HOT WEATHER and Pets

I have two new clients - boxers - who don't particularly care for the hot weather. Actually, dogs with shorter, "pushed in" snouts (such as bulldogs, pugs, Boston terriers, boxers, Lhasa apsos and shih tzus) can have a more difficult time getting enough air to cool down when it's hot and humid out. I did a little research on how the weather affects all pets and came up with a few tips:

• Never leave your pet alone in a parked car even for a few minutes. If you leave the window open, it's still not enough. Most of the newer cars have key FOBs that allow you to leave your car running and still lock the door. If you must leave your pet in the car (which is not advised, but sometimes you just HAVE to do it) for a short period of time, leave the car running with the air conditioner on and lock the car. If you feel that this is too risky in regards to having your car stolen, you shouldn't have your dog with you for the trip then.
• Always travel with water. Hours without water is not good when you're traveling. I always bring either a bottle of water and a container or I fill up a lidded plastic container with water and make sure the dogs have access to it often. If you're thirsty, your dog is thirsty. That's how I gauge it.
  
• Don't play outside during peak sun/heat hours or if it's exceptionally humid. Morning and evening are the best times. And for the love of God, don't play on asphalt when it's sunny! If you're not sure why, stand on it in your bare feet and you'll require no further explanation.
  
• Definitely don't play with your dog outside if it's very warm or humid right after a he/she has eaten. The explanation will bore you. Just don't. Trust me on this one.
• Never take your dog to the beach unless you can provide shade and fresh (not SALT) water. You should be able to provide both. If you can't, it's a potentially hazardous situation.
• Make sure your have screens on your windows and that they are secure. When it's warm, cats love to get in windows where they can be close to the outdoors. You don't want them to fall through. The same goes for "jumpy dogs" who love to leap at windows to get at things on the other side.
  
• Don't apply your sunscreen or insect repellent on your pet. Check with your veterinarian or a pet store and get sunscreen that can be used animals. Otherwise you're risking diarrhea, vomiting and possible neurological damage.
• The flip side of that is to check and see if your dog needs sunscreen. My border collie has a lot of pink skin showing on her snout, so if she was going to be in the sun for a long period of time, she would need it.
  
• You should never let your dog stick his/her head out the window when driving, but I know many people do (I'm often guilty of that!) If nothing else, at least don't permit it when you're driving on the highway, recently paved roads or gravel/dirt surfaces. It's too risky in regards to things flying in their eyes.
  
• Supervise your dog if you plan on letting him swim. Believe it or not, YOUR DOG COULD DROWN! Your dog isn't Michael Phelps.
• Last but not least, for all of the people who are like me and take their dog with them whenever they can, if you are going on a boat, put a flotation device on your dog. Seriously. Your dog isn't Mark Spitz either.

Justin and I love taking Sadie and Daisy with us whenever we can. On many Fridays he takes Sadie to work with him and I take Daisy to work with me. We both spend most of the day in the car, so our dogs do too. When we go camping, our dogs are camping with us. Since I started my business, I've become so much more informed in regards to pet safety. For every guideline listed above, there is a horror story that can be told about someone who didn't follow them and their pet suffered. Just keep that in mind.

Leona's Trustees Worse Than Queen of Mean!

I've actually been stewing over the recent news about Leona Helmsley's Estate being butchered by the Trustees for a few weeks now, but had to wait to to comment on it because I wasn't sure I could control my temper. If you don't know what happened, let me quote the New York Times April 22nd edition for you. A few short sentences will sum it up.

• In February, a Manhattan judge ruled that the trustees had sole discretion in disbursing her assets ($5 Billion) and that the entire estate did not have to go to the dogs.
• The disclosure that Trouble was the largest named beneficiary in the will prompted death threats against the dog. Another judge reduced Trouble’s trust fund to $2 million; the dog’s security costs the estate $100,000 a year. (WHAT IS WRONG WITH PEOPLE WHEN A DOG NEEDS A BODY GUARD???!!!)
• The judge also negotiated a $6 million settlement with two of Mrs. Helmsley’s grandchildren who were explicitly left out of her will.
• The $1 million for animal rights and welfare was divided equally among 10 charities, including the A.S.P.C.A. and Guide Dogs for the Blind.
• The first $136 million from the hotelier Leona Helmsley’s disputed multibillion-dollar estate has been distributed, trustees announced on Tuesday, but the bulk went to medical centers instead of dogs.

