In April of 2016 on my way home from a quick visit to town, I stopped at a house just a couple of miles from home to let the homeowner know that their puppy was about to get out on the road where it could be hit. It turned out, like so many of my other innocent trips out over the years, that was the day my timing of being out coincided with a dog that desperately needed saving.
Category: Dog Stories
Why being informed is so important
For over a month now, I’ve been working on a post about products that have killed many cats and dogs. It’s taking much longer than I’d planned because I had no idea what I was opening myself up for when I decided to compile a list of the major offenders in one place for pet owners to find. During all this research, I’m continuing to run across pet owner after pet owner who is putting their pets’ health in immense danger. The reasons vary from the owner being too trusting of their vet, believing the risks are not worrisome enough, or they just don’t want to/care to spend the time or effort to even research the product or to go the safer, but longer route for curing an ailment. Read more
Why I don’t like breeders
Cat and dog breeders. These are people that I find myself thinking about often. Maybe it’s because I look around at my mix of 10 purebreds and mixed breeds and wonder how they ended up here and if the people who intentionally or unintentionally produced them even care where all those puppies or kittens ended up. Or maybe it’s because I wonder how so many people can knowingly contribute to pet overpopulation, which in turn, leads to millions of cats and dogs being killed each year. Read more
The importance of checking your pets’ output
Part of being a good pet owner is being observant. While it’s not a glamorous job, being observant of your pets’ output is necessary to ensure you catch any health issues early. Of course, checking output is important, but equally important is lack of it and oddity of it. Let me explain.
Why I fast my dogs
As many of you may know, there has been quite a bit of news out there lately about the health benefits of fasting. I actually personally do it myself and have even incorporated it into how I take care of my dogs. I think we are all exposed to more toxins than ever and anything we can do to try to help prevent disease in ourselves or our pets is something worth looking more into.
Treating arthritis in dogs
One of the saddest parts about being a dog owner is watching them suffer from arthritis. Whether the result of a medical condition (like hip dysplasia) that makes them prone to arthritis, the breed, an old injury, or just old age, arthritis can strike a dog at any age. If you notice your dog walking stiffly, having trouble getting up from a sitting or lying down position, or hesitance jumping on the bed, there’s a good chance your dog is suffering from arthritis.
Water intoxication and your dog
While on one of my researching missions last fall, I stumbled across a blog post from 2013 that someone had written about water playtime being deadly for dogs. The author used words I’d never seen or heard of before, ‘water toxicity’ and ‘Hyponatremia’. After I read the post and the sad comments that had been left by owners who had tragically lost dogs to Hyponatremia, I knew this was a topic I had to write about to warn other dog owners.
Tricks for giving medicine to cats and dogs
When it comes to giving supplements or medicine to cats or dogs, it can either be easy or difficult. Over the years, I’ve had my fair share of both ways, so I thought I’d share the methods I use and other helpful recommendations I’ve run across to help others. I also wanted to warn cat owners of some disturbing information I ran across that I wanted to pass along.
Pet cloning and why I’d never do it
Recently, Barbra Streisand admitted she’d cloned her dog. As more details came out in a second article a few days later, as well as all the interest in cloning I saw generated online, I decided out of my own curiosity to peek into the nuts and bolts of pet cloning. Knowing nothing about it, I quickly found myself horrified reading about the dark side of the industry. It’s one that’s seldom talked about openly and definitely not during magazine or tv interviews, and of course not by Barbra or any of the other people who have decided that a clone of their deceased cat or dog is worth whatever the cost. Read more
Those three pit bulls I wonder about
When you imagine someone dumping out a dog, you may picture it being a pit bull or pit bull mix. Even though a lot of times the pictures or videos out there show that, I’ve only had it happen once. It was an eye-opening and sad experience. It is also another one of my rescues that I often think back on and wonder about.