Fear Free Happy Homes
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 Dangling ornaments. Rich food. Brightly blooming plants. Parties. No matter what your species—human, canine or feline—there’s a lot to love about the holidays. But in the wrong hands, er, paws, those same things can cause everything from a bellyache to a bite to a trip to the emergency room. Here are three ways to avoid […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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: 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 […]
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.” […]
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 […]