Fear Free Happy Homes
Reading Time: 3 minutes A video circulated around the internet of a little girl leading her kitten through an agility course in her backyard. The girl’s energy and the tails-up, fearless enthusiasm of Suki, the kitten, were endearing. For most of our cats, their best sport is competitive napping. But the Suki video shows that cats can indeed be […]
Reading Time: 3 minutes When I was in college, several members of the football team lived in my dorm. I’m five feet tall, and whenever I walked down their hallway, one of those huge guys would pick me up, give me a big hug, and tell me how cute and tiny I was. I know they didn’t intend to […]
Reading Time: 3 minutes Last fall, my husband and I lost our 11-year-old German Shepherd Magical-Dawg in September, and Seren-Kitty in December just shy of her 22nd birthday. The sadness ambushed our emotions for weeks and months. It also haunted Karma-Kat, and he slept with Magic’s collar for a week between bouts of crying, increased clawing, and other attention-seeking […]
Reading Time: 3 minutes Outgoing. Confident. Friendly. Those three words size up Casey, my four-year-old orange tabby. I often say that Casey has yet to meet a stranger or feel as if he is in a strange place. But even though Casey assists me in our veterinarian-approved pet first aid/CPR classes and travels nicely inside his carrier on road […]
Reading Time: 3 minutes Many years ago, my therapist friend, Anita, agreed to take care of my dog, Dexter, while my husband and I went on a trip. Anita had a great idea. Instead of leaving Dexter home while she saw her patients, she had asked each how they would feel about having a dog in the room during […]
Reading Time: 3 minutes My beautiful 12-year-old black cat Rama has always taken life seriously. We know nothing about his background prior to adopting him nine years ago, but I clearly remember the shelter staff trying to steer me away from him. Rama moved like a small panther in the wild–nervous, with a bit of insecurity, and not open […]
Reading Time: 3 minutes Lily may never earn a Master Agility Champion title, but the little Chinese Crested already has attained her championship in agility fun. The 2-year-old has always been uncertain, says owner Michelle Atkinson of Anaheim, California. “At home in her environment she’s the boss, but outside her comfort zone she’s fearful and shy.” She proved that […]
Reading Time: < 1 minutes Noodles gets the “crazies,” the zooms-at-three-a.m. stuff. Dusk and dawn are favorite times, when the predator is on alert. She thunders up and down stairs, races down halls, or gnaws on your head, on your nose, on toes. She’s after prey, whether imaginary or just you. Cattens also knock things over, for the fun of […]
Reading Time: 3 minutes Storm phobia is a problem not just because dogs are afraid. The physiological reaction to fear is bad enough—the racing heart, the rush of stress hormones—but fear also causes dogs to react in dangerous or destructive ways. They may destroy doors or jump through windows in an attempt to escape the frightening situation. By the […]
Reading Time: 4 minutes Do you jump at unexpected loud noises? It’s adaptive for humans and other animals to startle at sudden loud sounds. We might run the other way or hide if we didn’t understand what a certain sound was. The same thing happens with many of our pets when they hear fireworks go off. It’s not that […]