Community Areas of Dogster and Catster to Close March 3

It is with a heavy heart that we announce that we will be closing the Community areas of Dogster and Catster in March.

Dear Dogsters,

Today we are announcing some changes at Dogster and Catster. While the Dogster and Catster sites will continue to exist as daily magazines that serve the worldwide community of dog and cat families, it is with a heavy heart that we announce that we will be closing the Community areas of the sites effective March 3. This means that members of the Dogster Community will no longer be able to see Pet Profiles, Forums, Groups, Answers, Local Listings, Photo Galleries, Games, Quizzes, Adoption, Dog of the Day, Diary Central, the Gift store, and the Community homepage past that date. 

I am no longer involved in the day-to-day operations of Dogster and Catster, but I am writing this to you as one of the founders, as one of the developers who built the features of the sites, as the first community manager, and as a member (Trouble, Porter). Ten years of my life have been about Dogster and Catster and I’ve invested a lot of time, money, sweat and tears. It’s been a great ride and I have no regrets. But all good things must come to an end.

We originally created Dogster because there was no place on the internet to share the joy of having a dog or a cat member of the family. There was no place to share tips on taking care of the furry ones. There was no place on the internet to support each other in times of turmoil, sickness and journeys to the rainbow bridge. We, and I truly mean “we” in the community sense, created this space. We’ve made great friends, told inspiring stories, helped many pets find their furever homes. It was a great success and something I will remember and take pride in for the rest of my life.

That said, 10 years on the Internet is forever. There have been massive changes in the industry -- Facebook and Twitter didn’t exist when we started Dogster and Catster. Finding advertisers and developing those relationships was simpler and revenues were easier to come by in the early days. The backend technologies that power websites have been revolutionized three times over since then. It’s amazing to me that the sites we developed in 2004 and 2005 have lasted this long. But, as every regular user knows, the community areas aren’t working like they used to. Features are broken. Spammers are relentlessly invading our forums. The dog house and cat tree are starting to crumble.

SAY Media is a great company. Their hearts are in the right spot. There was a lot of pressure from financial and strategic points of view to close down the community areas of the sites three years ago. But since the sites were holding up and people loved them, they continued to keep these areas up even though it was at a cost.

At the end of the day, our parent company is all about creating great editorial brands. As the community features on Dogster and Catster degrade, as users become unsatisfied, it amplifies the fact that the Dogster and Catster community sites are not aligned with Say’s mission. It seems unwise to continue to operate them at a loss while aggravating users. Please believe us when we say we’ve gone through every possible option. Could we invest more in revamping the sites? Could we spin them off into their own or another entity? Could we leave them as is and slowly see them degrade further? The answer was “no” to all of these. We just cannot find a way that is honorable to the community, true to the business, and in good conscience.

I know many of you will be upset. I know many of you will think this is the wrong call. We’re truly sorry for that. Sometimes putting something you love to rest, while difficult, is the right thing to do. That is what we must do now with the community areas of our sites. Thank you for being the best community ever.

John Vars

Co-founder, Dogster and Catster

VP of Product, Say Media

If you have purchased a Plus subscription or zealies in the past 60 days, please email refunds@dogster.com or refunds@catster.com to be refunded. We will do our best to refund you within a week of your request.Dogster and Catster HQ will be on hand at the All-Paws group. We invite you to join the conversation and come to us with any questions over there. We’re sad too, and we’re here to listen and help as best we can.We unfortunately don’t have export functionality to help you preserve your pet pages, but we encourage you to save your photos and diary entries before March 3, when they will be taken offline.As always, you can reach us with questions, comments and concerns at support@dogster.com and support@catster.com.

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Dogster Shelter Dog Wednesday: Houndy Waited 10 Long Years But Finally Went Home

Rescue group Four Paws stopped bringing him to adoption events but never lost hope.

For Adopt a Shelter Dog Month, we're featuring shelter dogs rescued by members of our Dogster community. Last week we featured Todd, a Pomeranian rescued from a hoarding situation of 40 dogs. Underweight and sick, Todd was at first terrified of his new home, but quickly grew to love it, just as his family grew to love him. You can read the rest of his story here.

This week we have Houndy, a frosted-face senior who waited 10 years to finally go home. 

Houndy entered a local shelter in 2001 when he was only about two years old. Sporting a black coat, which may or may not have affected his adoption prospects, Houndy waited in the shelter, which unfortunately decided to euthanize him on account of overcrowding. That's when Four Paws, a rescue organization that saw potential in Houndy, swept in and took him on as a foster.

