I took Frankie in to the vet for a wellness checkup last week. He’s doing fine — actually really well, the vet said, for a dog his age (about 12), even one who doesn’t have diabetes. Aside from the need for a professional teeth cleaning, the only suggestion the vet made was that Frankie slim…
Friday Focus: Single-dog Households
Not long ago, my friend Joan told me that her dachshund, Lucy, was depressed, so she got her a puppy to keep her company. Only if you consider annoyance better than depression — and spending more money on vet bills for the new dog than, say, a year of doggie day care might have cost…
Eight reasons to adopt a senior dog
I was so clueless about dogs when I first adopted Frankie that I didn’t realize he was pushing geriatric status — and that this was considered a bad thing. I’m very glad I didn’t know, and not only because I would have missed out on making the acquaintance of my Zen master, muse and constant…
Pet Shops, Shelters & Pedigree
First, the Pedigree portion of this post. I promise you, it will make you feel good because you’ll be donating food to shelter dogs with a few clicks, even if you don’t have a blog. If you do… well, I’ll get to that. Here are the details: •Each year, more than 4 million dogs end…
Putting the Blog Back in BlogPaws
What with all the inspirational Be the Change posts that continue to pour out of the BlogPaws conference I’m almost embarrassed to say this: I went to BlogPaws to learn about selling books, blogging, and social media. And guess what? I did. As a conference that provided good, solid information — not to mention a…
Road Trip to Umbria & Denmark (Dogs Beware)
Perfect timing: My return from the BlogPaws pet bloggers conference and its concomitant flurry of catch-up activities coincides with the publication of a guest post about the book Marcus of Umbria that I wrote for A Traveler’s Library, a site you should check out even when I’m not on it. In case you were wondering…
My Year in Bookselling: 7 Things I Did Right
It’s been a year since the publication of Am I Boring My Dog and a bit of a roller-coaster ride. Sad to say, the reports about publishers not having the time or money to promote all but the most famous authors or the most topical books are true. Which is how I became a bookseller,…
The Search and Rescue Dogs of 911
Get out an entire box of tissues for this one. Ground Zero has become very political this year. Dogs often have lessons to teach us, and that’s certainly true here. These dogs searched through the rubble for everyone, no matter what race or religion, and didn’t judge the victims by the actions of a few.
Goodbye to all that – for now
I’ve been a bit distracted, trying to finish up a big project — I finally sent it off this morning — which is why I accidentally pushed “publish” on the post titled “My Year of Bookselling: Five Things I Did Right” when it was in a very rough draft stage. My apologies to those who…
Friday Focus: It’s pet transport, not travel
As a result of the helpful comments I received for the questions I posed on Sunday about pets too large to fly in airline cabins I learned the following: No one flies their pet via air cargo or in a baggage hold for a vacation. The need to transport a pet for a move is…