The benefits of pets, reason No. 1,305,057
By Gina Spadafori
April 25, 2008
You don’t really need an alarm clock when you have pets.
This morning I’m working at home — on the Web sites, blogs, columns, books and some leftover “day job” stuff I brought home with me — so I wanted to get an early start. Set the alarm for 5:30, but it hadn’t gone off when the pets started wishing me good morningdemanding breakfast. There’d been a power outage during the night and the clock radio was blinking midnight. Looked at the cell phone: 5:35 a.m.
Man, they’re good!
***
Otter is doing great back home on the ranch in Texas, no doubt thrilling her “country mouse” sister Luna with tales of Big City Sacramento. The last few months couldn’t have been better for socializing a puppy to sounds, since the small acreage behind me had been leased for a construction staging site for a sewer and water line project. It was hell for those of us who lived with non-stop heavy equipment, noise and dust (not to mention two break-in attempts on my house!) but what a good situation for a puppy. Mary got back a friendly, loving, outgoing “teenaged” dog who doesn’t even flinch when a backhoe fires up 10 feet away.
Even better for those of us who prefer peace and quiet, the project is over, the street repaved (that heavy equipment sure chews up pavement) and our quiet country lane in the city is pretty much back to normal. Good thing, too, because I thought the two sisters living next door — very sensitive, they are — were going to have to be institutionalized if the project went on much longer.
And today … Ilario the kitten arrives! I sure hope the Empress Clara (pictured at the top, looking Empressy) enjoys her new little brother. At right is Tom, pictured today with Ilario a/k/a Larry. Tom says, “At least one of us combed his hair.”
Final personal pet news: Looks like I’ve scored four young and already laying Aruacuna hens! Can’t wait for fresh eggs and new challenges.
Side story about my neighbors, the two sisters, with regards to the chickens: The sisters are vegans. That’s fine, of course, but I mentioned to them a few months ago that I was getting chickens and that since they have a massive vegetable garden they might want a couple of chickens, too. (Raising a couple extra baby chicks for them would have been no big deal.) Chickens are great at garden pest-control and especially love tomato worms. Plus … garden compost!
“Oh no!” they said. “We’re vegans! We don’t eat anything that was alive.”
Um, aren’t plants alive? Hmmmm. Yeah, I know what they mean. Anyway, I explained I wasn’t planning a meat operation, and that my chickens would be pets. Besides, without a rooster, the eggs wouldn’t ever have been alive or even potentially alive, by any stretch of the imagination. Basic biology, no? Male + female = babies.
“Oh no!” they said. “You don’t need a rooster to get baby chickens. Those eggs are alive! We just couldn’t eat chicken babies in their shells! We’re vegans!”
Uh, OK then!
By the way, they have dogs and cats, and feed them Costco’s Kirkland kibble. (I know this, because they asked me about it during the recalls.) I’m pretty sure that’s not a vegan product. Don’t know how they square that in their heads. But then, I haven’t seen a whole lot of evidence that there’s much up in their heads anyway — nice people and good neighbors though they truly are — so maybe it’s not a problem for them, if they just don’t think about it.
***
I’ll be adding as I can throughout the day, but if you find news items of interest, please add them to the comments.
Nothing better to put me in a good mood than seeing a beautiful cat picture like the one on top.
Waiting to see Ilario’s picture soon.
Thanks for straightening out my confusion about the newsletter.
Clara looks ready for Ilario—I will be waiting to here news of the interaction between the two.
Comment by Colorado Transplant — April 25, 2008 @ 8:53 am
I just added a little pic of Ilario from Tom. There will be more, I assure you! :)
Comment by Gina Spadafori — April 25, 2008 @ 8:54 am
I remember when little Clara was no more than a fuzzball. She’s looking just like a diva now :)
I just introduced O’Malley the rescue cat to my home about 3 weeks ago. My old girl, Maui, had lost her 17 year old brother just 2 weeks previous to kidney failure (yes, I’m certain the pet food recalls sped along his demise). We lost 2 elderly cats in 9 months, both from kidney failure).
