We Love You Rusty!

WE LOVE YOU RUSTY!
November 17, 1995-July 25, 2010

It’s amazing to realize how much you become attached to your pets. They are more than pets, they are family. Today, we lost our wonderful Rusty. A purebred Maine Coon that we have had since he was 8 weeks old. He passed in his sleep at the age of 14.

He was our “gentle giant”. Fatherly to all the other cats that have come and gone through his years with us, and Romeo to the female cats that loved him. His way of settling a dispute was to raise his big paw, the others knew he meant business. That rarely ever happened, because not much ever bothered him.

His passion was to sleep and go outside to his fenced-in area. He never tried to escape; he was not that adept at jumping or climbing. But leave the gate open, and he would wonder around and explore the yard seeing how far he could get before being caught! When he wanted back in, you could hear his meows and you knew he was ready to come in, eat and take a nap.

He was very vocal, he could say “out” and “mom”. At least that is what we interpreted him saying. He always carried on a conversation, the more you would respond, the more he talked. I wish I would have known what he was saying; it would have been awesome to know what he was thinking.

I am worried how our female cat, Katie, is going to take his loss. She was always trying to get his attention and affection. They always slept together and he would groom her until they fell asleep. Last night, before going to bed, they were huddled in the corner, he was grooming her. I said to them, “What are you two love birds doing?” He paused from licking her ear and gave me one of his roars.

It was early afternoon that I found him in the same spot, cold and stiff and lifeless. It breaks my heart to lose such a wonderful and loving part of our family. He did have a wonderful life. I will cherish his memory forever. All his awards and ribbons will be a reminder of our Grand Premier XTC’s Rustaffa of Azeem. But more than that, Rusty will live in our hearts forever!

7 Steps To A Happier Pet

Being a member of HSUS (The Humane Society of the United States), I receive mailings every few weeks. Today, I received a pocket planner that had something I would like to share with you:

7 Steps To A Happier Pet

The Humane Society of the United States, in its constant battle to end animal neglect, cruelty and abuse, encourages all its members to take the following actions in support of animals.

1. Make sure your pet wears an identification tag to enable him to be returned to you if lost.
2. To prevent animal behavioral problems, make sure you enroll your new puppy or dog in behavioral training classes, and visit www.petsforlife.org
3. Animal behavioral problems can be health related. Make sure your pet has a complete medical exam by a veterinarian at least once a year.
4. Prepare for disasters. Make sure you have a plan for your pet in the event of a hurricane, tornado, fire or flood.
5. Plan for your pet's future in case something happens to you and visit www.humanesociety.org/petsinwills for more information.
6. Learn how to avoid dog bites, and how to prevent your dog from biting, by going to www.NoDogBites.org
7. Have a heart, be smart and make sure your pet is spayed or neutered.

A Wonderful Adoption for a Cruelly Treated Puppy

A Wonderful Adoption for a Cruelly Treated Puppy

"Jazz’s" Story (m.schaffer)

I got an email from my nephew, who had just adopted an almost 1 year old Collie/ German Sheppard puppy mix. It wasn’t an ordinary adoption; he drove from Omaha, Nebraska to Kansas City, Missouri after reading of her story on the internet. She was a rescued puppy from an abusive owner. Thankfully she shows no signs of neglect and is very playful. Her current name is “Jazz”, but he is looking for something that is special for her new life.

Here is "Jazz’s" Story as seen on the internet:
http://www.petfinder.com/petnote/displaypet.cgi?petid=13189748

Quoted from the site: "Her prior owners got her as a puppy and put a collar on her neck when she was small then never removed that collar....as she grew the collar became tighter and tighter until it became embedded in her neck cutting her and strangling her more and more every day. The collar acted like a saw and sawed away at her neck tissue cutting her deeper and deeper every day. Her neck became infected from the open wounds caused by the collar sawing into her neck and I'm sure you can imagine the excruciating pain she endured for weeks and weeks. Luckily someone saw her and called animal control and she was saved in time!

Jazz had to endure having that horrible collar removed surgically and the weeks of recovery as the infection and the wounds slowly went away."

My nephew found out when visiting the kennel that Animal Control prosecuted the previous owners. However, Jazz had remained in the pound and was slated to be euthanized. The vet called the PAWS Kennel stating that she couldn’t bring herself to kill such a wonderful dog after all she had been through in her young life.

Even then, Jazz was taken to “A Dog’s Funhouse” Kennel where she stayed for a couple months before being adopted by my nephew. While staying at that kennel, she was attacked by another dog. Enduring more pain and suffering! She now has scars on the top of her head and on her ear.

I was so happy to have received that email. What a heartbreaking story and such a great ending. I know he will be a good dad to his new found love, Jazz. He has already signed her up for obedience training and is puppy proofing his house.

