On New Year's Eve we were lucky enough to ring in the New Year with quite the crowd: Lions, tigers, and bears. I had no, and I mean, zero, idea that there was a huge cat sanctuary a mere 20 minutes from my house until my friend Star told us all about it. The name of the sanctuary is, appropriately enough, Lions Tigers and Bears. The biology major/ wildlife lover in me knew we had to make a visit, and stat. There are more exotic cats living in captivity than there are in the wild- estimates ... Read more »
Daily Life
These are not the droids you’re looking for
Anyone else catch the new Grey's Anatomy last night? I know, I know, it's way over-melodramatic. Two mass shootings in less than a calendar year? It's not exactly rooted in reality. There was a part where a guy was crashing, a guy that they really wanted to save, and Bailey starts yelling at the sky. "YOU DON'T GET HIM, YOU BASTARD!! YOU SEND HIM BACK RIGHT NOW!" or something to that effect. And boom, just like that, the defibrillator works and Chuck is spared. Then Bailey apologizes ... Read more »
Polly Prissy Pants
My freshman year of vet school, my very first pet from childhood- Taffy- died of cardiac disease. She was 15. She lived at home with my parents, who vowed never to own another pet again. No more smelly carpets, no more furballs, they were done with it. A couple months later, I was at their house when a small kitten materialized out of the bushes. "Oh, look," I said as she wove in between my legs. "She's so sweet." "She comes around here a lot," said my mom. "Always trying to come ... Read more »
Tomorrow we’re watching Nightmare on Elm Street
I think I'm going to need to start a whole new category for the myriad ways I am scarring my children for life. I can title it, "This is why it's good I did not choose a career path involving children." I'm not the cool parent. I'm not even the nerdy parent where it's ok because they know they are the nerdy parent and it's almost kind of geek-chic. I'm the nerdy parent who thinks they are cool, and that is about as bad as you can get, because I clearly lack judgment about this whole kid ... Read more »
Big Fish
Did I ever say why I started this blog? I know I have mentioned the usual "I wanted to share stories and blahdiblahblah" but I don't think I ever talked about the exact incident that made me take the step to start writing. My husband has a good friend, Kevin. Well, he's my friend too, but they were friends first. Roommates, to be exact, when we started dating oh so many years ago. Back in the days only half of you will remember when the internet was accessible only by dial-up and people got ... 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 »
Don’t Let the Door Hit Ya in the Rear on the Way Out
For some reason, December 30th is consistently a bad day in my life. I mean, consistently terrible, horrible, and the sort of day that makes me seriously consider adopting an alternative calendar. One that ends December 25th, a nice, happy sort of day. I don't mean to dwell on this, or ask for anything from you all, I simply wrote it to explain why I haven't done anything particularly meaningful for today. I am, unfortunately, spent. That is one of the reasons I wanted to do a Top 10 instead, ... Read more »
Top 10 Pawcurious Posts for 2010
With only one day left in the year, it's time to dust off the old archives and pull out my favorite posts from the last 12 months. These represent the best, or just the most fun, of what we do here. :) So without further ado and in no particular order, here are my choices for the Top 10 Posts of the Year: There's One in Every Office: A Pet Doctor Barbie Post It's not that often I make myself laugh out loud with my own posts, but something about the Wicked Witch shoving the broom in the ... Read more »
Bathtime with Bengals
Every once in a while I come across a product so off the mark that I feel the need to write an anti-review. The last time I did it was for a product that propped the back door of your car or truck open, just enough to keep up appearances and stop the cops from busting open the window while still allowing your dog to get heat stroke in the sweltering interior. This time I'm jumping on the dog pile of vets clenching their teeth in horror at what might unintentionally be the worst dog related ... Read more »
Well thank God that’s all over
Christmas is a bit of a surreal experience for me. That is by design. I was brought up in a house that transformed the day after Thanksgiving from a normal abode to a tinsel-filled glittery elftravaganza of kitsch, Rudolph figurines, and a sudden lifting of the No Sugar After 4 pm Rule. In short, December was magic. Now that I have a 6 year old and a 4 year old, I'm beginning to understand why my mom worked as hard as she did to create that. It is kind of awesome to see a little kid shriek in ... Read more »
AKC/Eukanuba Part Two: World Challenge
I've been sitting fretfully at the computer all this week wondering how the heck a non-dog show person can do a big dog show like the AKC Eukanuba National Championship justice. I've toyed with a "Dog Shows for Dummies" primer, a summary of the process, discussion of the paucity of dog show haute couture, and a straight up journalistic approach before coming to this conclusion: I still don't really know what I'm talking about. Don't get me wrong, I know a heck of a lot more than I did last ... Read more »
On breed and health and what we love best
I'll finish recapping the AKC Eukanuba experience this week (in between building my gingerbread houses and working on the 12 Days and all the other things that manage to pile on this time of year), but I wanted to deviate for one moment into this large cloud that looms over any sort of dog discussion, and that is the vast and gaping chasm separating two equally passionate groups of pet enthusiasts. I had some very interesting conversations with some of my fellow bloggers at the conference ... Read more »
Dr V Goes to Long Beach
The day before I headed to the AKC Eukanuba National Championships, I was talking to my sister on the phone. "I'm heading to a dog show," I told her. "The AKC Eukanuba show?" she squealed. "I LOVE that show!" So it was from my sister, a legal professional with no ties to the animal community whatsoever, that I learned that this show was a Really Big Deal. It's actually better that I really didn't know what was in store for me, since I might have been too intimidated to focus by the level ... Read more »
Hope Telethon
First things first: At 1 am I went to random.org and determined the winner of the Joy Pet Products Original Goose Down Coat: Summer Thomas and her pittie Joy! Congratulations! For everyone who did not win, Patti over at Joy Pet Products wanted to give you a special discount so that even if you didn't win, you could still score on a coat if you were one of the many little pups that I now imagine shivering out in the cold. They are offering 25% off an original Goose Down coat from now until ... Read more »
Howliday Gift Guide: Inside my house
For today's reviews, I chose three items I've used in the past week and one I've wished for this week. ... Read more »
Howliday Gift Guide: Haute Dogture
Being an animal lover comes with its share of stigmas and stereotypes. Perhaps there is some truth to the idea that we are more likely than our un-petted counterparts to have some stray cat hair on our clothes, for example, but to assume said clothes are more schlumpy than those of your average person is just not right. I prefer to think of it as fashion-forward: cruelty free fur. It's a revolution, actually. I would say my time in the frumpy world of yoga tracksuits had more to do with two ... Read more »
Got Recipes?
OK, so I got a bee in my bonnet to collect recipes for dog and cat treats. Why not? It will be fun. Then we can do an old-fashioned recipe exchange, kind of like those cookbooks we used to do when we were in elementary school and it would be "Mrs. Jones' Famous Peach Cobbler" featuring canned peaches, marshmallows and graham crackers. I think my mother still has a couple of those cookbooks falling apart in the pantry. If you have a treat, cookie or dish recipe you'd like to include, you can ... Read more »
Happy Day!
I hope everyone is as happy and as stuffed as we are! I'll be out watching Harry Potter and giving the dogs a post-Thanksgiving Furmination, so I'll catch up with you all on Monday. In the meantime, get ready- next week is going to be exciting! Debuting Monday and continuing for the week is the Pawcurious Holiday Gift Guide 2010, featuring reviews, a giveaway a day, and the debut of the 2011 Pawcurious Calendar! ... Read more »
