PEOPLE Pets | Sit. Stay. Play!

When Maj. Brian Dennis led an 11-man U.S. Marine counterinsurgency force through Iraq, the last thing he thought he'd find was a friend. But one four-legged furball was just too determined to give up on companionship. Dennis met Nubs — a wild mixed-breed pup who earned his nickname due to his cruelly clipped ears — in October 2007. The two shared a plate of spaghetti and a tummy rub, and parted ways. But the persistent pup had other plans.

Over the next four months, the dog would surprise Dennis, 38, and his team by showing up each time they returned to their base. Though interacting with wild animals was prohibited by military rules, it was hard to resist the cute pooch. "There was something endearing about him," Dennis tells PEOPLE.

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Animal shelters know that black cats are targets around Halloween - so they try to keep them safe from adoption over the holiday. But unfortunately, they can't protect all of them from senseless pranks. One innocent black feline survived a sick acid attack by an unknown assailant over the weekend, and is now under the care of rescuers at the Alpharetta Animal Hospital in Alpharetta, Ga.

Nicknamed Sweetie Pie, the 8-week-old Persian long-hair mix was found outside an apartment complex on Oct. 31 by local resident Genesis Burroughs, who heard distressed purring. Burroughs brought the injured feline into her home, but knew that the cat's injuries were more than she could handle, medically and financially. So, she called out for help by putting an ad up on CraigsList.com.

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That 3-year-old Andre is even alive is a miracle. That he can do one of his favorite things—chase after a tennis ball—shows what a little silicone and a lot of love can do.

A sweet-natured, jet-black Alsatian-Rottweiler mix, Andre survived a nightmare in the woods near his home in Wasilla, Alaska, last May. He went for a walk on his own and stepped into an illegal hunting trap, which snapped around his left front and back legs. Hopelessly snared and desperate, Andre did what he had to do to stay alive—he chewed through both paws to free himself. A hiker followed a trail of blood and found Andre beneath an overturned camper trailer, hiding, frightened, near death.

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"A dwarf hamster," says filmmaker Jeff Mizushima, "is probably the cutest animal on earth. When you see one, all you want to do is hold it." True that! The tiny creatures – small enough to fit into any pocket – are irresistibly adorable with their beady little eyes, round bodies and puffy cheeks.

Mizushima was so enthralled with his own pet dwarf hamster, Taquito, that he made his first feature film, Etienne! A Film About the Little Things in Life, about a guy, Richard (played by Richard Vallejos), and his best and only friend, a dwarf hamster named Etienne. When Etienne is diagnosed with terminal cancer, Richard chucks his job to take his pocket-sized pal on a bicycle trip through the northern California Redwoods and coastline.

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Sit! Heel! Stay! Pray!

Pray? Okay, so it’s not an actual command, but it might as well be at St. Giles the Abbot Parish Church in England, one of a few churches where you’ll find a set of paws in the pews.

One of the regular congregants there is Zack, a sweet-natured, 7-year-old Alsatian-Collie mix who attends services every Sunday and Thursday, and doesn’t make a peep as he sits happily among other worshippers for the full hour. “He really is a beautiful animal, and the congregation adore him,” the rector, Father Ian Thurston, told the Sentinel. "He loves the church and attending services. He will sit among the congregation and is always quiet and knows what is going on."

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Caterack, the kitty who kept owner Alisa Morris company the past 30 years, died on Thursday. Morris, who shared her beloved cat's story with PEOPLEPets.com last month, said her pet — who may have been among the world's oldest living cats — had been experiencing kidney problems and had gotten very frail.

"I drove her to the vet wrapped in a towel," Morris told PEOPLEPets.com in an email. "She purred when they prepped her and she went so peacefully."

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Meet the basilisk: They call it the Jesus Christ lizard because it can "walk" (but really, run) on water as it flees from predators. Fear + momentum + toes that can spread out to increase the surface area of their feet = awesome.

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