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Activities & Enrichment Birds Cats Dogs Fears & Anxieties Holidays Life at Home Other Travel & Safety

12 Safety Tips For Happy-Pet Holidays

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Cat with candles

Reading Time: 3 minutes No one wants a trip to the veterinary emergency room, a vomiting cat, or a down dog to spoil the holiday season—let alone empty out the family wallet. Here’s how to avoid mishaps and keep pets happy. Candles Burn Bright: Curiosity can kill. If a candle is knocked over, a house fire can start. A […]

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Activities & Enrichment Cats Dogs Fears & Anxieties Holidays Life at Home Other Travel & Safety

Stress-Free Holidays With Pets? Here’s How

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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 […]

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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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Cats Dogs Fears & Anxieties Holidays Life at Home Other Training & Grooming

Pet Haunted By Halloween? How To Help

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Reading Time: 3 minutes Many pets never received the memo that Halloween is supposed to be fun. They truly are spooked by all those creatures that smell like humans but resemble zombies or superheroes.  And for many pets the constant ringing of the doorbell and all the commotion is disturbing. For two reasons, ensconcing those animals in a room […]

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Activities & Enrichment Life at Home Other

Turtles Need Environmental Enrichment, Too

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Reading Time: 3 minutes Are you old enough to remember buying those little red-eared slider turtles at pet stores when you were a kid? Back in the day, in the 1950s and ‘60s into the early 70s, these turtles were commonly kept as pets. Typically, though, they suffered from inadequate diets and unhygienic habitats and became known for transmitting […]

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Cats Dogs Fears & Anxieties Holidays Life at Home Other

Happy Halloween? For Pets, It Can Be With A Little Practice

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Reading Time: 3 minutes Blah! Blah! It’s scary out there—all those pets dressed up as dinosaurs, lions, and spiders. And if you dress up your pet, you’re not alone, as more than 4.2 million dog-owning households and nearly two million cat caretakers will be treating their furry (and costumed) companions to ghoulish goodies and grisly toys this Halloween, according […]

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Cats Dogs Fears & Anxieties Other Travel & Safety Veterinary Care

Veterinary Technicians And Owners: Working Together For Positive Pet Experiences

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Reading Time: 3 minutes We recognize that veterinarians make positive differences in the lives of our cats and dogs. But veterinary practices couldn’t function as efficiently or effectively without the expertise of compassionate veterinary technicians. To recognize their contributions, the third week of October each year celebrates National Veterinary Technician Week. In another life, I worked as a vet […]

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Cats Dogs Fears & Anxieties Life at Home Other Veterinary Care

Pre-Op Planning Reduces Your Pet’s Stress And Yours

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Reading Time: 4 minutes Why all the lab work before your pet’s spay/neuter surgery or other procedure? He looks healthy, and as far as you know, there’s nothing wrong with him. The key words are “as far as you know.” Pre-operative testing is an important part of pre-surgical prep that can alert your veterinarian to underlying problems that could […]

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Cats Dogs Fears & Anxieties Life at Home Other Training & Grooming Veterinary Care

Make Getting Pee And Poop Samples Stress-Free For Your Pet—And You

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Reading Time: 3 minutes Elated and relieved people all over proclaim “Good potty!” and “Good pee!” when their dogs perform these necessities during leashed walks. But when is the last time you really looked at your dog’s poop? And how much attention do you really pay to the clumps you scoop each day from your cat’s litter box? One […]

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Cats Dogs Life at Home Other

How Pets Read And Respond To Our Emotions

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Reading Time: 4 minutes Legendary Lassie did more than “save” little Timmy from being stuck at the bottom of the well. The beloved television Collie seemed to accurately read when Timmy was happy or scared and knew when to spring into action to save him from danger in each episode. It turns out our dogs–and cats–may be better mind […]