However, it would be a long time before Houndy found his fairytale ending. At adoption event after adoption event, Houndy always wound up leaving without a family to call his own. After not just months, but years of this, Four Paws began to lose hope and stopped bringing Houndy to adoption events. They kept one ember alive by leaving his bio online.

Which is how his forever family would finally find him. His human friend began volunteering with Four Paws in 2008, and when she found Houndy's bio online, she was surprised -- she thought she knew all the dogs at Four Paws! Upon meeting him, she found Houndy drastically different from his photo: Taken when the dog was just a youngster, it did not show the white face he had developed after 10 years of waiting.

But that made his human friend love him all the more, so she decided to foster him. It would be almost a year before she finally adopted the dog after a medical scare that made her realize just how much she loved Houndy. It may have been a long, long journey, but Houndy is finally exactly where he needs to be.

Photos via Houndy's Dogster page 

Read about other shelter dogs and adoption on Dogster:

About Liz Acosta: Dogster's former Cuteness Correspondent, Liz still manages the site's daily "Awws," only now she also wrangles Dogster's social media. That's why she wants you to follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and -- her personal favorite -- Instagram. See ya there!

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Dogster Hero: The Vet Who Helped Dozens of Dogs Out of a Hoarding Situation

Under Dr. Grace Anne Mengel's lead, veterinary students at Penn Vet stepped in to give the rescued pups a full checkup.

Grace Anne Mengel, Penn Vet staff veterinarian, received an urgent phone call in late July. In a hoarding-like situation, a breeder in Louisiana was found to be housing nearly 150 Magnolia Brittany Spaniels. Sue Spaid, president of the National Brittany Rescue and Adoption Network, had made arrangements with local police to have the dogs removed from the horrible conditions. The dogs were then sent to a holding facility, where a team from Louisiana State University’s veterinary school triaged them and administered rabies and DA2PP vaccines.

Following the first stages of treatment, Spaid alerted the Brittany Rescue Network and arranged for professional transport of the dogs. They were sent to rescue chapters around the country to receive shelter and further treatment while awaiting adoption. Twenty-six of the Brittanys were sent to the Country Comfort Kennels in Delta, PA, about two hours from Philadelphia.

Dr. Mengel runs Penn Vet’s Primary Care Service, which gives fourth-year students hands-on preparation for clinical practice. Upon hearing that the Rescue Network needed a physical and behavioral assessment of the dogs, she recognized a unique learning opportunity for her students, and quickly organized a trip to Delta. Seven Primary Care students, as well as Dr. Shannon Kerrigan and Dr. Carlo Siracusa, head of Ryan Hospital’s behavior service, accompanied Dr. Mengel on the visit.

Given the dire conditions in which the dogs had been living, Dr. Mengel and the team were pleasantly surprised by the dogs’ amazing temperaments. “They are a great bunch of dogs who came from a very bad situation and managed to adjust quite well in their new environment,” Mengel said.

Unfortunately, 18 of the 26 dogs tested positive for heartworm. The eight heartworm-negative dogs were brought to Penn Vet’s Ryan Hospital for testing and neutering. The following week, the heartworm-positive dogs were brought for chest radiographs for heartworm disease staging. All of the dogs were put on a 90-day heartworm treatment protocol. One of the dogs had such an advanced case that it required surgery.

Not only was this a valuable clinical experience for the students, but it was also a wonderful example of collaboration at Penn Vet. “Lots of people from many services and areas of the hospital stepped up to help treat the Brittanys,” said Dr. Mengel. “The nursing staff, interns, and residents were quick to pitch in. Surgery, pathology, and cardiology all came together to help us with this project.”

Today, the heartworm-positive dogs are continuing their treatment protocol and are still being housed at the Country Comfort Kennels in Delta. Once their heartworm disease is treated and they are neutered/spayed, they will be adopted out to their forever homes. The few dogs that were heartworm-negative are either in foster homes or have been adopted.

Source: Penn Vet, republished with permission.

Do you know of a rescue hero — dog, human, or group — we should profile on Dogster? Write us at dogsterheroes@dogster.com. 

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Win a Gift Bag in the Dogster Dog Show Instagram Contest

Hey! There's a dog show on Instagram. First prize is a Dogster gift bag. You plan to enter, right?

Hey, Dogsters!

It's your devoted Assistant Editor Liz here. While it's part of my job to make sure I deliver the very best in cuteness, my duties also include keeping in touch with all of you through our various social media outlets. I was taking a look at our Dogster Instagram account and thought it was looking a little lonely. If you haven't already, you should totally follow us, because we love looking at your adorable dogs.

