Summary: Disease sufferers have a new weapon in the fight against their maladies: mice. There is a growing trend toward using lab mice as “avatars” in an effort to identify proper drug therapies for individual patients. New York Times reporter Andrew Pollack has covered this new development, and he relayed the specifics to Sam Litzinger. Military vet Alisa Johnson talks about her new organization, Dogs On Deployment, which finds temporary homes for canines left behind by caretakers who are deployed for military duty. Bird Note, the weekly review of avian species, highlights a conservation program sponsored by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the National Audubon Society's Project Feeder Watch. Music: “Animal Dreams” by Bob James
