Prized pet does go home again

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Meet the puppy angel

OK, this can go one of two ways.

This column could be about the mean, evil woman who pulled over to the side of the road in Benson and apparently abandoned a helpless puppy -- or it could be about the kind woman who rescued the animal and found it a home before something bad happened.

Just as I thought: With the incessant flow of bad news in the world now, you'd rather hear about the woman who represents the good side of human nature.

Cary woman surrenders 65 cats

Cary animal control recovered 65 cats from a woman's home Wednesday afternoon. Of the 65, 36 are being sheltered at a cat adoption agency, while the others were euthanized Wednesday.

Cary resident Jeanne Diaz, 43, had been harboring the crowd of cats in her home at 8626 Chapel Hill Road until a neighbor called town police complaining of cats on the front lawn.

Diaz willingly gave up nearly all of them but was allowed to keep four--a neutered male and three unspayed females.

Purrr-sonal finance: Owning a pet should be looked at like running a business

The devotion and companionship provided by a beloved pet is priceless. That said, properly caring for a pet carries a price, a price that people need to be aware before bringing a new dog, cat or other animal into the home.

"It's like running a business. You are going to have start-up costs and ongoing costs," said Adam Wiener, executive editor of www.filife.com, a personal finance Web site.

So much for the warm-and-fuzzy approach to providing for a companion animal.

Pet food tax might rise

The stainless steel table where dogs and cats are injected with deadly chemicals is cleared for now. The small box with the picture window that fills with carbon monoxide is empty.

But the instruments of death at the Wake County animal shelter will be busy again, as they will be across the state. So many cats and dogs are euthanized in shelters in North Carolina that pet owners could soon pay more to stop -- or at least slow down -- the killing.

A legislative panel recommended Thursday that taxes on pet food should increase to reduce the number of animals euthanized in North Carolina shelters. If adopted, the tax would cost pet owners less than $2 a year if they own one large, hungry dog, supporters said.

When did Fido become family?

If dogs and cats could write the histories of their species, this would surely be remembered as the Golden Age.

But it must be said: Considering the degree to which companion animals are indulged in our society, even if dogs and cats could write, they wouldn't have to. We humans would do the work for them -- right after we finished their massages.

Man and pet have a long history together, of course. (Yes, so do woman and pet. It's a figure of speech. Work with us here.) But as is the case with all long-term relationships, the arrangement between them has evolved. In the beginning, a mutually beneficial functionality was the glue that bound human and animal together. Cats were useful for vermin control. Dogs were useful for hunting, herding and protection. In return, we provided food and affection -- although the second of which seems to appeal mostly to dogs. Science still struggles to understand the ulterior motives of cats.