But more than just following us, let's do something fun, shall we? Let's host our very own virtual Dogster Dog Show! We don't need all the pomp and circumstance and pedigree and papers of an actual dog show -- what's so cool about Dogster is that we can come together from all over the world to talk about dogs. 

So now's your chance to show off your pup and win a sweet Dogster gift bag, too.

Sit, stay, and listen, because this is how it's going to work:

1. Follow us on Instagram@Dogster.

2. Between May 17 and May 19, upload photos of your dogs via Instagram and make sure to tag them with #DogsterDogShow2013 and either #PureBreed or #MuttBreed, depending on your pup. In other words, your entry should have two tags: #DogsterDogShow2013 and one of the breed tags.

3. Between May 22 and May 27, we will upload your entries to our Instagram and open them up to voting. The top dogs who receive the most hearts and comments will move onto the final round.

4. Between May 29 and June 2, we'll post the final-round dogs here on Dogster for a lightning round of voting. There will be a winner to represent purebred dogs and a winner to represent all the beloved mutts out there. We'll announce the winners on June 5.

Got it? Good dog!

Now, ready, set, Instagram! And may the cutest dogs win.

Contest subject to change. Only U.S. residents are eligible to win. We'll make every effort possible to contact winners; however, if we can't get in touch, we'll pick someone else. Only U.S. residents are eligible to win. Thanks, and good luck!

Hero photo: Hipster dog in cool sunnies by Shutterstock

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Adorableness in Motion: We Hosted a Muttville Senior Adoption Event at Dogster HQ

We fell in love with the cute older dogs -- and San Francisco did, too.

We admit it: We have a soft spot for Muttville Senior Rescue. So when our parent company, Say Media, needed an organization to join us for an event called Say Gives, it seemed like an obvious choice. 

And so earlier this week, the Muttville-mobile descended on Dogster, bringing with it some of the cutest senior dogs we've ever seen. Knowing that Muttville alum Beasley is somewhat of a star 'round these parts, Muttville board member Patty Staton brought some of her star senior Pekingese.

Including -- but certainly not limited to -- Buddy!

Buddy is a cause célèbre here at Dogster. With his "customized" countenance, Buddy first ambled into the heart of Community Manager Lori Malm, who refers to the elderly lap dog as Beasley's boyfriend. You might be familiar with Managing Editor Vicky Walker as Catster's resident Cat Lady, but even she could not resist Buddy's unique charm.

Buddy looks kind of perfect in her arms, right?

(Don't worry, we called her husband and began working on him.)

Also representing the Peke pride was Maylee, a slightly younger Muttville adoptable, who had enough spunk and energy to make up for Buddy and Beasley's more low-key personalities.

Amid the flurry of lap dog fervor, our Assistant Editor Liz Acosta was drawn more to Tess, an older hound dog with a sweet disposition who wanted to just chill out in the shade. Liz doesn't judge smaller dogs, but she has a penchant for the bigger pups, having grown up under the protection of Akitas.

We set up a table outside the office and passed out Muttville fliers and Dogster stickers. Editor-in-Chief Janine Kahn took a pause from her work to join us in talking to people and raising awareness about the value of adopting senior dogs. (Associate Editor Keith Bowers would have been out with us, but he's busy working on a brand new Cat Dandy column for Catster -- you're going to love it!) 

At day's end, we were sad to see the Muttville crew pack up and go but glad we got to spend a little time with them. We hope we persuaded a few people that, sometimes, it's better to adopt an older dog than a puppy. If you're interested in following or helping Muttville, visit its website and Facebook page.

Photos by our multitalented Liz Acosta, who would like to remind you to follow us on Instagram.

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Pix We Love: Kids' Day at Dogster and Catster HQ

Once a year, Dogster's parent company, SAY Media, invites employees to bring in their children for a day of edutainment (that's education plus entertainment ... we know, we know, we'll never use it again!). Kids come in wondering what the heck their moms and dads do at this building on Townsend St. all day and leave wondering if they want to work in publishing or advertising when they grow up. Anyway, we made sure they left with some cute Dogster and Catster goodie bags, too.  

GiGi the office Boston hangs out with the kids.

Our Community Manager, Lori Malm, organized a cute session where she asked everybody to draw their favorite dog or cat. Then she put a small treat on top of each drawing and the office Boston Terrier, GiGi (of "Ask GiGi" fame!) walked around the table and chowed down at her pick.

