Photo of Dog's Last Meal Brings Reddit Community to Tears

Lennox the Boxer may have lost the battle with cancer, but he got the dish of his dreams before heading to the Rainbow Bridge.

When you have to euthanize your beloved dog, you want all the snuggles and playtime you can get. But you have to think, what does the dog want? One man who had a cancer-ridden Boxer named Lennox knew exactly what his dog wanted: a turkey leg covered in bacon, laid on a pillow of rice next to two fat sausages and (from the looks of it) a solid hunk of bread. 

An epic last meal, in other words. 

Reddit user Nikolaoss posted a photo of the feast to the site yesterday, and it tore up the rankings (along with a few Redditors -- many comments about crying in the comments). Later he posted further explanation. Lennox was his roommate's dog, who had reached the end of his battle with cancer. 

"He has severe cancer and arthritis," he wrote. "After many surgeries, which include a tumor on his left ear which you can see had surgery on. Now there is a huge growth on his left shoulder that you can see in the pic, he can barely walk on that side, and barely gets up anymore." 

Nickolaoss also included a video. Lennox enjoyed his last meal very much, it seems. Watch for yourself: 

Many Redditors expressed sympathy for the dog and shared their own stories. One user, soapage, had this to say:  

"Well Nikolaoss tell your roomate for me this: I know a lot of people here don't believe in heaven, but I think we all believe there is somewhere to go. He shall be put to sleep and his suffering will pass. In an instant his energy will burst out of his body with all the love that has been poured on him for years and it will be free. Most likely he will chase some squirrels and visit the cosmos, but I am pretty sure most of the time he will stick around with his human ... waiting the exact moment to greet him with a nice face lick on the other side."

In another post, Nikolaoss thanked the community for its compassion. "Thanks for all the comments, my roommate appreciates it a lot. This post isn't meant to be sad in any way. He lived like an absolute boss all his life! And the meal reflects that!"

Lennox was put to sleep on Wednesday. Nickolaoss said he passed away peacefully. 

Via the Huffington Post

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The "Bass Dogs" Tumblr Brings Two of Our Favorite Things Together at Last

A guy on Tumblr is replacing musicians' bass guitars in pictures with dogs. And it's almost too good.

Over the course of my life, I've seen a lot of musicians fingerpicking bass in rock bands, and whenever I see someone fingerpicking bass there's this moment when I stop for a second and think: Oh, that person is not using a pick on his bass.

Followed by: Fingerpicking bass looks a little funny. 

And then: At least he's not thwacking it with his thumb!

And then I go on and continue watching the show.  

The guy who made Bass Dogs, @michaelmphysics, didn't just let the sleeping dogs lie when confronted with the unique image of people fingerpicking bass. He thought long and hard about it. He decided to replace the basses with dogs. 

The result is amazing. 

His site, Bass Dogs, is subtitled "People who play the bass with their fingers look like they're tickling a hairy dog," and we couldn't agree more. How did we ever not think this? 

As he explains on the site, "I noticed that bass players who use their fingers as opposed to a pick look like they’re tickling hairy dogs, so I used computer prowess, my brain and a shovel to badly Photoshop pictures of dogs on top of their basses."

Head to Bass Dogs to see all of them, and note that @michaelmphysics accepts submissions, so if you think you've got what it takes to Photoshop a dog into a picture of someone playing bass, send him a copy to dogsasbasses@gmail.com.

Visit Bass Dogs and the Bass Dogs Twitter page, and, you know, rock on. 

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Now THIS Is Brazen: A Woman Brings a Fake Service Dog to Court -- and Fools the Judge

Lots of people have fake service dogs. This unsavory practice is bad for folks who truly rely on service dogs to get through the day, and it erodes the goodwill of the public toward service dogs. And every day we hear about more people running around with the fake certificates, confronting anyone who dares to question that the dog eating garlic twists from their lap at the Sbarros is anything but a medically needed hearing dog -- or therapy dog. Uh, I mean, seeing-eye dog. Wait, what was it again? 

Then we hear this, courtesy of PhillyBurbs.com. A Pennsylvania lady -- a Bonehead? Yes, lets call her that -- goes into court, in front a judge, with her little fake service dog. 

Bucks County District Judge Daniel Baranoski regrets to inform the court that he got bamboozled by the bold women, who waltzed into his courtroom with her Dachshund and sat down in the gallery. She was there for a hearing on a traffic ticket. The dog was there because the woman is a Bonehead. As she was waiting for her case to be called, Baranoski piped up. 

