Making Sure Your Pet has a Happy Holiday

The holidays are all about spending times with those you love – your family, your friends, and those furry (and feathered friends) that many of us consider family. It’s only natural that you’d want to include Fido or Fluffy in on the fun, but holidays can be a dangerous and stressful time for pets. Many holiday foods that you enjoy are harmful or even toxic to pets, some pets do not deal well with strangers (especially those not used to interacting with pets,) and often our favorite holiday decorations can be holiday hazards for animals.

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A Story of Broken Hearts: Cats and Cardial Hemangiosarcoma

I can remember the day that I brought Lothario, my first male kitty, home from the animal shelter. He was so small he could fit in the palm of my hand and had been weaned weeks too early. His mother, a mottled calico cat, was left at the shelter with her litter of eight kittens and the kittens, so much in demand in the spring, had been separated from their mother early to give them a better chance at adoption. I didn’t come to the shelter to adopt a kitten. My other cats, Pepper and Licorice, were well into their teens and had no desire to baby-sit. But Lo instantly captured my heart with his perfect pink paws and over-long whiskers. His ears and tail were so huge compared to the rest of his kitten frame—almost as if they anticipated the eighteen pound cat that he would one day become. I picked him up and cradled him against my heart the entire ride home and after a while I could feel him stop shivering and start to purr. 

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Finding the Vet right for your pet

My veterinarian is retiring. He’s been my pets’ vet for many years and the fact that I drive more than an hour each way so that he can treat my six-pack of cats says a lot about the excellent care he and his staff provide. I’m very picky when it comes to my pets’ health care, as most pet owners (hopefully) are about the care of their own furry friends. And I tend to be a bit of a nervous Nelly when it comes to health care in general. I’m signed up for recall alerts and I spend some time each week surfing the AVMA’s website to find out about the latest breakthroughs, vaccines, and treatments.

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Summer Travel: On the road with your pet

Planning on hitting the road with your furry friend this summer? Well, there are few things you might want to consider before you taking your pet along for the ride.

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Cancer in Cats: Diagnosis and Planning for the Future

My kitty had a lump. It developed almost overnight on her right side near her back leg. It felt small, hard, and perfectly round like a little marble lodged under her skin. I wasn’t that worried about it. Mammary cancer in younger cats, especially those who were spayed before their first heat cycle is very rare. There’s a slightly higher risk factor in Siamese cats, but Morwen is your average, American shorthair with a bit of Bombay thrown in the mix, a sweet little kitty with a smooshed in nose and big yellow eyes. It certainly wasn’t mammary cancer, but maybe it was a lipoma, not unusual in cats, although not usually quick-growing or hard in nature. Lipomas, of which my elderly cocker spaniel had many, are usually squishy, round lumps filled with fat. Older dogs and cats often develop them and they are, usually, not dangerous. My cocker spaniel has had more than one aspirated and another two removed, all of which were benign.

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Home is Where the Heart is – Courting the Love of Cats

I’ve come to distrust the loyalty of cats.  From my desk I can hear George scratching at my back door.  The sun is starting to set, so, as usual, I know he’ll be waiting scruffy and desperate on my back doormat.  I’ll open the door to find him sitting silently with his tail tucked around his legs meowing piteously for his dinner, the perfect picture of the luckless stray.  Indeed, when I first met George and his feline associate in crime, Fionna, I thought they were strays.  Of course, it was only a day or so before I discovered that they live only a few doors down from me and, indeed, spend most of their day indoors. 

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