I was appalled to hear of a dog being refused entry to a restaurant because he was gay. And this deplorable act of discrimination occurred in South Australia where it’s against the law!

You can’t discriminate against a dog because he’s gay!

Here’s the whole shocking story of the gay dog being refused service in a restaurant

What kind of world are we living in?

When a dog wishes to go out for a quiet dinner with his person, it’s for reasons of enjoyment, relaxation and a cosy bit of bonding. How awful to be slapped in the face with such callous treatment from cold hearted restauranteurs. I’ll never go to dine there I can assure you!

Not that I frequently go out to dinner, or go out anywhere much at all, these days. I prefer to lie around on the patio or on the couch while the woman who feeds me fusses over the stove gently poaching my chicken pieces. On some mornings it’s even too much of an effort to drag myself around near the front gate so I can leap out from the rhododendrons and terrify the paper boy.

But I ask you, why would anyone object to a gay dog? Would they prefer a depressed one?

Would you feel comfortable tucking into your Peking Duck when there was a mournful mutt at the next table? Give me a gay dog anytime!

P.S. The photo up the top there is not of Nudgie the Gay Dog, it’s of two dogs in some place called British Columbia. The woman got it from Big Stock Photo. Nudgie is hiding from the papparazzi.

This cat would have a lot of hairballs! Unless of course, her staff person spends a lot of time brushing.

That’s why I bring National Hairball Awareness Day to your attention – a day to recognise and take steps to eliminate hairballs in cats. I want to make this day International Hairball Awareness Day. After all, we live all over the place. I’d keep the same date of course, the last Friday in April

The woman who feeds me is accustomed to hairballs, she usually finds them in the morning, when she has no shoes on. For some reason she’s not too happy about it but I try hard to leave them on the tiles instead of the couch and I expect deep gratitude for my foresight.

Sparkle was considering a contest, wanting photos of hairballs and everyone voting on the best one but her staff person …

thought that was “gross” and said she didn’t want to have to crop and resize a bunch of pictures of hairballs.

People! Mine’s the same!

What’s worse, the woman who feeds me says she has no time to judge hairballs much less find prizes for the best hack attack and send stuff all over the world. I don’t know what she does with all that time at her disposal.

Personally, I’d like to see some photos of fabulously furry felines. As a neat short-hair myself I sometimes find myself gazing longingly at more hirsute neighbours but at least I’m cool during the hotter months.

But are you a floofy cat? Want to send me a photo of your furry glory? At least I can feature you!

Before I go I must remind you that humans get hairballs too. Make sure your person eats a little knob of butter every week and always drinks plenty of water. Grass is good for them too. Force your person to eat lots of grass every day – they really don’t like to eat grass, but you must insist that this is for their health and prevention of hairballs!

And a Happy Hairball Day to you!

Charles, how did you do it? How did you travel 1300 miles? Thank heavens for microchips!

Charles went missing while his staff person, Robin Alex, was away volunteering for the Habitat for Humanity

From his home in New Mexico, Charles made his way 1,300 miles north to Chicago, where the Chicago Animal Care and Control picked him up as a stray.

Assuming the worst all this time, you can imagine Robin’s relief when she received the call saying they had found her tabby cat. But, even with the wild excitement, she was now in fear again.

She couldn’t afford the ticket to go and get Charles and bring him home!

When the story hit the news a woman felt compelled to send this story to her son who lived in Albuquerque, Lucien Sims. Sims was very touched by the story, he too has a tabby who has a striking resemblance to Charles.

Sims was on his way to Chicago to attend a wedding and offered to help Alex be reunited with her beloved cat. He picked up Charles from the shelter and found someone to donate the carrier for the trip as well as convincing American Airlines to waive the flight fee for his travel home.

Charles and his staff person seem overjoyed at the reunion. I bet that will teach her to never go away again!

Apart from a slight respiratory infection, and needing a good brushing, Charles is in excellent condition.

There’s a video of Charles the Cat here (which I can’t embed) telling the story of how Charles was picked up in Chicago and identified by his microchip.