I returned to dog blogging on August 1, a date I chose because I had stopped posting here exactly a year earlier and I like symmetry (and maybe I have a touch of OCD). When I discovered, after the fact, that BlogPaws had designated August Senior Pets Month, I was thrilled. I was planning to…
Pet Travel Challenges: Car Rides & Leaping Cacti
Frankie and I are headed to Scottsdale today to meet one of my newfound relatives, and I’m a little nervous. To put it mildly. Not about meeting my relative, Elaine. We’ve already chatted on the phone, and I’m sure that’ll go swimmingly. No, I’m nervous about traveling with Frankie. The last time I tried a…
We’re Baaack!
It’s been exactly a year since I last posted on this blog. I had my reasons for taking a break, some valid, some delusional. “I’m starting a new blog and I’m not good at multitasking” falls into the valid category. “I want to leave on a high note, with Frankie as a forever young —…
Auf Wiedersehen, Will My Dog Hate Me
How do you say good-bye to people with whom you’ve spent more time for the last three years than any of your friends and family members (except for a small furry one)? People you’ve come to respect and care about deeply? You don’t. It’s true that I won’t be blogging about pets any more. But…
Underdog to Wonderdog: Frankie!
People who are involved in the animal welfare community are oddly insulated. We tend to think that everyone knows about the importance of adoption, the evils of buying from pet stores. But according to the Humane Society of the United States, “Nationwide, only about 20 percent of dogs in homes come from shelters—the rest come…
The Dog, the Butcher and the Big Picture
Ask and ye shall receive. At least that’s been my experience with a lot of pet bloggers. On a recent post that included a video of hot dudes with kittens, I mentioned that a nice transition between this blog and my soon to debut one, Freud’s Butcher, would be hot butchers with puppies. Karen Friesecke…
Who Goes With Fergus? Second-Dog Syndrome
It’s tough being the second child in a family. I know this from personal experience. The first-child thrill is gone so you get fewer pictures taken of you — not to mention hand-me-down clothes. You also get compared to the one who came first, and often not favorably. But it could be worse. Much worse.…
Dog Bloggers Unite! You Have Nothing to Lose But Your Guilt
I may be winding down this blog, but I’ll never stop caring about dog rescue. How could I when one small rescue dog, Frankie, made such a huge change in my life? And I’m pleased that I’ll still be around to participate in a big push that some of my fellow bloggers are making on…
Pet Adoption Videos That Don’t Make Me Want To Kill Myself: Men with Cats Edition
To finish off a week that somehow got hijacked by cats… Let’s face it: Men and cats don’t go together in the popular imagination — and especially not macho guys. We know it’s only lonely single woman who are feline fanciers (hey, why do think I got a dog? Just kidding, Frankie.) This means that…
Feline Diabetes, Part 2
This is the second in a two-part story that originally ran in Catnip, the newsletter of Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts; here is Part 1, which described the disease and focused on causes and diagnosis. My primary veterinary source at Tufts was Orla Mahony, ACVIM, ECVIM, a specialist in small animal endocrinology, and…