Festive Halloween “nightmares” can be fun for children and grownups alike. For dogs and cats, however, they can just be—well, nightmares. All the loud, unfamiliar activities associated with the holiday are sure to put your pet on high alert, potentially making for an unpleasant experience. Minimize the stress (and worse!) by heeding the advice contained in this infographic. Continue reading “5 Halloween Pet Safety Tips [Infographic]”
“We cannot stop natural disasters but we can arm ourselves with knowledge: so many lives wouldn’t have to be lost if there was enough disaster preparedness.”
~ Petra Němcová
Co-founder and vice chair of All Hands And Hearts—Smart Response
The recent Hurricane Florence—whose tragically disruptive effects are still being felt in the Carolinas weeks after it made landfall on September 14, 2018—is a stark reminder of the importance of emergency preparedness, not just for the personal safety of ourselves and family members, but also for the animals in our care. After all, dogs, cats, and other types of pets with whom we share our homes are very much considered “family”; and, as such, they deserve to be included in our disaster planning.
The biggest challenge, of course, lies in the fact that the term disaster planning is an oxymoron: disasters, almost by definition, are never planned. Whether fire or flood, blizzard or hurricane, tornado or terrorist attack, they tend to occur unexpectedly, creep up on us with little warning, and create a whole host of possible life-threatening scenarios we can never fully anticipate. The best one can do, then, is try and prepare for the most likely of those scenarios.
Here are three steps you can take to help integrate your animals’ needs into your family’s overall emergency preparedness strategies. The rule of thumb is: what’s best for you generally is what will be best for your pet(s).
Continue reading “When Disaster Strikes: Don’t Forget to Include Pets in Your Planning!”
Whether destined for market or bred to live on the farm, it is important—and in most areas legally required—that livestock be clearly identified. Livestock identification can take several forms, including tagging, tattooing, electronic implants, high-tech transponders, or a combination of these methods. However, when it comes to hogs, one of the most common methods used is tattooing, as it is less costly than branding, damages the animal’s skin less, and is less painful and stressful to the animal.
Continue reading “Hog Tattooing Made Easy”
Guest blog by Frank Weaver
“So first, your memory I’ll jog,
And say: A CAT IS NOT A DOG.”
~ T.S. Eliot, ‘The Ad-dressing of Cats’
from Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats
Perhaps it is due to a defect in my character, but the company of animals has for me often been preferable to that of human beings. Not that I am any sort of misanthrope. I like people, and get along well with practically all of them. It’s just that I find the complex machinations of the human mind—how to read it, how to respond to it, what to make of it—quite exhausting at times. Whereas the instincts, behaviors, and personalities of most animals lie much more at the surface, readily accessible if not always understood. Their innocence is profoundly appealing, and thus dealing with them is just easier for someone like me.
So yes, I love animals, all of them. I daresay, they tend to love me back most of the time. And how could it be otherwise?—given that my namesake saint is most famous for his inspiring rapport with birds and every other beast.
Continue reading “Diary of a Reluctant Cat Rescuer”
At long last summer has arrived, July Fourth is just around the corner, and temps are rising to unbearable levels. Time to break out the bathing suits and beach towels! And don’t forget to pack a book or two…or seven. Herewith we present a full week’s worth of vacation reading for you fans of our furry friends (including dogs, cats, cows, pigs, sheep, goats, and more) to enjoy while you soak up the sun.
(Click on a book’s cover image to view editions available from Amazon.)
Continue reading “Beach Reading for Animal Lovers”
