop accepting feral cats next year, and local officials may turn to Trap-Neuter-Release (TNR) to manage the thousands of wild cats that roam the city.
The society has a philosophical difference with the county with respect to the way in which they deal with feral cats. Executive Director Crystal Evans feels that keeping unadoptable feral cats — wild animals — in cages for a week before killing them is cruel and futile. “We would argue, for a truly feral animal, that’s inhumane,” she said. “These are cats that have had basically no human contact, so basically what you’re doing is scaring them to death for seven days and then killing them.”
Evans explains that the approximately 120 aggressive feral cats taken to the humane society each year occupy space that could be used for adoptable pets, forcing more cats to be euthanized and upsetting donors. They’re also a danger to employees, she adds.
This philosophical difference conflicts with the way in which the city of Athens would like the feral situation to be addressed, so the society is backing out of its $100,000 annual contract with the county.
Athens-Clarke officials now have a year to figure out how to control the feral cat population, estimated at 8,000 to 20,000.
They might turn to an organization like the Campus Cats, a volunteer group that traps feral cats, spays/neuters them, vaccinates them and returns them to the area in which they were trapped. Currently, TNR is illegal in Clarke County, but not on University of Georgia-owned land. Advocates are lobbying county commissioners to change the local law to permit it.
More and more local governments are allowing TNR, and a few, such as Jacksonville, Fla., are turning over feral cat management to TNR groups.
Legalizing TNR could be an uphill battle. TNR is not without its detractors and for every cat lover who feels that TNR is a humane practice that should be a legal alternative to trap-and-kill, another will argue that TNR does nothing to reduce feral populations and disrupts the environment.
TNR should be legal but not the sole means of managing feral cats, Athens-Clarke Commissioner Kelly Girtz says. “I don’t think anybody thinks of it as the silver bullet, the be-all end-all. It’s something that’s useful, but not in all circumstances.”
“The simple fact is neither is a perfect solution, but what we want to happen is for individuals to be able to choose,” Evans says.
“You’ll laugh, you’ll howl, you’ll practically wag with pleasure….Bo is truly the voice of his doggy generation” – Dr. Marty Becker
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