The winner -- Taylor W. -- is pictured with Miss Gi above!

Here are some more photos from our day with our coworkers' kids:  

GiGi has her portrait drawn!

The goodie bags Community Manager Lori Malm put together.

We asked everybody to draw their favorite dogs.

We put a treat on each dog and cat drawing and let GiGi decide which she liked best.

Managing Editor Vicky Walker's drawing of her cat, Ambrose.

Goodie bags for all!

GiGi walks around looking for her favorite drawing.

The winner, Taylor!

We know they all want to come work at Dogster when they grow up!

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Behind the Scenes at The Daily Show: A Dogster Editor's Account

It’s not easy to follow in the footsteps of NBA legend Shaquille O’Neal, but someone had to do it. That someone was supposed to be handsome Aussie actor Sam Worthington, but due to a last-minute cancellation, that someone became me.

I’d been on The Daily Show’s “short list” of guests to book for Jon Stewart’s brilliant late-night show, but Worthington’s cancellation bumped me to the top of that list. In a whirlwind change of plans, I found myself bunking down in Manhattan’s gorgeous Hudson Hotel two Monday nights back. I was a little nervous about my stint, because if I screwed up, not only would there be 250 real, live people in the studio audience, but I’d also have the other 2.5 million home viewers to worry about.

Yeah I know. It looks like Jon and I got into the bottle of Vodka that's in the greenroom, or like there's something other than water in those mugs. But as far as I know, neither of us had had anything stronger than water. It's just one of those photos...

I decided to watch The Daily Show from my room that night, in part to be entertained by Stewart’s genius satire and wit, and in part to see what the week’s first guest would be doing. I would be going on the next day as a mere author – not a celeb-author, not a sports-author, just an author-author. My book, Soldier Dogs: The Untold Story of America’s Canine Heroes, had attracted the attention of the dog-loving Stewart and his dog-adoring staff, so it wasn’t like it wasn’t a friendly place for me. But his list of guests can make an author-author feel as small as an ant-author.

Among the guests he’s had on the show in the last several months: Brad Pitt, Will Ferrell, Betty White, Dolly Parton, Bill Clinton, Martin Scorsese, Diane Keaton, Tom Brokaw, Condoleezza Rice, Calvin Trillin, Tony Bennett, Hugh Jackman, Tom Hanks, and Jennifer Aniston. I took a sip of my wine, and tried to forget that all these greats had sat in that very chair I’d be sitting in the next day.

But when Shaq sauntered out on stage to vast cheers and picked up – physically picked up – Jon Stewart as if he were a toy, and the audience went wild, I started thinking about how nice it would have been if Air Force Master Sergeant Antonio (Arod) Rodriguez had taken me up on my offer. I’d told him I’d give him a wig and a nice outfit if he would pretend to be me. This most helpful and generous military working dog leader had been there for me from the very first days of this book, so it only made sense that he would be there now.

I was not going to pick up Jon Stewart like Shaquille O’Neal did the previous night. A hard act to follow, to be sure…

But for some reason, Arod didn’t take me up on my offer. So I was left to follow in the footsteps of the Shaq, and to precede the footsteps of this week’s other phenomenal guests, including Pakistani journalist and author Ahmed Rashid, and the MSNBC host, Rachel Maddow.

It’s not as if it would be my first national TV appearance to publicize this book, which had been out for less than two weeks. I’d enjoyed some other appearances and had not overly fretted. But this was Jon Stewart, iconic, ironic, and revered by millions. I managed to sleep that night (thank you, glass of way-too-expensive hotel wine) and get through the next day by spending time with my wonderful Dutton publicist Katie Burns, and my brilliant Dutton editor, Stephen Morrow.

At 5:15 pm Tuesday, a cab dropped Katie and me off at Stewart’s midtown Manhattan studio. As we walked in, any residual tinge of nervousness disappeared. Maybe it was the fact that we were met by a dog. Many employees bring their dogs to work. Stewart loves dogs, and has two himself. An affable fluffy black dog first came up to me, and later a beautiful golden retriever-ish dog visited, rubbing his blonde fur all over my black pants. Ahh, just like home, with my yellow Lab, Jake! Only these dogs were involved in some kind of canine love triangle. (I’ll talk about that in a future post.)

Dogs, dogs everywhere behind the scenes at The Daily Show. Here we have two of the three dogs involved in the love triangle I’ll write about another time.

