pets

An iPhone app developer is donating to a nonprofit for each sale made, in what is believed to be a first.

Appropriately, the app is called ShiveringKittens and the charity is the ASPCA, which works to protect cruelty to animals.

For every sale of the $2.99 app during March and April the developer, GiantCrayon Games, will donate $1 to the ASPCA.

In the game, players arrange falling blocks to rescue animated kittens who are stuck in a Minnesota winter and win points. A video preview is on YouTube.

If only rescuing real kittens were that simple.

Awwwwwwwww!

Littlest Pet Shop is going virtual.

Those tiny, plastic creatures with the larger-than-life googly eyes are set to come to life in the virtual world this fall, with manufacturer Hasbro and gaming giant Electronic Arts teaming up to launch the site, the companies said Thursday.

The site, which will be banking on the popularity of the 2-inch idols, will be jumping into a tween market that is already heavily populated with the likes of the Webkinz, Disney's Club Penguin, and start-up Dizzywood.

Once launched, the Littlest Pet Shop site aims to offer preteens the ability to customize their … Read more

Call me overly protective, but were I to own a pet, I'd probably try to keep it far away from gadgets that advertise themselves as "high voltage."

Yet the High Voltage Pet Brush out of China makes no bones (bones, get it?!) about using that somewhat offputting phrase in the title. The battery-operated gizmo promises, using "high voltage supplied by low voltage," to remove shedding hair, as well as kill fleas and "other living things attached to the pet." Hopefully, that does not include affectionate owners.

As Crave reader Jeremy pointed out when … Read more

Sometimes a very special occasion that has been paired with a very special wine calls for a particular form of memento: the saving of the cork. Even if you do not participate in the occasional saving of the cork, you should at least be indirectly aware of the custom. I know I've seen trivets made from wine corks, bulletin boards and a handful of other odd, unexpected uses for that little plug of cork. I even used to live near a storefront that created a two-inch thick moat around their display window, filling it with hundreds (thousands?) of corks.… Read more

Some will call it cute, others will surely call it creepy. We'll reserve final judgment until we see how it feels when Sega Toys' new "Yume-Neko Venus," or "Dream Cat Venus," sheds on our couch and rubs up against our leg.

The robo-cat is equipped with touch sensors that let it engage in such real-life feline behavior as purring, moving its legs when you rub its belly, and sleeping a lot. It will not, as far as we know, scratch your face or drag mice in.

The furry faux cat (OK, maybe if you're … Read more

A survey of 3000 pet owners has revealed that tech gadgets are proving hazardous to their pets' health.

No, this seems to be nothing to do with dangerous rays being projected from their electronics. Rather, it seems that our dogs, cats, and, goodness, guinea pigs, haven't quite got used to the rapid proliferation of domestic electronic playthings. Neither, apparently, have reptiles and birds.

For a reason that remains slightly unclear, iPods are, apparently, most likely to injure cats. I am not sure if this is because the cats are slipping the headphones into their ears and turning up the … Read more

I can't tell you how many times I've come home to find random cats that I don't know hanging around my house while my own cat is out doing whatever it is cats do. They waltz in through my pet door and make themselves at home, even helping themselves to my cat's Friskies.

That's why I'm considering the SureFlap, a secure pet door that only opens for the pet or pets that have approved RFID chips implanted under their furry skin. Any other animals, say the evil gang that likes to get its fur … Read more

A totally pointless gadget, but hey, pet owners are usually suckers for anything that's labeled "gear for your pet." I should know, having been one. First off, most pet owners would already know how old their pooch or kitty cat is. And yes, that's in both human and animal years.

But back to that bit about suckers, this Sega Toys Pet Care Clock ($40) is designed to track time as experienced by our pets (and not much else). All that's needed is to input your sweetie's size and age, and voila. Now here comes … Read more

Believe it or not, the idea of taking photos from a dog's point of view isn't new. What's different about this device, however, is that it's being done specifically for security purposes.

An obvious use for the "Pet-Eye View Digital Camera" is to see if your pet has been up to any mischief, but it also can be used to check for any other nefarious activities wherever your dog or cat goes, as 7Gadgets points out. The pet-cam takes photos throughout the day or night using a built-in automatic timer at intervals of 1, … Read more