With everyone’s help, maybe there will be more puppies getting to live the life they were meant to have and not ending up with the ugliness of animal cruelty. Amen to the one that saw the need to call the authorities. We all need to be aware and take the initiative to care for those that can’t help themselves.

The Healing Powers of Pets

The Healing Powers of Pets
by Mary Schaffer

In 1993, I lost my father to non-Hodgkin’s type Lymphoma. He had been ill for many years, but in late 1992, it was determined to be terminal. This isn’t really a story of his death, but of his love for his cat, Kitty.

Kitty started out as my cat, but when I moved home for a short time, my father bonded with her and she just adored him. They were a match from the very beginning. She would follow him everywhere and, of course, she claimed a spot in his bed. He would make her little treats, brush her long coat and sit with her on the swing, rocking back and forth while petting her. As much as I loved her, I couldn’t break the two of them up. My dad got “custody” of my kitty.

Kitty was a rescue cat. My apartment didn’t allow pets, but I kept her anyway. She appeared at my back door one evening during a rainstorm. I didn’t have the heart to leave her out there, so I brought her in, dried her off and she won my heart immediately. She was the perfect companion for lonely nights and a perfect comfort after a long day at work. She knew how to snuggle and make you feel that you were the most important thing in her world.

I would go to my parents to visit and reconnect with her. I loved that she still came to me, like her mommy was home. She knew that I hadn’t abandoned her, as she had been when I found her. My dad seemed happy that she was there and he had someone to look after. I knew she was in excellent hands.

When my dad’s condition started to recur, he would get large swellings in his neck. He would lie in bed most of the time. Kitty knew that the man she loved was not feeling well and would lie with him as close as he could tolerate. He would actually feel better with her there.

One such episode occurred that made my mother and I believe in miracles. My father had a large lymph node swelling in his throat causing him difficulty in swallowing. Kitty laid on top of my father as close as she could to where the swelling lymph node was located. She slept there most of the night.

When he woke the next morning, he called out to my mother. She came into the room to find him sitting up, feeling his neck. He asked her to feel the area where the tumor had protruded. There was NO lump to be found. Both were in disbelief! He could swallow and breathe much more freely. It was truly a miracle.

A few days later, he told this story to his doctor. The doctor had no explanation for what had happened.

Eventually, after having a few weeks of remission, my father grew too ill for Kitty to sleep near him. He was in too much pain and discomfort for her to be in the bed. My mother put a blanket on the floor for Kitty to curl up on so she could still be nearby.

After his passing, you could see that Kitty truly missed him. She would sleep in his bed and would look for him in the house and outside.

Kitty lived the rest of her life with my mother. It wasn’t as close of a relationship as she had with my father, but I think it did my mother good to have her with her. When Kitty became ill, my mother chose to do the humane thing and euthanize her. She had congestive heart failure and could barely breathe because of the fluid surrounding her heart.

Kitty was a wonderful cat and will never be forgotten. I hope that my father and she are reunited in heaven.

Press Release: "Pet Products Website That Offers the Best in Quality, Comfort and Value"

On April 20, 2009, we published a press release featuring our website, http://www.petbedsandstuff.com/.

If you would like to read the press release, just click on the following link.
http://www.1888pressrelease.com/pet-products-website-that-offers-the-best-in-quality-comfor-pr-113514.html

Pets and Vitamin B1, Thiamine-Is There Really a Need?

Pets and Vitamin B1, Thiamine - Is There Really a Need?
by Frank Will

The answer is a very definitive YES, especially for dogs and cats. While the use of Thiamine in humans has been firmly established, especially in the disease Beriberi, the positive benefits it can have with your pets, either dogs or cats, is just starting to fully surface.

Vitamin B1 is also referred to as thiamine or thiamin, is in the family of B vitamins, and is a water soluble vitamin, which means that your pet's body will need a constant supply of this critical nutrient, either through their diet or by the form of supplements as their body cannot store it.

This vitamin will help your pet metabolize fats and proteins, and help them also to convert food, or carbohydrates, into fuel, which in turn is then turned into the energy that runs their body. This critical vitamin is also essential for healthy skin, hair eyes, and the liver.

Vitamin B1 is also extremely helpful to both dogs and cats in that it assists the nervous system to function properly as well as helping your pet cope with stressful situations as it improves the immune system.

Thiamine, which is found naturally in both plants and animals, also plays very critical role in particular metabolic reactions as it required by your pet to form ATP, also known as adenosine triphosphate, which every cell of your pet's body uses to produce energy.

Thiamine deficiency has been reported in both dogs and cats that have been fed uncooked meat that contains sulphur dioxide, which is used as a preservative in most pet foods.

