In my column today for SFGate.com, I talk about the lessons I learned from our trip, and what dog-owners can do to make travel easier on senior pets:

1. Listen to your dog

The biggest mistake I made was thinking I could set a schedule to exercise, feed, walk and give water to my dogs during our five-day journey across the country.

For example, I had planned to walk Kyrie every two hours, to help keep her from getting stiff in the car. This turned out to be a terrible idea, as she would no sooner get comfy in the back of the car than I was waking her up and dragging her out to stand in a grassy rest area while big rigs whizzed by on the Interstate.

She’d look at me as if to say, “Are you out of your mind? Can I go back to sleep now?”

By the end of the second day, I was keeping a close eye on her restlessness level. If she seemed uncomfortable, we stopped. If she was sleeping happily, we drove.

2. Keep things as familiar as possible

Old dogs do not get over stress as easily as young ones do, and things that Kyrie got over in an hour in her puppyhood can set her back for days now.

That’s why it’s important to bring your dog’s familiar bedding, blankets, food, bowls, treats and toys on your trip, as they help him feel safe, and reduce stress.

Every night when we got to the hotel, I left Kyrie and Rawley in the car with my friend Dawn, who’d come along for the ride and to give me a hand with the dogs. I would make the trek back and forth to the car, lugging dog beds, bowls, food and blankets. It was all worth it, though, to see Kyrie trot into the strange room, take a nice, long drink from her water bowl, then settle down on her orthopedic dog bed with a little sigh.

3. Protect their joints

Eight or 10 hours in a car isn’t good for anyone’s joints, as I learned every time I got out of the car at a gas station. So it’s a good idea to provide memory or orthopedic foam bedding for your senior dog while traveling, instead of a simple dog travel mat.

Like me, Kyrie was extremely stiff when she got out of the car at night, and I’d walk her slowly around the hotel grounds until she’d loosened up a little. This let her settle down more comfortably once we got into our room.

Kyrie spent most of the night on the same memory foam bed that was in the car, but she also got on the bed with me for an hour or two every night. This was a problem because jumping up and down was hard on her — especially down, when she’d usually give a little cry on impact.

I realized that being on the bed was important to her; it kept her close to the most familiar thing of all in her life, me, which she seemed to find comforting. So if I had it to do over again, I’d bring some kind of portable ramp or stairs to help her get up and down safely.

Read more, including the other five tips, here!

Photo: Kyrie on my hotel room bed. I have no idea which state we were in, LOL!

There was a good reason she was hired. The FDA had started hearing complaints that HeartGard Plus was not proving as effective as advertised in preventing heartworm. Once she got to work, Dr. Blaho-Owens learned that not only were the allegations true, but that the company had known it since at least 2002 and hadn’t done anything to change the problem. They also hadn’t updated any of their public marketing materials or documentation to alert veterinarians (or end users, for that matter) that the medication wasn’t doing its job, as stipulated by FDA. From Consumer Affairs,

In 2005, the FDA instructed Merial to change its labeling and to stop claiming 100 percent effectiveness and, the suit says, the company agreed to do so but didn’t. In August 2006, the FDA warned Merial that it was in non-compliance.

The FDA repeatedly demanded changes in product labeling. When a class-action lawsuit was initiated in 2009, the company’s U.S. director of regulatory affairs allegedly directed Dr. Blaho-Owens to destroy key documentation. She refused. From Courthouse News:

She says she did not destroy the document, but reported the exchange to Merial’s legal counsel. She says that led Merial to retaliate by putting her on a “performance improvement plan, which cited a ‘lack of understanding of differences in levels of priorities’ between Dr. Blaho-Owens and management.”
She says she was fired after she filed a claim of retaliation with the Labor Department’s OSHA division.

Dr. Blaho-Owens is suing in federal court, asserting Merial “extortionately fired” her, and in so doing violated the whistleblower protection sections of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and is seeking damages. Thanks to Cathy B for the links.

Good dog! Bear is a huge (180 pounds) German Shepherd. He’s a service dog in Parker, County, Texas. His owner suffered a seizure and hit her head, which prompted Bear to go door to door (literally) to get help. From the Star-Telegram,

After being unable to awaken his owner, Bear went to a neighbor’s house and scratched on the door to try to get help, but no one was there, said Karen Kessler, Parker County animal control supervisor, who saw Bear going door-to-door.

Bear went to another neighbor’s house, but that home owner had replaced their fence and the new fence was too high for the dog to jump over, Zeisler said.

Kessler found the dog wandering around in the 100 block of East Cattail Lane in Millsap on Saturday while answering an unrelated call with a co-worker, Kessler said. Or perhaps Bear actually found Kessler.

“Bear just crawled up in my lap while I was sitting in the truck,” Kessler said. “One of his tags said ‘I am a service dog’ and another said ‘I am a seizure dog.’ When we found him we knew there was a problem because service dogs normally don’t leave their people.”

Bear had been adopted from a local shelter a year ago.

The rescue in Bastrop: Dr. Becker, Gina and McKenzie are in Austin, Tex. today on the next-to-last stop of the Big Bus Tour. That makes it a good time to give you the story about a huge rescue from nearby Bastrop County, courtesy of the Austin Humane Society. It’s a cautionary tale about hoarding. I’d caution you that the attached video is tissue-worthy. Thanks to Rori.

Bedbugs are no match for The Nose: There is such a thing as a “bedbug location canine,” and Susan Fox sent me the link to an SFGate article about thirty of them competing for certification in Philadelphia.

How do you lose that many? Los Angeles shelters are having a problem that I would think would be a matter of simple inventory tracking: they keep losing animals. In the course of one year, one shelter (in Lincoln Heights) has allegedly misplaced forty dogs, cats and other animals. Across the system, 64 animals went missing during the year. Brenda Barnette is the general manager of the Los Angeles animal services department, and she was willing to go on the record with the Los Angeles Times.

