I have pages of notes from the Western Veterinary Conference, which I will be sifting through over the next week or so to bring you the most valuable bits. For me, the most personally useful seminars were those on kitty problem potty behaviors, which as you know is something we are dealing with here at the casa. Dr. Sophia Yin is a veterinary behaviorist and wonderful lecturer who I was fortunate enough to learn from this go round at the conference. She broke down this confusing and ... Read more »
Apollo
Wordless Wednesday: Convo me
Someone left a handful of conversation hearts in my purse. There are some clues as to who. ... Read more »
Why I never get invited to block parties
Apollo's been looking exceptionally mangy lately. It happens whenever he's been getting into the foods he shouldn't have, which is pretty much all of them. I do the best I can, but with the household we have, it is pretty much impossible to keep all foods out of reach of all animals at all times. There are dogs eating, kids snacking, people munching at all hours of the day, and all it takes is one forgotten nugget for Apollo to go temporarily bald. This despite the fact that he feasts on ... Read more »
I want a happy litterbox! Please?
When I was in veterinary school, I rotated through the behavior service. It's an elective, and interestingly enough not a particularly popular one; more's the pity for that. What percentage of relinquishments come on the tail end of a behavior issue that wasn't properly handled? (Answer: A whole lot.) Vets tend to avoid behavior stuff for a multitude of reasons: It's time consuming to work through a behavioral issue. It's complicated. Changing behavior isn't nearly as simple as ... Read more »
Carnivore schmarnivore
By all accounts cats are carnivores. They need meat, and lots of it. Meat meat meat, flesh, protein, wet and messy and slimy. I made the decision years ago to move my cats to canned food, so Apollo feasts on canned vension on a daily basis. You'd think he would be happy with this biologically appropriate arrangement. I thought cats were supposed to be finicky. This is why I find his vulture-like scavenging so perplexing. While Apollo will occasionally pluck a wayward piece of chicken off the ... Read more »
Poor Chickens
Ah, 2011. Here you are and you're a salty one, I can tell already. I can tell the way a dog can tell by sniffing the air that there's a poodle in heat 5 houses away, the way a shark can smell a drop of blood from 5 miles down the coast. 2011 wants to be a game-changer. In some ways, at least here, it already is. I'm not a resolution-setter, normally, but with the start of a new decade it certainly doesn't hurt to set down a few goals in writing. More Pet Doctor Barbie, for one. I got Kitty ... Read more »
How to make an awesome movie
I finally got to see How to Train Your Dragon last week. I wasn't expecting a whole lot, truth be told- it was something to do with my kids on spring break- but I was really blown away at how much fun it was. I liked it even better than Avatar. Yeah, I went there. Aside from the fact that I got to see the IMAX version, and I don't know how much that added to my enjoyment, I think Dreamworks finally took a hint from Pixar and focused on telling a really fantastic story. Took those guys long ... Read more »
Apollo- King of the Jungle (ocelots)
Poor Apollo. He is now presiding over the fifth fur-monster to infiltrate his quiet life. Perhaps there is some secret camaraderie amongst our shadow-shaded friends, or maybe we just got lucky, but this is the easiest doggie transition we've had yet. Kiki/Koa/Ricola is pretty ambivalent about him. I now have TWO pets exceedingly difficult to photograph. That's OK. It's a throwdown challenge for my husband to work with the infamous photographic challenge. I work with a cat lady. I don't mean ... Read more »
Product Review: Sleepypod Air and Crater Dot
Our product reviews have been heavily skewed towards the dog type items lately. When Sleepypod asked if I was interested in reviewing a couple of their cat items, Apollo started kneading and drooling all over the keyboard. 1. Sleepypod Air The Sleepypod Air is a carrier geared towards those who fly with a pet in-cabin, though it's obviously usable as a regular day-to-day carrier as well. Its claim to fame is the ability to compress length-wise from 22 to 16 inches, which would allow you to fit ... Read more »
