Please vote for one of the following Pet News of the Week candidates by (1) sending an e-mail to jgerber@ideastream.org or (2) calling the WCLV Contest Line at 1-800-343-WCLV (9258) and leaving a message. The winner will be announced on WCLV Monday, Apr. 11 at 7:20 a.m. EDT and posted here. The Contenders:
- The robot dog enlisted by Italian officials to patrol the ancient ruins of Pompeii. Its duties includes identifying safety issues and finding tunnels created by thieves;
- Kiki, the cat reunited with her Canadian family five years after she disappeared from her Edmonton home. Kiki’s owner had previously had the cat microchipped, and when the family moved to Ontario, refused to change their phone number to a local area code so that the microchip information would remain current if Kiki turned up - which is why they received the call when Kiki was found;
- The 7-foot-long Vietnamese blue beauty rat snake, an apparent escape artist, that was found in the couch cushions of a man in Chula Vista, Cal., and which was taken into custody pending attempts to find the animal’s owner;
- Jackson, the horse that with his owner frequents the drive-thru lane of a donut shop in LaBelle, Fla. Jackson’s owner always orders coffee for himself and a plain donut hole for Jackson, who is the object of petting and scratching by the donut shop staff;
- The man in Lawrenceburg, Ky., who noticed a mysterious white foam that covered the surface of a nearby creek. It turned out to be dog shampoo, a spill from a local company. Environmental investigators determined that the coconut-based shampoo was harmless and did not pose a danger to wildlife or the ecosystem.