Blog Posts by Sarah D. Bunting

This Manx took top honors at a 2005 cat show; MacKenna Goldsbary could help your cat do the sameMacKenna Goldsbary of Rose Valley, WA is a cat-fancying, community-service dynamo. Not only did she raise $200 for the Kelso School district's outdoor school last fall, hold a pet-food drive for the local humane society at Coweeman Middle School in March, and make a presentation at an adoption event at a nearby mall – Goldsbary also sewed comfy pads for cats to raise money for the humane society, AND showed her cat, Gracie, at a cat show last year. And she's only 11 years old.

And she's not done.

Goldsbary has another presentation ready to go – this one a primer on showing cats, scheduled for this coming Saturday at Three Rivers Mall. Called "Cat Show 101," it's a seminar on getting started showing your cat, and it's open to kids and adults. 

How did Goldsbary get started with cat shows? Her mom and grandma, Angela King and Maureen Clark, work the shows as vendors, so Goldsbary and her younger sister, Hailey, have spent a lot of time around championship felines. But what really inspires

This July 2009 file photo shows President and Mrs. Obama giving Dorofei the furry eyeball.Russian president Dmitry Medvedev, in response to rumors that his cat, Dorofei, had run away, tweeted on Wednesday that Russia's First Feline was perfectly safe.

"About the cat. A source lose to #Dorofei says he has not got lost anywhere," Medvedev tweeted while on a trip to Asia. "Thank you for all your concern!"

But by the time Medvedev got around to setting the record straight, the internet had already jumped on the meme with all four paws. A newly-minted Twitter account in Dorofei's name had already racked up almost 400 followers as of when Medvedev made his statement – and was at the center of a swirl of wisecracks about Medvedev's relationship to president-elect Vladimir Putin, in whose interests Medvedev is often said to be acting. "It's simple," read one tweet from the @KotDorofey account. "I ran away from Medvedev because he promised to hand me over to Vladimir Putin. Help me hide!" The tweet played on Medvedev's assertion this week that he would pass a message

Gina Ferrall as Mrs. Honeychurch and Mac as Griswald in "A Room with a View"by Mark Blankenship

There's an old saying that actors should never co-star with pets and children, but don't believe it. Nothing boosts a play like a dog.

If you've ever seen "Annie," for instance, then you know the crowd goes wild when Sandy trots on stage, and actors can play off that energy. Even in Shakespeare's "The Two Gentlemen of Verona," there's a pooch named Crab who's always good for comic relief.

But how do you cast the perfect stage dog? Unlike mutts in movies, stage dogs have to perform their roles for a live audience, which means there's no going to back to fix mistakes. They also have to perform the same part over and over, week after week, without getting distracted by cheers, lights, or costumes.

When productions need one of these remarkable stars, they often call William Berloni, head of William Berloni Theatrical Animals. Berloni found the original Sandy for "Annie," and after thirty-five years, he has worked on hundreds of shows. (He's currently training new dogs for

Former SC first lady Jenny Sanford, shown here in 2009 with one of her Labs, may be a serial dog-escape-allowerCall it "the crime Lab": Former first lady of South Carolina Jenny Sanford has paid a $150 fine for the jailbreak of her black Labrador Retriever, Julius.

In Sullivans Island municipal court on Tuesday, Sanford pled guilty to the escaped-dog charge, and a town judge in the beach community levied a $150 fine – quite a markdown from the initial $1,040 ticket Sanford was handed in February, when 8-year-old Julius made his escape. At that time, Sanford protested that the fine didn't fit the crime, and noted that Julius didn't make a habit of making a break for it.

Back on February 22, Julius was spotted roaming the grounds of the Sand Dunes Club, which is next to Sanford's home and is used for special events (among them, filming for the TV series "Army Wives"), and tooling around the Sullivans Island downtown before being returned to Sanford.

Sanford said that the electronic perimeter meant to keep her pets on her property had malfunctioned

Chick-dyers say it's harmless, but this one doesn't look too psyched about it.Apparently, dyeing Easter chicks – not just the eggs, but the baby birds themselves – is a tradition, although we confess we'd never heard of it until last weekend. A New York Times article by Jennifer A. Kingson last Sunday covered the controversy surrounding the practice: poultry farmers and handlers who engage in chick-dyeing "say it is harmless," but animal activists claim it's invasive, and "turns live birds into holiday playthings that are quickly discarded."

The topic is timely for two reasons. First, though roughly half the U.S. states and several cities have made animal-dyeing illegal, the Florida legislature passed a bill last month that would overturn a 45-year-long ban on dyeing animals. Why? According to the Times piece, the overturn came "at the request of a dog groomer who wanted to enter contests where people elaborately sculpture and color their pets."

Yahoo! Screen: Wild turkey burgles Missouri home

And then there's the upcoming Easter holiday, of course. At a time of

Got little kids or a Terrier breed? Might want to stick to Peeps.A rabbit is an appealing pet choice at any time of year, and for good reason. Quiet, compact, litter-box-trainable and utterly adorable (floppy ears! twitchy noses!), bunnies might seem like a great pet for apartment-dwellers whose leases prohibit dogs or cats, or for kids who love the "Peter Rabbit" books.

And rabbits can make good pets for families – but not all families. Many prospective rabbit owners may give in to the wheedling for a bunny without understanding the species or knowing what caring for a rabbit entails. Five reasons a Little Bunny Foo-Foo may not be a good fit for your household:

Rabbits nibble.
The popular image of a rabbit munching peaceably on a carrot is, alas, not the reality. Sure, they'll eat carrots…but they'll also gnaw on anything else, including carpeting, baseboards, towels, and most dangerous of all, electrical cords. Rabbits must chew (and dig) constantly; it's necessary in order to wear down their teeth and claws, which grow throughout their lives.

Every year at this time, we get out our gardening tools and deploy a whole case of geraniums. Some go on our front walk; some go on our patio table; and one lonely geranium hangs out inside…perched precariously on top of a bookshelf, out of the reach of digging paws.

For those of us who want both houseplants and housecats, it can be hard to find a balance (and the felines usually win). Below, 7 ways to let plants and cats live in harmony.

Place the flora out of reach.
Putting vases and potted plants on high shelves will solve one problem: the tendency of dogs' tails to knock over anything and everything at wag level, no matter how heavily weighted it is.

What it may not prevent is nibbling, digging, and getting napped on by cats. A feline who wants to snack on a hostess bouquet will find a way to climb your bookshelf or refrigerator, so you may have to stick to hanging plants (although this is not always a solution either). The folks at Trudy's Floral Design in Seattle, WA suggest that "

This July 2009 file photo shows President and Mrs. Obama giving Dorofei the furry eyeball.Russian president Dmitry Medvedev, in response to rumors that his cat, Dorofei, had run away, tweeted on Wednesday that Russia's First Feline was perfectly safe.

"About the cat. A source lose to #Dorofei says he has not got lost anywhere," Medvedev tweeted while on a trip to Asia. "Thank you for all your concern!"

But by the time Medvedev got around to setting the record straight, the internet had already jumped on the meme with all four paws. A newly-minted Twitter account in Dorofei's name had already racked up almost 400 followers as of when Medvedev made his statement – and was at the center of a swirl of wisecracks about Medvedev's relationship to president-elect Vladimir Putin, in whose interests Medvedev is often said to be acting. "It's simple," read one tweet from the @KotDorofey account. "I ran away from Medvedev because he promised to hand me over to Vladimir Putin. Help me hide!" The tweet played on Medvedev's assertion this week that he would pass a message along from