pet connection

Your presidential pet fact of the day:

According to the Presidential Pet Museum, only two U.S. presidents were completely pet-free while in office: Chester A. Arthur and Franklin Pierce. All other presidents and their families have shared their lives with many different companion animals, starting with George Washington, who was well-known for his fine eye for a good foxhound. The presidential pets have had a lot of interesting names, but perhaps the one that says most about the power of the presidency is the name James Garfield gave to his dog: Veto.

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How much do I love Glenye Oakford of “Full Cry: A Hound Blog”? So much that she and I are pitching an article together  to the Smithsonian magazine on a historical topic related to horses, lawyers and land grants.  But you don’t have to wait until (if) we get to write that piece to enjoy her writing. Get over there and read:

• About what those who follow the hounds do when the footing’s too treacherous for horses: They break out the beagles and go for a long, brisk walk.
• About a mysterious hunting horn bought for a song at an auction in Zimbabwe.
• About the work of the houndsmen, part 1 and part 2.

While the rest of us are pretty much writing about the same shared topics — even if not the same shared point of view — there is absolutely nothing else on Teh Internets that’s even remotely like “Full Cry.” Fascinating stuff, and I’m utterly hooked.

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Start with the really, really bad idea of turning carnivores into vegans. Or better yet, stop with that idea. If you want a vegan pet, get a rabbit. If you have dogs and cats, feed them in a species appropriate way. To do otherwise is not humane, even if the Humane Society of the United States says so.

But the idea of vegan carnivores isn’t the only thing wrong with the new “food” from the HSUS. As Terrierman notes:

How much of a kickback is HSUS getting? They’re pocketing a 6 percent kickback from the wholesale price of each 6.6-pound bag of dog food sold, and that’s money that comes straight out of the pocket of anyone buying this dog food.

What? The dog food is being sold in a 6.6-pound bag?

Yes, that’s what the HSUS press release says.

Apparently you can never have too much packaging in an “environmentally friendly and ethically responsible” dog food!

Of course at the price this dog food is going for — $18 for a 6.6 pound bag — no one would even think of buying a 20- or 40-pound bag of the stuff.

And what about freshness?

Well, I can assure you that this dog food will be about as fresh as any dog food can be after it bounces from warehouse to warehouse for 5,000 miles across the steaming-hot equator.

And what is in this dog food made out of?

The first five ingredients are ground canola seed, brown rice, soybean meal, buckwheat, and flaxseed.

Eh? That’s not dog food, that chicken food!

Read the rest. And note: For far less than $3 a pound you can feed your pet while supporting local, sustainable family-owned ranchers and farmers. Join a buying co-op, or make some bulk buys with friends. Really, it’s damn easy to to feed your entire family in a healthier, cheaper way that supports family farms and ranches, not questionable foreign imports or massive U.S. food processors and agribiz. Support a farmer as if your life depends on it, because it does.

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David was on the road over the weekend, but still managed to find a piece about … DUCKS! Turns out that it’s true what Pet Connection BFF Dr. Patty Khuly and I have been warning all along: Chickens and ducks are a gateway drug as far as livestock is concerned. You get one. You want more. The next think you know, you have a goat. And it won’t stop there.  The City of Cambridge, Mass., knows if they allow a duck or chicken, the next thing they’ll be looking at is a stockyard. Or a professor of medieval English literature. Either way: Bad news.

From the Boston Globe:

In the photograph, Penelope, Potassium and Ferdinand pose in a backyard looking as cute as can be. But the Cayuga ducks and their two Wyandotte chicken companions, Henrietta and Frances, may have to leave their coop — if the city of Cambridge gets its wish.

Cambridge has determined that the backyard birds are illegal and violate city ordinances. And for the past 11 months, the birds’ owners have been locked in a fight with city officials and their neighbors over their residency.

The city’s zoning board and inspectional services department have agreed [with a cranky pants neighbor], saying the birds were not considered customary pets like dogs and cats and must go. [The owners] filed an appeal in December, in a futile attempt to save the birds. They also launched a website called savetheducks.org.

But the city’s Board of Zoning Appeals rejected their plea on Thursday. Now the group is turning to the City Council for one last reprieve.

Seriously, if there’s a smell or fly problem, fix the problem. The problem isn’t the poultry: It’s the people. Lighten up Cambridge. Save the ducks. And the Wyandottes, too.

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No, of course it all can’t be light and amusing.  The Anchorage Daily News reports on a cost-saving measure by one Alaska town that decided it was cheaper to shoot their shelter dogs rather then put any effort into finding them homes or even killing them humanely. Authorities there are befuddled that anyone sees a problem here.  Hey, Mr. Mayor: “Common practice” isn’t an excuse.  Incest is common practice, too, after all.

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But … we end on a good note!

Pet Connection pal Laura Bennett of Embrace pet health insurance has asked us to help get the word out on the first-ever conference for pet-related bloggers, and I’m happy to do so. It’s BlogPaws 2010, and it’s being held April 9 & 10 in Columbus, Ohio.  I’m on a world-of-hurt book deadline this spring — yes, that’s a good thing — and also giving a keynote address in Houston that same month at the Texas Federation of Animal Care Societies conference, so I won’t be there except in spirit. Maybe next year!