Upon arriving at the greenroom, I was greeted by a framed sign with my name in it. That was pretty startling, and rather fun to see, even for someone more comfortable behind the scenes than in front. Not being a celeb or luminary, I took a photo. I doubted Barack Obama had taken a similar photo when he was last there in 2010

I had to take a photo. After all, I am just an author-author, not Brad Pitt or Bill Clinton.

The greenroom was incredibly spacious and comfortable. I had been in greenrooms before, and in fact two weeks earlier had shared a small greenroom on Fox with some Jersey Shore stars. Their celeb status was lost on me, because I had no idea who they were. The Daily Show greenroom was larger, and since Stewart has only one guest per night, Katie and I had it to ourselves. It featured the usual array of snacks and drinks, and a large bottle of Vodka. It was half empty/half full. I was wondering which guests had had a tipple or two when the lovely makeup artist, Jody, came and got me.

This was supposed to be “touchup” makeup, but it took her a good half hour to get my face just right for TV. She took her time because we were early. In real life, TV makeup is not a good look, but TV cameras need it. If people went out there in their more natural states, it wouldn’t probably wouldn’t be good for ratings. That said, Jody told me that Shaq had wanted only powder at the most. And when Shaq doesn’t want makeup, the Shaq doesn’t get makeup.

When I had a good coating of about 15 different products on my face, who should walk in but the man himself? Jon Stewart joined me in the makeup room while Jody was running an iron of some sort (flat? curling? One doesn’t notice these details when Jon Stewart walks in the room.) through my hair. He was really easy to talk with. I had decided to consider him a friendly colleague or even a classmate, rather than a mega star. It helped that we both graduated from college the same year. Heck, he could’ve been one of the goofy guys from my dorm!

In the makeup room, with Jody. What's with my left hand!? Looks it’s getting ready for a Star Trek convention without me.

I had somewhat tricked myself, and in doing so, was very comfortable speaking with him. We talked dogs, college, life, kids, and dogs again. He got a little touchup of face powder from Jody, and went off to do the show. I went back to the greenroom and watched. And laughed. He is so funny – too funny when you’re wearing non-waterproof eye makeup, as it turns out. Jody had to do repairs before I went on.

Finally, show producer Hillary came and got me. I said good-bye to Katie, realizing that the next time I saw her again I’d have either done well, or crashed and burned. I prayed for the first option. I didn’t want to screw up, in part because I was there for the dogs. I wanted to do the military working dogs and all their people proud. And I also didn’t want to become one of those viral “OMG what an idiot!” videos the next day.

Hillary walked me to the stage. I stood behind the thick blue curtain, and my heart started beating faster when I felt the cold air from the stage (studios are kept chilly), and heard the cheers of the audience. My shy writer half wanted to stay behind the curtain, maybe peek out, and march right back to the greenroom. But when he announced my name, all bets were off. I strode on and didn’t look back. And I had a blast. I blocked out the idea that millions of people were watching, and lived in the fantasyland that it was just Jon and me. It worked, and miraculously, I wasn’t at all nervous. Here’s how it turned out.

I thought we’d just started, but suddenly it was over. He introduced me to the audience during the commercial break, and they cheered loudly and enthusiastically, and I waved excitedly with both hands as I walked off. It was over. And I was high with happiness.

As Hillary was walking me back to the greenroom, telling me how well he segment went, I tried to remember what Jon and I had talked about. And I couldn’t remember a single thing. Nothing. That was a little disturbing. Had someone done a mind-wipe ala Artemis Fowl as I walked off stage?

Katie greeted me very happily, and we hugged, and she said how wonderfully it went. I didn’t tell her about the mind-wipe, and racked my brain for any detail. She mentioned a few things and they kind of came back to me. We went out for a celebratory beer at the nearby Pony Bar with my editor’s terrific assistant, Stephanie Hitchcock. I realized in horror that I was still in my TV makeup, but oh well. There were no small children in the bar to scare.

Two wonderful Dutton staffers - publicist Katie Burns and editors’ assistant Stepahnie Hitchcock - and me, in my full-on scary TV makeup, which is not meant to be worn out and about.

Afterward they went home, and I treated myself to the reward I’d been dreaming of: A giant slice of NY pizza and a root beer, followed by a chocolate glazed doughnut from Dunkin Donuts. (We don’t have Dunkin Donuts in San Francisco, and we certainly don’t have NY pizza.)

I got back to the hotel in plenty of time to catch the show on TV. I don’t like watching myself on TV, so I glanced up only on occasion. But I was relieved to find out just what we’d discussed, and that it had definitely gone well. Military dogs would not be hanging their heads in shame.

