Q&As

Even with President Bush’s signing of the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act, many issues remain about how well the U.S. Postal Service will be able to operate.

Publicis Groupe will acquire Digitas Inc. for $1.3 billion.

R.R. Donnelley & Sons Co, will acquire Perry Judd’s Holdings Inc., a catalog and magazine printer, for $176 million.

The co-owners and seven office managers of telemarketing firm Gecko Communications Inc. have been sentenced to federal prison for defrauding 83,000 consumers of $15.7 million in a fraudulent credit-card scheme, law enforcement officials announced earlier this week.

Doctors Foster and Smith is using DRTV to prospect for people who need that stuff. The Rhinelander, WI-based pet-supply cataloger has a revamped slate of 30- and 60-second spots set to roll out in January.

CM Plus chatted recently with Dave Ratner, the “chief instigating officer” of Dave’s Soda and Pet City, an Agawam, MA-based chain of pet supply stores (that, yes, also sells soda).

There are brands of food that we regularly buy, simply because (a) the cats like them, or (b) the vet suggested them. But despite all the times I’ve mailed or e-mailed in my contact information in the hopes of getting offers, coupons or whatever, nothing much ever came of it. Likewise for the brand of premium kitty litter we’ve used for over a decade.

As it happens, the howling and mewing elicited by two commercials were from man and animal in equal amounts. The first spot, in the “shoulda known better” category, comes from PetSmart.

For many folks, tis the season to give to charitable causes. This month, we look at the Web sites of several well known animal nonprofits, to see what they’re doing online.

Sixty-three percent of U.S. households — 69.1 million homes — own a pet, and 45% own more than one, according to a survey by the American Pet Products Manufacturers Association.