GALT, Calif. (AP) — They’ve been finding hidden bombs, drugs and corpses for years, using their sense of smell to locate what their human handlers would otherwise have to see in plain sight. Now dogs are being deployed in prisons to help curb one of the most serious problems confronting corrections officials: smuggled cell phones. It turns ...

CIVITAVECCHIA, Italy (AP) — They leap from helicopters or speeding boats, bringing aid to swimmers who get into trouble off Italy’s popular beaches. For these canine lifeguards, the doggie paddle does just fine. Hundreds of specially trained dogs form Italy’s corps of canine lifeguards, are deployed each summer to help swimmers in need of rescue. These “lifedogs” wear ...

By CHRISTY LEMIRE AP Movie Critic LOS ANGELES (AP) — The cats and dogs of “Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore” have all kinds of super-spy gadgetry and training at their disposal: jet-packs, tricked-out collars, the works. But they come from a long and lovable tradition of live-action animal movies — ones that were simpler ...

SPANISH LAKE, Mo. (AP) — When retirees in wheelchairs recently gathered at a nursing home here to trade some stories, a guest with perhaps the most improbable story had nothing to say. She was Holli — not a person but an alpaca, maybe the only one on wheels. Doomed twice but still going strong, the domesticated ...

WENTZVILLE, Mo. (AP) — It’s hard work trying to be a very good dog all the time. And when it comes to succeeding in preschool, it’s equally hard to be a well-behaved little boy or girl for hours at a stretch. Nobody understands these two things better than Waco, a floppy-eared, doe-eyed chocolate Labrador Retriever whose destiny ...