But the mind-erase thing was a curiosity to me even a few days ago, when I inquired about it with Bettina Devin, an acting teacher and actress I know. Was I crazy, or was this something that happens sometimes? This is what she wrote:

“It's a common occurrence with actors/performers. When you are truly in the moment, you are not thinking, conniving, trying to have a certain "effect", you are just there 100% present.  That's why so many great performers (improv especially) have no idea what just happened on stage and can't remember it.”

Whew! I was not losing my marbles. I was just one with the moment. Just like a dog.

Maybe Jake (Mr. Zen) can take my place for my next TV appearance.

I wish my Mind Erase didn’t take away what Jon said as he leaned in as the show was going to a commercial. The microphones were off, so I’ll never know. Something about dogs and a good book or Doggles, maybe.

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HQ Loves You: Pick Up This FREE Gift at the Dogster Gift Store Through Sunday!

Dogster Suzi Q in her Easter basket:

It's an Easter Egg bonanza! Hop on over to the Dogster Gift Store and share this colorful pile of eggs FUR FREE with all of your furiends today through Easter Sunday:

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We're Hiring: Dogster Seeks a Part-Time Editor

This could be you. Dog editor by Shutterstock. Dogster.com, one of the best and biggest pet publications on the Web, is looking for a part-time editor. We want an editorial jack-of-all-trades -- an experienced Web journalist who has no trouble adapting to a new CMS; someone who can whip copy into shape and write killer click-worthy headlines. If you are completely anal when it comes to making deadlines and know a sprinkling of SEO, you could be our person.

The strongest candidates will be masters of the written word and also have an eye for selecting and editing art for our stories in Photoshop or a similar program. If you love dogs and have a knack for ridiculous, borderline-hideous puns, we want to hear from you.

Working hours: 20 hours/week as detailed below:

This editor will copy edit (AP Style), lay out and schedule our next-day stories from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. PST. He or she will also be expected to edit and publish the news stories our writers churn out between 7:30 a.m. and 9:30 a.m. PST on weekdays. This person may also be asked to update Dogster's Facebook page with the first stories of the day.

This is a telecommute position. The chosen candidate will report to Dogster's Managing Editor, primarily over e-mail and IM. 

To apply, send a cover letter and resume to 2012editor AT Dogster DOT Com.

We also ask that you visit Dogster's homepage and send us alternative headlines for three of the published stories.

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Dogster Film Review: "The Salt of Life" - a Bittersweet Delight

There's nothing quite like a good Italian film. It transports the the soul - not just to bella Italia, but to what the country represents at its best; vitality, earthiness, exhuberant and attractive men and women, and a certain indefinable spirit that's hard to find in other parts of the world or the imagination.

Add dogs to a good Italian movie, and you just can't go wrong.

"The Salt of Life," a wistful comedy about an aging mama's boy who longs to look and feel younger, has all the ingredients of a fine Italian film, and a couple of scene-stealing dogs to boot. 

Between his demanding, aristocratic mother, his platonic friendship with his wife, his daughter's slacker live-in boyfriend, and all the beautiful Roman women he passes daily while walking his dog, Gianni is constantly reminded that he's inching closer to life as one of the "codgers" he sees sitting in chairs outside cafes all day. He longs to be youthful, vibrant, and a magnet for women. But the sweet, gracious, polite Gianni (played by the film's director, Gianni Di Gregorio, whose voice is reminscent of one of my favorite actors, Marcello Mastroianni) will settle for simply not bring quite so invisible to women. Even old women seem to take his good-natured helpfulness for granted.

A lovely young neighbor in his apartment building has a great fondness for Gianni, and he's overjoyed when she tells him she had a dream about him. When finds out he is her grandfather in the dream, it's poignant to see him try to continue smiling, and being his usual kind and understanding self. (That scene is in the beginning of the film's trailer, below.)

The neighbor values Gianni greatly, and he's happy just to walk her large St. Bernard. This is where the dogs come in.

Image: Antonio Carloni/Zeitgeist Films

Gianni, who retired at the age of 50, spends much of his time walking his own little dog, and often takes the St. Bernard along to give his neighbor some down time. The scenes with the dogs are endearing. We never get to know the dogs as characters with their own personalities, as we do the dogs in movies like "The Artist" or "Beginners." But having the dogs in the scenes is a joy to the dog-lover's eye, and adds a certain groundedness to the film.

In the film image above, Gianni is enchanted to sit at the park with his neighbor and her dog. These are the kinds of moments that make him happy. The moments that make him realize his possible future of being an old guy sitting on a park bench - as in the image below - are bittersweet.