In commercial pet foods, especially cat food, thiamine is broken down by what is referred to as thiaminase, which is an enzyme that is present in certain types of raw fish that include tuna, salmon, shellfish, as well as rice brain. All of these ingredients can be found in most types of commercial cat food.

To make matters worse with this potential condition in cats, repeated feeding will eventually cause thiamine deficiency in your feline friend. A thiamine deficiency in your cat can lead to brain damage, seizures, and an eventual loss of movement control of muscle tissue, which could potentially cause the death of your cat. However, treatment by injection with Vitamin B-1 is so effective that once thiamin deficiency has been diagnosed, full recovery is extremely common within 24 hours.

It would only seem to make perfectly good common sense that supplementing your feline companion with the valuable nutrient on a daily basis would be a preemptive measure all cat owners would take. In fact, many breeders supplement thiamine regularly as it also helps in hyperactivity as well as internal muscle weakness.

What is not well known, however, is that Thiamin is also natural retardant for fleas as well as mosquitoes in both cats and dogs, as both hate the taste of thiamine in your pet's bloodstream. Either your cat or your dog that eats supermarket pet food, if not supplemented with thiamine, has a very good chance of developing thiamine deficiency.

Although thiamin deficiency in dogs is not nearly as common, it still exists.

When your dog lacks the enzymes found in thiamin, they may develop a very unnatural condition known as Coprophagy, which by definition, is feeding on dung or feces.

This condition is an intentional ingestion of either your dogs own feces, or that of another animal, usually a cat or a horse. Once your dog has acquired a taste for this very unpleasant as well as unhealthy practice, it is very hard to correct until you can build back their thiamine levels.

Adding certain enzymes such as papain which is derived from the fruit papaya will help to correct this, but so will making sure that your dog is supplemented with Vitamin B-1.

Thiamine deficiency in dogs can also result in a lack of appetite, vomiting, unsteady muscular behaviors, as well as spasticity in their hind legs, especially in middle aged or older dogs and can very easily be ignored as arthritis.

Just like us, your pets are what they eat, and what you, as their owners, supplement them with.

I am not a veterinarian nor claim to be, just a lover of pets that loves to research and pass on some knowledge that might be helpful, or at least stimulating to the thought process.

Several of the articles that I have written can be found on my website; Liquid Vitamins & Minerals for Humans & Pets
http://www.liquid-vitamins-minerals-humans-pets.com/

Create Fun Dog Exercises You and Your Pet Will Surely Love

Create Fun Dog Exercises You and Your Pet Will Surely Love
by Alex De La Cruz

Walking and stretching are just a few of the many exercises that you could choose for you and your pet to enjoy. Exercise is good for the body but many people don't treat it like a privilege. Instead they view exercise as something tiring and the last on their to-do list if ever included. However, it should never be the case because as mentioned earlier it brings a lot of benefits for the body like keeping you in shape. Involving your pooch with fun dog exercises strengthens your bond, paves the way for a sporty activity and it keeps both of you healthy.

When you are running out of the things you want to do for the weekend and you definitely don't want to spend the whole day snoozing with your pet, why not try creating some fun dog exercises? You might be surprise with the possibilities that you could choose from. Aside from the traditional dog walking, you can try fast walk, jogging, trekking or hiking. Just make sure that you bring all the stuffs you would need along the way. In line with this you get to discover beautiful spots in your neighborhood or in your state at the same time getting fit.

With more and more people getting excessive fats in their bodies, you do not want to have them too. This exercise can be a great way to avoid those unwanted body fats. Fun dog exercises also include sporty games such as tug of war, a race or just plain hide and seek. It would be better if you would choose games that will involve the mental abilities of your pet. It helps attain the balance in your pet's total well being. You can try playing catch either with a ball or a Frisbee which involves both the mind and body.

If you have a sporty dog it will surely embrace this kind of activities. It body is built for this kind therefore it will cooperate well. On the other hand having a toy dog or those that are not so active, light exercises are still needed. Actually you can make use of fun dog exercises whenever you want. Having these kind of breeds doesn't mean that you free yourself of physical health obligations. Everyone living thing needs to stretch their bones and muscles to be in shape. And that can only be done thru moving their bodies or to put it simply to exercise which can make a lot of benefits for the body.

Make the situation exciting by creating fun dog exercises. The only obstacle that you have to pass is to get the energy needed to start it. Some don't like it that is why it takes a lot of energy to lift an arm. But if you have set your mind that this activity would be enjoyable for you and your pet it will surely be a long way to go. So take out your sporty outfit, get your pup ready and hit the park, gym or any venue to get started.

The author of this article, Alex De La Cruz, is a Dog Expert who has been successful for many years. Because most people think that Arthritis is a humans-only disease Alex now informs dog owners with his http://www.doggybooks.info/ EBook on how to discover this disease and let their dogs live as pain-free as possible.