Pet Wellness Advocate
Icky Ears? A lot of dogs have ears that are really bothering them---itchy, painful, irritated---and their people do not realize how much discomfort there are in. Do you have a dog with floppy ears---with flaps that hang down and create the perfect environment for bacteria and yeast to flourish? Does your dog scratch at her... Read more »
Make A Shelter Dog's Day: Take Him for Ice Cream I recently interviewed a multi-faceted graduate student, Allison Andrukonis, at the Animal and Food Sciences Department of Texas Tech University. She is doing a study on “compassion fatigue” in shelter workers---specifically “burn-out” and the emotional effects of euthanasia on the spirits of shelter workers. I... Read more »
What Can Possibly Be The Problem With Grain-Free Dog Food? I’m glad that the alarm bells have stopped ringing about the dangers of grain-free dog food. For a little while, there was a flurry of articles and cautionary advice about avoiding the dog foods labeled as “grain free” because there was a heart condition called... Read more »
Out-of-Litter-Box Issues are still the Biggest Problem for Cat Owners I’m so glad people have written in with out-of-litter-box problems, since this the main reason people give up on their kitties. Everybody who writes me with kitty questions gets a coupon for a free Comfort Zone pheromone diffuser, which for many cats helps to lower... Read more »
I got an enthusiastic message from Jenny, whose young daughter Brooks “is obsessed with dogs & would love to go to Dog Film Festival. Is it playing in our area? We live in Beacon NY & have family we visit in the Berkshires.” I wrote Jenny back to say she was in luck --- that... Read more »
How To Get Your Cat Off “Kitty Crack” And Slim Down For all of the 7 ½ years I had my own show on the Martha Stewart channel of Sirius satellite radio, I focused on feline health, especially as it related to nutrition. From my years of research for writing The Cat Bible: Everything Your... Read more »
A New Year’s Resolution: Shed Your Cat’s Excess Baggage [The first in a series of blogs about how to safely and successfully get your cat to lose weight] Many people don’t even realize their cat is fat, because we’ve all become accustomed to seeing overweight cats with hanging bellies, brick-shaped bodies, and a skeleton so... Read more »
We Rate Dogs---the Best “Inside Joke” in Dogdom I’m a pretty big Luddite when it comes to Twitter and Instagram, which means I miss out on a LOT of really fun, exciting, moving content relating to dogs and cats. I had always figured I was already so overwhelmed receiving weighty content about pets (books, studies,... Read more »
Dr. Elsey’s Precious Cat is Bringing Joy to Cat Lovers & Shelters Nationwide I was filled with hopeful excitement last year when Dr. Elsey’s Precious Cat --- my “precious” devoted sponsor of DOG TALK (and Kitties, Too!) (my NPR radio show) --- encouraged me to create a cat film festival to give kitty cats their... Read more »
Myth #2 Fat Cats are Happy Cats When you hear the words “fat cat” you smile, right? You think fat cats look happy or funny --- you see social media pictures of enormous cats and get a kick out of it. You hear the saying about a person that “he’s a fat cat,” as though... Read more »