Pet Monologues

Eco-friendly pet toys and accessories…

Get green! Make a statement! For you and your pet!

“I think people should be more aware and not just assume everything is safe,” says Chicago veterinarian Julie Mayer. “They should be skeptical and critics of products out there.

“We need to read the labels. We have to educate ourselves, because no one is going to help us out, unfortunately.”

Here, then, are a few ways you and your dog and cat can live greener lives, and some problems to watch out for.

Wipe and paws

Wash their feet after they come in. What the dogs pick up from outside—animal and human waste, traces of pollution and car exhaust, etc.—can find its way into their systems as they groom themselves. Anything you can do to keep them clean is beneficial. Read the rest of this entry »

October is adopt a shelter dog month.

ASPCA’s message this month is “Think Globally, Adopt Locally.” They encourage people who are considering adding a four legged barking buddy to their family to adopt from their local shelter. And, if you do bring a new friend home, they also have tips that will help make the transition go smoothly for you and your new dog. Here are some of their tips…

1. You Better Shop Around
Stock up on supplies before Fido arrives! Your new pal won’t need much—the Burberry overcoat and crystal tiara are optional—but essentials include food and water bowls, safe chew toys, grooming tools, a collar and leash, an identification tag and a crate with bedding (towels will do if you don’t want to spend money on a fancy crate pad).

When it comes to food, try to buy the same brand he’s already eating. If you want to change foods, make the switch gradually, mixing old food with new, over a period of a few weeks. Read the rest of this entry »

This must be “fix the blog” week. PM is having site maintenance issues. Here is a 13 item laundry list to boost your blog from Samantha and Tigger over at Life from a cat’s perspective. But first, to preface this next post a little terminology should be clarified. For example, what is a “meme”? Urban Dictionary offers this definition along with some others:

Meme (a noun):
1 : an idea, belief or belief system, or pattern of behavior that spreads throughout a culture either vertically by cultural inheritance (as by parents to children) or horizontally by cultural acquisition (as by peers, information media, and entertainment media)

2 : a pervasive thought or thought pattern that replicates itself via cultural means; a parasitic code, a virus of the mind especially contagious to children and the impressionable

3 : the fundamental unit of information, analogous to the gene in emerging evolutionary theory of culture
- meme pool (n.) : all memes of a culture or individual
- memetic (adj.) : relating to memes
- memetics (n.) : the study of memes

4 : in ‘blogspeak,” an idea that is spread from blog to blog Read the rest of this entry »

Warning: though there is a bit of humor in this discussion, this is not a joke. Recklessness can cause injury, even death. Be responsible. Opinions and recommendations should be documented. PM does not endorse nor recommend anything other than the art of conversation.

“At least two thirds of domestic cats “enjoy” the effects of Nepeta, a.k.a. “catnip.” But do they enjoy it enough? If humans were able to isolate the active ingredient in catnip, could we not use it to become omnipowerful CATGODS? Imagine the possibilities! What fool wouldn’t want their own personal cat army? A massive fuzzy force with which to execute your every bidding? A united, unquestioning militia that requires nothing other than unfettered access to the super-powerful catnip products that give their adorable cuddly lives meaning.”— theinstructables.com Read the rest of this entry »

Citizens unite against dog fighting.

CHICAGO—According to a press release announcing the formation of Safe, Humane Chicago (a coalition of the city, police, animal rights and community advocates), the educational and monitoring program responds to the high correlation (70%) between animal abuse/dog-fighting and those arrested for violent felonies against people. Read the rest of this entry »

Horses find new homes through the Internet.

Horsemen and women looking for a new mount or companion can now search the Internet for adoptable equines, through a national horse adoption database launched by The Humane Society of the United States(HSUS) and Pets911.com. Read the rest of this entry »

Here is a glimpse on pet literature today. One writer says that with all the attention from publishers, you’d think pets could read.

