Animals Unfolded

Each year at this time, just as many other people here in Michigan, I delight in the arrival of the extended daylight hours; the warmer weather; not worrying about ice-covered roads; outdoor gatherings. Fireworks isn’t included on that list, and though I can appreciate other’s enthusiasm for them, they are the bane of those who share life with pets. The noise is the chief offender when it comes to frightening pets, but I've no doubt that if the light and smell resulting from them are within a detectable distance of a pet, they’re contributors, too. It’s understandable; the loud pops and bangs are confusing and occur without any sense of place. Though it need not be a precursor, for a pet that already has some level of anxiety or fearfulness, the things that make fireworks enjoyable to humans only feed the behaviors that signal to us that our pet is having even more trouble coping.  Over the years, I’ve had more companion animals in my care that find themselves in this situ...

This has been an especially tough week for a lot of people. The loss of two famous people due to suicide only highlights what goes on everyday in our midst: fellow humans grappling with the depth things that no one else can understand, no, not from  th eir  point of view.  A couple of comments, including "...sometimes the sad just catches up" and " ...suicide puts a fly in your head. It's always inside, buzzing around" caught my attention on social media. Maybe because they're simplistic, and that's what we crave when looking in from the outside—a way to get our head around something that confounds us.  Though working in different fields, Kate Spade and Anthony Bourdain shared an untimely, hair-thin thread and with the latter's demise, things somehow felt more resonant. Bourdain was the second of the two to be reported to have passed away, and maybe that's why. I'll argue, though, that it might be because his craft, what he shared in-kin...

"...I'm having a dilemma. I have no interest in doing anything like sub-q fluids, in fact, there is nothing in the world that I loathe and avoid more than needles... my business model is more babysitter, not nurse. I get that today's pet sitting client wants more and many sitters like yourself are doing more than just visits and walks, and I think that is AMAZING.... BUT!!! It is not my business model nor do I present myself as such." This is an excerpt of a message to me from fellow pet sitter (who consented to being anonymously quoted) and serves a neighboring area. And this isn't unique—more than one colleague has reached out to me to ask advice on how to handle a situation when they are asked, or expected by families in some cases, to participate in care that they are not comfortable handling or even being a part of. Things like administering subcutaneous fluids, or to tending to a pet that has been diagnosed with a life-limiting illness and is entering t...

My colleagues and I talk a lot about our industry and those related to it, especially the dog training industry. That’s because with our interactions with dogs are deeply impacted by the way that others interact with them—and that the dog training industry is unregulated. Despite certifications available through organizations like Certification Council for Professional Dog Trainers as a start, some trainers don't seek professional training, certification and ongoing education.  I’ve talked before about how rough handling, punishment-based dog training  and ill-conceived pet products impact my fellow pet sitters and everyone else around the dog that they’re being used on. Sometimes, these have consequences that are unthinkable. It's sad to think that as a pet sitter, given even one of the certifications I've got I out-qualify some professional dog trainers out there.   Whether we have a pet or not, we hear a lot about dogs that have been poorly socialized, hav...

Dog Bite Prevention Week encompasses a lot of topics regarding unfavorable interactions that result in dog bites, and one has been rolling around my head the past couple of days. I've had *one* incident occur in all of my years as a professional, and it was very dicey because even though it was through no shortsightedness on my part, I still bore the inherent responsibilty of a lot of things as a result. It was my ethical and personal responsibilty to ensure that the individual was tended to medically, that emotionally, they were okay and that they had proof that my charge was fully vaccinated. It was not fun to contact my client and tell them what had occured. It was a valuable lesson for me in that sometimes, no matter how much you advocate for a dog in your care (please don't approach, he's isn't comfortable with that), no matter how you try to explain that you're advocating for yourself and the other human (please don't try to pet him, he's not ...

Ask most people what they could use more of and they'll say, 'sleep'.  Oh yes, we value it so much and know that we need it to be our best selves. So why is it that so many of us strut around like its a badge of honor to exclaim how little sleep we've had and how productive we are [or think we are]? It's understandable, really, given the current societal climate: if you're not busy most of your waking hours and intrude on those hours when you can rest optimally, you're a loser. That, coupled with a world that's perpetually 'open for business', it's hard to honor our inherent need for sleep, and not just some shut eye, I'm talking about restful, valuable sleep. The truth is, we humans aren't the only ones that need sleep; animals are dependent on it. A new series, " The Secret World of Animal Sleep " on the Smithsonian Earth website, details those parts of the lives of the animal world.  As a companion animal death do...

We have few things in our collective culture that serve as markers in life. You know, those things that say that we've reached points in our respective journeys that are significant. In the broadest sense, aside from cementing our relationship with another human like with a wedding, the birth or welcoming of a new child or serving our country during war -- and for some in our culture, those situations never occur -- there really is little else that we feel compelled to mark as a rite of passage, aside from some cases, religious ones.  Rituals and traditions are  a natural part of the events that we do honor, and in our culture, I can see that we need more of that. Reclaiming rites of yore and establishing new ones would be especially helpful in navigating the bumpier times, enable us more solidly connect to members of the proverbial clubs that we're (sometimes unintentionally) initiated into and to navigate that new territory. Rituals demand that we engage in the act of n...