Pet Monologues

Grandmother ruffles feathers.

Ducks. Roosters. Town associations. Poor little girls. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted by Deanna—For the Love of the Dog

Mary and her husband Jim had a dog named ‘Lucky.’ Lucky was a real character. Whenever Mary and Jim had company come for a weekend visit they would warn their friends to not leave their luggage open because Lucky would help himself to whatever struck his fancy. Inevitably, someone would forget and something would come up missing.Mary or Jim would go to Lucky’s toy box in the basement and there the treasure would be, amid all of Lucky’s other favorite toys.

Lucky always stashed his finds in his toy box and he was very particular that his toys stay in the box.

It happened that Mary found out she had breast cancer. Something told her she was going to die of this disease….in fact, she was just sure it was fatal.

She scheduled the double mastectomy, fear riding her shoulders.

The night before she was to go to the hospital she cuddled with Lucky.

A thought struck her…what would happen to Lucky? Although the three-year-old dog liked Jim, he was Mary’s dog through and through. “If I die, Lucky will be abandoned,” Mary thought. “He won’t understand that I didn’t want to leave him.” Read the rest of this entry »

Today 21.7 million pounds of hamburger were recalled by Topps Meat Co. Fortunately, it was people food.

A concern was the swiftness of the USDA to conclude that a recall was necessary. 18 days. Our USDA looks highly competent to monitor people food, pet food, and also let’s include painted toys. Expect class action suits for Walmart, Pathmark, ShopRite, and Rastelli Fine Foods.

It was determined that one of the first victims was a Florida teenager. According to the teenager’s mother, she consumed a patty that was “pink” on the inside: cooking meat until the juices run clear will kill harmful bacteria.

While the skillet is hot, not in all cases, now is a good time to bring up raw vs cooked food again. Below is a very detailed study of bacteria, raw diets, dogs and cats.

Here is a summary statement:

1) Feeding raw diets to cats and dogs is becoming increasingly popular. 2) There is an inherent risk of bacterial contamination of raw meat for human or animal consumption. 3) There are unsubstantiated benefits used to support the feeding of raw diets. 4) There are unsubstantiated claims that bacterial pathogens that may be found in raw foods are not able to cause disease in dogs. 5) There are potential risks of feeding raw diets for people handling the food, people handling feces from animals fed raw diets, people handling food bowls, and animals exposed to animals that are fed raw diets.

Get a beverage of choice, get comfortable, and read a scientific study and conclusion: Read the rest of this entry »

Global warming and polar bears. It does not take much imagination to see what is going on.

Anywhere people live, you’ll find dogs. Our species has made its way into nearly every nook and cranny in the world, and we’ve bred dogs to go with us. One of the main reasons why dogs are so remarkably adaptable is their ability to survive on a variety of foods. While cats need nutrients only found in a meat-based diet, a dog’s digestive system can pull the nutrients out of just about anything that’s edible. That’s why dogs don’t need as much protein in their diets as cats. Still, dogs are naturally meat eaters, so meat protein is still an important part of a dog’s diet. An all-around balanced diet is a six-part story: protein, carbohydrates, fat, vitamins, minerals, and water.

Water

Fresh, clean water is more important to your dog than any other nutrient. About 70 percent of a dog’s body is made up of water, which is vital for cell function and tissue lubrication. Dogs can live for many days without food, but a lack of water will kill them quickly. When it’s hot outside, or if your dog is sick, especially if he is vomiting or has diarrhea, water is even more important.

If you drink bottled or filtered water because of the quality of tap water in your area, you may want to safeguard your dog’s health by also giving him bottled water or investing in a good-quality water filter for your tap. Read the rest of this entry »

Warning: Violence. Adult language.

Man, I saw this guy get chomped by a fucking hippo dude. Man, this guy was getting eaten alive man. No, I wasn’t there dog, I saw it on t.v. It was on the Discovery Channel bro. This guy was in this canoe thing right and he’s rowing along, minding his own business, when all of a sudden, a huge fucking hippopotamus comes exploding out of the water!

The dude gets sucked into the jaws of this fucking hippo man and the hippo is like munch, munch, munch on the dude, dude! It was crazy man. No, I didn’t see it happen like that exactly man. It was like a whatchamacallit, a, ahhhh, like when those actor people act like what happened in real life man. What is that shit called??? Oh yeah, a reenactment. Right..renac, a rena, a shit, you know, anyways, fucking hippo was chowing down on this dude and then it spits the guy out of its jaws man. 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 »

When kids go back to school, pets can get lonely.

With children all over the area heading back to school, what happens to pets once their playmates are gone for the day? Read the rest of this entry »

Ringling Brothers will stand trial for elephant abuse.

WASHINGTON—Today, Judge Emmet Sullivan of the federal district court in Washington D.C. issued a major ruling rejecting the last-ditch attempt of Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus to avoid trial over charges that the circus abuses its Asian elephants in violation of the federal Endangered Species Act. Read the rest of this entry »

Sigh. No one is looking for these guys. And I see why. They hump everything in sight, try to dominate our old doggies, try to eat our cats and pee on everything and bark at everything. Neurotic, lick constantly. They know no commands, either in English or Spanish. They are aggressive and probably lived in a puppy mill. You dumped them, probably, and we picked them up before they were killed by traffic.

Unneutered, no tags, under 1 year old small males. I hate you, person who dumped these dogs. There are no lost ads on phone poles, no lost ad on Craig’s list, no lost ad in the paper. We put signs up all over, put a found notice in at the local pounds and if you were looking for these filthy little ragamuffins, you would have found them. We are afraid to take them to the pound because under stress, your dogs were snappy and horribly afraid and dogs are judged by temperment for adoption placement. They would not have passed that test. However….. Read the rest of this entry »