“Fire Destroys Home, Kills Pets - msnbc.com” plus 1 more |
| Fire Destroys Home, Kills Pets - msnbc.com Posted: A fire destroyed a Newton home and killed two pets on Saturday. Around 6:30 a.m., firefighters arrived at 5282 Highway T12 North to find a home fully engulfed in flames. "It was pretty much a defensive operation. We could not make entry, it was too hot with too much fire," said Newton Fire Marshal Mike Knoll. The homeowner, Gloria Pugh, managed to quickly escape through the front door. However, her two small dogs died in the fire. "(It) was really sad because she lost the two dogs. When I talked to her I little while ago she said they were still somewhere in the house and she wasn't able to get to them," said Mischelle Downing, a good friend and neighbor. Firefighters said they think the fire started after Pugh cleaned out her chimney and dumped the ashes outside. "The wind caught the ashes, blew them underneath the front porch. She dumped her ashes, came back, looked around, didn't see anything went back in the home. About 10 to 15 minutes later, she noticed smoke in the kitchen. (She) couldn't find the fire in the house. (She) came outside and noticed the porch was already on fire and had fire in the basement," said Knoll. Knoll said the high-speed winds made the fire spread incredibly fast. "It just spread the fire so rapidly. So if we would have had a calmer day -- it might have been a different story," he said. Besides being shaken up, neighbors say Pugh is in good condition. She is currently staying with her daughter in Tama. "I'm just really glad she was able to make it out of the house," said Downing. Most Popular Stories at KCCI This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php |
| Are Pets Affected By Daylight Saving Time? - YAHOO! Posted: You might think it unlikely that the switch to daylight saving time (DST) could throw your cat or dog's busy schedule — eat, sleep, eat, sleep — off-kilter. But, as it turns out, some animals are so in tune with their owners' schedules that the one-hour spring forward can cause some confusion. Just like humans, animals have internal clocks that tell them when to eat, sleep and wake up. This biological timekeeper, also known as circadian rhythm, is set in motion by natural sunlight. However, for pets this effect is minimized by the artificial environment they live in, where light comes on not with the rising sun but with the flip of a switch. Humans set their pets' routines, said Alison Holdhus-Small, a research assistant at CSIRO Livestock Industries, an Australia-based research and development organization. "Animals that live with humans develop routines related to human activity — for example, cows become accustomed to being milked at particular times of day, or pet dogs become accustomed to going for walks or being fed at a particular time of day," Holdhus-Small told Life's Little Mysteries. "When humans apply daylight saving time to their own lives, if they carry out their routine according to the clock, the animals can become confused." [Why Do We Observe Daylight Saving Time?] Holdhus-Small gives some examples of how animals might respond to a time change: If a farm owner arrives an hour later (when the clocks are turned back) to milk the cows, they will be waiting, bellowing because their internal routine tells them that they're late. Conversely, if the farmer arrives an hour earlier (when the clocks are turned ahead) the cows will not be inclined to come in to milk until closer to the "proper" time. "When humans change the clocks for daylight saving, to suit our preferred working environment, from an animal's point of view, we are suddenly behaving oddly," Holdhus-Small said. "To the animals, it is inexplicable that suddenly dinner is an hour later or earlier than expected." This behavior shift could cause animals psychological and physiological stress, Holdhus-Small said. A cow's udder, for example, will continue to produce milk regardless of DST and pressure will build up until the cow is milked. Household pets might get grumpy when they show up to an empty food dish at their perceived dinner time. So when you set your clock forward an hour this weekend, remember that your pets need a little paw-holding during the time change. Holdhus-Small suggests gradually changing the animal's activities by a few minutes a day rather than the whole hour at once. This article was provided by Life's Little Mysteries, a sister site to LiveScience.com This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php |
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