In any event, Maui was howling - all day long, loudly and continually. Our vet suggested we get her a gentle companion.
O’Malley was a rescue cat, injured when hit by a car, and is the gentlest soul in the world. Maui took to him after a few days of O’Malley being sequestered in my daughter’s bedroom.
There’s a cat truce in my house. Maui has stopped her sad howling and O’Malley is the big boy in town. Still gentle, still a love, but so much more independent and playful. We have a happy home at peace again.
I hope Larry’s transition goes smoothly, Gina. He’s a cutie pie!
Comment by Sharon H — April 25, 2008 @ 9:17 am
I have a couple of good friends who are vegans. If you really care about animals beyond just not eating them(unlike PETA) than you know you have to do your best for your pets.
They all feed their pets ‘normal’ food because they know that cats are obligate carnivores, and that dogs don’t generally thrive on a vegetarian diet.
Comment by 2CatMom — April 25, 2008 @ 10:49 am
I got that. In fact, one of the more bizarre moments of the pet-food recall was when an animal-rights group contacted me to pitch a story idea on vegan diets for dogs and cats, since they were (as they put it) “safer” than commercial food.
My response was twofold (after I got through laughing):
1) What part of carnivore do you not understand? (And OBLIGATE carnivore, in the case of cats.)
2) Hello? Adulterated wheat gluten? Hello?
Morons.
Anyway … we at the Pet Connection recommend that people who are vegans adopt house rabbits! Bunnies are the perfect vegan pet, and there are lots and lots of them who need homes.
Comment by Gina Spadafori — April 25, 2008 @ 11:00 am
Vegans don’t eat animal-derived products, period. So, despite how awkwardly the neighbors worded it, eggs would be off the menu. Also honey and milk products.
Comment by Shelly — April 25, 2008 @ 11:08 am
I’m almost vegan, and while I don’t have any philosophical objections to eggs from pet chickens, they don’t really agree with my stomach.
For a vegetarian, though, I buy an awful lot of meat for the cats. I usually make their food starting with 12 pounds of boneless skinless turkey thighs, a pound of chicken hearts, and a pound of chicken liver.
Comment by Katherine — April 25, 2008 @ 11:40 am
P.S. Rabbits rock.
Comment by Katherine — April 25, 2008 @ 11:40 am
>So, despite how awkwardly the neighbors worded it, eggs would be off the menu.
“Awkward” is being kind. They truly do not understand — and argued to the contrary — that without a rooster, eggs cannot become chickens.
>Vegans don’t eat animal-derived products, period
This is why “veganism” often seems a tad cult-y to me, instead of being a lifestyle choice derived from thinking things through on your own.
Does “animal-derived” include the composted manure organic farmers would use in a sustainable and eco-friendly system of agriculture? So you’re not going to choose non-animal foods from organic farms because they rotate chickens through their fields for pest control and soil enrichment (such as in the pioneering sustainability work of Polyface Farm in Virginia?) Or do vegans insist on the use of earth-damaging fossil-fuel fertilizers and pesticides on their food even though that contributes to global warming and the possible end to the eco-systems a lot of animals (including us) need to survive?
Why if you’re making a logical choice “for the animals” would you say “no” to humanely produced eggs from pet hens and say “yes” to pet food sourced in industrialized factory farms? (As my neighbors do.)
Not to use too much animal-derived product here, but accepting a set of eating rules as “the only way” instead of figuring out where you can exist philosophically and ethically within the big framework we’re all trying to exist is (to borrow from Penn&Teller) bullshit.
Count me out of any lifestyle choice I have to follow in lockstep because it’s defined by someone else.
But as we’ve said here many, many times, we at the Pet Connection aren’t very comfortable with black-and-white, with-us-or-agin’-us dogma from any side. The world is shades of gray to me, and we all do best we can. For me, personally, that means choosing as humane and sustainable a diet as I can, for me and for all my animals. That’s getting increasingly lower on the food chain for me, but the cats and dogs here will always be eating meat.
