I was looking around “Yahoo Answers” for some ideas about relevant and useful pet information I might share with you, faithful readers, and I found one that started me thinking about pet arthritis, specifically, how would you answer this question: “How do I know if my dog has arthritis?”

The simple and very unsatisfactory answer would be: Only your vet can tell for sure, and even then he/she could be wrong. Obviously, though, if you suspect your dog or cat may have arthritis, you should take that pet to a vet as soon as possible.

Besides that, the symptoms, or “hints” you need to watch for are pretty similar to the symptoms humans exhibit when they have arthritis, especially the most obvious symptom: Your dog or cat tends to “favor” a limb or paw, hesitating to put much or even any weight on it and perhaps showing a limp when walking. Although infected or abscessed bites from cat or dog fights can cause this, if an older pet shows such symptoms, arthritis is a likely cause.

Other signs that could mean your pet has arthritis may include:

Difficulty sitting or standing

Sleeping more

Seeming to have stiff or sore joints

Hesitancy to jump, run or climb stairs

Weight gain

Decreased activity or less interest in play

Attitude or behavior changes

Being less alert

Admittedly, some of these symptoms are pretty vague and even general. But you owe it to your aging pet, if these symptoms are showing and you are at all concerned, to get a solid diagnosis from your vet and a course of treatment. Old pets, like old people, don’t have to suffer from arthritis when there is often help available.

Technorati Tags: pets and aging, arthritis in cats and dogs, for pets and pet lovers

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For several months now, I have been blogging part of the time for advertisers who want their useful products or useful websites highlighted on — blogs.

Most recently, I’ve found out about a social networking website for bloggers who want to “monetize” their blogs. It’s called SocialSpark, and that sort of describes the site and the blogging opportunities they offer.

In addition to matching advertisers with qualified and interested bloggers, Social Spark makes “community” possible as advertisers and bloggers share their thoughts and goals with each other, seeking a better “fit” for both.

All this is done in professional fashion, not in some sort of “no-holds-barred” mix of wheeling and dealing. The Social Spark people police the operation carefully. Each blogger and each advertiser using the Social Spark network is required to uphold a code of ethics that includes in-post disclosures and honest opinions and reviews. I am personally very impressed by their “100% Transparency” policy for bloggers and advertisers, which reads:

“Every participant in SocialSpark is made viewable to the public. The public can also see which bloggers are working with which advertisers on which opportunities. This is designed to keep the community honest and open about the transactions that occur. If you don’t want someone to know you are doing business with a particular advertiser or blogger, chances are you should reconsider.”

So if you blog, and if you’ve been looking for ways to make steady income from your blogging, I would highly recommend Social Spark. Go take a careful look around. You’re not required to join, you can choose to “lurk” their forums, read their company blog, and carefully evaluate Social Spark. It could be just what you’ve been looking for!

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Okay, a friend of mine who is a contractor assures me the robins were not really “attacking” the guttering on our house, but he agreed it was probably a good thing we cleaned out the guttering anyway.

In past years, we have had everything from a colony of bats to a family (several generations, actually) of squirrels living in our roof. Yes, it was nasty. And yes, all the critters are gone now.

So you can imagine I was a bit nervous yesterday morning when Shirley and I went out to the driveway to take her to work and I happened to glance up and see decaying leaves and stuff hanging over the edge of the guttering on the driveway side of our house. As I watched, a cocky little robin flew up and landed in said guttering. He was shuffling and hopping along the guttering as we drove away.

I immediately feared the worst: Bird would peck through the guttering and/or the fascia on the roof. Before the week was over, we would have critters once again living in the roof.

My wife, Shirley, is a much calmer, more mature person than I. She calmed my nerves, came home after work, and climbed the ladder up — waaaaayyyyy uppp! — to the guttering. As I moved the ladder along the roof’s edge and stabilized it below, she climbed up and down and scooped the decaying leaves, dirt, etc., out of the guttering.

(If you’re wondering why SHE climbed the ladder: Our ladder is rated for 200 pounds; I weigh closer to 300. *sigh*)

The story had a happy ending: Immediately after I put the ladder away, Mr. Robin came swooping onto the edge of the guttering. He hopped down into it, rattled around a couple of feet of the guttering, then launched himself into the tree in the backyard. I could swear he showed attitude about the whole thing: “Hmphf! How dare they take away all that stuff! Coulda been a bunch of good worms in there!”

