So I made it back safe and sound from lovely Granda. The Technical Animal Rescue course was absolutely amazing and a fantastic program for anyone who is interested in animal rescue- but before I go into the water rescue, the ropes course, or all the exciting things World Vets is up to in Nicaragua, I promised Sarah I would share the story of the world's most awkward massage so my stories are going to be in reverse chronological order. The last day on our trip was a free day, to wind up loose ... Read more »
Picks of the Litter
Flash Mountain
All right, all right, I know this has been a very emotionally draining week for everyone. Some of you may be hung over. I wanted to talk to you all about National Animal Shelter Appreciation Week, and I will, but I think I'll wait until everyone has calmed down a little from whatever ecstatic/ despairing/ ambivalent coma in which you were left yesterday, and for today, I'm just going to talk about Disneyland in a nice, calm voice. Pretty, pretty lights. Benign Mouse. Yes, I went to ... Read more »
It’s Bad Poetry Friday: Emails and spam
This is what happens when you leave me alone in the first rainstorm of the year with a bottle of port, a pile of Dr. Seuss books, and a backlog of emails asking, asking, asking, asking for me to once again be a Nice Veterinary Writer/ Pet Blogger and do some more free work. Mostly, it's just a silly Friday I need to Apologize to Dr. Seuss Once Again kind of post. I dedicate it to all of you who know this feeling all too well. E-Mails and Spam I'm Dr. V. Dr. V is me. That Dr. V! That Dr. ... Read more »
My Name Is and the 3 Things all PR people should know
This is an open letter to anyone who writes a pet blog, and there are a lot of you out there. I get asked for advice about blogging a lot, and the number one thing I will tell you is this: Your blog and your time have value. It's ok to remind people of that when they ask you to work for free. I've seen plenty in the almost four years in the blogosphere. To stick it out this long requires a clear understanding of why we're doing this and what we're about (neither of which, incidentally, have ... Read more »
Next medal event: Freestyle Dogvertising and the ASPCA 100K Challenge
When the Escondido Humane Society asked me if I would pick a pet to champion in support of their running in the ASPCA $100K challenge, of course I said, "Yes!" This week, I took a drive up to the shelter to get a special tour, and decide who of all the deserving pets there I was going to mentor. When I got there, touring this wonderful facility that is bursting with about 700 animals (it was built to house maybe 3-400), I talked with their PR Director Katie Woolsey about lots of things. I ... Read more »
Going rate for the blond one: 20 cows, plus shillings.
This post is part of a series documenting a trip undertaken by a team of volunteers with World Vets who traveled to Arusha, Tanzania in June 2012 to provide veterinary care for the under (or should be say un-) served donkey population. For the full series of posts covering World Vets, please click here. I think genuine smiles are much more interesting than canned ones. You can tell. You can always tell. And as much as posed photos work in certain circumstances, I tried to avoid overly ... Read more »
Where the Wild Pups Are
RIP Maurice Sendak, a true visionary. Where the Wild Pups Are The night Brode wore his wolf suit and made mischief of one kind and another His mother called him "Wild Thing!" and Brody said "I'll eat you up!" so he was sent to bed without eating anything. That very night in Brody's yard a forest grew, and grew until the ceiling hung with vines and the walls became the world all around And he sailed off through night and day and in and out of weeks and almost over a year, ... Read more »
5 Ways to Be Kind to Animals This Week
It's Be Kind to Animals Week! Did you know that? You may know the American Humane Association best as the group that oversees animal use during filming and bestows the "No Animals Were Harmed" disclaimer at the end of shows and movies, but they are very involved in advocacy for not only animals, but also children- society's most vulnerable members. Anyway, they started this special week and it's a lovely opportunity to step back and reflect on what we are doing right, and what we could be doing ... Read more »
Stay bloodthirsty, my friends
I couldn't figure out why every single babysitter on our list turned us down for Saturday , and then I realized- oh, it's Cinco de Mayo, otherwise known as A Good Day for Tacos and Cervezas here in San Diego. No self respecting college kid would be at home. In honor of the occasion, I'm going to whip up some Brody's Surf Shack Fish Tacos, crack open a Dos Equiis, and oh yes, put a sombrero on the dog. *cue music* He walks himself...because no one can do it better. Cats hate him ... Read more »
The Realtor, by Edgar Labby Koe
