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“Hi, you’re not going to believe this,” the caller said “but I am calling from Fort Worth, Texas, and I accidentally picked up your husband’s luggage. When I opened the luggage, a cat jumped out.” [NY Daily News]
Sarah Harper was surprised to learn she would have to keep making payments on her cat’s “wellness plan” even after the cat was dead. She was told that she had signed a one-year contract and would have to honor it. Though the service sold by Banfield pet hospitals is packaged like and sounds like insurance, it’s not, it’s a payment plan. The media kit Banfield sends to reporters explicitly says “wellness plans are not insurance policies.” The contract does say that owners will still have to make payments even if the animal has passed away. However, brochures provided to consumers don’t say anything like that, instead saying things like it’s, “”the best preventive care your pet needs to maximize its life,” and that after you enroll, “your pet is on its way to a happier, healthier and longer life!” Catveat emptor.
Luis Martinez, 42, has managed his brother’s grocery in East New York, Brooklyn, for two years. At first, despite weekly visits from an exterminator, the store’s inventory was ravaged constantly by nibbling vermin.
We received a response tonight to the inquiry we sent Purina on 4/09/07 asking if there was any truth to the rumors (which we spread) that the recurrent “Woman And Kitty” imagery that bedecks numbers of their pet food packages seemed to recall, if not draw directly from, the “Madonna And Child” motif (undoubtedly to serve manipulative marketing ends).
The veterinary hospital chain saw 1 million dogs and cats during the three months when the more than 100 brands of now-recalled contaminated pet food were sold. It saw 284 extra cases of kidney failure among cats during that period, or a roughly 30 percent increase when compared with background rates. It’s not clear if those animals ate the contaminated food, though it seems likely.
As we mentioned last week, the packaging on several kinds of Purina cat chow feature pictures that seem to be influenced by the Madonna and Child motif. To get to the bottom of the mystery, we sent Purina this letter:
Yesterday we posted about how a package of Purina Naturals cat food bore striking resemblance to the Madonna And Child motif, a central icon of Christianity, represented in hundreds of paintings through thousands of years of human history.
Looks like Purina took inspiration for their Premium Natural logo from Christianity’s famous Madonna And Child motif.
Apparently, in some areas of the US you can view short videos of local pets who are in need of homes via Comcast on Demand.
Meow! Meow! That’s the sound of Messiah, a cat, charging expensive lingerie on his new credit card.
United Airlines is a big meanypants, but we have to wonder, why didn’t she just pay the cat fee in advance?
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