Will Gianni become less invisible? Will he avoid what seems to be the inescapable riptide toward old-mandom he's trying valiantly - like the gentleman he is - to swim away from?

You'll have to watch the film to find out. Don't go to "The Salt of Life" thinking this is a Fellini-esque barrel of passion and energy, or anything close to a ribald comedy. It can feel slow-paced at times, but that's just it. It's supposed to take you into the world of Gianni, including moments where people just sit silently and simply exist while the clock ticks. "The Salt of Life" is a charming, bittersweet comedy that stays with you for days after you watch it.

The film is opening at movie theaters of the "art house" variety around the U.S. thoughout the spring and summer, and will be available on DVD later this year. For playdates, go to Zeitgeist Films. 

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Big News: We’re Launching Dogster Magazine This Month!

Hi, guys! If you’re a Dogster community member, you’ve likely already seen the site update posts we’ve made earlier in the year about the redesign that’s in the works. If you’re a Dog Blog reader who doesn’t frequent our community areas, here’s the skinny: Our redesign launch date is scheduled for Monday, March 12 (give or take a few days for final tweaks).

The community areas of the sites (Pet Pages, Groups, Forums, Diaries, Gifts, Messaging, Answers, Adoption, Local, and the Community homepage) will not be changing. But some exciting changes will be coming to our editorial areas.

All your favorite Dogster blogs — the Dog Blog, Vet Blog, and Living with Dogs — are going to be rolled into what we’re calling Dogster Magazine. So instead of visiting several URLs to see our daily content, you’ll just need to visit the Dogster.com homepage to see everything in one combined feed. No, there won’t be a print magazine (though that would be cool … aaand probably more work than our two-person in-house editorial team can handle).

Our news editor, Maria Goodavage, will still be bringing you the daily news; Dr. Eric Barchas will still be answering your questions; and Julia Szabo will still be interviewing interesting people for us. Most of our current blog contributors (Christine Martinez, Casey Lomonaco, Anna Zeman) will be writing for Dogster Magazine as well.

We’ve got some new contributing writers we think you’re going to dig, and Dogster will also be launching a new web video series featuring some HQ personalities. We won’t say too much about that here, but we really hope you’ll love it as much as we do!

We have slowly been migrating all of our blog archives from WordPress (which currently hosts all our blogs) to Orion, our parent company SAY Media’s brand-new home-built publishing platform. Next Thursday, March 8, and Friday, March 9, there will be no blogging or posting while we move the final bits of content to Orion before we flip the switch and set the new homepage live.

On the week beginning Monday, March 12, you will notice that when you try to get to any of our blogs you will be redirected to the homepage, where the freshest content from all our authors will appear. If you subscribe to the Dog Blog’s RSS feed, that will be updated so you will continue to get Maria’s news items.

On our site update blog, community manager Lori Malm just posted the latest screen grab of what the new homepage will likely look like. PLEASE NOTE that this isn’t final. We’re still deciding what the final background will be and are tweaking a lot of little design-related things, but we wanted to give you a sneak peek of the direction we’re going in:

As part of SAY Media’s Clean Campaign, our homepage will have just one big ad (seen on the right side) instead of our current homepage’s three ads.

That’s all for now. We’ll do another reminder post on the afternoon of Wednesday, March 7, so nobody wonders why we won’t be publishing fresh content on Thursday and Friday.

Best Woofs,
The Editors at Dogster HQ

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Dogster Giveaway: Chicken Jerky That’s Safe and Very Droolworthy (Just Ask Jake)

You could win a package of this yummy, safe Dog Pack Snacks Chicken Jerky! (Image: Dog Pack Snacks)

We’ve been writing about the potentially lethal side effects of chicken jerky that comes from China for a while now. The FDA is slowly investigating. But a lot of people have written to us in response to our articles with horror stories to share about their dogs’ experiences with various brands of jerky. The common strand that the jerky is produced in China (although sometimes labeled “made in the USA”). Many readers have trashed their dogs’ jerky after reading the terrible experiences others have had with it.

The good news is that  we’ve been hearing about small local mom & pop businesses that put quality above all else, and make really good, safe jerky treats. And we’ve read reader “recipes” for making chicken jerky as well. That’s more work than some people want to put into their dogs’ treats, but others are wagging about it.

This is Coco, the lucky taste tester for Dog Pack Snacks.

We don’t normally do giveaways of treats or food, but we’re making an exception. Some chicken jerky treats arrived for Jake in the mail the other day and they were so delectable that I was almost tempted to chomp into one. (Jake was giving me “the look,” though, so all bets were off.)

