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Tuesday, December 07, 2010
Need for pet care asistance on the rise
Bay Area pets need your help this holiday season!
The Marin Humane Society (MHS) has seen a significant (more than 20%) increase in demand from low-income seniors, people living with HIV/AIDS and those in hospice care for pet food and supplies this year. Donations to MHS (171 Bel Marin Keys Blvd., Novato) will be used to fill gift bags for the Humane Society's Special Human-Animal Relationships (SHARE) clients and for local human needs organizations.
MarinHumaneSociety.org
BFFs: Missy and her cat Misty.
SHARE is committed to keeping good friends together by providing a lifeline for low-income people and their pets in times of need. Assistance to more than 250 clients includes pet food, veterinary care, home visits, and emergency pet boarding should the pet owner need to be hospitalized.
Living on a fixed income has made it challenging for many people to make ends meet. The cost of cat litter and food was stretching 97-year-old Missy's budget to the breaking point. MHS's SHARE program now regularly delivers free cat food and litter to her home, ensuring that she can continue to take good care of her beloved companion Misty.
Small bags of dry dog and cat food are most needed. Financial contributions are also welcome and will be used to purchase additional gift items. Donations may be delivered directly to the Marin Humane Society.
We can all make the holiday season brighter for hundreds of Marin's less fortunate pets and their guardians by giving generously today.
| Dec 07 at 01:28 PM
Monday, December 06, 2010
Tips for pet-friendly entertaining
Welcome to decadent December — a month typically packed full of holiday dinners, cocktail parties and family gatherings galore. The question is, if you're hosting, how do you manage with a menagerie of animals (or even just one, if they're a handful) underfoot?
democraticunderground.com
Without a doubt, our furry family members bring an abundance of joy and unconditional love into our lives, but they can also suck the sophistication out of entertaining. Whether they're commandeering the couch (and covering it in hair), helping themselves to hors d'oeuvres or toppling wine glasses and candles with a swat or wag of their tail, pets can certainly add extra stress to the role as hostess with the most-ess.
Here are a few ideas that can help keep pets safe (and you sane) during parties, while still doling out plenty of glam to your guests:
Switch to stemless: Serving your guests wine in pretty glass tumblers with wide, stable bases will keep their drinks grounded, regardless of the nocturnal activities of your frenetic furballs. Check out Riedel "O" glasses ($25-$30/pair) for an elegant, stain-mitigating way to celebrate.
Opt for flame-free fetes: Nothing creates a warm, welcoming mood like a few elegant tapers, but with pets running about, open flames can also be a liability. There are now a zillion pretty-darn-realistic-looking "flameless candles" on the market that can give your home a cozy glow without the fear that your curious critters will send your soiree up in smoke. (Just steer clear of the "scented" variety. Ick!) If your inner Martha Stewart can't bear the thought of battery operated candles, consider using a bunch of strategically placed votives. I like using mismatched holders for a fun, eclectic look.
Slob-proof your furniture: Investing in easy-to-clean seating or using strategically placed slipcovers (that you can remove right before your guests arrive), can help keep eleventh-hour and unexpected pet-related messes under control.
Hooray for hands-free cleaning: I have been using a Neato robotic vacuum for the past few months and LOVE it! Although I still have to drag out the Dyson about once a week, I let the little Neato do its thing once a day to keep the house hair-free and guest-ready.
Practice good pet hygiene: A dirty dog (or cat) can be a definite party pooper. Schedule a date at the groomers or set aside some quality time at home to be sure your pet is looking and smelling her best before guests arrive. (I'm a HUGE fan of FURminator brushes and deShedding shampoo and conditioner.)
Set some ground rules: If you have an exuberant pup that likes to jump, leave a tightly covered container of treats by the front door and ask your guests to have your dog do a sit-stay for a more civilized greeting. (Crating your dog for several hours, if they have been properly crate trained, can also be a good option.) If your cat is a great escape artist, sequester him or her in a back bedroom with lots of fun toys and be sure your guests know to take extra precautions when opening and closing outside doors, just in case. Also, politely remind everyone not to feed the animals people food to avoid a potentially "explosive" ending to an otherwise perfect evening.
If you can't beat 'em, join 'em: Okay. I felt compelled to include this item because I'm still in awe that it actually exists. The Pet High Chair "satisfies a mutual desire for companionship" by permitting your dog or cat to join you at the dinner table. Even though two tethers protect dinner guests against "any lapses in etiquette," I'm not convinced.
Pet sitter to the rescue: If you already know that a bunch of strangers in your house will stress out your pet(s) — and potentially your guests too — consider having a pet sitter look after your furry family members during the party. Sometimes giving your pet a mini-vacation from the fray can be best solution for everyone.
