Death and Taxes

"A Conejo Valley man who's committed to finding new homes for abandoned animals is facing a $17,000 tax bill as a result of his not-for-profit adoption system.

Josh Pasewaldt, owner and operator of Newbury Park Pet Supply, has spent the past 16 months collecting small dogs and puppies from the Kern County Animal Shelter in Bakersfield and housing them at his North Reino Road store until they're adopted.

He charges the new owners the $60 fee it costs him to adopt them from the animal shelter, and he pays for the costs of transporting and housing them out of his own pocket.

Now Pasewaldt, 28, says he's just about reached the end of the road as a result of a series of regulations and higher costs that began last year when animal-control authorities ordered him to install fire sprinklers and take other steps."

Wordless Wednesday

Farm Sanctuary

"Moo had a little crush on me, and I could all but return his affections.

The brown-haired boy had saucer-size eyes, a sturdy build and a sweet disposition. But what really tugged at my heart was his story of survival. The super-friendly bull, who had trailed me through the pasture like a lovelorn teen, had been found tied to a car when he was a calf. He was saved by one animal shelter, then recently moved to another, Farm Sanctuary near Watkins Glen, N.Y.

Moo is not alone -- at the country's largest farm-animal-rescue facility. The sanctuary takes in hundreds of farm animals, which, if they could talk, would tell similar stories. There's Morgan, a snow-white rooster discovered in a Brooklyn pet store dyed like an Easter egg; Mayfly, an experiment in a school hatching project; and Winnie, a 500-pound pig who escaped a backyard barbecue (featuring her) in Connecticut. She now is the alpha pig of the pen.

"The biggest thing we want to impress upon people is that animals have their own lives and personalities," said Liz Pichaud, 23, the tour guide who led our six-person group around the property. "They are living as they were intended to live."

Sunday Visit

Boo spent Sunday afternoon visiting with her friend Diane. She hadn't seen Diane in almost 9 months so it was a reunion filled with hugs and kisses.

Time-Share Pet

"Penny De Los Santos wanted a dog but traveled too much to care for one full time. So, she opted for the next best thing: a time-share pet.

For two years, Ms. Santos shared a mellow female Husky mix with her neighbors, who took the dog for about one week a month. They split veterinary bills and the cost of vaccinations and heartworm pills. The neighbors called the dog Nika. Ms. Santos preferred the name Monica.

"It's kind of like Monica had two lives with two families," says the 39-year-old photographer in Austin, Texas."

Booger

"The loss of Booger the pit bull terrier was almost more than Bernann McKinney could bear.

Now she is happy, minus $50,000 and her house, and owner of five cloned Booger puppies.

"It is a miracle for me because I was able to smile again, laugh again and just feel alive again," McKinney told a news conference in the South Korea capital to show off the week-old black puppies -- all of whose names include the word Booger.

They are the work of the biotech firm RNL Bio, affiliated with the South Korean lab which produced the world's first cloned dog and is staffed with former associates of disgraced scientist Hwang Woo-suk.

She sold her house in the United States to raise the $50,000 for RNL scientists to turn skin cells taken from Booger before he died two years ago into embryos carried by two surrogate dogs for two months until giving birth to the puppies last week."

Wordless Wednesday