Oh, yeah — no birds, or wives, were injured in the making of this blog post.

Technorati Tags: birds, home guttering, roof troubles, for pets and pet lovers

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Sorry, I couldn’t resist at least trying for a pun with that post title. I guess I spend far too much time sitting in front of this computer and need to get out more.

Anyway, I just discovered a good looking site with some good products if you own a bird, especially (as the name implies) if you have parrots: Windy City Parrot.

I love the name of the place. I haven’t shopped there myself, because we haven’t owned any parrots or parakeets for years. (We owned a large parrot for one overnight stay and we’ve had various parakeets, as well as a beautiful male cockatiel named Snoopy. Some day I’ll recount those adventures.)

Go look around the place, if you have birds. If you don’t have birds, look it over anyway. The pictures on the site are lovely — and they have a number of useful articles if you own birds or are thinking of getting birds.

Technorati Tags: parrots, birds, pet products, for pets and pet lovers

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It’s such fun to watch our I’m-so-special-and-the-only-pet-in-the-house cat, Tigra, react when our daughter brings her medium sized German Shepherd mix dog, Ginny, by the house.

Yesterday’s weather was good, so our daughter walked Ginny over for the exercise (they live about 2 miles from us), and simply came strolling through the front door with Ginny on a leash without warning or announcement.

Tigra was sleeping peacefully on the sofa not far from the front door. Daughter took Ginny into the kitchen for a big drink and a snack, then they returned to the living room. Ginny is intimidated by the claw-bearing cat Daughter has at home, named Dot, so Ginny approaches any cats very cautiously.

But her soft whimper and wet nose near sleepy Tigra was more than enough to wake Tigra up and get her attention.

Happily, the two of them got along with little human intervention. Then my son drove up. Son has no pets (though several neighborhood cats hang around his backyard), and when he comes by for a visit, Tigra just adores his energy and attention. Her problem was that she couldn’t do her routine hop off the sofa and trot to the front door to greet Son — because Ginny was standing quietly between Tigra and the front door.

The situation resolved itself after we all had a few laughs. Tigra the crank walked over to Ginny, glared at her, let out a very, very soft growl, and pawed very gently at Ginny’s nose. Tigra has no front claws, and she didn’t actually HIT Ginny’s nose so much as give it a warning tap. Ginny got the idea, though, and backed quickly away.

Nothing so fun as family and pets on a beautiful spring-time Sunday afternoon, is there?

Technorati Tags: Tigra our cat, Ginny the dog, cats and dogs, family visits, for pets and pet lovers

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This is a bit of a blatant “plug” for one of the pet supply merchants I partner with — Pet Supplies at 24KCloseout.com. They sell pet treats — actually the sell a ton of other stuff if you take a look around — and they sell those treats in quantity at very reasonable prices.

So here’s what I thought about and why I’m posting about this website: Many animal shelters nationwide right now are feeling a real strain on their resources, due to weather related disasters, due to pets abandoned by people who’ve lost their homes, due to a huge number of issues we’ve read and shared here and that you’ve seen elsewhere.

Why not buy a carton or box of pet food, pet treats, pet toys, etc., and donate them to your local animal shelter? I doubt any animal shelter in the country would turn down the gesture.

Think about it. Take a look around the website I’ve linked you to above, and see what you can do. If you’re not interested or able, or you don’t think my “share with your shelter” idea is something you want to do, that’s okay, too. Maybe you’ll find some good pet supply stuff you’d like for your own pets from this truly useful website.

Technorati Tags: pet products, special pet supply deals, useful website, for pets and pet lovers

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One of the fascinating questions about cats is this: Are they too dumb to learn tricks or simply too aloof to condescend to such behavior at the beck and call of a mere human.

Those of us who have cats (or are owned by cats) believe it’s the latter. Most devoted dog lovers I know attribute canine obedience to superior intelligence and look down on cats as too dumb to learn tricks.

I’m here to tell you, our cat, Tigra, has trained us thoroughly to perform the “tricks” she demands of us. When she’s really thirsty, she chooses not to drink from her water bowel, rather she walks into the bathroom and sits patiently on the closed toilet seat with her paws on the edge of our bathtub. If we aren’t quick enough getting there to give her the preferred bathtub drink (through a detachable hand-held shower hose), she will hop into the tub and do her best to suck/lap water from the old tub spout.

