Are Your Pets on YouTube?

When Wayne bought me my new digital camera last Christmas, I knew it spelled trouble for Murphy, Mr. Meow and Tabby. Because not only could I take pictures without having to hassle with film anymore (which freed me to snap, snap, snap as many pics as I wanted), I could also take video. An Amateur Pet Film Maker Is Born I had such high hopes that I could capture Mr. Meow doing his maestro show on the air vent or the cats chasing each other, but so far no luck. I quickly found out what a tricky business capturing pets … Continue reading

The End of the Personal Pet Therapy Project

It’s with a heavy heart that my first blog back after a lengthy absence is to report that the Personal Pet Therapy Project came to an end on Thursday, July 3 when my mom (a.k.a. Grandma Dorothy to Murphy, Mr. Meow, and Tabby) passed away. The Gift That Proved Significant Since the last month has been pretty chaotic and filled with emotional upheaval, I wasn’t able to chronicle some stuff. Such as, that the little stuffed heart Tabby kept bringing my mom was a most significant gift indeed. My mom’s last oncologist appointment on June 11 proved to be The … Continue reading

The Pets Blog Week in Review for April 21-27

Aimee and I went on a writing rampage last week bringing you more articles than usual. Because we wrote so much, you might have missed one or two. Thank goodness we provide this handy Week in Review cheat sheet! Monday, April 21 In The Cat and the Binder Clip, Aimee researched the effects of “clipnosis.” Tuesday, April 22 In Velvet Ears, Golden Paws, Angel Butt, I talked about one of my favorite nicknames for Murph. Aimee wondered if you spend more on your pets than on yourself. Wednesday, April 23 In a very useful article, Aimee shared some tips for … Continue reading

Leapin’ Lizards! A Study in Pet Teamwork

As I touched on in My Life With Cats, I was born into a family of dog lovers. My mom’s never spent much time around cats. (Tabby and Mr. Meow have since seen to it that she’s become a non-cat convert though.) And she certainly hasn’t spent much time with both cats and dogs in one household. I’m well aware that it’s possible for cats and dogs to get along, but my mom’s still trying to understand how it is they all get along. It’s simply amazing to her that not only do Murph and the cats tolerate each other, … Continue reading

Chaotic Cat Chronicles: The Tales Their Tails Tell

An inadvertent side affect of the personal pet therapy project has been that my mom is paying attention to Murphy, Tabby, and Mr. Meow’s mannerisms. And remembering them from day to day. For instance, she’s beginning to recognize that when Murph lets out a certain bark and rushes to the window a rabbit’s surely in the yard. When he growls another way and rushes to the window a dog must be going past. Then there’s his whine and anxious face pressed in front of ours when he’s ready to go for a walk. But the cats intrigue her the most … Continue reading

Humor Helps with Dementia Homecaring Duties

Earlier today I wrote “GULP! I’m a Caregiver!”. I admitted how scary that was and how clueless I sometimes am about it all. The Humor of It All However, that leaves a lot of room for humorous incidents. Luckily, both my mom, husband, and I have pretty good senses of humor. Which is nice, because as my fellow bloggers Aimee and Beth have both written in previous articles, laughter is good medicine. (And not just my mom could stand a large dose of that at this point!) Humor had a chapter all its own in Keeping Busy: A Handbook of … Continue reading

Loose Lizard Lends to Utilizing Tabby’s New Skill

The other day I had to laugh because I had just written about all the crazy animal stories on the news lately when one more, this time local in nature, aired. It was about a rather large (three feet long) and unusual lizard captured in a nearby state park. The lizard wasn’t all that unusual as far as being a rare species that hasn’t been seen for years or anything of that nature. It was a run of the mill monitor lizard. What was unusual was that it was in Long Hunter State Park, where such reptiles aren’t usually seen. … Continue reading