Dear Readers:
The Washington Post hit the nail right on the head (Or did they just kick the cat?) when they published this article today!
By Michelle Singletary
How much is your cat’s life worth? Or your dog’s?
Would you take out a credit card specifically to pay for veterinarian care for your cat? Would you go into debt for your dog?
Some financial companies hope that if your pet gets sick and you don’t have the cash to treat Whiskers or Fido that you’ll get a credit card to pay the bill.
When Peter Fenton’s beloved cat, Orangey, got sick, Fenton was faced with a high vet bill and an offer to help pay for it.
“When my wife and I raised heck at the emergency room over Orangey’s charges, the vet whipped out a brochure detailing the clinic’s plan: a credit card with a high APR. We declined,” Fenton wrote recently for PostEverything. “But others might be forced to saddle themselves with additional high-interest debt.”
One study found that vets who offer pet owners a chance to charge their pet’s care see a 17.2 percent jump in revenue each year, Fenton reported.
“Thankfully, my cat Orangey is back to his old self,” Fenton said. “Like most pet owners, I would have paid anything to save him. But veterinarians shouldn’t take advantage of our devotion to enhance their bottom lines.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/would-you-go-into-debt-to-pay-for-vet-care-for-your-cat-or-dog/2015/04/22/0b71eb7c-e91e-11e4-aae1-d642717d8afa_story.html?wprss=rss_national
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Speaking about the family pet:
A family dog may have helped save the life of a 12-year-old girl who has Type 1 diabetes after it woke up her mother in the middle of the night when her daughter’s blood-glucose level had dropped dangerously low.
Afreen Nagra was diagnosed with the chronic disease in 2013. Two weeks ago, Nagra was sleeping in her parents’ bed when the family’s 11-month-old Goldendoodle attempted to wake the girl’s mother, who was sleeping beside her.
“(Simba) started licking my face and pulling up the comforter and I was like, ‘What’s happening?'” Savira Randhawa told CTV Toronto.
imageRandhawa thought the dog had confused her for Nagra, so pushed it away. But the dog persisted and eventually Randhawa woke up. She saw her daughter was sweating profusely. Nagra was also not responding to her mother’s request to have her blood-glucose level tested.
“I was sweating a lot but I just didn’t wake up,” Nagra recalled. “It was around 2 a.m. and then Simba went to my mom. He took the blanket and started pulling it off of her.”
Randhawa gave her daughter some juice, before testing her blood-sugar level.
“It was 2.3 mmol/L. That’s really low,” Nagra said. “It’s really close to going into coma.”
The Canadian Diabetes Association says a level of 4 mmol/L or less is consider low-blood glucose, or hypoglycemia.
Nagra saw her doctor the following day, who marveled at the dog’s apparent ability to recognize danger.
“I think I was lucky that day,” Randhawa said.
http://toronto.ctvnews.ca/family-dog-helps-save-girl-s-life-during-diabetic-episode-1.2340498
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Willa Junior, the baggage handler who fell asleep inside the cargo hold of an Alaska Airlines flight, said he didn’t expect to survive.
“In my mind I said, ‘This is not happening. This is just a joke,'” he said in an exclusive interview with ABC News.
The baggage handler said he woke up during the April 13 flight after a piece of luggage fell on his head.
Junior said he called his company, Menzies Aviation, and next called 911, but the call cut was lost after 44 seconds. So he started banging at the ceiling — so loud, that the plane’s passengers and crew could hear him.
Junior said he’s sorry for all the trouble he caused, especially for passengers whose plane was forced to turn around.
He said he learned a lesson, too.
“Don’t sleep on planes, or don’t doze off on a plane,” he said, “even though the job is hard, you know, stressful. Learn from my mistake.”

http://abcnews.go.com/US/sleeping-baggage-handler-expected-die-waking-inside-cargo/story?id=30522187
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How’s THIS for a case of road rage kids!
State police say a Pittsburgh man drove for several miles through seven communities with another man clinging to the hood of his vehicle after an argument.
The driver, 46-year-old Dwayne Harvard, is charged with aggravated assault and other crimes after the Sunday night incident. He tells local TV reporters he was just defending himself and called 911 while driving with the man still hanging on.
Harvard and his girlfriend say the man had a knife. Harvard also says he was afraid the man might shoot him if he stopped driving.
The other man hasn’t been charged.
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And Finally:
This has got to be one of humanities worst nightmares:
A man in Australia took it upon himself to squash a wolf spider that was crawling across his floor.
He picked up his weapon of choice , a broom, and smacked that spider hard!
All of a sudden, dozens and dozens of baby spiders went running across the floor like something out of a horror freak show!
The mommy wolf spider was carrying her babies on her back.
According to Live Science, female wolf spiders wrap their eggs in silk to create a sac and then carry the egg sacs until they hatch.
After the eggs hatch, the spiderlings attach themselves to their mother’s back where they remian for several days.

http://www.wpxi.com/news/news/weird-news/man-tries-kill-spiders-hundreds-babies-come-out/nky2W/
(P.S. have a good sleep tonight!)