Quick, name one thing that would make your loved one more able to cope with living in a nursing home. If you said, "having a pet with him," then you'll want to keep reading.

When my father entered a nursing home 4 years ago, I had a recurrent fantasy. I would adopt a small, elderly dog - something about the size of a Pomeranian - and move it into his room, accompanied by a litter box. I would have been willing to go in everyday to change the litter. That's how much of a difference an old dog would have made for my old father in those last lonely years of his life. A dog on his lap in the wheelchair, sharing his meals from the tray, sleeping next to him through the night - would have made his life worth living.

The Environmental Group WildEarth Guardians says an anachronistic part of the Department of Agriculture spent $117 million last year to kill 2.4 million animals. The Wildlife Services has changed names plenty of times, but dates back to the days when the prevailing wisdom was just to wipe out any animals that got in the way of people. In its defense, the agency says it saves up to four times what it spends in agricultural losses. Of course, those would be private losses and we're spending tax money.

The agency just agreed to start putting out its data in a readable form after pressure from WildEarth Guardians. Meanwhile the animal group estimated that about half of those exterminated were starlings (an invasive bird) but 122,000 were carnivore mammals (like coyote and bear). The Wildlife Services program accidentally knocked off reindeer, pronghorn sheep, foxes, and bald eagles, says WildEarth Guardian's Wendy Keefover-Ring. Their sloppy application of poisons has killed off pet dogs, like Jenna, a lab mix poisoned while hunting rabbits. Most tragically, 10 people have died in aerial shooting programs.

Sure, some ranchers should be compensated for wildlife losses. The government should cooperate so frustrated ranchers don't take matters into their own hands. But the wildlife bureacracy has spread to cover all kinds of entrepreneurs from the cost of doing business. They also kill bears to protect logging companies (bears like seedlings). Federal agents bumped off 300,000 blackbirds who's big crime was eating sunflowers grown for birdseed. Fish farmers get protection from birds, too.

When people suffer financially, their animals face hardship, too. At the beginning of the year the Humane Society warned about about shelters being overwhelmed. Dogs and cats were losing their families when those families lost their homes. Now we're hearing about all kind of animals suffering in the financial downturn. Basically any animal that depends on humans is a little bit less secure.

Dogs and Cats
Shelters around the country report a surge of animals surrendered. Some have surely been forced into the situation, but lots of animals seem to be cast out as if they were impractical luxury goods. In Los Angeles, an 11-year-old shepherd was left scared in the shelter; the Animal Shelter of Sterling, MA, tells the Worcester Telegram that they haven't seen this many surrendered animals in 15 years; dogs in Dallas are being dumped on the side of the road. And, as I wrote about earlier, some people cruelly abandoned their pets in the house as a way to inflict suffering on the bank -- never mind what it did to the animal.

As the summer of the staycation draws to a close, you may be looking for something, anything fun to do around home that doesn't cost a lot of money. My big hobby is going places to see wild animals. And I'm certainly not alone.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's 2006 recreation survey says 87 million Americans now actively watch wildlife, many going on long trips. That's more than hunt (12.5 million), though lots of hunters are wildlife watchers, too. As a hobby I'm trying to map them out on a website animaltourism.com.

The most satisfying way to see animals is in the wild, which is also the toughest, requiring knowledge, patience and luck. If you're thinking of a trip with kids, you probably don't want to have to try to keep them quietly waiting for hours with a good chance of disappointment. So, the next best thing are wildlife rehabilitation facilities and sanctuaries for exotic animals. For the little kids, even farm animals are a big thrill.

Dog owners are facing yet another pet food scare. This one seems so far to be smaller in scale, but six dogs are dead and others sick after eating Nutro, according to this investigation by Consumer Affairs. There isn't a recall. Nutro says there isn't even a problem in this special web page it set up to address the issue.

If you're a dog owner you may not have even heard about the latest scare. It hasn't really been in the news. I only found out when a friend at the dog run starting worrying about her dog after seeing the story in an online newsgroup.

Two Italian Greyhounds from Indiana became dizzy, vomited, urinated incessantly and had a peculiar smell, said their owner, identified only as Theresa C. from Indianapolis in the Consumer Affairs story. Both were euthanized after kidney failure. The vet suspected antifreeze poisoning.

Last year, investigators eventually found that dogs were poisoned because Chinese manufacturers had added melamine, a component of antifreeze, to boost protein readings. The Food and Drug Administration analyzed their Nutro food, looking for melamine and similar chemicals as well as other common food poisoning agents like salmonella. The FDA found nothing wrong with the Nutro food.

"I wonder if there's something in the food they're not testing for," Theresa C. told Consumer Affairs -- echoing the concern of dog owners everywhere.

Friday June 20th is the 10th annual Take Your Dog to Work Day, a totally made up holiday, but a fun one. Pet Sitters International started celebrating in 1999, six years after the Ms. Foundation started bringing daughters into the workplace.

The purpose is entirely different. The daughters and sons are supposed to be learning about work world opportunities. On Dog Day, or TYDTWDay, as Pet Sitters calls it in shorthand, the dogs aren't supposed to learn anything (though I do think they're curious about where we go all day.) Instead it's your co-workers who are going to have their minds blown. The idea, according to Pet Sitters, is to encourage people to adopt dogs from shelters by showing them how much fun your dog is. Or, as they put it, "people without dogs will see the loving bond their co-workers have with their pets and will consider adopting orphaned pets for their own."

Sounds a little flimsy, but I still love it.

The similarities between the holidays don't end there. Answering understandable complaints for boys' parents, in 2003 the Ms. Foundation officially changed the holiday to include boys. It's now the Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day. Cat people didn't want to be excluded either, so now Take Your Pet to Work Week expands the holiday from June 16 to 20 (in case your office has something serious going on Friday). The kid holiday is somberly always on a school day, a Thursday, so that kids can go back and talk about what they learned on Friday. The dog holiday is the Friday after Father's Day, probably because it's a pretty casual time and nice weather.

Survey results released last month at the North American Veterinary Conference showed that pet owners are more likely to cut back on other monthly expenses before skimping on care or supplies for their pets.

The online survey of 665 pet owners (including 602 who have a dog or cat) was conducted in late December by Fleishman-Hillard International Communications, "to help give our animal care clients better insight into how changes in the economy might affect their plans for 2008," said Brian Cox, Fleishman-Hillard senior vice president, quoted in a Reuters article about the survey.