Dogs and cats have taken up residence in American homes in record numbers, according to the American Pet Products Manufacturers Association. Its 2007–2008 National Pet Owners Survey found that 63% of U.S. households—71.1 million homes—own a pet. Households with dogs number 44.8 million, while felines can be found in 38.4 million homes. The cat populace, 88.3 million, outnumbers the 74.8 million dogs, that’s because pet parents with cats are more likely to have more than one. However, that in spite of the larger cat population, dog-related books still outsell any other category, the dog-related books outnumbered cat tales by about six to one. What are the books about? Here are 44 titles to think about:

Health and wellness

According to a 2004 American Animal Hospital Association survey, 94% of pet owners take their pet for regular veterinary checkups to ensure their pet’s quality of life. And animal medicine, like its human counterpart, the information and options available in terms of treatment and diagnoses have become vastly more complicated over the last decade. People are, therefore, looking for resources that will help them make sense of it all. Now it is becoming commonplace procedures for dogs as organ transplants, joint replacements and cancer treatments. There are also books, from home remedies to cutting-edge alternative homeopathic therapies.

There’s an author that offers practical strategies for keeping mature dogs young and healthy in mind and body. Among her findings is that only 20%–25% of a dog’s longevity is determined by its genes; the owner can influence the remaining percentage by how he or she cares for the animal. Read the rest of this entry »

In many families, a thorough search for ticks is part of any hike, camping trip or other journey into the woods. For people who live in rural areas, particularly those who work outdoors, looking for ticks is often a part of daily life. It’s easy to think of these tiny arachnids as something to watch out for in relatively wild terrain, but ticks don’t confine themselves to the wilderness. They’re adaptive and resilient, and you can find them in distinctly urban areas, like the parks of New York City.

feamle tick
Photo courtesy CDC/Dr. Amanda Loftis, Dr. William Nicholson, Dr. Will Reeves, Dr. Chris Paddock
A female lone star tick, Amblyomma americanum.

The typical response to finding a tick is often disgust. It’s partly because ticks are parasites — they feed on their hosts’ blood. Although people see them most often on themselves and their pets, ticks also attack wild animals, farm animals, birds and reptiles. On top of that, some ticks, particularly females, swell dramatically when they ingest a lot of blood. An engorged tick, or one that’s full of blood, can have a bizarre, even grotesque appearance.

In addition to their feeding behavior and appearance, ticks are disease vectors. They can carry illnesses from one animal to another. In fact, ticks are the primary disease vector in domestic animals. In terms of human illness, only one parasite spreads more illness—the mosquito. Ticks can spread a wide variety of disease-causing organisms, including bacteria, viruses and protozoa. Read the rest of this entry »

Dog behavior training: aggression, biting, guarding problems.

Handling an Aggressive Dog

Aggression is probably the most common reason an otherwise healthy dog is euthanized (put to sleep). Read the rest of this entry »

Here is a thoughtful and compassionate article by Sarah Hartwell with regard to cats. Dogs, birds, elephants, horses, many animals for that matter, experience these feelings. Knowlege of the grieving process puts us in better touch with feelings, a good thing.

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When a cat dies, owners often notice behavioral changes in their remaining cats. Some of these are due to adapting to a changed hierarchy, but other behavioral changes are due to a sense of loss. Many cats grieve the loss of a close human companion and others show signs of loss when a canine companion ides or goes missing.

It is impossible to say exactly what emotions cats feel, but when a close companion goes missing they are certainly be aware of the absence. It is unlikely that they mourn in the human sense of the word, but there will be some behavioral changes as they adjust to the gap in their lives.

What is grief?

Grief is the result of abrupt or unexpected severing of attachment. Cats are aware that a familiar person or companion cat is absent and may search for that person or cat. The death or absence may change an established hierarchy as well as being the absence of a familiar companion. While this is not the ritualised grief of humans, the sudden absence of something familiar is distressing to many cats. Mother cats whose kittens were taken away and destroyed often looked for their kittens for many days, all the while pacing and crying out. As well as the physical pain of engorged mammary glands, the cats displayed mental pain. Read the rest of this entry »