As you all know, I am a chimpanzee fan. I had planned my bucket list trip to see chimpanzees before this movie was ever announced; I've toyed with the idea of making primate medicine a career; I got emotional and weepy when I heard Jane Goodall speak for the first time. I don't think I ever posted this snippet from October because it looks like a bad outtake from Blair Witch: Africa, but my eyes were THAT WIDE because it was seriously that cool. So needless to say, I had high expectations ... Read more »
Archives for April 2012
Happy National Hairball Awareness day!
It's National Hairball Awareness day, and Snooki and I would like to remind you all of the importance of good deshedding on your pets. So to celebrate, here are 3 reasons you should remember to groom your dog or cat regularly: 1. Having to tell a guest "Excuse me, you have a fur tumbleweed on your butt" is really embarrassing. 2. Stepping in a wet hacked up furball in the middle of the night is, short of stepping on a snail barefoot, one of the grossest things that can happen to you. ... Read more »
This is why I don’t travel with family
Passengers on a flight from Detroit were held aboard a plane at Chicago's Midway Airport for more than two hours after a female passenger was suspected of having monkeypox, officials said Thursday. The woman had been travelling in Uganda, according to officials, though they didn't say when. She boarded a flight from Detroit to Chicago and while on baord, developed a rash. A family member told flight attendants that they suspected this woman had monkeypox, so the Chicago Fire Department called ... Read more »
What to do with that leftover Vicodin hanging out in your cabinet (Not Craigslist, people.)
As a medical practitioner, I've been trained from day one to be excruciatingly careful with controlled substances at work. We painstakingly log every tenth of a cc of morphine, keep impeccable logs for the DEA, and keep all that stuff locked up tighter than the gold bars in the US Bullion Depository. We do it not because we like making our lives- and yours- all that more difficult, but because unfortunately controlled substance abuse is a huge problem. And many/ most of the controlled ... Read more »
How his holiness got me safely off the mountain. Kind of.
It wasn't until I almost passed out at the top of a mountain that I really understood how much I underestimated the effects of dehydration. I have the Dalai Lama to thank for this, you know. No, really. Sure, I knew hydration was important for everyone else, but I figured, meh, I can do without for a bit. When I went out hiking last week, I packed a little water bottle for Brody- he hikes with a fur coat on, after all, and filled my little Camelbak running pack and set it on the counter, ... Read more »
Ticky Tacky Town versus Crazy Town
This weekend we went and looked at houses. We can't make any offers until our current one sells- SO HURRY UP SOMEONE AND BUY IT- but we can at least get a good feel for where we want to live. We're moving with two priorities in mind: lessen my husband's commute, and get us into a good public school district. To that end, there are two communities we are considering. Ticky Tacky Town is made up of little boxes on the hillside, and they're all made of ticky tacky and they all look the same. ... Read more »
House Hunting: Go on, look. I dare you.
Well, we've done it. Our house is on the market. I hope it sells quickly, because we've whipped the place into show-perfect condition and trust me, I can only sustain this for a very short amount of time. The pressure of the constant running around after two messy little primates dripping crumbs and two fuzzy big canines shedding fur and one giant ape dripping socks is just a whole lot for one person who isn't that fond of housekeeping to begin with. Every time someone wants to come through ... Read more »
5 Top Earth Day Pet Products
So yaay everybody, happy Earth Day! In the last year I have been fortunate enough to see the majestic Amazon in Peru, the natural wonder of Ngorongoro Crater, and the jaw dropping Mahale Mountains in Tanzania. And living in California, well, I can't complain about our natural beauty here as well. We have an amazing, beautiful, really mind-blowing planet to hang out on. And mess up. I think it's a fairly natural fit for people who love animals, who are fascinated by wildlife, to also be ... Read more »
Hot cat ladies and other misconceptions about animal lovers
I read a great article yesterday on msnbc about the incredible work being done by World Vets under the leadership of one of the most amazing vets I have ever met, Cathy King. Then I read the comments. Comments on news articles are a funny thing. People who like to comment on news sites are very odd, aren't they? It's like they have alienated every human they have come across in the real world so they need to go online in order to find somewhere they can moan and groan. On many blogs and ... Read more »