Share your own tips in the comments.
| Dec 06 at 10:07 AM
Friday, December 03, 2010
What do you love most about your pet?
On our first day of puppy kindergarten at SF Puppy Prep, the instructor, Aishe Berger, asked everyone in class to share what they loved most about their dog.
SF/ACC
Alice is a lap dog in big dog's clothing.
Since my boyfriend and I had only adopted Alice the week before, our answers were heartfelt and mushy, but a little on the vague side. ("Um everything! She's just so adorable!" "She wags her tail when she sees us!" "Did we already mention how cute she is?")
We had, of course, already fallen head-over-heels in love from the second we met her at San Francisco's ACC, but we were still slowly getting to know all the ins and outs of the furriest addition to our family.
Fast forward five weeks (and nearly 10 pounds!) and WOW has our little pooch blossomed. She's now a super social, self-assured, playful and sometimes entertainingly vocal companion.
Here are 10 things that I absolutely adore about Alice:
- 1) Her dainty white feet and pink pads that turn brown at the park and then pink again after a trip to the beach.
- 2) Her white tipped tail that curls upwards when she's happy.
- 3) The way she kicks her hind leg like a rabbit when she's settling down for bed.
- 4) Her curiosity in everything we pass on our walks. Blowing leaves, bugs, people, acorns — they're all fascinating to Alice.
- 5) Her pink nose that looks like a little kid tried to color it in with a brown marker — and missed.
- 6) The way she wakes me up every morning with a high pitched yawn and then immediately turns on her back for the first belly rub of the day.
- 7) Her polite and focused fearlessness when she first meets a new cat (she loves them!) or a dog three times her size.
- 8) The way she looks me in the eye and cocks her head to one side when I talk to her, like she's really trying to understand whatever it is I'm blathering on about.
- 9) Her flamboyant, flying-body-block-with-a-twist that she continues to perfect during wrestling matches with other pups at the park.
- 10) Her total openness to loving and being loved by everyone she meets.
Okay. Your turn.
What do you love most about your pet?
| Dec 03 at 01:51 PM
Thursday, December 02, 2010
Alice's first interview!
For those of you who don't already know Alice "The Rabbit" Wonderland, she's my 6-month-old pup and newly appointed mascot of "Tails of the City."
What she lacks in experience and, um, canine manners (although we are actively working on this), she makes up for in an abundance of charm and personality.
Alice had her first interview this week and passed with flying colors! Perhaps one of us is finally destined for fame and fortune. I can dream...
Check it out HERE on Bella the Boxer's "working dogs" blog.
| Dec 02 at 10:41 AM
Wednesday, December 01, 2010
Keep canines entertained on the cheap
'Tis the season of living beyond our means. Luckily, it's still possible to pamper our pets while we sock away some of that hard-earned cash.
flickr.com
Finally a fun use for stray socks!
Here are a few tips for keeping your pooch happy and entertained on a budget:
- My Alice LOVES the taste of cut up apples and carrots, so when I recently ran out of her expensive treats, I started using them as healthy training rewards. She never knew the difference!
- Fill a Kong with a high-quality brand of wet dog food or peanut butter and freeze overnight for a tasty, long-lasting treat. (Freezing raw bones will also help extend their life.)
- Freeze a handful of kibble and chicken or beef stock inside a plastic food container. This is an especially great way to keep your pooch occupied during crate training.
- Cut holes in an empty water or soda bottle and put treats inside to create a super-cheap, interactive dog toy.
- If you have a backyard, hide treats (or a bone) in various locations so your dog has to sniff them out.
- Cut up an old towel or give a mismatched sock new purpose with a rousing game of tug-o-war!
- Commit to 5-10 minutes of obedience training a day. It's a fun, free way to bond with your canine sidekick and keep them well-mannered!
Check out more creative ideas here.
Share your own pet-savvy, money-saving tips in the comments.
| Dec 01 at 04:47 PM
Monday, November 29, 2010
The physics of cat lapping
How does a cat drink? The answer is on the tip of its tongue.
According to a study published in the latest issue of Science, cats, both big and small, have perfected the act of lapping. It's more efficient and "classier" than the "thrusting" of a dog's tongue into its water bowl, which forms a "crude cup" that "hauls the liquid back into the muzzle."
Cats lap water so fast (about four times a second) that the human eye cannot follow what is happening. But with the use of high-speed photography, the perfection of the feline solution has at last been captured.
Four engineers report that "the cat's lapping method depends on its instinctive ability to calculate the point at which gravitational force would overcome inertia and cause the water to fall." Leave it to those oh-so crafty kitties!
