For the fourth year in a row, Max was the most popular name for a dog in the Netherlands last year. Simba was the most popular name for a cat, according to an annual overview by pet insurer Reaal Dier & Zorg.
The only new name in the dogs' top five is Lola in fifth place, according to. Second place went to Bella, third to Pip and fourth to Bo. Bailey dropped off the top 5.
While enjoying the hot summer weather in the Netherlands this week, remember to also make sure your pets are cool and hydrated. By now everyone should know not to leave their pets in hot cars, but also take note that dogs can burn their feet on hot asphalt and cats can fall out of high windows while looking for a cool breeze, Dierenambulance Amsterdam warns on Facebook.
The number of cats and dogs used for medical experiments increased by 49 percent in 2017. In that year 909 dogs and 200 cats were used as lab animals, compared to 656 dogs and 89 cats in 2016, AD reports based on figures from the Dutch food and consumer product safety authority NVWA.
Half of the laboratory dogs and a third of the cats did not survive the experiments in 2017, according to the newspaper.
A truck driver was surprised by a strange stowaway in Aalsmeer on Monday. When the trucker, who came from Austria, stopped on Aalsmeerderweg, a cat jumped out of his truck, Dierenambulance de Ronde Venen/Amstelland said on Facebook.
Dierenambulance believes that the cat stowed away on the truck in St Georgen, near Salzburg in Austria. The adventurous critter therefore had quite a trip behind it by the time it jumped off the truck in the Netherlands.
A shedding cat may have been the downfall of three men suspected of a burglary in Muiderberg. The three suspects deny having anything to do with the break-in, but their shoes were covered in cat hair. The house that was burgled is home to a cat that sheds a lot, NH Nieuws reports after a tweet from a community police officer.
The resident came home to find her home broken into and the suspects running away. The police gave chase, and finally caught and arrested the trio in Amersfoort.
A ginger cat was caught taste-testing donuts in a Jamin store on the Rokin in Amsterdam on Saturday night. VVD city councilor Tjakko Dijk noticed the remarkable display as he walked by, recorded it and posted a video on Twitter.
The video shows the self satisfied cat going to town on a pink donut. Dijk wondered what the Dutch food safety authority NVWA would say about that.
Pepper the cat, an adventurous Dutch feline who showed up in Venice six months after going missing from her Tilburg home, did not come out of her adventures unscathed. Pepper picked up lung-worm and now needs expensive medical care.
The cat is currently in an oxygen cage at an Utrecht animal hospital. This treatment costs 350 euros a day, something Pepper's owner Franka can not afford, according to Omroep Brabant
A Zoetermeer family almost lost their cat in an auction. The family's possessions are being auctioned off on Wednesday because they did not pay their debts and the cat was listed as one of their assets. The cat was removed from the auction on Tuesday afternoon for unknown reasons
The police rescued a cat that was locked into a hot car in Zandvoort on Thursday.
The fire department rescued a dog and two cats from a burning farm in Wedde last night. The barn and house were completely destroyed. The residents were not home when the fire broke out.
A Dutch ship's captain drowned Sunday afternoon in a canal in Haltern, Germany, when he tried to safe his cat who had fallen into the water.
A family in Purmerend has been sitting for fifteen months on top of the remains of their lost cat. The animal died when it got stuck in the springs at the bottom of the living room couch.
The cat Blacky was lost at the end of December 2011. Not finding the cat anywhere inside and outside the house, the owners assumed that the pet fell through the ice and drowned.
