Now this is what I'm talking about. Trader Joe's super lean slider patty with a blob of ketchup. I'm not sure that Koa has ever tasted ketchup, unless she stole something with ketchup on it at one point. This bucket list thing is going over pretty well, I'd say. ... Read more »
Who needs Crossfit when you have a dog?
Like many of you, I started this new year with an extra pound or two that leaped- LEAPED, I tell you- onto my hips when I wasn't looking. The cookies held me down by force and shoved themselves into my unwilling face at the Christmas party. Nonetheless, I'm now in the process of evicting this unwanted excess material, and since we moved, that means I need to find a new exercise routine/ gym. I thought about CrossFit. I really did. But it sounds like boot camp, and not in a good way but in a ... Read more »
Buckets of Food, Day 3: Zucchini
Plain pieces of raw zucchini. I didn't think she would go for this one. She, in fact, ate almost a whole zucchini. Brody, on the other hand...not until I put some parmesan on it. Do you see this? This is him begging for a piece although the piece he JUST SPIT OUT is still sitting next to him. It's the same thing, Brody. ... Read more »
Bucket Full of Food, Day 2: Kale
Don't worry, I'm not going to make her eat vegetables every day. She gets what I get, which today was kale chips, and man were they good. She chomped one up and asked for more. Brody was not impressed. He's holding out for "bacon day." ... Read more »
A Bucket Full of Food: Day 1: Jicama
Well, just because my dog is sick doesn't mean we can't have fun. Indeed, I would argue it is more an impetus than ever to have fun. With Emmett, that meant taking long walks every day until he didn't want to anymore. He was an explorer, a retriever's retriever, and all he wanted to do was splash in the water and chase birds. Koa hates adventure. She's a homebody. I was thinking to myself, what would be on her bucket list? And all I could come up with was, A Menu. So there you have it. ... Read more »
It’s OK to be angry- the topic I hate to revisit
It was the day after Christmas, which is how these things always seem to go. I looked at the x-ray on the monitor and smushed my lips together at what I saw. "That looks terrible," I say to my friend Kristen, also a veterinarian. She nods glumly. A lytic, destructive bone lesion. Pretty cut and dried for cancer. Survival statistics for cancer depend on a lot of things, but one of the main prognostic indicators is type of cancer. Bone cancers are notoriously nasty and challenging to treat. ... Read more »
And then the rescuer drowned: Dumb Vet Tricks Part 5
Being set up in the house with all my computer equipment finally reassembled means I can do what I've been wanting to do for quite a while: fill you in on more of the disaster response trip I did with World Vets in Nicaragua. I think the last time I had left it, we had just spent a day in the classroom learning disaster response techniques and were about to put our skills to the test. Day 2 was the water course. I'm not the strongest swimmer, so this was the part I was a wee bit nervous ... Read more »
The 2013 Rose Parade in Pictures
I was so thrilled to be able to see the Rose Parade this year live and in person. The extras, like seeing Jane as Grand Marshal and getting to meet some absolutely incredible members of the military participating in the Canines With Courage float, was just added icing on the cake. My hosts at Natural Balance were incredibly kind, helpful and amazing to all of us who were fortunate enough to enjoy their hospitality. Hope you enjoy some of the great photographs we were able to take while we were ... Read more »
The Best Moment I Never Saw: The Rose Parade moment everyone’s talking about
January 1, 9:15. I'm sitting in the grandstands on Orange Grove Blvd enjoying my first trip to the Rose Parade in Pasadena. Earlier, in the chill dark morning mist, I and a handful of other lucky press saw the Natural Balance Canines With Courage float lined up down the road, and I got to meet the delightful and utterly gracious Dick Van Patten while he warmed up inside a roadside trailer. When the Canines with Courage float, a full scale replica of the new Military Working Dogs National ... Read more »
Pawcurious Picks: Top 5 Posts of 2012
I like retrospectives. It's a good opportunity to reminisce on what we did well (travel!) and perhaps those things we did not do so well (remain patient during the arduous relocation process, for example.) I'm glad the year is done. All's well that ends well, but man was it a slog for a good portion of the year. Like all things in life, the year's end is bittersweet, with a good thing and a bad thing I need to write about. But not today. Today, it's a day to reflect. And lest I spend the ... Read more »
Oh, the places you’ll go (like Pasadena)
I've loved watching the Rose Parade ever since I was a little kid- you know, when they aired it without commercials and Bob Eubanks and Stephanie Edwards were providing the commentary (wait, they still are? Wow.) And I've always wanted to see it in person, because it's like the Grandaddy of All Parades, but somehow I never convinced anyone else it was worth giving up New Year's Eve to go and line up at 4 am. This year I was even more excited about the parade because the Grand Marshal is Jane ... Read more »
The truth is out there
I've been leaving everyone to their own devices to figure this place out in the week since we've moved in. I've been too busy unpacking and Christmas-ing and tagine buying to coddle the cohabitants. The cat has figured out where the litterbox is (it took a while), the dogs are learning where they are supposed to sleep, and slowly but surely it is dawning on them that this is their new abode. There are different sounds to learn, a new territory to navigate. Apollo has to re-learn where the ... Read more »
A very merry holly jolly ho ho holiday
Visitors to Knott's Berry Farm, the redheaded stepchild of Anaheim amusement parks, are well familiar with Montezooma's Revenge, a nasty torture device masquerading as a roller coaster in the heart of jam-land. The ride is basically one long curlique. You get dragged up one side, shoot down through a loop, and zoom up a tower on the far side. You pause for one horrifying moment at a terrifying height, then slide back down the tower, backwards through the same loop, and then you crawl off to ... Read more »
We are Newtown
I haven't watched TV much this week. Between packing up the apartment and taking care of a really sick little dude, I've had plenty to keep me busy, but the reassuring background murmur of the TV isn't something I could bear this week when it was nonstop coverage of little ones' funerals. We've been watching Christmas DVDs instead, a distraction for me, and the only way I can keep my kids from overhearing news I'm not quite ready to explain to them. I knew right after the news started on ... Read more »
Wordless Wednesday: Pooped
One week in Orlando. Flew home to child with, I just learned today, strep throat. And we move on Friday. This is how I am feeling right now: And that includes all the hair and assorted detritus scattered about. ... Read more »
Celebrate Love
Friday, 11:30 am. I'm wandering the halls of the Orlando Convention Center as it's gearing up for this weekend's Celebrate Dogs event. I've already been there since Wednesday, working on a couple of projects before the main event, but now I'm just wrapping up interviews with Beatrice and Lambchop, otherwise known as: Stella on Modern Family; and Yakult on Suburgatory: I was really happy to get the chance to meet these celebrity dogs up close and personal. This is the first year the ... Read more »
The path to canine enlightenment
I'm a dog person. I've always said this. Which is why December is one of my favorite times of the year. I'm getting geared up for the big Celebrate Dogs event in Orlando this weekend. I'm really excited about the whole event, because in addition to the actual AKC/Eukanuba National Championship, they've really expanded the show to become one that encompasses all aspects of dog-dom way beyond the conformation ring. There's dock dogs, Super Dogs, Soccer Dogs, agility, obedience, and Meet the ... Read more »
One man wolf pack
I admit, sometimes I feel like a lone wolf out here in the veterinary world, wandering aimlessly in the backwoods of Facebook while my more distinguished colleagues do things like invent CPR simulator dogs and dart rhinos and perfect orthopedic surgeries. I, on the other hand, put aside the glory of a specialty and focused on becoming the best GP I could be. I did it quite well. I treated untold ear infections, spayed I don't know how many dogs, and saved too many carpets to count from the ... Read more »