Here's how it works: first, a cat darts its tongue, curving the upper side downward so that the tip lightly touches the surface of the water. Then it pulls it quickly upward, creating a column of water behind it. When gravity finally begins to pull the column downward, the cat snaps its jaws closed and — voila! — swallows.
Watch the video below and read more about the biomechanics of feline water uptake here.
| Nov 29 at 04:08 PM
Friday, November 26, 2010
Catching cancer early in pets
Our pets are living longer, which means that we get to spend more time enjoying their company and basking in their unconditional love. Unfortunately, just as with animals of the two-legged sort, more years on the planet also translates into a higher chance of tangling with the evil "C" word.
One in four domesticated dogs in the United States will die of cancer, and that number increases to almost one in two for dogs who live beyond age 10.
hubpages.com
November is National Pet Cancer Awareness Month, and to help encourage people to take a more proactive role in identifying cancer in their pets, veterinarian Zachary Wright, staff oncologist at VCA Veterinary Care Referral Center in Albuquerque, New Mexico, offers the following advice:
Skin tumors, the most common cancer in dogs and cats, can be easily felt while spending quality time petting, playing and snuggling with your pet. In addition to lumps and bumps, middle-aged and older animals may also suffer from other symptoms including vomiting, lethargy, weight loss, lameness, or coughing, which can all be linked to cancers of internal organs.
The smaller the tumor the more effective therapy will be against it, so it's never wise to take a passive "watch-and-see" approach to a lump on your pet. Especially if your pet is experiencing any of the above symptoms, take your animal to your veterinarian for a checkup to find out what's going on.
If your pet is diagnosed with cancer, ask your vet for a referral to a well-respected veterinarian oncologist. Veterinary oncologists are veterinarians who have done three to four years of additional training in cancer diagnosis and treatment. (It's also a good idea to research your options in terms of both specialists and treatments and to potentially get a second opinion, depending on the diagnosis.)
As scary and heartbreaking as it can be to hear that your pet has cancer, breakthroughs in animal health care means the diagnosis will likely come with the hope of a variety of treatment options:
- Surgery: This is typically a first line of treatment because it can offer a cure for many tumors if they can be completely removed.
- Radiation: Because of the lack of radiation units across the country, this is usually the least used treatment modality in veterinary oncology. However, it can be a good second option when surgery is ineffective or incomplete.
- Chemotherapy: Chemotherapy use in veterinary medicine is very different than in human medicine. Much lower dosages are used as quality of life for the pet is the focus. Approximately 90% of dogs and cats will have little to no obvious side effects from their treatments, allowing them to continue to live in the comfort of their homes surrounded by their human pack.
- Clinical trials: As the study and treatment of cancer in animals continues to evolve, many veterinary oncologists are able to offer pet owners clinical trials for new cancer therapies.
For more information about cancer in pets check out these links:
Have any of your pets gotten cancer? How did you treat it?
| Nov 26 at 12:14 PM
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Origins of the presidential turkey pardon
David Mamet's play, November is an Oval Office farce about an outrageously corrupt fictional lame-duck President (who resembles an uncanny amalgam of George W. Bush and Bill Clinton) and his bird-brained attempt to turn the annual Thanksgiving-turkey pardon into a potential political fund-raising scheme.
Alex Brandon, The Associated Press
President Barack Obama pardons Courage on November 25, 2009.
I saw November back in 2008, and although, in my opinion, it's not one of Mamet's best, it did spark my curiosity about the history of the Presidential Turkey Pardon.
So, exactly where and when did this odd tradition originate? As the story goes, each year since 1947, the National Turkey Federation and the Poultry and Egg National Board have gifted a turkey (and an "alternate") to the President of the United States at a White House ceremony right around Thanksgiving.
Since then, presidents have been more likely to call the turkey dinner than give it a reprieve. But a notable exception occurred in 1963, when President Kennedy, referring to the turkey given to him, said, "Let's just keep him." It wasn't until 1989, during the first Thanksgiving of President George H.W. Bush, that a turkey was officially pardoned.
Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama have all upheld the turkey pardoning tradition. However, some confusion still abounds regarding the true origin of this practice. Some claim that Harry Truman pardoned the turkey he received in 1947, but the Truman Library has been unable to prove this as fact. Others say that the tradition dates back to Abraham Lincoln's pardoning of his son Tad's pet turkey.
Here's what is certain: since 1989 a turkey (and its alternate) have been pardoned each year. For 15 years through 2004, the turkeys were given to Kidwell Farm, a petting zoo at Frying Pan Park in Herndon, Virginia, a rather unfortunate name if you happen to be a turkey who has narrowly escaped becoming the centerpiece of someone's Thanksgiving feast. The turkeys would receive a last minute pardon before arriving, and were then led to their new home at the Turkey Barn after enduring a turkey "roast" brimming with poultry humor and history.
