Animal Chatter

Too cute or too ugly, thats the question I’m asking about the winner of the World’s Ugliest Dog Contest that was held friday at the Sonoma Marin Fair in California.

Pabst, a 4 year old mixed breed boxer was the recipient of the award. With his scrunched up face and under bite, he took the top honors beating out last years Chinese Crested, Rascal.

Pabst will receive $1600.00 in prize money, along with a modeling contract from House Of Dog and also pet supplies.

Miss Ellie, another Chinese Crested, took top honors in the pedigree category.

With summer approaching it’s going to be time to pack up the boat with your wake boards and water skis and life jackets, but if you are one of those people that take your pet with you, don’t forget their Life preserver

It’s best not to assume that all dogs can swim, or even if you know your dog swims that they may not get into a situation that they you can’t retrieve them from quickly enough. You would never put yourself or your family at risk, so you should never put your dog at risks either.

These Life preservers are designed especially for the comfort and safety of your dog. Ranging from extra small to extra large, there is a size specifically designed to fit your pet’s weight and length. These high performance jacketsprovide excellent flotation performance for your pet while keeping them comfortable.

Additionally, you should make sure you have plenty of fresh drinking water on board for your dog. Travel bowls are available in no spill bowls. These are also excellent for hiking and camping or just doggie walks to the park.

Also, be sure to have a place out of the sun on your boat for your dog to relax in. Excess sun can no only burn them, but can cause heat stroke and heat cramps. A nice covering for the pads of their feet while on deck is recommended. Boots for dogs come in various sizes and colors and can help protect their feet from getting burnt.

If your dog has not been boating before, let them get acquainted at first before taking off. Dogs normally like stable surfaces, so this could be quite a shock to them. Allow your pet to get off and on the boat quite a few times to get comfortable and assure him that he will be able to leave the boat at some point. Watch for signs of seasickness, it happens to dogs too.

For all your pet boating safety needs, visit PawsUpPetSupply and use code Cindy01 for your 10% off $50.00 savings.

Anyone who has been following my blog or knows me, can understand my need to have myself a party and kick back and relax. Times have been hard in my household with the death of my horse, my cat, my dog having his toe removed and now has cancer, and my other cat having surgery from a bad wound. We are starting to heal, and its time for a little party to celebrate the lives of the animals that we miss, and what better time then Cinco de Mayo. Its a wonderful time to celebrate that Mexican heritage, its food and drink, with emphasis being on the drink. While margaritas are normally the choice of drink, along with corona or mexican beer, here we have our own variation of margarita. Its a frozen drink that you pour 7 up or sprite over. Heres my recipe. This needs to be made at least one day in advance and it can be made several days in advance and kept in the freezer for quite awhile.

Mix altogether:

8Cups of Water

1 1/2 c Sugar

3 Cups of Jose Cuervo Golden

1 can frozen lime juice

1 can frozen Orange Juice

1 can frozen lemonade

Store in freezer. To drink, put a couple scoops in a cup and pour either your 7 up or Sprite over top.

This has been one of my party favorites for a long time and is such a fun drink. To make the best be sure to use Jose Cuervo Golden.

If you don’t have a party to go to, you can always join us at Twitter moms for an online party. Its a lot of fun, you meet some fantastic ladies and you can share your recipes at the same time. Bring your best Cinco de Mayo drinks and food and join in the party.

I’m really looking forward to a little Cinco de Mayo celebration.

I’ve been hearing a lot of chatter recently from people who would like to have a monkey or chimp as a pet. They see them on TV and think how cute they are, or in the zoos they see them interacting with one another and its adorable, or that cute baby monkey you see. There is no denying, they are cute little creatures, but, they can also be deadly or quite difficult to handle.

The fact is most of the chimps or monkeys you see on TV are babies or adolescents. The reason being is that as they get older, they become more demanding and harder to control. We all know how intelligent they are, but did you know that they become 7 times as strong as a human being, so, literally, if they don’t want to do something, they aren’t going to do it. Biting and scratching is natural behavior for these pets and raising them in captivity will not eliminate that. Also, they require special diets, not just your local supermarket canned pet food.

Finding a place to keep the monkey or chimp in your house would be difficult too. By nature, they like to swing and jump and you would need a very large dedicated area to keep them in. Interaction with other primates is almost a necessity, however, if you raise them from being a baby, they will find it difficult to know exactly how to interact with other primates, which makes it difficult for those primates that are given to sanctuaries when they are older and the owner realizes that they can no longer control this once cute baby.

Disease is also another risk. Monkeys and Chimps do carry quite a number of fungal, bacterial and parasitic diseases. Herpes B, salmonella, monkey pox and tuberculosis are among them. Almost all of the macaque monkeys carry the deadly Herpes B virus, which can be transmitted to humans through bites and scratches. Approximately 90% of those infected get encephalomyelitis and 75% of those result in death. Humans can also transmit diseases to monkeys and chimps such as pox, meningitis and hepatitis.

It is illegal to import primates into the US for pet trade, however, in other countries, many of the primates that serve as pets are captured in the wild and because the thought of owning a cute pet monkey is still high, the demand for them is still great.

I’m writing this blog because I am being faced with the decision of whether or not to have gold beads inserted into my dogs spinal pressure points. This is not a practice that I was familiar with until recently. I’ve spoken with many vets, did lots of research and have come to some conclusions about this type of therapy.

I’ve long known about acupuncture for animals and people, in fact, I’ve had relatives that did have acupuncture and swore that it worked quite well. I’ve now come to know of a neighbor’s dog that had the gold bead acupuncture that couldn’t even get up, and I’ve seen him running around like a puppy with my own eyes.

My dilemma is that my dog, a large Rottweiler, had a hemilaminectomy several years ago or in layman’s terms, surgical removal of a portion of the vertebrae lamina. The doctors did not think he would ever walk again. Through a rigorous physical therapy that I instituted with him, including hydrotherapy, he now walks. His gait is odd, he has trouble getting up on tile floors, and sort of bunny hops instead of running. Because of a toe that he jammed and will not heal, the toe will have to be removed and the Veterinarian is recommending the gold bead acupuncture at the time of toe removal. Not being very familiar with this procedure has left me a little leery since his hemilaminectomy was so long ago.

However, in researching this procedure, I have found it to be quite interesting and of a great help to dogs that suffer from epilepsy, Wobblers, spondylosis of the spine, and other musculo-skeletal diseases.

How this procedure works is tiny gold beads are inserted into pressure points, depending on the disease being treated, and the beads give off positive charges thereby normalizing dysplastic joints or desensitize the vertebrae. In spondylosis treatments, the beads tighten connective tissue and and give off positive charges that normalize ionic changes in tissue.    Endorphins are also released at this time giving the dog a more euphoric feeling.  Results can be seen immediately or take up to months. The beads remain in the pets body forever.

This procedure is no doubt costly, ranging from 800 to 2000 dollars, just depending on how large the animal is and how many beads need to be inserted. Research shows that it does help 75% of the animals that receive it. My vet says his results have been 100%.