PEOPLE Pets | Sit. Stay. Play!

She may be the only Goblin who brings people together instead of scaring them away. This little mix-breed dog rescued from the streets of Puerto Rico isn't just another set of ears for Ray Dobson of Orleans, Mass.: The animal is helping him regain social interactions in the wake of his hearing loss. "My wife saw me kind of dropping out," Dobson tells the AP. "As people get deafer they get more anti-social." Now, "he's back in the mainstream," says his wife Joanne.

Goblin jumps on Dobson to let him know others are calling his name and alerts him when the phone rings, alarms go off, visitors knock or other noises surface. Her mere presence as Dobson's hearing dog helps observers better understand his situation and take more time to communicate with him. She also leads Dobson to the source of sounds. "What the dog does for me is hear what I can't hear," he says.

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You can't say we didn't warn you: The two most adorable pups in the world are featured in this video Mario Lopez shot exclusively for PEOPLEPets.com! The 9-week-old siblings are just some of the adoptable dogs the Extra host has met on his quest to find a pooch to call his own. As any pet-owner will tell you, selecting a pet is one of the biggest decisions you can make, and he needs your advice -- what kind of pooch should he adopt? Should he take one of these cuties home? Watch this video and leave your thoughts in our comments!

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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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When former San Francisco Chronicle writer Steven Winn let his daughter adopt a rescue dog in 2003, he had no idea what he was in for. "She saw something in this dog right from the start, but I still don't know what it was," he tells PEOPLEPets.com of mixed-breed pup Como. "He was scrawny, scraggly and completely terrified. And he definitely hadn't been bathed in a while. He came with a lot of baggage."

As it turns out, Como had a major issue with men — Winn in particular. "He wouldn't be in the same room with me," Winn says. "We had a rough start, to put it mildly. It was a blow to my ego." He wrote about his adventures with Como in the Chronicle, and almost immediately, saw an overwhelming response. "People were sympathetic, entertained, and instructive of how we should be dealing with our dog. Some people were even angry with me," he shares. And from there, a book was born.

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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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Tia Maria Torres believes in pit bulls. "How can you hate them?" she asks. "So many have come from such awful backgrounds, yet they still come bounding up to you, happily licking your face. There's so much need to help this breed."

To do her part, the mother of two founded Villalobos Rescue Center outside L.A. about three years ago, and tonight, Animal Planet premieres a new series about her efforts. Called Pit Bulls and Parolees, the show follows Torres's somewhat unconventional program, which employs ex-cons to help train and care for more than 200 pit bulls, who are eventually adopted out to loving families. "Some of these guys are really rough around the edges," she tells PEOPLEPets.com. "But this program is a great stepping stone to get them back into the real world. When they leave prison, they can't quite work at like, Home Depot. But here, it's just enough customer service that it filters them into society slowly. And the dogs bring out the little boy in them."

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When an animal rescue center is a mere five minutes down the road, why would someone ditch two dogs in a dumpster instead? This awful act happened on Oct. 25 in Monterey, Calif.

A local citizen happened to walk by a Wells Fargo Bank dumpster in the Del Rey Oaks area when he heard whimpering nearby. Poking around, the Good Samaritan found two pit bull mix puppies alone and abandoned. Quick on his feet, the gentleman rushed them down the road to the SPCA for Monterey County.

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