With snow and ice forecast for this afternoon and evening, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals sends over this urgent message for any pet owners who aren't smart enough to know that animals shouldn't be left outside in blizzards:

• "Keep animals inside. This is especially important to remember when it comes to puppies and kittens, elderly animals, small animals, and dogs with short hair, including pointers, beagles, pit bulls, Rottweilers, and Dobermans. Short-haired animals will also benefit from a warm sweater or coat on walks.
• Don't allow your cat or dog to roam freely outdoors. During winter, cats sometimes climb under the hoods of cars to be near warm engines and are badly injured or killed when the car is started.
• Wipe off your dogs' or cats' legs, feet, and stomachs after they come in from the snow. Salt and other chemicals can make your animals sick if they ingest them. You should also increase animals' food rations during the winter because they are burning more calories to keep warm.
• Keep an eye out for strays. Take unidentified animals inside until you can find their guardians or get them to an animal shelter. If strays are skittish or otherwise unapproachable, provide food and water and call your local humane society for assistance in trapping them and getting them indoors.
• When you see dogs who have been left outdoors, provide them with proper shelter. Details on how to provide housing can be found here.
• When temperatures fall below freezing, birds and other animals may have trouble finding food and water. Hang bird feeders from trees or spread birdseed on the ground. Provide access to liquid water by filling a heavy water bowl and breaking the surface ice twice a day."

Photo by jpctalbot via Flickr/Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic

Now Georgetown pet owners will likely be in a frenzy protecting their pooches from inhaling the pellets during their evening strolls. Before we know it, all fuzzy creatures will be extinct in Georgetown if someone doesn't stop this wild mysterious rat killer. It's like having a kidnapper on the loose, but worse.

Jane Huelle of The Dog Shop on Wisconsin Avenue told News4 that she spotted the neon green rat poison on the sidewalk near her business. They are also being spotted near other businesses too. Maybe we're giving this rat poisoner too much credit. They could be after our domesticated four-legged friends after all.

Huelle says she knows of three dogs in northwest D.C. that died from rat poisoning this year.

The Georgetown BID isn't pleased:

"It seems that some individual(s) took abatement measures into their own hand(s) in the form of spreading pesticide pellets in and around public spaces and private property. This isn't the way to resolve the issue. This kind of behavior is illegal, as the use of pesticides in public space is regulated by law. It is dangerous, as it puts our children and pets at risk of coming into direct contact with pesticide products. Improperly used, pesticides kill... people and pets. Moreover, these products, haphazardly spread about, end up in the sewer and ultimately in the Potomac. These actions will not be tolerated."

Photo by wsilver, via Flickr.

Smokey

Princess

Mike and Ginny Spevak, the well-known Friendship Heights couple murdered in their home last November, left behind a daughter and son, their spouses, a grandson, siblings—a loving family. They also left behind three cats they adored. Two of them now need homes.

The cats were taken in by a family friend just after the tragedy (three suspects have since been arrested by D.C. police). Now that family is having a rough time caring for all three as they try and manage construction projects and other disturbances, says Mary Rowse, who put out a message on the Chevy Chase and Cleveland Park Listservs.

Her plea: "They are very loving and friendly lap cats but do not need to go to a home together. Is anyone willing to foster to adopt one of these two beautiful, shorthaired cats? They are very lonely now because the family taking care of them is only with them during the day and then only for limited periods of time"

"I just feel so sorry for the cats because they really are just wonderful," says Rowse by telephone, explaining she did not know the civic-minded Spevaks well, but thought immediately about their pets when she heard about their murders.

People who can provide a stable home are welcome to call Rowse at (202) 362-9279.

"Princess is a lap cat. Probably Smokey is, too, but no one else can be on a lap when Princess is on it," she says. Smokey would probably do well with another cat in the house.

Both are four years old, vaccinated, and negative for feline AIDS and leukemia. They're indoor-only cats with their claws intact.

Some time ago, a member of the Burleith Listserv posted a scathing item about her neighbor, Georgetown University. The venerable college, she claimed, was slaying cats left behind by irresponsible coed renters. At the least, she wrote, officials were trapping them and delivering them to kill shelters.

"Renee202" also worried the college was sealing kitties in cement: "If you look around their campus you see areas that used to have a gutter like openings are now completely filled in. I would often see homeless cats often go into them when you approached....The cats who were in those gutters must have died a gruesome death."

Linda Greenan, assistant vice president of external relations, says that just isn't so.

"There is no truth to this statement. Nothing of the sort is taking place on campus," Greenan says in an "official response" posted on the message board. "At one time, several years ago, we had a problem with feral cats living on campus. Over the course of the time when this was a problem—about a year—we would cage the cats and relocate them to a farm in Pennsylvania. None of them were destroyed and we've not had this problem for many years."

So there, you have it, kids. Just like your parents told you when Mr. Cat failed to come home, he was taken to "a farm in Pennsylvania." I feel so much better now.

Flickr photo by daveynin

Prior to my landlord coming over this morning, an occasion that has happened approximately three times since my husband started renting from her 13 years ago, we decided to pretend we do not have a cat.

My husband got up first and reported to me he put the litter container "in the closet that you can't open without everything falling out." The bag of food he put under the bathroom sink. I then got up and emptied the water bowl and placed it and the full bowl of food in the bathroom cupboard. The litter box conveniently fit under the couch. I then got out the vacuum, attached the hose, and sucked up any evidence of stray litter and known accumulation of cat hair.

My landlord arrived on time, at 9 a.m. Approximately two minutes later she was making a kissy noise in the direction of the cat, whom I had forgotten to hide.