Category Archives: Dogs

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Gift Guide for the Animal Lover

  By Maria Zannini • October 26, 2016 ,

 

gift-guides This week let’s talk about the pet lovers in your life. This gift guide is near and dear to me because I love animal-related gifts.

I try not to buy too many chochkies for my friends because like any decor, it’s very personal. My tastes might not coincide with how they decorate their home, so I go easy on decorative items, but I found lots of other ideas.

• Christmas ornament
• Dog shaped cookie cutter
• Socks! I love getting designer socks. The quirkier, the better.
• Cat Socks
• Cat Butt Magnets. Yes, cat butts.
• Coloring Book.
• Don’t forget to include the gel crayons.
• Leash rack with dog butts.
• Leash rack with dog silhouette.
• Lassie movie collection. Love the one with Roddy McDowell and Elizabeth Taylor!
• Dog Pillow Sham
• Cat Pillow Sham
• UV Flashlight. Great for finding pet stains, scorpions, and dribbles left behind by little boys.
• Pit Bull Cup.  Other breeds available. I love Dean Russo’s art.
• Cat Cup. Design also by Dean Russo
• Door Mat: Dog
• Door Mat: Cat
• Sleeping Pants
• Sleeping Shirt. Yup. That’s my shirt.
• Dog Tarot Cards. I can’t make this up!
• Pet Tote Bags. Over 200 Different Breeds.
• Kitchen Towel. These are a hoot!
• Kitten Door Stop. I think it would make a good paperweight too.
• Cats Welcome
• Chicken Soup for the Dog and Cat Lover’s Soul
• It’s Raining Cats and Dogs: Paper-Pieced Quilts
• The Crazy Cat Lover’s Handbook
• Mark Twain for Cat Lovers (I never knew Twain was such a cat lover.)
• How to Tell if Your Cat is Plotting to Kill You
• The Silence of the Library (I love this cover too)

I’d like a couple of these things myself.


 

 

Finally…

A dear friend gave me this frame when my Tanky passed away two years ago. Although it’s not a Christmas gift per se, if you know someone who’s lost someone precious to them around the holidays, you can’t go wrong giving them this.

Not a day goes by that this frame doesn’t make me smile. It’s one of my most favorite gifts.tank-frame

 

If you’re an animal lover, what kind of gifts would you like?


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Cheap Trick: Bath Time

  By Maria Zannini • September 9, 2016 , ,

Cheap Tricks, shower for dog

I must’ve bathed dogs thousands of times. My dogs and other people’s dogs. I don’t even look at it as work. It’s just something that has to get done.

I’m short so most of the time my breasts ended up plastered against the tub. It could be torture depending on the size of the dog (or cat), plus I always ended up drenched.

Since I was already soaked, I usually dashed off to the shower to clean up, and that’s when it occurred to me that it would be easier to wash the dogs there too.

I prefer to wash the dogs in my shower. It’s smaller, and they seem less agitated in a confined space with me. We also have a huge walk-in shower where we used to wash extra large dogs like Tanky. He’d go anywhere if it meant he was getting a massage out of it. With cats or small dogs I usually bathed them in the laundry room sink. It’s ample enough for a small creature and easy with a spray nozzle.

Is pet washing a big chore for you? Are your pets easy to bathe or do they fight the suds?

 

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Could You Cull a Pet

  By Maria Zannini • August 24, 2016 , ,

 

As an animal lover I found this article friko head, croppedom the BBC News shocking and painful. I had mentioned in an earlier post about British Farms that during WWII much of their livestock was culled because they couldn’t afford to feed such big animals.

What I didn’t know until now is that the government began a campaign before the start of the war urging people to destroy their pets because food was certain to be scarce. In the course of one week, Britain destroyed 750,000 pets.

I know Britain suffered greatly during WWII. Rationing barely kept body and soul alive. A very good friend of mine lived during the war and she often told me about the shortages they endured. She never mentioned the government had urged them to destroy their pets.

She was obsessive about her dogs in her adult years and now I wonder if that cull had anything to do with it. We worked at the same veterinary hospital.

I can’t put myself in their place because we deliberately created a situation where we could provide for ourselves and our pets. If the government started urging me to destroy Nana and Iko, they better hope they never tell me that in person.

There is very little I get worked up about, but when it comes to my dogs, that’s where the line is drawn.

In the US, we eat too much anyway. I can afford to eat a lot less if it means my dogs get to live.

I do want to give kudos to the Battersea Dogs and Cats Home, in operation since 1860. According to the article, with only four people on staff, they took in 175,000 dogs during the course of WWII.

I have no right to judge, never having experienced that kind of shortage of resources. I just know I would not, and could not comply to such a request. I have the luxury of living in the country and growing my own food. As long as Greg or I draw breath, our animals will be safe.

To be fair, I’m a little more suspect of the government for starting such a panic. Back then though, people were much more willing to do as they were told. Today we question everything, and we should. If history has taught me anything, it’s that governments are not infallible. They make mistakes and sometimes they’re whoppers.

How would you feel if the government warned you today that food would be scarce for the unforeseeable future and urged you to euthanize your pets?  How awful would life have to be to make such an painful decision?