The package was from a company called Dog Pack Snacks, based in Florida. The jerky was unlike any we’d bought before from the large manufacturers. It was very thinly sliced, with a beautiful color and really appealing aroma. Here’s how Debbie Isles, owner of the business, describes it:

Our Chicken Jerky is a neighborhood and a customer favorite.  Made from human grade, hormone free, American raised chicken breast, sliced thin and cooked very slowly into the ultimate snack. It is crunchy, yummy simplicity.  Wait until you smell it!  Better yet… wait until your dogs smell it.  The smell of roasted chicken will remind you of Sunday dinners at Grandma’s.

Jake loved this jerky more than any other I’d fed him from big-name companies. Every day until they were gone he would sit staring at the top of the fridge, where I have to keep his treats because he will get them anywhere else. It was rather touching, his love of this jerky, which is made in very small batches, as it turns out.

So how do you enter to win one of the 6-ounce chicken jerky packages (retail $10.99) that Dog Pack Snacks is offering to two lucky readers? Go to Dog Pack Snacks Facebook “Snacks” page, and peruse the various delectable treats the company makes. Then come back here and leave a comment about which treat/treats would be your dog’s favorite, and why. Enter by 12 p.m. Pacific time Tuesday, March 7. We’ll draw two winners from qualified entries via Random.org, and will announce them on Wednesday, March 8.

If your dog is looking over your shoulder when you check out the treats, I suggest you wear a towel to cover your clothes and your keyboard. They’re that droolworthy!

Good luck!

View the original article here

Dogster HQ Drops by the Golden Gate Kennel Club Dog Show

Ever been to a dog show hungover? I don’t recommend it. But such was my fate after my fellow Dogster staffers and I decided to turn our date with the Golden Gate Kennel Club Dog Show into a wine and margaritas girls’ night/slumber party.

It’s amazing how you can work with people five days a week and yet have enough to chat about into the wee hours of the morn. I was impressed that we were able to peel ourselves out of bed at 8:30 a.m. and make it to the aforementioned dog show by 10 sharp. I must also say I’m impressed with the way my colleagues look like they actually got some sleep in the photos below.

Our day began with a solid dose of caffeine, and then we were off to the Cow Palace for the last leg of the two-day affair. My dog was mad he wasn’t invited to the pooch party, but they were limiting canine presence to the show entrants.

A few months ago, Dogster’s Community Manager, Lori, lost her beloved Basset Hound, Lucy, and we made a beeline for the Basset booth as soon as we arrived to make sure she got a healthy dose of droopy-eyed love.

Note: The show Bassets are wearing snoods in the above photo to keep their ears from dragging on the ground.

We’d never met English Setters before, but are pleased to report that their sweet faces are matched by equally sweet personalities.

At these shows, “breed benches,” or the display/rest areas the breeds hang out at between showings are a competition in themselves. And we were shocked and appalled that the Chihuahua bench didn’t get first place when their owners went all-out, turning the Chi crates into a series of miniature home scenes. Here’s a clip so you can better see what we mean:

See? They were robbed!

We consoled ourselves by hugging as many adorable dogs as we could get our mitts on. Starting with this Rottie.

And this Saint. (Pictured next to Anna, our social media whizkid.)

Then we headed backstage to see the grooming area.

We watched one handler wrestling with the endless fluff of his Pekingese. My cohorts laughed a bit too loudly at this little dog’s face, but can you blame them?

We noticed that every pet product you could imagine was available for purchase in the face of a last-minute grooming emergency.

You would not believe how much hairspray it took to get this Pom‘s tail to stay put.

Another look at the snood phenomenon.

The Weims looked surprisingly happy to have a dogpile going on at their booth (though we thought they looked a little cramped).

Of course, I forced everybody to watch the Italian Greyhounds when they had their turn in the ring. A gorgeous fawn IG won a ribbon. I wanted to take every last one home.

We found that there are breed-specific editions to a good number of board games. (Is this odd to anybody else?)

The Irish Wolfhounds traveled through the halls like a troop of gentle giants.

Here’s another look at Lori in Basset Hound heaven.

Many, many, many cars in the lot had breed stickers and/or decals on them.

And many breed-specific collectables made walking the halls a visual overload.

We left a few hours later bone tired and ready for a good long nap (or some hair of the dog that bit us the night before). We’ll leave you with this parting shot — that’s a St. Bernard paw.

So, how was your weekend?

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