The judge questioned her about the dog. 

The woman responded that he was a service dog. 

Judge: "What service does the dog provide?"

The woman: "Psychological!"

And then she swept a business card from her purse and presented it to the judge with a flourish (which is to say, we like to think it was a flourish). The paper said the dog was “properly registered” with the “United States Service Dog Registry.” 

Hah! Have you seen the United States Service Dog Registry? It looks official, sure. But for $50, you can buy whatever credentials you like, including a "documentation package" with a fancy certificate. (One PetsAdviser writer who did just that said, "We’re talking digital watermark, security foil hologram, color-shifting printing, the whole works.") 

You'll also note the fine print on the Service Dog Registry home page: "Not affiliated with any government agency. Registrant data is based on assertions by dog owner. Registration is not required by the ADA [Americans with Disabilities Act]."

Our judge, about as knowledgeable of the United States Service Dog Registry as a salesperson at Anne Taylor, let the woman stay with her dog. 

But he took the woman's case next, to get the dog out of the courtroom. Yes, he gave preferential treatment to a woman who brought a fake service dog into a court of law.

Later, because the judge was in a place full of people busy figuring out laws, he found out that he had been (probably) bamboozled. His staff told his honor that the Americans with Disabilities Act does not require such "documentation" (namely, a fake business card that says your dog is "properly registered") and that the United States Service Dog Registry is considered "questionable" by people who know such things. 

It looks like our Bonehead was just another brazen person who is uses the delicate nature of the law to circumvent the hell out of it. 

The problem with this, of course, is that your typical fake service dog is not an expertly trained machine who's undergone years of study to behave like a pro in public. Your typical fake service dog is just a dog the owner really wants to be around all the time. Kind of like most dogs.

As the article says, "Such deception is making life harder for people with disabilities who rely on service dogs and face additional scrutiny and skepticism from business owners." 

At least Judge Baranoski won't be fooled again. He has told colleagues to be on the lookout for this crap. 

Via PhillyBurbs.com

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Review: Fresh Patch Brings the Dog Park to Your Pad

My dog, Mr. Moxie, is kind of like a cat. He climbs on the furniture, can leap up onto counters in a single bound, has his people trained instead of vice versa — and then there’s the litter box.

Since Mox was a wee pupster, he was trained to do his business in a pan with Yesterday’s News litter (which, made of rolled-up bits of newspaper, was the least “catty” of our options … I’m looking at you, Feline Pine).

Italian Greyhounds are notorious for potty problems, and since we live in a high rise, the box seemed like a good bet. Mox impressed us by taking to it rather quickly, and these days he lifts a dainty leg and makes canine elimination look like an art form.

Really, it’s quite impressive. Some people invite guests over to have them marvel at their mad cooking skills. Me? I just want you to come to my house and watch my dog pee into a box.

Anyway! While we clean the box weekly and scoop the poop as soon as it plops upon the pellets, Moxie’s box area isn’t the most appealing to those of us with a sense of smell. There’s a small window by the box that we crack open to make things bearable, but it’s closed most of the time to keep out the chill. So we were intrigued when we visited Dog Milk (for the record, one of our favorite dog sites out there) and read its brief write-up on Fresh Patch, a disposable dog potty that consists of a 16-by-24-inch plot of grass.

The box arrives!

We e-mailed the Fresh Patch folks and they sent us a sample patch days later. (Thanks, guys!) It’s exactly what you’d expect: a patch of grass in a box. Note that the grass is hydroponically grown, so there’s no dirt or mess.

The box opens. Note curious Moxie in the background.

It took me quite some time to get the box open, mostly because I’m an idiot. The boyfriend looked concerned as I wrestled with the thick cardboard sides and a kitchen knife, but eventually the top swung open.

Moxie's soiled litter box.

For reference, here is Moxie’s old litter box, complete with somewhat wet litter. We cleaned up his area before slapping down the neat little grass plot.

Moxie takes a sniff.

He took a liking to it right away, and within the hour had christened his new box with something solid. We were worried he’d be weirded out by having a bit of the outside indoors, but Mox seemed pleased that his two-legged slaves had installed a miniature dog park in the apartment.

Mox and his new box.

It’s been around five days since we opened the box and the apartment is smelling great. We’re definitely considering becoming converts, but the $20 a week price point may have us reverting to our litter box ways. Maybe when I’m done paying off the money the IRS magically decided I owe, we can revisit this.

Thanks again to the Fresh Patch folks for letting us give this a whirl!

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