CEDAR RAPIDS – Officials are in the preliminary stages of establishing a Linn County dog park in Squaw Creek this year. Around 33 people that make up the Leadership for Five Seasons Class of 2013 will begin planting “small, high-quality and resilient” trees in the off-leash dog park on May 3. The trees will [...]
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NORTH LIBERTY — Last week, Becky Russo got busy. Too busy. She wasn’t paying attention to her blood sugars, which — as a type I diabetic with extreme lows and highs — can be dangerous, even life threatening. Or, at least, it used to be. This time when the North Liberty mother let her mind [...]
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ANAMOSA — “These are my kids,” 80-year-old Atha Jensen says of a friendly but outspoken golden retriever named Daisy Mae and a personable cat named Charlie Simba. Like many seniors, the Anamosa woman has no children to take care of her animals when she is gone. The realization that Jensen’s pets could outlive her sank [...]
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An effort to open a low-cost spay and neuter clinic, in the works for several years, has received a boost from a $95,000 grant. PetSmart Charities awarded the competitive grant to assist the Iowa Humane Alliance’s Regional Spay/Neuter Clinic in Cedar Rapids, the group announced Friday. Program Director Mary Blount said the award will be [...]
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For months, Katie Hagmeier, 9, has been volunteering at the Cedar Valley Humane Society with her mother, Gidget and sometimes, her 3-year-old sister, Gabby. The Hagmeier family adopted their dog, Douglas, five years ago and have been visiting the CVHS ever since. Katie found out that she could start volunteering with a parent or guardian [...]
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A drag-strip-like Christmas tree signal drops from yellow to green, and leadoff dog Twitch streaks down the runway to the excited whoops of team handlers. In a computer-timed 3.86 seconds, Twitch covers the 51.1-foot runway out and back, crossing four low hurdles before snatching a tennis ball from a box. Before he reaches the end, [...]
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LETTS — Simon Bolivar has reached puberty — and that has become a serious problem. The bright green 8-year-old military parrot sits on a high perch in a screened open-air confinement at Iowa Parrot Rescue in rural Letts when his owner, Susan Boehlje of Iowa City, drops in to see if he’s back to being [...]
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Even with the heat wave hitting eastern Iowa, many dog owners still showed up at the Dog Showmanship at Linn County Fair. Eddie, a cardigan welsh corgi, sits on top of a dog show table with a fan blowing at him. Meredith McDonald, 14, of Central City entered him in obedience, agility and showmanship. Across [...]
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CEDAR RAPIDS — The shelties and the shotguns may be called in to help, too. Daniel Gibbins, the city’s parks superintendent, on Thursday said the “overpopulation” of geese in the city has grown so large and the feces left behind so unsanitary and offensive that the city is contemplating a new ordinance to make [...]
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