Happy Monday! While Brody, Koa and I are enjoying the Pacific Northwest, I have a few more wonderful guest posts lined up for the week. To kick things off, we have the wonderful Sarah from Cole's First Blog with a topic that has been a popular request: Getting the pets ready for the arrival of a new baby! I will fully admit when people ask me for advice on this topic I draw a blank- I didn't do any prep ahead of time and dealt with the consequences of an attention-starved Golden who peed on ... Read more »
How to Torture Rodents: Lessons Learned from the Class Hamster
We survived our first day on the road. I'm still not convinced as to the sanity of the idea but so far, we're good. In the meantime I'm kicking off the Summer Guest Series with a back to school missive from my friend and brave, brave teaching professional, Kristie W. Kristie shares her thoughts on that age-old tradition, the classroom "pet". Thank you Kristie! Int. shot of small striped lizard, crouching on the sand. Narrator: Searching for his next meal, the common alligator lizard scans ... Read more »
On the Road With Koa and Brody
A couple of months ago, we began to plan our family trip to the Pacific Northwest. "Oh," I said, "Since we are going to be in a cabin on a lake, why not bring the dogs along too? Trout, swimming, marshmallows- what's not to like?" I pretty much expected my husband to roll his eyes and say "No way," but then he said OK, which I wasn't expecting, and I started to panic. We did a few road trips as a kid- maybe 8 hours in the car, tops. As an adult, I haven't done any road trips with my kids or ... Read more »
The Koa Chronicles: Week One
Dear Diary: This week I started my diet. I was pretty sad about that because I watched my mom diet the last few months and she was crabby and yelled all the time. I don't want that, really. But the little boy who lives here called me squishy and I don't like that either. Mom used some food-in-a-box for a while and I have to be honest, it smelled kind of gross- and I'm a dog. Brody used to eat the cardboard boxes and leave the food behind. Diets are bad news, I say. I think maybe she ... Read more »
A Brody for Bradyn
I think you all know I love service dogs. I think they are the heroes of the animal world, those inherent givers who by virtue of their temperaments have demonstrated they possess not only the ability, but the willingness to spend their lives in selfless service of another. This is Bradyn. Isn't he adorable? Bradyn has severe uncontrolled epilepsy. His parents are trying to get him a service dog so that they might be able to sleep through the night without fearing if they drift off too ... Read more »
Baking With Brody: Doggie Donuts!
Today's recipe comes to you courtesy of one of my favorite blogs to peruse, Doggy Dessert Chef. You could easily spend days there perusing and making new treats for your pup! I found Tennille's site while looking for the holy grail of dog treats- at least in my book- the doggy donut. I love doggy donuts so much I am going to try to photograph an entire series of donuts on dog noses. As you will see at the end of this post, that may be harder than it looks, but we had fun trying. I adapted ... Read more »
When puppies die, who’s to blame?
One of the duties I most dreaded at a previous job of mine was evaluating the dogs for a local pet store. The pet store owner would go pick up new shipments of puppies at the airport, drop all 14, 16, 25 crates off at the clinic, and one of the vets would have to 'sign off' on the puppies before they headed to the store. The puppies all came with paperwork from the, ahem, "breeder" (aka puppy mill.) We would look at them to check for heart murmurs, cleft palates, that sort of thing. The dog ... Read more »
The Biggest Loser- Dog Edition!
When I was in my senior year of vet school, a beagle presented to the orthopedics service for a surgery consultation. The complaint: My dog can't walk. The door opened, and in walked a person, dragging a little red wagon behind her. Splayed out inside was the most obese pet I have seen in my life: a 68 pound beagle. His eyes, nearly buried in layers of fat, peeked out sadly as he huffed and puffed, pleading: help. The surgeons rolled that dog right on out of the room and down the hall to ... Read more »
Call of the Day: Mind Reader
Office Manager: Thank you for calling, how may I help you? Person: Yes, I have a complaint about a visit I had at another hospital. Office Manager: Another hospital? ... Read more »
Out for a walk
I saw the woman marching with her Great Dane for the first time back in 2004. We had just moved into our home, and on an afternoon walk with Emmett I spotted her on the sidewalk on the other side of the street. They were hard to miss, those two- she, tall and strong and purposeful, attended by a small grey horse who upon closer inspection turned out to be a beautiful harlequin Great Dane. She nodded at me, and I nodded back before the dog dragged her past and on down the street. I saw them ... Read more »
Top 5 Things to Not Say To Your Vet
Not if you want to have a decent working relationship with them, that is. 1. If you cared about animals, you'd do this for free. Vets hear this, on average, once a day. Many vets, like myself, are employees of a facility with no more ability to negotiate the cost than any other employee. That would akin to asking the ER doc for a discount on the OR fees at the hospital- even if I wanted to, I can't give my employer's services away. Expressing concern about the costs of a service is one ... Read more »
Sob Story: a Pet Doctor Barbie Production
Jessie: Wow, guys, I think we really hit the jackpot this time! We're owned by a beautiful little girl now! Will you look at this place? Buzz: It appears satisfactory. I am going to investigate the rest of the premises. ... Read more »
Picture of the Week(end)
Guess Brody isn't the only one with a thing against library books: From Kristen Smithberg Beckman over on Facebook. It was too good not to share! If you're bored on the weekend, check out the Saturday Blog Hop- all pet blogs, all weekend! This is my first time checking it out and it looks like fun! ... Read more »
In Violation
When I'm at work, I try to be sympathetic to the fact that I am consistently doing things to pets who have no idea why this stranger is poking and prodding at them. They're no dummies. By about the 16 week point they get the wary look of an animal thoroughly expecting to have their temperature taken. Unless you're one of those extremely conscientious owners who takes their pet into the vet for kisses and treats for no reason whatsoever, pets learn very quickly that when they come to the ... Read more »
Am I Bored By This Book? (clue: no)
When I was at Blog Paws in Columbus, I attended a panel featuring Edie Jarolim of Will My Dog Hate Me. An accomplished travel writer already, Edie was indoctrinated rather late in life compared to the rest of us crazies in the world of dog obsession. She made up for it admirably, though. Am I Boring My Dog is the happy result of what was clearly some pretty thorough crash-course research into dog ownership, a soup-to-nuts guide to pretty much everything you need to know when bringing a ... Read more »
In Judgment
Last week, I mentioned that I had to do a euthanasia where the owner chose not to be present, and it was a little emotionally challenging for me. I was more upset about the day than the fact that the owners left, and I mentioned it only to illustrate that I needed to lean on my techs to help me out with the part that I normally do without a problem (comforting the pet.) I didn't mean to set that up as a "oh no these irresponsible owners how could they" sort of thing, but it certainly opened ... Read more »
The Pawcurean: Frosty Paws at home!
It's hard to tell from the gloomy grey skies outside, but theoretically, it's the height of summer. That means grilling corn, runny popsicles, and coming up with ways to help the fur-bearing house dwellers beat the heat. Linda over at the 7MSN Ranch sent me a link to her blog post detailing a way to make a homemade version of Frosty Paws, which I have shamelessly replicated here. Even if you don't want to make Frosty Paws, you should go check her blog out. It is awesome. It has a lot more types ... Read more »
The Hairy Hambone
As you may have heard, this weekend marked the annual Comic-Con. What this means in practice is that over 100,000 of the world's hardiest hardcore nerds descend upon our fair city, bringing with them their finest Storm Trooper costumes and zombie paraphernalia. Each year my husband, a lifelong attendee, takes this opportunity to bring out his dusty boxes of comics from his youth to flip through them and figure out if any of them are worth anything. They never are. In honor of this festive ... Read more »
