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Tinkerbell

My puppy Keira caught her first mouse yesterday. I don't know who was more proud - me or her.

She dropped it into her food bowl (just in case we missed the point) and strutted around the garden like she'd caught Osama bin Laden himself rather than a harmless mouse.

Mind you, all jokes aside some dogs actually are making a huge contribution to the global war on terror - three British dogs were given medals for their sterling rescue work in the aftermath of the 2005 London suicide bombings. I bet there's only one other dog which would be so used to wearing that much bling - Paris Hilton's chihuahua Tinkerbell. However not all is rosy in Tinkerbell's world - despite dining on dogfood worth $305 per can, questions have been raised over whether Tinkerbell is actually starved of love.

We ran a funny story recently about the iPhone craze and how could get their own iPhone peripheral - the iPhoneCollar. However there is one poor dog which would have trouble using, or even hearing an iPhoneCollar - this poor pooch had its ear cut off by a clumsy dog groomer during a trim. The groomer tried to fix things with superglue, but really, I'm sure we'd all notice if our pet's ear was stuck on with glue... how stupid does the groomer think we are?

Meanwhile, cats were doing what cats always do best by showing us who is really the boss. According to a new study, ancient cats decided to 'allow' humans to domesticate them in return for a sure food supply and a warm fire... and that they might decide to leave again just as easily. Kind of makes you wonder whether thet are just biding their time, waiting for a better opportunity...

Horses have featured heavily on Pet Shed recently - in a healing capacity. We told you about the new trend of equine massage, where horses are now enjoying the benefits of a good rub down that horse owners have kept to themselves for hundreds of years. What's next - horse pilates? And it's not like horses aren't appreciative - in fact they have started returning the favour - being employed by some therapists in treating traumatized human patients with horse therapy. I guess a friendly ear is all that's needed sometimes.

It's been a wacky couple of weeks in the Pet Shed news department. Stick with us - you ain't seen nothing yet.