I told my vet I was thinking of switching Buffy’s dog food since I had been using the same brand since 2001. At that time I had a dog active in agility competitions, and her trainer had recommended a certain brand, which was a senior / weight management variety. I had no complaints about the … Read more
For the first time in well over a decade, I don’t own a dog who is afraid of fireworks. Buffy, my 9-year-old cocker spaniel, did not follow in the footsteps of my other dogs, whose worst nightmare was the Fourth of July. Buffy is now an only dog after we lost Chipper in November. Dogs … Read more
The last Father’s Day that I can remember temperatures in the upper 90’s in the Chicago area was in 1988, the first of the greenhouse summers—the summer when Yellowstone burned. That was the first year that people talked about global warming. I hope this summer isn’t like that. My grandfather died that day, on Father’s … Read more
At 3 am on Monday morning, Buffy, my 9 year-old cocker spaniel, walked around my bedroom bumping into things. When I called to her to direct her down the stairs, she acted confused and disoriented, terrified of the stairs. Buffy is recently blind from glaucoma so she often bumps into things, but her confusion seemed … Read more
Often I ignore the bombardment of ads for flea and tick control products and stay with my usual practice. But every once in a while something changes; my vet makes a recommendation, my pet develops an illness, or I hear new claims or concerns, that make me re-visit this issue. Until fifteen years ago, I … Read more
Until two years ago, I never found a tick in my yard. Now with Buffy being blind, she mostly stays on the grass and hardly walks into the shrubby areas, so I was shocked when I saw a tick on her. I found another one on me after I had walked her around my residential … Read more
“I’ve had two blind dogs,” someone told me at the BlogPaws Conference. “One would crash into walls, bounce off and keep going as if nothing happened. The other dog became scared of everything.” Fortunately, Buffy, my 9-year-old cocker spaniel, is like the former. She bumps into many things each day and I worried about bringing … Read more
One Shelter Volunteer, Countless Dogs, and the Quest to Find Them All Homes by Amy Sutherland A Book Review. The last time I walked through an animal shelter was decades ago. The idea of ‘No kill’ shelters was a novelty back then and most ‘pounds’ kept the animals for only five days before euthanizing them. … Read more
With every dog, I seem to learn about different diseases. My parent’s dogs never seemed to get sick until they were quite old, and then they’d euthanize them. My sister’s cocker is still very healthy at 15. Maybe I just have bad luck. I feed them a higher quality dog food than the rest of … Read more
