Love this picture. What a sign of the times.....A woman wearing a mask passes by a monument of Diana, goddess of the hunt and her dogs, which, of course, are also wearing protective masks. She's in the the western Ukrainian city of Lviv on November 3. Last week the Ukrainian health ministry raised the death toll from the flu and respiratory problems to 67. The sign reads "Life is more expensive than pride and image. Keep youself!" YURIY DYACHYSHYN/AFP/Getty Images.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported Thursday that Gary DeNicola rescued the dog in late September with plans to take it to a shelter the next day. But it turns out the dog, he named Ruby for her reddish coat, was pregnant and gave birth to nine puppies that night. Now DeNicola is running an animal shelter of sorts himself and he's looking for good homes for little Ruby and her black and tan puppies.

The Atlanta Humane Society said many shelters are facing overcrowding and aren't accepting any more animals. DeNicola has been raising the 5-week-old litter with the help of neighbors.

Community Cats Maryland is having a shelter building workshop where they'll teach people how to build winter shelters for feral cats. You can help the group build shelters, or build one to take home for feral kitties in your own neighborhood.

Here's what the group says about the event: 

We'll supply the power tools and expertise, we just need volunteers to supply the manpower!

These cat shelters are made out of plastic storage tubs, which can be purchased at Home Depot, Lowes, etc. The 18-gallon Rubbermaid Roughneck bins like these work well.

The cat, which has recovered, is believed to have caught the virus from someone in the household who was sick with H1N1.

The New York Times offers some more details -- and some of them, I'll admit, I like cause they're cute -- about the infected kitty.

Though the cat's owner are keeping a low profile, the doctor who treated the kitty offered some details. For instance, the famous anonymous cat is a 16-pound orange tabby who's 13-years old. And here is the best part, the cat is described at "large framed but not chubby."

The products were manufactured under conditions that facilitate cross-contamination within batches or lots. Although no illnesses associated with these products have been reported, the FDA is advising consumers in possession of these products to not handle or feed them to their pets.

The affected pig ear products were packaged under the brand names Doggie Delight and Pet Carousel.

If you order 12 or more plants, BARCS will deliver them to your home or office.

The poinsettias come in both red and white. There's a $15 medium size (a 7-inch pot, standing 17 inches tall with 10-15 flowers) or the $30 Jumbo (10-inch pot, standing 26 inches tall with more than 20 flowers). Orders must be pre-paid by Friday, November 20th.

People can pick up their plants at BARCS on Wednesday, December 2nd from 9 a.m to 7 p.m. For those who order 12 or more, delivery is Dec. 2, too.

Order online here by clicking here and scrolling down to the sale info.

The book, written by two ecologically-inclined New Zealanders, floats the idea that having a dog leaves a greater carbon footprint than having an SUV.

Apparently the authors aren't suggesting people slap Fido on the grill, but rather that pet-owners think twice about the impact of keeping domestic animals. Still, they clearly are reaping the benefits of the inflammatory title....

Author Jonathan Safran Foer chewed over the idea of why we aren't actually eating dogs in a recent Wall Street Journal piece. "Few people sufficiently appreciate the colossal task of feeding a world of billions of omnivores who demand meat with their potatoes," he writes. "The inefficient use of dogs—conveniently already in areas of high human population (take note, local-food advocates)—should make any good ecologist blush."

Here's a story about the backlash in the New York Times.

Full disclosure: This is not a new photo. It was taken in 2006, but just pointed out to me by an animal-loving colleague. And it's such a great image, I thought it deserved a bit more play. What a fierce, fierce orange kitty! A little tiger, clearly. And he doesn't even have claws! I hope that even though a few years have past, Jack the cat has as much -- if not more -- spirit. Here's what the National Geographic said at the time.

Jack, a 15-pound orange-and-white cat, cat sits under a treed black bear in a backyard in West Milford, N.J.. When the bear climbed down, the cat chased it up another nearby tree. Neighbor Suzanne Giovanetti thought Jack was simply looking up at the bear, but soon realized the much larger animal was afraid of the hissing cat. The cat's owners called it away and the bear ran off. (AP Photo/Suzanne Giovanetti)

My Good Dog's Chewy Shoe dog toy, a red, white and blue rubber creation for dogs to gnaw on, has raised more than $38,000 since it was introduced earlier this year. That's all money that goes to  “Dog Tags: Service dogs for those who’ve served us,” a program to train and provide service dogs to injured U.S. veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. 

Two dollars from every Chewy Shoe purchase are donated to the Dog Tags program. Service dogs in the program are trained by inmates in New York City-area correctional institutions as part of the Puppies Behind Bars initiative.

“The proceeds from sales of the Chewy Shoe are helping us continue the important work of supporting our veterans,” Gloria Gilbert Stoga, founder and president of Puppies Behind Bars, said in a release. 

Of all the pictures of Bo Obama that Unleashed has been faithfully documenting since the First Puppy's debut last spring, the ones that show him interacting with his family are the best. (Like these.)

You have to love this one, of the president giving Bo a scratch on his oh-so-furry belly. Bo's tongue is out. Clearly he's in doggie heaven. 

Even better -- the rub-down is happening on the edge of the Oval Office, where important matters of state and belly rubs happen.

BONUS BO: MOST EXCELLENT BO RELATED BUSINESS AFTER THE JUMP!

Today, however, Nov. 5, FreeKibble will donate five times the amount of food each for every site visit. Halo Pets is sponsoring the event. There's no limit on the kibble, so if a bazillion people visit the site today, that's how much food will go to shelters aross the country.

So everyone should visit the site today AND tell all their friends to do it. It's a fun and easy way to help some animals.

Click here to get to FreeKibble and help!

The cat, which has recovered, is believed to have caught the virus from someone in the household who was sick with H1N1. There are no indications that the cat passed the virus on to any other animals or people. The cat is a 13-year-old male.

Prior to this diagnosis, the 2009 H1N1 influenza virus had been found in humans, pigs, birds and ferrets.

On a crisp, dry autumn day (not that we've had too many of those dry ones around here lately), isn't having a dog the best? A great reason to take the long way around the park. And the dogs all seem to have little extra spring in their step when it's not so hot. (A guy at the park watched Teddy dancing around in the cool air and said he was a bon vivant. I think maybe he meant Teddy had a great joie d'vivre. Either way, good stuff.

Bailey, a resident at Graves Farm and Garden in Roswell, New Mexico, awaits the arrival of a tour group from Military Heights Elementary School. (AP Photo/Roswell Daily Record, Mark Wilson)

The 17-year-old twins accused of setting fire to a pit bull puppy known as Phoenix will be tried as adults, a judge decided Tuesday.

Judge David Ross ruled that Tremayne and Travers Johnson will face felony animal cruelty charges in Baltimore Circuit Court, allegations that could send the boys to jail for three years, The Sun's Brent Jones reports. Attorneys for the twins argued that they were not properly cared for in the juvenile system after they were placed on probation for a handgun violation in October 2008.

The lawyer for Tremayne Johnson added that his client suffers from depression and had not had any problems before he had brain surgery for a tumor four years ago. But a representative of juvenile services said the teen failed to cooperate with some of the department's programs.

Phoenix, a pit bull puppy, was doused with gasoline and set on fire in Southwest Baltimore last May. She was euthanized because of her injuries a few days later. The case sparked citywide and even national indignation about animal cruelty.