In and after 2005, the turkeys, with names like "Pumpkin and Pecan," "May and Flower" and "Marshmallow and Yamy", got a police escort and were flown (sometimes first class!) to Disneyland in California where they served as honorary grand marshals for Disneyland's Thanksgiving Day parade. After that, they spent the rest of their lives (which are often truncated as a result of their less-than-stellar factory farm origins) on Disneyland's Big Thunder Ranch.
According to a Disneyland spokesman, after five years of taking in the turkeys, the park will no longer be accepting presidential pardons. Instead, after Obama spares the turkey tomorrow, the fortunate fowl will be relocated to George Washington's Mount Vernon Estate in Virginia.
The 21-week-old turkey in the spotlight this year is staying at the W Hotel, just a block from the White House. Once at Mount Vernon, he'll be driven to his pen in a horse-drawn carriage and be greeted with a trumpet fanfare.
Related reading:
10 fascinating facts about turkeys
| Nov 23 at 03:02 PM
Saturday, November 20, 2010
10 fascinating facts about turkeys
Did you know that turkeys communicate their emotions through the color changes in the skin on their necks, faces and snoods (the flap of skin that hangs over the turkey's beak)? Yep. It's true. A turkey's snood (I think this may be my favorite new word) turns bright red when he is upset and during courtship, as way to send a spirited signal to all eligible hens.
thekebun.wordpress.com
This is just one of the many fascinating facts about America's favorite holiday bird.
Farm Sanctuary has rescued more than 1,000 turkeys since 1986 and has provided lifelong care for hundreds of these birds at their two shelters in Watkins Glen, New York and Orland, California.
If you don't yet know a snood (see above) from a wattle (the flap of skin under the turkey's chin), check out these 10 little-known turkey tidbits just in time for Thanksgiving:
- Turkeys recognize each other by their unique voices.
- Researchers have identified more than 20 distinct vocalizations in wild turkeys.
- Turkeys have excellent geography skills and can learn the specific details of an area of more than 1,000 acres.
- Like cats and dogs, turkeys are intelligent, affectionate and sensitive animals who form strong social bonds.
- On factory farms, turkeys frequently have the ends of their beaks and toes cut off without anesthesia to prevent them from injuring one another where they are forced to live in crowded, dark and often filthy warehouses.
- Between 1965 and 2000, the weight of the average turkey raised commercially in our country increased by 57 percent, from an average of 18 pounds to an average of 28.2 pounds. This caused many commercially-bred turkeys to suffer from crippling foot and leg problems.
- Completely unlike their wild ancestors, most commercial turkeys are totally white. The natural bronze color was selectively bred out of them to eliminate uneven pigmentation because of consumer preference for "even flesh tones."
- The industry has selectively bred turkeys to have abnormally large breasts to cater to most people's white-meat preferences. This gross anatomical manipulation makes it difficult for male turkeys to mount the females, making it impossible for these birds to reproduce as nature intended. As a result, artificial insemination is now the preferred means of breeding on factory farms.
- Turkeys, along with other poultry, are not protected by the federal Humane Slaughter Act, and are frequently killed without first being stunned.
- Every year, more than 46 million turkeys are killed for Thanksgiving holiday dinners.
If you'd like to start a new holiday tradition for your family this year, consider adopting a turkey instead of eating one. Visit the Adopt-A-Turkey Project website or call the Turkey Adoption Hotline at 1-888-SPONSOR.
| Nov 20 at 02:49 PM
Friday, November 19, 2010
Swan's death came by human hand
It's been a rough fall for for Bay Area birds.
First, several gulls were seen sporting Budweiser collars in early November. Then the five-year-old swan named Monday, was found dead last Saturday morning near San Francisco's Palace of Fine Arts.
This avian tragedy occurred just six months after Monday's 19-year-old mother was stolen. Now Monday's sister, 13-year-old Blanche, has the entire lagoon to herself.
Foul play was suspected in Monday's death since the bird's only obvious injury was a snapped neck. Today, after conducting a necropsy, San Francisco Animal Care & Control's veterinary staff confirmed that the swan had indeed died of a dislocated neck, which most likely came at the hands of a human.
Anyone with information about the swan's untimely demise is urged to call San Francisco Animal Care & Control at 415-554-9400. A reward fund for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person(s) responsible has been established. For information about how you can contribute, please call 415-554-9413.
Watch the video below to witness the days when SF swans swam free:
| Nov 19 at 03:34 PM
Welcome to Tails of the City: A menagerie of stories about Bay Area pets and the people who love them.
By Amelia Glynn, Read Bio
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