Pet Monologues

Strutt was born in England but spent a great deal of his life in Australia. He is known for his work as an illustrator and later for his commissioned works. One of his most famous pieces is titled Black Thursday, February 6th which depicted men and animals running from the bush fire that swept across Victoria, Australia.

William Strutt ‘Cultivating an Acquaintance’ 1889 Painting, Oil on Canvas

William Strutt ‘A Warm Response’ 1889 Painting, Oil on Canvas

In the two above paintings, Strutt’s dog is a Jack Russell Terrier. Fitting with a JRT’s instincts to harass or harm small animals, this dog attempts to mess with a crawfish…and the crawfish sets him straight!! ouch!! 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 »

I was a good boy. I loved my family and always looked out for them.

I always greeted them at the door and showed them my happy expressions.

We exchanged lots of kisses and hugs, especially with younger members of the family.

I was happy. I loved going to the park and run around.

I loved jumping of the docks to water and roll around in the grass.

We all had a lot of fun and we were happy.

That was until my family took me to the woods.

I was beaming with excitement and smelling the unknown, cool misty air and hoping we get to explore the new playgrounds. That would be so great!

As the car rolled to a stop and a silence filled the air, the door opened and I was ordered to jump out. Read the rest of this entry »

Abstract

Relationships inevitably develop between humans and animals, regardless of the function or use of the animal partners. The need to recognize the existence of these human-animal bonds, as well as acknowledge the use of the animals, is widespread. Religious memorial services for animals in certain areas of the world provide an historical basis for such acknowledgment activities. The diversity of sacred and secular approaches to memorializing or acknowledging animals is illustrated by representative examples of such events. The need to establish such events, particularly in academic and research settings, is emphasized. The pros and cons of developing and establishing acknowledgment activities in addition to the benefits of implementing such events are discussed. Read the rest of this entry »

Can cats talk? Many cat owners would like to think so and some even claim that their cats speak a number of recognisable words. A Brazilian cat takes claims one step further by apparently being able to sing a number of well known songs while the Fortean Times carried a report of a cat which speaks several words in Turkish and suggested, with tongue firmly in cheek, that the reason many owners cannot understand their cats is because the cats are speaking Turkish. But before cat-owners rush out for phrase books, are these cats really speaking or are their owners just talking turkey?
Photo: Kevin Steele

For humans, the terms ’speech’ and ‘talk’ are not restricted to vocalization, but encompass human body language (which most of us read without realising it), gestural languages (sign language) and tactile languages (of deaf-blind individuals) which are equally expressive among those fluent in their use. Further, human language comprises both verbal and non-verbal components (including the written extension of body language through gestural substitutes such as the , symbols within Internet communication). Read the rest of this entry »

I woke up at 6:30 this morning to take my ex-roommate’s cat to the vet. I guess he’s my cat now. His name is Max and he’s a very skinny orange tabby cat. He came complete with a fifteen second memory span and he has only one facial expression, which is blank. I often wonder if he was somebody’s genetic cloning experiment. That or if he is suffering from fetal alcohol syndrome. He’s just a living cat with barely a hint of character.

I’m trying to give him a personality but it’s difficult. I wonder if my techniques are working. The first technique is to hold him tightly against my chest and speak nonsense to him, kiss his face really hard, and then let him jump out of my arms to freedom. This does not seem to have any effect on him. He just looks mildly bewildered. The second technique is to spank his rump playfully. Again, there’s not much response. Not even the cliché look of superiority most normal cats constantly wear. But I haven’t picked Max up in days and have hardly petted him. I’ve even locked him out of my room. I’m disgusted by him right now. To get my mind off him I think about today’s homework. My teacher wants me to write about something I know a lot about. I glance at a picture of Evan, framed and sitting on my nightstand, where I can see it every night before I go to sleep. I think about Evan’s life and its tragic ending. I wonder if I should write about him. Read the rest of this entry »

If you have pets, you may have wondered whether they know what you’re thinking. Perhaps your cat hides when you start planning a trip to the vet. Or maybe your dog runs in circles when you think about going out to play. Both of these events can have logical explanations. Your cat might have heard you pull the carrier off the shelf; your dog must have seen you glance at a favorite ball. Read the rest of this entry »

I was out riding my bike one day, with my chocolate lab Hannah, and this woman came running out of nowhere screaming for her dog to come back, which was steadily at least five feet ahead of her. The woman finally caught the dog and snatched it up by the nape of the neck, quite roughly. I was upset by the treatment of the dog, and stopped my bike to talk to the lady. Once I focused on the dog more closely, I could see she was missing her front right leg. The woman informed me the dog’s name was Tripod. She had come out of a litter of three pups, and she was the only one that was hindered with a birth defect. She had many problems as a puppy, and the former owners were not very concerned with vet care.

This woman made the comment that she was surprised the dog had lived past the first few weeks of birth. Without her leg, she could not pull herself around well enough to fight the other pups for milk. She almost died of malnutrition. The lady informed me that she and her husband were moving to Chicago, and they would be dumping the dog at the Humane Society, because even though it was somewhat cute as a puppy, she felt it was an ugly adult, and a pain to deal with. She said the dog would never come when called. She then asked me if I wanted another dog! Read the rest of this entry »