1. New York City dogs and their owners are about to be uprooted from a regular doggie date spot. Boris & Horton, New York City’s beloved dog café, announced on Thursday morning that it will be closing both the East Village and Williamsburg locations on Monday, February 26. Within an hour of posting the sad news on Instagram, over 500 comments rolled in, voicing support, disbelief, disappointment and confusion over the seemingly sudden loss of community space. Boris & Horton first opened on Avenue A in 2018. The unique space offered off-leash exercise and socialization for local pups, plus coffee, snacks and WiFi for their humans. Boris & Horton's reason for closure is far too familiar for independent businesses in New York City: It's just too expensive. (via TimeOut)
2. Charlie, a shih tzu mix, was a disheveled thing when Sue Grundfest found him a few years back in a shelter. He was experiencing many medical issues and was not the cute dog people are drawn to now. But at Lied Library, he's developed quite a fan-base among students stressed out by finals. Grundfest is founder of Pet Partners of Las Vegas/Love Dog Adventures, which partners with University Libraries. The Libraries launched "Paws for a Study Break" a decade ago to help students manage stress so they can perform better on their finals. (via University of Nevada)
3. True or false: There’s a no-fly list for dogs and your pet might be on it. Travelers like Megan Moskowitz say it absolutely exists. When Moskowitz tried to fly with her dog, an English cocker spaniel named Maci, to visit family in Indiana, she says United Airlines agents at Newark Liberty International Airport wouldn’t let Maci on the plane. (via The Wall Street Journal)
4. Some people from an ancient community in what is now northern Italy were interred with animals and animal parts from species such as dogs, horses and pigs. The reasons remain mysterious, but might indicate an enduring companion relationship between these humans and animals, or religious sacrificial practices. Of the 161 people buried at Seminario Vescovile, an archaeological site in Verona from the third to first century BCE, 16 were buried with some kind of animal remains. Some of the graves contained the remains of animals often eaten by people—including many pigs, a chicken and part of a cow—which may have represented food offerings to the dead. But four of the people buried on the site were buried alongside the remains of dogs and/or horses, which are not commonly eaten. (via Phys Org)
5. Greyhound welfare advocates are calling for more transparency after figures emerged that at least 500 dogs have been sent to the US for rehoming as the racing industry continues to breed far more dogs than are needed. Australia is one of seven countries where commercial greyhound racing is legal – New Zealand, Mexico, Ireland, the UK, US and Vietnam (where no races occur) also allow the sport. “These programs come about because the industry is massively overbreeding greyhounds,” Andrea Pollard, president of the Coalition for the Protection of Greyhounds (CPG), said. (via The Guardian)
6. It’s frowned upon when N.F.L. players complain to the referees. But at least they don’t urinate on them. The same cannot be said for the competitors in the Puppy Bowl, Animal Planet’s canine football game that takes place in October but did not air until the afternoon of Super Bowl Sunday. The event’s referee, Dan Schachner, stays ready for all eventualities by keeping five identical uniforms in his dressing room so he can change when accidents occur. Mr. Schachner, 49, admitted he had gotten lax about handing out penalties for “premature watering of the lawn” since he began calling the game in 2011. This year’s Puppy Bowl, was the 20th edition of the event, a milestone for a program that began as a tongue-in-cheek feed of puppy playtime before evolving into a counterprogramming juggernaut. (via The New York Times)
7. In a recent video on her TikTok account, travel influencer Roya did a skit of two people discussing a dog and the year in which he was named. In the skit, the ‘French’ person assumed that her dog Peanut was born in 2019 because his name begins with the letter ‘P’. It turns out that the dog was born in 2020 and, therefore, should have been named something beginning with the letter ‘R’. Is this all making sense to you? Yeah, same, I was a little lost. So I did some digging to find out what exactly was behind this convention. According to Connexion France, this actually goes back to 1926. Since then, dog owners who hoped to register their pedigree dogs have had to name their dogs in accordance with the Société Centrale Canine in its Livre des Origines Français (LOF) which means naming them from the letter of the year they were born. (via The Huffington Post)
8. As Rio de Janeiro’s Carnival celebrations kicked off last Saturday, dozens of dogs dressed as mermaids, superheroes, butterflies and clowns paraded alongside their owners in one of the city’s most beloved canine street parties. The Blocão — a play on words that joins “bloco,” which refers to Carnival street parties and “cão,” or dog in Portuguese — gathered over 200 people in Rio’s beachside Barra de Tijuca neighborhood on Saturday morning. Clad in tulle and sequins, fluffy fashionistas took part in a contest to choose the day’s top costumes. On a small stage in the middle of a leafy square, pups of all sizes and breeds strutted and wagged their tails. Organizers announced the contestants over a microphone, as confetti rained down. (via Associated Press)
Bonus: Our pets fill our hearts, but at times their care can empty our wallets. Some dog breeds may be better for your wallet than others, but sooner or later every pet owner faces unexpected costs. We heard from dozens of WSJ readers about their pets’ surprising expenses—from the practical to the tragic to the downright silly. Linked here are some of their stories about the costs their dogs have incurred. (via The Wall Street Journal)
Photo by John Nowak, “Meet the dogs in Puppy Bowl XX” (via CNN)
Video by Buzzfeed, “Snoop Dogg: The Puppy Interview”