This stinks
As some of you know, because I haven't shut up about it for the last few weeks, we have our house on the market. It's rough, not only because the market is rough, but because trying to pretend a house full of kids and animals is a pristine model home is an exercise in futility. The furniture has some vestigial bite marks left over from Brody's youth; the grass has some brown spots despite my best efforts; the walls have some stickers I haven't managed to completely remove yet. However, those ... Read more »
Snakes on a plain
Maybe this rattlesnake aversion stuff does pay off. To the left is a shed skin just hanging out on the side of the road. Brody sniffed every single bush in that park but refused to show the slightest interest in the skin. NOT that I'm complaining! We did an aversion training session when he was eight months old, but we are due for a refresher. With spring in full bloom, the snake babies are everywhere and ERs are gearing up for what is looking to be a brisk bite season. If you live in ... Read more »
Speaking of mountain lions…
You all know I am irrationally petrified of getting eaten by a mountain lion. Every time I start to get close to being OK with the risk, someone comes around and says, "Oh yes, some woman DOWN IN SAN DIEGO had her scalp eaten by a mountain lion, I remember reading that in the papers, and she only lived because some guy rode by on a mountain bike and threw the bike at the mountain lion" and then I get all freaked out again. (Thanks, Susi.) Yesterday Brody and I checked out a new-to-us area ... Read more »
3 Dumb Things that Dog Owners Do (That Make Us All Look Bad)
I am a dog person. I think most of you probably know that. I like dogs, a whole lot. I am into them. I can hang with them. That being said, I understand that not everyone else on the planet feels the same way. Dog owners who refuse to act with some basic courtesies grate on me as badly as parents who let their kids kick the back of my airplane seat. With the advent of spring, lots of people are venturing outside again with their pets- and this is a great thing, usually, but it also marks the ... Read more »
Horrible pet parents unite
I love this recent post from Mel Freer where she longs for the good old days before we were overinundated with information about pet food recalls, puppy mill abuses, and terrible people who do awful things to animals. I agree. On the one hand, the internet has made the dissemination of information so much easier, and that is a very good thing in a lot of ways. On the other hand, it kind of makes information hard to escape. There is a constant barrage of it, and unless you just flat out ... Read more »
So long, and thanks for all the experimentation
I just randomly happened upon this story about Chimpanzee Island from CNN yesterday, and it was as fascinating as it was distressing. I've mentioned before that it was spending time in a lab that was conducting research on chimpanzees that convinced me I could not pursue a career in lab animal or primate medicine. It felt wrong, deep in my bones. I was not the only one who felt this way. In the past ten years, the scientific community has refined protocols, developed alternatives, ... Read more »
Happy moments from the week: Porcupine edition
1. Brody helped me prepare for my upcoming Mt. Meru hike by dragging me up Cowles Mountain here in San Diego. It's like preparing for a triathlon by dipping your toes in a wading pool, but it's a start. The highest point in San Diego is still 12,000 feet lower than Mt. Meru. 2. Apollo, who has never hiked a day in his life, mocks Brody's expression in the above picture. 3. I took my son to a birthday party I almost forgot to RSVP to and they had a wildlife show! I don't know who ... Read more »
Eat this, not that: Easter edition
It may not rival Thanksgiving or Halloween in terms of numbers of ER vet visits generated, but Easter still has its share of pet related dangers, especially when you have a dog or cat who is prone to the occasional counter surfing. If you have a pet who never does this, pat yourself on the back. Good work. Now for the rest of you, the best way to manage the weekend is to make a few simple substitutions so that if Fluffy does manage to grab a bite of something when you're not looking, the worst ... Read more »
Cooking with Koa: Easter Eggs
Ah, the humble egg. Rarely does it figure so prominently in our culinary lexicon as it does at Eastertime. And as I'm working on a post about ways to fit the pets into your Sunday celebration, I decided it was only fitting that we do a little egg recipe in today's Cooking with Koa segment. If you're going to have a bunch of people around who are going to try to be feeding your dog any one of a number of wildly inappropriate traditional Easter foods, it's always wise to have a super special ... Read more »