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Cats Life at Home Veterinary Care

Keeping Yourself Fear Free While You Wait for Your Cat’s Diagnosis

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adorable sweet kitten biting hand and playing with luxury bride and looking with cute big eyes

Reading Time: 3 minutes A few months ago, my cat and I endured a stressful experience at a pet emergency hospital. Those of us who love our cats have been through this. Something comes up. It may be end- of-life, it may be an emergency followed by recovery. But whenever this happens for me, I feel a familiar kind […]

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Dogs Fears & Anxieties Life at Home

Stress-Free Dog? Your Attitude Counts

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Reading Time: 2 minutes If you’re happy, there’s a good chance your dog is happy, too. So says a recent study led by Mexican researcher M.T. González-Ramírez and published in the November-December 2018 Journal of Veterinary Behavior. According to the study, dog owners who are less stressed have dogs who are better behaved. Conversely, stressed dog owners reported more […]

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Cats Holidays Life at Home New Pets Shelters & Fostering

Is It Crazy To Bring A Kitten Into Your Multi-Cat Household During the Holidays? Not If You Prepare

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Reading Time: 3 minutes You’re contemplating adding a kitten to your multi-cat household, and the holidays are fast approaching. There’s plenty to think about with this scenario. How will your stable, tried-and-true household kitties adjust to the newcomer? Will the kitten get into trouble, especially with decorations, food, and unknown people thrown into the mix? Will you be able […]

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Activities & Enrichment Cats Life at Home

Five Cat Toys You Can Make In Less Than Five Minutes

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Reading Time: 4 minutes Research tells us that play is a stress-buster in cats, because it enables them to express their natural hunting behaviors. More playtime has been found to correlate with fewer behavior problems, too. We also know that cats are more likely to play with novel toys. That’s because play is pretend hunting, and once you’ve killed […]

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Cats Dogs Life at Home Other

How Helping Pets Helps People Escape Domestic Violence

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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 […]

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Activities & Enrichment Cats Life at Home

Cattens: The Young And The Restless

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Reading Time: 3 minutes Cattens: They’re not quite kittens, not quite cats. They’re tweens through teens. Adolescents. Can go from “Mommm-muh!  Don’t! Won’t!”  to “Mommmy?!” in five minutes. Absolute challenges in the bum. I love them at that awkward time. Sometimes, it’s fun. Often, sweet. As we did ourselves, they’re going through changes. Watching your Noodles develop into the […]

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Activities & Enrichment Cats Dogs Life at Home Senior Pets

Pets Plus Seniors Equals Happiness

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Reading Time: 4 minutes When Robert Hampton recently moved into the Brookdale Memory Care Center in Dallas, his wife, Marilyn, knew exactly what he needed to boost his spirits and to encourage him to be social with other residents. She brought in four friendly cats from a local pet rescue group into her husband’s room and said, “Pick one.” […]

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Activities & Enrichment Dogs Fears & Anxieties Life at Home Training & Grooming Travel & Safety

Walk This Way: Stress-Free First Time On A Leash

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Reading Time: 3 minutes I couldn’t wait to take Oscar, my new Dalmatian puppy, outside for his first walk around our block. Clipping the leash onto his collar went well but taking a step out the front door to enjoy nature was another story. I never knew that paws had brakes, but he sure applied them in a flash […]

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Activities & Enrichment Dogs Fears & Anxieties Life at Home New Pets Training & Grooming

Even as Young Puppies, Dogs Look to People for Reassurance

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Reading Time: 2 minutes “Social referencing” is a fancy term for a familiar phenomenon: when uncertain about a new situation, you check to see how everyone else is reacting. Are they scared, happy, calm, anxious? We look to others for clues in case they have previous experience that we don’t. Other social animals do this as well, and it’s […]

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Cats Fears & Anxieties Life at Home

Hold Tight? Not When It Comes To Cats. Here’s How To Pick Them Up And Hold Them

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Reading Time: 3 minutes When we see a feline fluff ball, we want to scoop her up and cradle her in our arms like a baby. This may be a natural behavior for us, but not so much for cats. The feeling of feet off the floor is stressful to some cats and they may squirm to get down, […]