In The News

Today's San Francisco Chronicle outlines the battle between the New York State Department of Agriculture and the FDA on whether it's rat poison (aminopterin) or a fertilizer chemical (melamine) found in the pet foods that have now been recalled but responsible for at least 16 pet deaths.

Forget about the politics about who's finding what in food that sickens our pets.

What's important is this: there is now a list posted by the FDA and it includes a dry cat food: Prescription Diet m/d Feline, made Hills Pet Nutrition. This food has been found to contain melamine, which the article debates on its overall toxicity.

If all of this is making you wonder if it's time to try some home cooked meals for your pet, here's a meatloaf recipe that's advertised for dogs, but could probably be fine for cats while this whole thing gets sorted out. Looks easy enough for even me to try, and believe me, I generally don't take time for this even on good days. But I'll try it out this weekend and let you know...

The Vulnerabilities of Love

For all of us pet lovers, the stories of the past week are chilling. Long lists of pet foods, premium and affordable, show brands being recalled because of rat poison contamination. My first thoughts go to those that have been affected by this: the pets and the ones who love them. The recent picture of Pebbles being treated broke my heart. I think of others who fed their pet the food from one of the 60 million tainted cans… 60 million cans! – staggering… and my heart goes out to them.

There isn’t any one of us who doesn’t feel vulnerable when something like this happens. My guess is that you held your breath as I did when looking through the long list of contaminated foods and thought: “Please don’t be on the list.” While I am one of the lucky ones, I still can’t stop thinking and reading about the others who not only found their brand on the list but are dealing with its effects. It’s a terrible lottery that no one wants to win.

For many of us, our pets are part of our family – losing a family member is difficult no matter what the circumstance. Losing them in the process of our daily routine, by giving them food we believe and trust to be healthy, and finding out it’s not, is devastating and exposes our vulnerabilities to the core.

Menu Foods has offered to reimburse pet owners for their medical bills (in the same story as the picture of Pebbles, mentioned above), which is an honorable effort if they don’t overload the process with so much red tape that it seems like going through still another trauma. The company should also keep pushing to find out how this happened, and work cooperatively with their partners and other manufactures to put in the needed safeguards so we don’t need to fear this again.

Menu Foods updates the list frequently, and just to be safe, keep away from the gravy stuff for a while…

What Me, Blog?

Hello. Welcome to my blog.

I’ve started this blog for several reasons:

• We’re busy these days, and have limited time to learn about all the new and interesting things going on.
• I love pets, and find what’s available today can be inconsistent in quality and usefulness.
• If done right, a blog can add much value by collecting data and sharing thoughts that positively impact our quality of life with our pets.

Here’s what I hope you get from reading this blog:

• Information that you find useful and wouldn’t know about otherwise because you’re busy too
• Insights that you might not get otherwise because you don’t have time to sift through the various sites and publications
• An opportunity for you to comment and share when you do find something interesting that could also be useful to someone else who is as busy as you are

What should you expect?

• I'll do some initial posts.
• Your insights, comments and additions are important, please share your thoughts.
• Since you're busy too, I won't post so much that you feel lost, but will aim at three times a week or so.
• We'll revise as needed.
  

Like many people, I can be overwhelmed by the amount of material that comes my way every day, both on printed paper and painted screen. If there’s an opportunity to streamline this, especially when it comes to one of my favorite topics, pets, then it’s not only useful, but fun and interesting too.

So this will be a blog about pets. I actually love all animals, whether they’re pets or not. But to stay focused, we’ll keep it to pets. How we love them, care for them, think of them as family. How we never have enough time to do all the things that need to be done – maybe if we share ideas, thoughts, and tips, we can discover ways to make our lives easier and more efficient. At least that’s the goal.

And it’s about the wonderful things our pets bring us – the unconditional love, the companionship, the serenity of being able to share our lives with others who are unlike us, but teach us many things about ourselves, our lives, and what’s important.

Minnie and Doodah

Our house is currently home to two 13-year-old DSH (domestic short hair) cats, Minnie and Doodah (named by a then 3-year-old), one surviving 6-year-old Shubunkin goldfish named Bumpers (from an original batch of 18, in three different tanks), and one Yorkie, Chocolate, 7 years old, who never gives up trying to rule the whole pack.

Chocolate is my “first” dog, since the dogs in my past bonded to others as alpha, not me. I was always the “cat person.” And I still love the special time I have with Minnie or Doodah, but I must admit, it’s that Yorkie who takes most of my attention now. He’s my constant buddy, my personal trainer (walk!), the one who’s always the happiest to see me (maybe this makes it obvious that I also live with a teenager?)

He’s a very friendly guy, with one exception, a story for another time. So I get introduced to a lot of my neighbors as we walk the neighborhood and say hi to anyone also with a dog, big or small, that cares to stop for a sniff and chat. These are times that I cherish, because sharing a thought or insight or story with another pet person always makes me smile. And I don’t always have time beyond the quick trip around the block as I’m rushing to make one appointment or another, if that.

So that’s what I have as an introduction. Now let’s see where this journey takes us…