If Ms. Tigra comes in from outside when we call her, she strolls through the front door and straight to her food dish area in the kitchen, where she sits expectantly awaiting two or three tiny, crunchy kitty treats.

Yes, she’s bright enough to “train us” — but she treats us as though we must be out of our minds if we ask her repeatedly to do something that doesn’t interest her. Dumb? I think not. I think, rather, that she’s simply convinced she’s above all that. Sly, or perhaps “elitist,” would be the best term.

So, tell us, if you have a pet cat, have you trained the cat to do any tricks? I saw a video where I would ALMOST believe a woman had taught her cat a couple of basic obedience things, like “sit up,” and “sit.” Even then, I’m not sure if the cat really was trained — or the woman had been trained by the cat when to give it treats.

Scary, in a way, are cats, aren’t they??

Technorati Tags: cats, cat tricks, training cats, for pets and pet lovers

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I’ve never been able to understand people who let their dogs stay outside overnight and the dogs bark constantly — yet the owners never seem to hear them or care about it at all. Am I the only one who’s lived in neighborhoods with this sort of nuisance going on? I doubt it.

Most of the dogs — well, really, most of the pets — which we’ve had have been “indoor” pets. Even when we’ve had dogs, they may have spent time outside, but generally came indoors overnight.

My problem isn’t people who leave their dogs outside. My problem is when those people obviously neglect the dogs, and who obviously care nothing at all about their neighbors.

The last neighbors like this in our neighborhood insisted they never heard the dogs and weren’t aware that it was a problem. They were lying, I’m sure. Everyone within four square blocks of their house heard the dogs — almost all night long on almost every night for six months before the neighbors finally moved out of the neighborhood and took their dogs with them.

In the first place, such dogs suffer themselves. They generally are barking incessantly out of boredom, or loneliness, or even out of fear because of the loneliness.

In the second place, such poor dog owners cause many others to suffer — and even put the dogs at risk from irate neighbors who may retaliate in drastic ways to silence the dogs.

So I guess my plea to you all would be this: Be aware of your pets’ behavior, whether they are outdoors or indoors, and take care of them. You’ll be doing your dogs a favor, as well as keeping peace in your neighborhood.

Technorati Tags: barking dogs, bad neighbors, neighborhood pet nuisances, for pets and pet lovers

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Does your local fire department, police department, or other emergency responder stock oxygen masks or breathing apparatus suitable to help a pet dog or cat in an emergency? Yes? No?

I just ran onto a story about a Virginia community where a pet lover donated and helped raise money for such pet emergency response kits. It sounded like a worthy idea to me, and I don’t really know whether our local emergency people have such kits or not.

How about where you live? Do they have such kits to help pets in an emergency?

The article I’ve linked to above explain what the kits are and when or where they might be useful. It would be a nice idea if more communities would consider such emergency kits. At something like $85 per kit, I suspect most cities, towns, and counties really could afford one or two if they wanted. If not, why not organize a fundraiser?

Technorati Tags: pet emergency kits, emergency responders aiding pets, for pets and pet lovers

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I’ve never understood why some people find the subjects of life insurance, survivor benefits, wills, death, etc., something to be avoided. Surely we all know we all will die some day — why not take steps to care for those we love when we’re gone? Specifically — have you made provisions to take care of your pet or pets when you’re gone.

It’s my understanding that most states have little or no law relating to pets and pets who survive their owners, except that the pets PROBABLY are considered property, not “survivors” in the sense that people are survivors. But I’m pretty sure most states allow you to include specific instructions in a will regarding your pets.

Have you made a will, and if so, does it include some instructions or provisions for your pets? My wife and I made wills many years ago when our kids were minor children, because we were concerned about providing for their guardianship if we both were to die. We didn’t. They’re adults now, so it’s no longer an issue.

But very honestly, we have not revised our wills and they make no mention at all of who would take care of our old cat if we both were to die. So this is an area where we’ve not done anything.

In our case, we assume our daughter or our son would care for the cat, Tigra, if we both died suddenly or were incapacitated. And, since she’s a reasonably healthy, likable little cat who gets along with both our son and our daughter, there’s not likely to be a problem. If she required special, even expensive, care, it would be a different matter, perhaps.

Leave a comment, please. Tell us what you’ve done or not done regarding your pets if you were to die or be incapacitated.

Technorati Tags: pets and wills, pet survivors, pets as property, pets legal status, for pets and pet lovers

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