fact or fiction
Is it fact or merely fiction? Fact or Fiction explores the myths and beliefs we hold about our pets, like why dogs wag their tails and cats purr.
Explaining Nighttime Barking in Dogs
Barking at Night Can Be Confusing. Your dog may be calm, friendly with everyone, and seemingly well-adjusted all day. Then night falls, the house falls silent, and suddenly the barking starts. Every night. Sometimes briefly. Sometimes endlessly.
By Paw Planet about 7 hours ago in Petlife
Why Pet Collars Matter More Than We Think
Domestic animals read the world through continuity. A collar or ID tag may look trivial to a human, but to a dog or a cat it can operate as an identity object. I have seen this pattern across enough households, shelters, and animal-welfare cases to know it is not coincidence. When an animal becomes distressed after its collar is removed, the reaction is almost always tied to safety, belonging, and recognition.
By Dr. Mozelle Martin8 days ago in Petlife
If your dog barks at night, don’t ignore it.
Night falls, and with it, silence—at least for most of the house. But for many dog owners, the silence is short-lived. Somewhere between the ticking of the clock and the rustling of the leaves outside, the barking begins. Loud, incessant, and often unexpected.
By Paw Planet 8 days ago in Petlife
How to Make Your New Puppy Friends with Your Kids
Bringing home a new puppy is one of life’s most exciting moments — but it can also feel a little overwhelming, especially when you have kids. Dogs are curious, enthusiastic, and sometimes clumsy. Kids are naturally enthusiastic, but they may not understand how to approach a small, delicate creature.
By Paw Planet 10 days ago in Petlife
Why Do Dogs Bark at Night?
Nighttime Should Be Quiet. The lights are off, the world slows down, and most of us expect peace when our heads finally hit the pillow. But for many dog owners, the silence doesn’t last long. Somewhere between midnight and dawn, a bark pierces the darkness—sharp, sudden, and impossible to ignore.
By Paw Planet 10 days ago in Petlife
A Dart at Dusk. Top Story - January 2026.
Seconds ago, the sullen sun set on the two of us… my exuberant furry companion and me. A fresh breeze embraces us, delivering welcome relief from the day’s oppressive heat. His typical stumbling and staggering along — apace with a sloth — has turned into trip-trapping, high-stepping, almost skipping along.
By Angie the Archivist 📚🪶20 days ago in Petlife
Real camouflage for people and machines is getting closer thanks to materials inspired by octopuses.
Engineers now have a closer resemblance to octopus skin thanks to a new colour-changing material that can change both its colour and surface roughness in less than 10 seconds. The soft photonic skin was created by Stanford University researchers using patterns on its surface that are tiny than a human hair.
By Francis Dami20 days ago in Petlife
Frozen Clash: Wolf vs Bear. AI-Generated.
The morning light broke gently over the snow-covered wilderness, turning the frost into a blanket of sparkling diamonds. The forest was silent except for the soft whisper of wind moving through the icy branches. Every tree was coated in white, and the frozen ground glistened under the soft sunlight. In this serene landscape, life thrived in quiet ways, even in the harshest winter conditions.
By Bilal Mohammadi21 days ago in Petlife
Cubby - My first Best Friend. Content Warning.
This is the story about a girl [Jessie, illustrator of The Hound Who Saw, coming out near Easter 2026] who meets her furever first best friend. This is the story about Cubby. He was a burnise mountain dog, border collie mix. He was rescued at three years old, when his first furever family, fell apart. Mom and Dad of that family got divorced, and Dad took Cubby with him. From what we were told, where the man lived, he wasn't allowed to have the dog inside, so, he left him outside all the time. At one point the man stopped feeding him, and he became rather thin. We think when we got him, he was almost 35 pounds soaking wet [he was a little over a hundred pounds when he passed]. He was just shy of ten years old when he crossed the rainbow bridge. This goes out to all the first amazing pets anyone could ever have...
By The Hound Who Sawabout a month ago in Petlife
14 Animals That Are Often Confused for One Another
Have you ever confidently pointed at an animal in the wild only to realize you were completely wrong about what you were looking at? The natural world presents us with countless creatures that seem almost identical at first glance, yet belong to entirely different families, habitats, and evolutionary paths. With over eight million species sharing our planet, nature has developed some remarkable similarities that can fool even experienced observers.
By The Big Bad about a month ago in Petlife
Your Dog Is Not Truck Cargo
In much of the country, dogs standing loose in the back of a pickup have been treated as part of the scenery for decades. People point at it, smile, say the dog “loves it” and keep driving. The scene looks normal because the community has rehearsed it for years. From a forensic and trauma standpoint, it is anything but normal. It is a low-speed, high-frequency mechanism of serious injury and death that we keep pretending is harmless.
By Dr. Mozelle Martin2 months ago in Petlife
