What better way to celebrate Howl-o-ween than a gigantic dog costume contest in a dog park? New York City has taken the concept to a whole new level with their Halloween Howl, an annual event in Carl Schurz Park on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. Thousands of spectators cheer on as hundreds of dogs strut their stuff vying for prizes in the various cat-egories, plus there are booths you and your family (canines included!) can visit to learn all about healthy food, treats and more for your dog’s wellness. We love the 3 minute video that our friends at Petcentric posted from one of the past year’s events. Even if you can’t make it to NYC for this year’s festivities, you can get into the spirit of Halloween by watching the video online right here! Event details below…
The 2011 event is on Sunday, October 23, 2011 (Rain date October 30) from 1:00 to 3:00 p.m. — check out the park’s website event page http://www.carlschurzparknyc.org/events.html for more info!

Meet four-legged heroes who help soldiers cope behind enemy lines! Meet Bougie, Victory and Jasmine. Even though they look like normal dogs, they are anything but! Theses dogs all come from the war zone of Iraq. They now enjoy a better life in the US, thanks to the love of the military personnel that found them and Operation Baghdad Pups, the organization that brought them to their new home in the US. You can see these dogs in action in 

From February 10th through February 14th, Adopt-a-Pet.com is holding the “Great American Pooch Smooch & Kitty Kiss” kiss-a-pawlooza! Spread the love of your pets to homeless pets by sharing your purr-fect and paw-some pet-kissing photos on the
Aside from adorable pet videos, sometimes I think the internet was really invented for silly cat photos! Our friends over at Petcentric came up with the idea to post seven photos of cats sleeping and they are each cuter than the next, and that inspired us to go through the archives of our foster cat and kitten photos to find all the cute cat sleeping photos we’ve taken over the years too! Vallo, pictured at right, is one prime example. He would sleep like that with his belly up and a big kitty smile on his face all the time! There’s not much cuter than a happy sleeping kitten or cat, and they can get into some pretty silly positions when they sleep too! Petcentric adds, “On average, cats sleep 13–14 hours a day. Lucky for us, that gives us tons of time to observe their funny and unique sleeping habits. Here, we’ve uncovered seven sleepy cats. Look through quietly — we wouldn’t want to wake them!” Here’s the link to see 








The folks over at Purina® Pro Plan® and Tidy Cats® are gearing up to proudly sponsor another PetSmart Charities Adoption Weekend. From Friday through Sunday, September 13th-15th, you can make a love connection with an adoptable pet by stopping by a PetSmart location near you. Adoptable pets from shelters and rescues across North America will be ready to meet and greet with potential adopters all throughout this exciting three-day adoption weekend. (If you can’t make this event, there will be another one November 15th to 17th 2013 too!) For more information including the participation times of local animal-welfare agencies, contact your local PetSmart store and check out the 