Once upon a midday dreary, home from working, weak and weary, Staring with resentment at the “For Sale” sign perched near the door, While I Facebooked, blogged and Tweeted, on the sofa, softly seated, Suddenly I felt quite heated, heated staring at the floor. “Tis an old juice box,” I muttered, “sitting crumpled on the floor- Garbage there, it makes me sore.” Ah, so clearly I recall that it was in the chill of fall, And each separate messy creature wrought its carnage on the ... Read more »
3 Dumb Things that Dog Owners Do (That Make Us All Look Bad)
I am a dog person. I think most of you probably know that. I like dogs, a whole lot. I am into them. I can hang with them. That being said, I understand that not everyone else on the planet feels the same way. Dog owners who refuse to act with some basic courtesies grate on me as badly as parents who let their kids kick the back of my airplane seat. With the advent of spring, lots of people are venturing outside again with their pets- and this is a great thing, usually, but it also marks the ... Read more »
Happy birthday Koa- no joke
Two years ago this February, we took an hour and a half drive north to the Retrievers and Friends rescue to meet a 6 year old black lab named Lucy. She was feisty, glossy, and fun, a slightly older version of Brody. We loved Lucy. But then the rescue volunteer suggested we take a look at another dog, one who didn't photograph quite so well but was kind and sweet and might be a good match for the family. There she stood, with her hangdog face and her defeated posture and her barrel chest and ... Read more »
Elegy for Carl
You know this scene from Up. Unless you were living under a rock back in 2009, you found yourself blindsided when you settled into the movie theater expecting some animated shenanigans, only to have your heart ripped, still beating, from your ribcage, stomped on, wrung out, and rubbed in wasabi for good measure before being unceremoniously deposited in your lap to absorb all your tears. All in the first five minutes. I'm sure there were one or two people out there who didn't sob like a ... Read more »
A breath of fresh air: World Vets in action
We tend to take for granted all the medicine we have at our fingertips for our pets- ultrasounds, MRIs, surgeons with insane specialties. It's easy to forget sometimes the conditions most of the rest of the world functions in. It's one of the reasons I am in such awe of organizations like World Vets, which sends vets all over the world to not only help animals, but help the vets in other countries learn cutting edge skills. Running a multi-national nonprofit like this presents challenges you ... Read more »
Blogger’s Stakes: Or, how I blew my first competition
I'm back from the whirlwind week at the world's biggest dog show, and I am POOPED. There could have been five of me running around and I still don't think I would have scratched the surface. But today, I want to share my favorite experience from the AKC/Eukanuba National Championship, the Inaugural Blogger's Stakes. During the afternoon light check before the Saturday evening events, the bloggers were invited into the main arena for a mock show. Each of us was provided a stellar show dog, ... Read more »
A Very Macabre Christmas to You and Yours
Among the many things I inherited a love of from my mother, such as books and weird medical cases, are Christmas ornaments and crafting. Every Christmas since I was little, we would get an ornament in our stocking, and when I moved out, I took my collection with me. It's a lovely way to have a little nostalgia every December when we set up the tree. I have done the same for my kids, so when they are older they can survey their pile of Tow Mater and Barbie ornaments the way I look over my ... Read more »
Merry Christmas, kids. I poisoned the dogs.
Let me preface this by saying it isn't Christmas in my house until it looks like an elf exploded in the foyer. It doesn't excuse what happened, but it's important to the story. On Saturday, my husband and I went out to dinner while the kids spent the night at the grandparents' house. Before we left, I surveyed the mess that is "middle of Christmas prep" with some trepidation. There was trouble everywhere. Breakable ornaments, garland, boxes piled to the ceiling. Most of it is pretty ... Read more »
How The Walking Dead made me a better blogger
Have you seen The Walking Dead on AMC yet? It's a horrible show about life after the zombie apocalypse. The undead have taken over, though no one really knows why. In one day, the world has been plunged into chaos, social norms no longer exist, and everyone has reverted to a state of primal survival mode. Every episode, someone is either shot, transformed into a zombie, or messily devoured in a graphic manner. It's the kind of show you have to watch from between your outstretched fingers lest ... Read more »