Comment by Gina Spadafori — April 25, 2008 @ 12:46 pm
Bunnies! What a great idea! I’ll have to talk to some of my vegan friends about adding this perfect pet to their families.
Comment by 2CatMom — April 25, 2008 @ 1:51 pm
People who have never known rabbits as anything other than an ignored backyard hutch-bound kid’s pet have NO IDEA how affectionate, playful, fun and entertaining they can be!
Comment by Gina Spadafori — April 25, 2008 @ 2:09 pm
Sadly, my dogs have other ideas in mind when it comes to bunnies. Snap Dogs! A British term actually for whippets. Back a few centuries, there was a sport called ‘Snap Dog’ where one or more whippets/small sighthound types were released in a large enclosure with a number of rabbits or hares, and bets were placed on how many got ‘snapped’ in a specific period of time. Glad that sport has passed into oblivion! However,if you want to train dogs for racing/lure/oval, attaching a bit of freeze dried rabbit such as strips of skin, feet or ears to the ‘bunny’( normally white plastic bags or a jack-a lure) ups the prey drive!
I love Clara the Regal and can’t wait for gratuitous Clara and Ilario blogging!
Comment by Deb — April 25, 2008 @ 3:38 pm
Getting back to puppy socialization, I was so proud of Harper yesterday. Our neighbor was having his carpets cleaned, so we had the big truck with big hoses making loud noises parked outside our front door. I took Harper out to go potty and she tripped right on by without any concern at all. She finished puppy kindergarten last weekend and the trainer recommended that she skip level 1 obedience and move on to level 2 since she was so calm and good. Hah! They haven’t seen her at home—but we were pleased nonetheless.
Comment by Kim — April 25, 2008 @ 3:39 pm
Re Gina’s comment about the neighbor gals. “Don’t know how they square that in their heads. But then I haven’t seen a whole lot of evidence that there’s much of anything up in their heads anyway..nice people and good neighbors”…..etc, etc. Well Gina you got me laughing on that one. Must be an epidemic going around. I have one of those also. Drives me right up the wall. Almost have to sneak out my door to get away from her.
As the saying goes…”the lights are on, but no one’s home”. Wonderful pictures of Clara and Larry. Soooo cute.
Comment by VJ — April 25, 2008 @ 5:56 pm
Good luck to the little guy — a great forever home with dogs to torment, a another kitty friend to play with!
Gina, I hope you give us the rundown on what Drew, Clara , the retriever clan, Pip and the rabbit’s reactions are!
Meow!
Comment by rose-aka the Drew fan club — April 25, 2008 @ 9:04 pm
Does the number 1,305,057 have some special meaning?
Comment by Colorado Transplant — April 26, 2008 @ 6:20 am
I think you ought to give your vegan neighbors some eggs “for hatching out.”
“Pleeeeze! Save the babies!”
If they get any chicks, you can name them all Jesus Christ.
Okay, I “get” the idea of abstaining from animal products. It’s really a sort of modern-day quest for spiritual purity — an attempt to abstract oneself from the Way of All Flesh.
But a person’s principles would be less susceptible to mockery from us unwashed savages if said person also possessed any sort of grasp of basic biological principles.
This applies to Republican Presidents and Presidential candidates who deny the organizing principle of all biological science as well as vegans who believe in virgin chicken birth, so I’m an equal-opportunity savage.
Good luck with the chooks. We are closing on our farm in a couple of weeks; I hope to have chicks in shortly thereafter. It’s hard enough to hold off on gardening because of the move. We get a significant portion of our food from it, and not planting feels like courting starvation. I’ve covered the beds at our current house with black plastic to smother weeds and to look tidy for buyers. I have to stifle the urge to show up at the new place with a rototiller while the sellers gape at me from their mound of cardboard boxes.
Comment by H. Houlahan — April 26, 2008 @ 7:02 am