Today I am delighted to have a guest post from Dr. Nancy Kay, a veterinary internist and author of the must-have guide for being a good health advocate for your pet, Speaking for Spot. In today's post, Dr. Kay gives some tips for how to wade through the complex issue of pet vaccination and what you can do to make the decisions that are right for you and your pet. Thank you so much Dr. Kay! During my last year of veterinary school, I recall how scary it was when a new canine ... Read more »
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National Drag Your Cat to the Vet Week
We now interrupt my special vacation guest postings for a regularly scheduled posting- but it's for a good reason. August 16th-22nd marksNational Take your Cat to the Vet Week, a reminder to all us cat owners that despite what your cat may tell you, they really should get a vet checkup at least once a year. Cats are masters of disguise, which is something I repeat regularly to owners who just can't figure out how the cat who was acting normal last month now has raging diabetes or a thyroid ... Read more »
Bringing home baby: Tips on furkid/ human kid relations
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 »
Picture of the Week
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