pet connection

Do you remember where you were when the first of the Friday night dump-and-run pet-food recall notices were dropped on a Web site?

I do. Because I blogged it. And then didn’t stop working for the next eight weeks.

A lot of people will be spending the weekend thinking about their dead pets, caring for their sick ones and wondering if it could ever happen again, in pets or even in the human food supply system. The answer?

From Christie’s piece just posted on SFGate.com, on this sad anniversary made even sadder because little has changed when it comes to our government’s lack of ability to protect the food supply:

I didn’t guess when I began covering this story … that it would turn into the largest consumer recall in history, trigger an international trade scandal, launch congressional hearings and proposed legislation on food safety, and result in the indictment of American and Chinese businesses owners. I couldn’t have foreseen that the incident would put a spotlight on Chinese imports that would eventually reveal lead in children’s toys and toxins in toothpaste and prompt a recent recall of the drug heparin.

But it’s equally hard to believe that after all that, the answer to the question “Could it happen again?” is probably “Yes.”

The reason is simple: None of the changes that might prevent a repeat have been implemented. Inspections of pet food plants haven’t improved; the patchwork of state, federal and industry manufacturing standards and regulations haven’t been overhauled; transparency and accountability haven’t increased - not even something as simple as printing the name and contact information of the actual manufacturer on pet food labels - and pet food labeling laws haven’t been revised. The FDA still does not have mandatory-recall authority.

Here’s the rest. I hardly remember those weeks now (they’re just one big, sad blur) except to be grateful to all the people who helped, (more…)

A lot is happening behind the scenes, and I thought I’d clue ya’all in …

First: Our monthly contest is up and running! Every month, we will draw a single name from the list of all subscribers to our free twice-monthly e-newsletter. That person will win a collection of pet supplies with a retail value of at least $1,000. Yes, $1,000!

This was our Dr. Marty Becker’s idea, and he has been lining up the donations. We have a lot of top companies who’ve come forward to put up a collection. We’ll have one every month for the next year or so.

The first is from Premier Pet. I’m really pleased that they’re first, because they make a lot of the products I recommend all the time, such as their front-clip harness, their breakaway collar, their Urban Puppy toolkit and more. Their products were invented by top behaviorists and trainers and recommended by top behaviorists and trainers. Most people have seen their revolutionary Gentle Leader head halter, but I like their Easy Walk front-clip harness even more.

Check out the goodies, and be sure to sign up for the first drawing on April 1

The second is that our Black Dog boys (woof!) have built us a lovely searchable database for 17 years worth of weekly pet-care advice from Dr. Becker (Knight-Ridder Syndicate) and from me (Universal Press Syndicate) and from Dr. Becker, me and everyone else (Universal Press Syndicate) since Dr. B and I became writing partners officially in January of 2007.

My long-time friend Phyllis DeGioia, an editor at the Veterinary Information Network/Veterinary Partner, has agreed to spend the next few weeks editing all the archival articles and loading them into the database. In total, there will be thousands of articles on every possible aspect of pet care … answers to your pet questions right at your fingertips. As soon as Phyllis gets about half the articles in the library, we’ll make it public for your use!

… the Web site’s broken. I know who did it, too.

Um … me. I was putting up information on our new contest, in which if you’re a subscriber to our e-mail newsletter, you are automatically entered in a drawing for prizes with a retail value of $1,000 or more every month. (By the way: Sign up here.)

Black Dog is cleaning up my mess now.

In my defense, may I note that last week I had the flu and this morning I was diagnosed with shingles? (Which sounds like something you’d catch doing something unhealthy, but really is just the adult version of chicken pox re-emerging.)

Anyway … it’ll be fixed soon. Sorry … sorry … sorry.

Update: That may be a record for them, less than 10 minutes. Usually it takes our Black Dog Web team longer than that to fix my goof-ups.

Carry on.

I absolutely love how many people have written to tell us that our font has suddenly changed. No! It’s not our intent to go without serifs. We love serifs.

Our Web guys at Black Dog Studios are making some tiny design tweaks so we can bring a new and completely searchable library of all our syndicated newspaper articles online in the next few weeks. (I’ve wanted to do this like, forever.) Our old lovely and warm serifed font ran away in the remodeling confusion. Fortunately, it has a collar, ID tags, a license and a microchip. We’ve found our font, and it’ll be home soon.

Everything else should look and act just about the same. And the fully searchable library of 20 years worth articles (Dr. Becker’s work for the Knight-Ridder syndicate, mine for Universal Press and ours together since January of last year) will be online soon. Hooray!

Update: Our old font is safely home. Thanks, Black Dog.

Christie and I, on account of our years of Internet addiction (AOL was a gateway drug for us), do most of the blogging here, and that probably will remain that way.

But we are expanding our roster. Kim Campbell Thornton has blogged here when she has the time for a little more than a year, and she promises to post some of her observations from the Westminster Kennel Club next week. We’re hoping she’ll also post some puppy pictures when she adds another Cavalier King Charles Spaniel to the sweet little pack of tail-waggers she and her husband Jerry spend their lives with.

Kim, you know. But we are now adding Mikkel Becker Shannon to the Pet Connection blogging team. If the name sounds familiar, well, it should. Mikkel comes by her love of animals naturally: She’s our Dr. Marty Becker’s daughter.

We may be keeping it in the family, but she brings her own credentials to the Pet Connection. Mikkel is an accomplished young writer, with a long list of published accomplishments already. She currently wrapping up a communications degree at Washington State University.

She will be keeping track of her dad’s media appearances for the blog, and also bringing her youthful perspective to the place.