Now, I can already hear the shouting of legions of people who think that there is nothing wrong with ruling. And perhaps there are even animal lovers who feel that giving the entire $5 Billion to a dog is insane when there are needy people and organizations that are desperate for money all in the name of human rights and whatnot. We all are entitled to our opinion for sure. Moments like this are precisely why I've been a blogger for almost five years now.....so I can give my big, fat opinion to anyone who will read it. :-)

I agree that it's entirely bizarre to give $5 BILLION to a dog. BILLION, people. That's the number five followed by 9 zeros. I try to envision how much dog food you could by with $5B and I'm at a loss. However, it was Ms. Helmsley's legal will that determined that this should occur. When any judge is able to overturn a legal document set forth to determine where one's material and monetary assets should go after a person has passed, it makes me question what the point of the will was to begin with? To shut up Leona for the time being I suppose! And the importance of the people who witnessed it? Zero! The credibility of the individual who drafted it? Crap! It's true! The JUDGE said so.

My main concern is that if she wanted the money to go to a dog and this judge, fueled by the dispute of her family attesting the will, thinks that one dog shouldn't have $5B, why not give it to ALL of the dogs?? Can you imagine what $5B would do for animals just in the US? Stop for a moment and think about that.

If you didn't have time to stop and think, let me provide you with some ideas.... medical treatments for people's beloved pets would improve or become unnecessary because the illnesses may be cured. Shelters wouldn't have to put innocent animals to sleep because they couldn't afford to keep them under their roofs anymore. Animals would be spayed and neutered without worry of cost and the problem with the animal population would be reduced drastically. Perhaps we could hire some bigwigs to create some really groovy laws to scare the crap out of potential animal abusers, thus reducing occurrences of abuse. Michael Vick.....well, he's a whole other conversation for another time, but let's just say he'd be ruined and there wouldn't be talk about ANY NFL team taking him.... EVER. And maybe there would be a huge team of people beyond Cesar Milan and PETA and the ASPCA shutting down puppy mills and stopping the horrible cruelty that goes on in even our country!

Now, before I wrap this up (because I could really rant for awhile), I want to address all of the people who say, "Why should it go to ANIMALS when there are HUMANS in need???" To you, I say please consider that humans are not THE most important life form on this planet. If you want to know why I believe this, drop me a line and I'll share.

Next, I want you to know that this was the first time in charitable history that such an enormous amount of money was donated to an animal or animal related cause. First time EVER. And while Ms. Helmsley really went gangbusters with this and shot right to the top of the annual top 60 charity list, right behind her was Revlon's Ron Perelman, who donated $63.5 million to the Weill Medical Center for cancer research, education and patient care, in memory of his ex-wife.

And behind him? Not one other animal related cause made that list. Maybe there was another at Number 61? I doubt it.

What To Do When You Go On Vacation Without Your "FINE" Dog

Sounds like I should have this great solution available, right? Well, truth be told, I don't. But I have suggestions. And I have stories that go with those solutions.

Before I became a pet sitter, I was in NEED of one. I met this very nice woman who my neighbors gave rave reviews. Her name was Pat and she was very professional. She came to my home and sat on my carpet and met my Sadie. She also had me come to HER home, where we hoped Sadie would stay, where she made us feel welcome and at home. Sadie had always been a bit "odd" with new people, but we assumed that it was something that happened with a previous owner and she was fine.

There it is. The assumption that she was FINE. Truth be told, I must've known she wasn't fine. She had something going on that wasn't identified or named, so we excused it as her being "shy" or "cautious" or "afraid of men" or whatever excuse we could come up with to make her sometimes odd behavior sound normal.

We left for our vacation to visit my brother and about 3 hours into the trip, we got the call - Pat had come to pick up Sadie and couldn't get within 10 feet of the dog without her barking, howling or growling at her. She consulted with people and they all deemed Sadie too aggressive for her to continue working with. But she tried! And when all else failed, we had to turn around and come home to our stressed out doggie. She was so happy to have her people back and didn't have a concern in the world about our ruined vacation.

