Fear Free Happy Homes
Reading Time: 4 minutes When I was a young woman, people who lived on our street moved away. But about a week after they drove off in a moving truck, neighbors discovered they’d left behind their pregnant cat – who promptly gave birth to a litter of kittens. It made me furious that someone would abandon a cat so […]
Reading Time: 4 minutes It’s a sad fact that roughly six million dogs and a similar number of cats are diagnosed with cancer each year in the United States, according to the Animal Cancer Foundation. No animal lover wants to hear the dreaded “C” word, but many of us have or will. Colorado resident Britton Slagle knows the pain […]
Reading Time: 4 minutes I love to take summer vacations with my husband and our dogs, Rio and Peach. It’s a thrill to pack the car and drive to an idyllic campground here in Colorado or head west to explore the off-leash dog beaches of Southern California or north to Wisconsin to splash around in refreshing lakes – checking […]
Reading Time: 3 minutes Connecticut resident Kathye O’Brien Anstis and her family were concerned when Riley, their 5-year-old Beagle mix, started bumping into their legs – it was as if he couldn’t see. They took him to a veterinary ophthalmologist who confirmed that Riley had lost his eyesight and diagnosed him with Sudden Acquired Retinal Degeneration Syndrome (SARDS), a […]
Reading Time: 3 minutes I like to think my Labrador Retriever mix, Rio, is invincible. He loves hiking on trails, swimming in lakes, and generally frolicking outside. Even though he’s nearly 9 years old, I’ve been in denial that he’s a “senior.” But a recent conversation with a veterinary technician gave me pause. He mentioned that dogs who start […]
Reading Time: 2 minutes Margaret Slaby loves animals, so for a time she worked in animal care at a shelter in Monterey County, California. But after two and a half years, she had to call it quits. “I saw a lot of older cats didn’t make it out of the shelter simply because they were older, and it just […]
Reading Time: 3 minutes Last year my husband and I did something incredibly rewarding: adopted a senior pet. We wondered if Peach, a little 8-year-old Poodle rescued as a stray, would find it challenging to adapt to life in a new home with us and our Labrador Retriever mix, Rio. But the adoption coordinator suggested I feed Peach canned […]
Reading Time: 3 minutes When I volunteered on a domestic violence hotline, I was horrified to learn that abusers will threaten to hurt or kill their partner as well as their partner’s loved ones – including pets. In fact, research shows 48 percent of domestic violence survivors have stayed in abusive situations out of fear of what would happen […]
Reading Time: 4 minutes Recently I volunteered with my husband and two nieces at a special place: Best Friends Animal Sanctuary. It’s the largest no-kill animal refuge in the United States, spanning nearly 3,700 acres of red rock canyon near Kanab, Utah. Hundreds of employees care for roughly 1,600 dogs, cats, horses, pigs, bunnies, parrots, and “wild friends.” Most […]
Reading Time: 3 minutes When I was a little girl, my cat Pretzel made it clear that she was not a fan of car rides. Luckily, my mom had a brilliant idea. “Let’s put your sweatshirt inside her carrier instead of that blanket,” she suggested. “It’s soft and smells like you. I bet she’ll find it comforting.” It helped […]