Finally: Christie and our Dr. Becker are en route to the Western Veterinary Conference in Las Vegas, and they’ll both be writing from there this week, and maybe Dr. Tony, too. So stay tuned.

Image: President Garfield. Just say “Veto.”

Got something cool to share? Toss it in the comments. And David’s back, so you can also let him know by e-mail.

Not one but two of our Liz Palika’s books won their categories in the annual writing competition of the Dog Writers Association of America, and our Kim Campbell Thornton’s regular “Creature Comforts”  feature for MSNBC.com was the winner in the best online column category.

Liz’s winning books: “ASPCA KIDS: Animals At Work,” co-authored with Dr. Katherine Miller and “Puppy Love.” You can buy copies through her Web site or order through any book store or online retailer.

Here’s the complete list of winners, with many other names familiar to our readers.

Congratulations, all!

If you follow me on Facebook, you know that my newborn granddaughter, Reagan, has been visiting  for the last couple of weeks. But my first experience of being a parent wasn’t Reagan, and it wasn’t even my own children.

When I was 7 years old, I became a mommy. And before you say, hey, Marty, you’re a guy and guys can’t be moms, believe me, gender is the least of the problems with me being a mommy. There were species issues here — because I was “mommy” to a lamb.

He was a tiny little orphan whose real mama had died giving birth to him. He belonged to my neighbor on our rural Idaho farm, and he’d asked my dad to come over and help with the lambing. I tagged along.

We drove home in my dad’s pickup truck with the lamb tucked into my coat. I bottle-fed him, kept him warm, and napped with him. I named him “Henry.” We played games together, and when I’d come home from school, Henry would come running with my dogs to meet me at the gate.

In fact, even when he was a full-grown ram, I tended to think of him as a wool-covered dog. I think he thought of himself that way, too. Until he died in old age, he would rub his head against my leg in affection, and follow me everywhere.

Whenever I’m asked how I decided to turn my love of animals into my career, I always tell this story in response — in fact, I did just that in the book “Chicken Soup for the Pet Lover’s Soul.” Because while I don’t treat a lot of sheep these days, it was Henry who inspired me to become a veterinarian.

Happy Holidays to all of our Pet Connection friends, and “see” you next week!

Image: Not Henry, but still … pretty cute, huh?

When you were little, did you imagine having a mysterious animal who would love and protect and understand you? A horse to carry you away from your problems, a dog to guide you through the forest, a cat who was really a familiar?

In the world of fantasy books, films, and television shows, that’s very often exactly what animals turn out to be — magical beings, or at least those with mysterious powers to help and shield us.

Brent Hartinger at TheTorchOnline.com takes a look at some of fantasy’s most memorable pets, familiars and animal companions, including one of my favorites, Xena’s horse, Argo, from the television series Xena: Warrior Princess:

Xena is no ordinary warrior — so why should she have an ordinary horse? Sure enough, hers is extraordinarily intelligent, sensing danger, responding to a number of different commands, being able to command other horses, and even once enduring having been turned into a miniature version of herself. Speaking of which, is Argo male or female? While referred to as “boy” in earlier seasons, she is eventually identified as female (and was usually portrayed by a mare). The horse died during Xena and Gabrielle’s Ares-induced 25-year sleep in the ice-cave, but gave birth to a daughter, Argo II, who, remarkably, had all of Argo’s abilities.

Incidentally, did you ever wonder why Gabrielle had no horse? According to the producers speaking at a fan convention, it took three horses to make it look like Xena had one horse. For Gabrielle to have had a horse, that would have meant having six horses on hand — something that was financially impossible.

He also takes a look at Scabbers the rat and Hedwig the owl in the Harry Potter series (although of course, I prefer Padfoot the dog, played by a Scottish Deerhound), and a host of others.

Check it out here, and then tell us: Did you have a favorite fantasy character from films, television, or books who isn’t mentioned in the article? For me, it was Preciosa the hawk from Marion Zimmer Bradley’s young adult novel Hawkmistress.

Peggy Frezon is a writer whose blog I check in on from time to time, and always enjoy. She also has just about the cutest dog in the world. She came to my attention as one of the contributors to our book, “The Ultimate Dog-Lover.”

She has a thoughtful little piece on the Guideposts Web site, on being thankful for what our pets give us:

I’m thankful for the way my dog Kelly greets me at the door, as if my return is the best thing that happened to her all day.

I’m thankful for her soft reddish fur, and I’m especially thankful that she loves me every day.

Although we express our gratitude for our pets by feeding them, loving them and playing with them, Thanksgiving is the perfect time to remind ourselves just how lucky we are.

Rest the rest, and tell us what you’re thankful for about your pets.

And speaking of Thanksgiving, check out the recipe for Turkey and Cranberry Savories from Lucy Postins, the top dog and nutritionist behind The Honest Kitchen pet food company. Several of the PetConnection bloggers use Honest Kitchen, which is why I invited the company on as an advertiser, figuring they’d be a good match with our readers, too. (Lucy was also a fantastic source of “industry insider” information during the pet-food recall.) Visit  their YouTube channel.