Fast forward 2 years. Now, I'm the pet sitter. I was called by a lovely woman who needed someone to board her dog. I went to her home and met her and her dog. She told me that even though her dog was a bit high strung that he was FINE and was just excited that someone was visiting. Truth be told, I enjoyed this lady's company and conversation and was distracted by the signs that he wasn't FINE.

Now he's in my home and there's lots of chaos going on. The poor guy is in a totally new environment, with other animals, full of energy without having the space to let it out, and very dominant! If he wants to play and the other dogs don't, he picks a fight and it gets ugly. The difference between this situation and the one two years ago is that the owner can't come home. She's in another state. So, I need to suck it up and brainstorm with Justin and my customer on how we can make the next bunch of days livable for me, my family, the dogs and my customer who is stressed by a situation out of her control.

Why am I telling this story? Well, I think it's to promote awareness. Don't let this type of situation happen to you. We learned that Sadie had fear aggression and that's why she behaved how she did. She wasn't FINE with some uneducated excuse like the one I had made up. Everything we do with Sadie has that diagnosis hanging over it and our lives have changed a LOT because we have to WORK at making things AS FINE AS POSSIBLE.

My boarder's human will have to do the same thing. He will need training and probably some sort of work done with his dominance issue. For his sake and his human's sake, I hope they persue this issue and work to change their lives to accommodate his personality. I know fabulous people with lots of education on this subject who can change their lives. I know this because they did the same thing for me.

When you go on vacation without your dog, be realistic about any potential issues. Don't be afraid that the sitter or kennel will turn you away if you give them "less than fine" news. If they do say no, you don't want your dog there anyway! But the people who care for your dog need to be informed and prepared to handle anything that comes up. A real pet professional knows that all dogs aren't perfect. And a real animal lover would never say "no" to a dog that isn't perfect. They'd give you both a chance.

Peanut//Daisy/Coco

After many months of research and contemplation, we finally found our latest (and last) family member. Justin has officially put "a moratorium on allowing any living things not created by us to move into this house". I suppose 2 dogs, 2 cats, 1 rabbit, 1 bird and 9 fish is more than enough for a two bedroom condo!

We found Peanut via Petfinder.com. It's a wonderful website if you're looking for a particular breed or you want to narrow down the details. We were connected with a wonderful group from Schenectady, NY who had driven to Mississippi to save adoptable dogs that were going to be euthanized. We had been looking for a Shih Tzu (due to my adoration of one of my customers, Zoe) and were given Peanut.

Considering that I refer to most small dogs as "Peanut", the name had to go. She was Daisy, then Coco and now back to Daisy. Our vet and groomer both believe that she is a Shorkie (Shih Tzu/Yorkie mix), which when Googled, run for about $1300 for a female puppy. What a deal we got!

Daisy came to us sick, as most shelter dogs do, with worms, a dual ear infection and conjuntivitis. She also came to us with a lovely one month free pet insurance plan! Yippeeeee! She is cured of all ailments, but I have to say that medicating her was a "treat" (NOT!) We were bit numerous times and that makes for an unhappy puppy and very pissed off humans! One benefit of these illnesses is the education I received on what causes them, how to treat them, and how properly give your dog medication wihout losing valuable body parts. Daisy has settled in nicely!

Walkin' that dog

I feel like I have the dream job I've always wished for. How in the world did I get so lucky that I get paid to watch other people's pets??? It's amazing. When I feel like I'm having a bad day, I tell myself that my worst day doing this job is better than my best day at my last job. Dogs won't mentally abuse you or make you feel insecure or question yourself. They judge you based on instincts, not pissy moods or boredome.

I have a boarder this weekend who is one of my best customers. He's absolutely adorable and is probably one of the top 5 dog clients I have. Sadie approves, so I can't complain. If Sadie aint happy, aint no one happy!

Today is Valentine's Day. I hate Valentine's Day. It's one of those days where all sorts of expectations are placed on you and the person you're in a loving relationship with. My other half is currently sleeping. He worked from 6am to 3pm and came home after fussing over preparation over what he had bought me for the day. However, we never made it to presentation because he needed to take a nap. He's still napping. Hours later. I need to go and walk a dog late night and will probably want to go to sleep when I get home. So, the holiday is a bust. What a surprise. Did I mention that I hate this holiday?