Although some animals could have been incorrectly listed as missing because of clerical errors, at least some have “wrongly disappeared,” Barnette said. Many of the missing animals were considered “highly adoptable” and officials are trying to determine if any were stolen and sold for a profit.

“They were the young ones, the cute ones,” Barnette said. “They were ones that would have been likely to have been sold or be a nice gift for someone.”

Except in this case, if they were, the authorities couldn’t tell you one way or another. Shelter fail. Thanks again to Susan for the tip.

RIP Edward Gardner: A very sad story from examiner.com:

Edward Gardner loved animals, said his best friend Jim Gollwitzer. He loved them so much that on Memorial Day he pulled his car over on an Illinois interstate and got out to protect a family of ducklings trying to cross. For that act of compassion, after a limousine ran into him, Gardner paid the ultimate price—his life.

Our condolences to Mr. Gardner’s family and loved ones.

Plump kittehs on sale. If you’re near Columbus, Ohio and you want to adopt  a cat, heavier ones are on sale. No really, I read it in boston.com.

And finally,

see more Lolcats and funny pictures, and check out our Socially Awkward Penguin lolz!

I always like to hear from readers, especially if you have tips, and links for interesting stories. Give me a shout in the comments, or better yet, send me an e-mail.

Photo credit: Heartgard image from ConsumerAffairs.com.

[K]ill “shelters” in Texas will continue to inhumanely gas animals to death; they will continue killing animals even when rescuers offer to save them; they will continue killing dogs that someone claims looks like a Pit Bull; and the “non-profit” kill shelters will continue to hide their body counts from you and I.

The bill could be revived as soon as the next legislative session. In the future, the Texas State House will need much more vocal support from a broader cross-section of citizens. More importantly, groups such as the Houston SCPCA, the Texas Humane Legislative Network, HSUS and other organizations whose lobbying succeeded in killing the bill will have to either get on board, or at the very least, be convinced to stay on the sidelines. I’d love to say I’m optimistic that’ll happen.

National Dog Bite Prevention Week: Each spring, the U.S. Postal Service is a lead partner in support of National Dog Bite Prevention Week. This year, USPS tells us that sixty-two letter carriers in Houston, Tex. were attacked by dogs in 2010. The rest of the top ten is here. They supply these stats to bring attention to tips on responsible pet ownership. In recent years, the numbers have improved. We’re in the midst of Dog Bite Prevention Week now, and so let’s talk about some wisdom for pet care in families, courtesy of AVMA.

• Be cautious around strange dogs, and treat your own pet with respect. Because children are the most common victims of dog bites, parents and caregivers should:
• NEVER leave a baby or small child alone with a dog.
• Be alert for potentially dangerous situations.
• Teach their children – including toddlers – to be careful around pets. Children must learn not to approach strange dogs or try to pet dogs through fences. Teach children to ask permission from the dog’s owner before petting the dog.

And one more bonus link for you.

One dog policy in Shanghai: Two of China’s largest cities, Beijing and Guangzhou, have set limits of one dog per family. Now Shanghai has joined suit, as Global Post reports. The reason given is a rising problem with rabies, and families often releasing dogs to run wild, creating roving packs of dangerous dogs. That’s creating an urban problem for Chinese officials. Perhaps doing a more thorough job of educating citizens and promoting responsible pet ownership would be more effective than creating arbitrary limits on numbers of pets per family. Sadly, I don’t know how to say that in Chinese.

Service dogs in schools: The widespread acceptance of service animals is becoming well understood throughout society, but this NPR story points out that some school systems are taking a little longer to get the hint.

Homeless pet care: Taking good care of pets can be challenging enough for families who are well off. The challenge becomes much more difficult if you’re homeless. Still, it’s not unusual to hear stories such as the one in this sobering CNN coverage. People who have very little still want to do right by their beloved pets. James, a Portland, Ore. resident, loves his black Lab puppy Bigera.

“Sometimes there’s not enough for the both of us that day,” he said. “But I make sure she always eats. She has to. She’s what keeps me sane out here.”
“Out here” are the streets where James — who asked that his last name not be used — lives with Bigera.
They have been together for a little more than four months. At night they sleep on a doorstep.
As each day ends, James said Bigera runs back to the stoop and lies down as if she knows she’s returning home.
“I wish we didn’t have a doorway,” he said. “I wish we had a house to go into, but it’s what we call home for now.”

Portland’s Pixie Project does its best to support communities, and all those in them, both pets and people. In the Rose City, pets owned by homeless are eligible for free care. Thanks to Mary Cvetan for the tip.

L.A. miracle: A woman in the Compton neighborhood of Los Angeles could have been severely injured or even killed when an SUV driven by an impaired motorist slammed into her kitchen, where she had just been standing moments before. Why she left the room is the surprising part. Read this from our pal Maria Goodavage at Dogster.

Operation Donkey: We’ve chronicled therapy dogs, cats, kangaroos. Today, I bring you Smoke the therapy donkey. Smoke is an Iraqi donkey who was adopted by Marines serving in Anbar Province. From SFGate:

The chest-high donkey’s story begins in the summer of 2008, when he wandered in to Camp Taqaddum west of Fallujah, a former Iraqi air base being used by Marines.

The smoke-colored donkey, which once snatched and ate a cigarette from a careless Marine, soon became such a part of the unit that he received his own care packages and cards. Marines took care of him until 2009 when they left the area, but they turned Smoke over to a sheik who promised to care for him.

But one of the Marines, retired Col. John Folsom, couldn’t forget Smoke.

Folsom used to walk Smoke daily and had formed a bond with the animal. It didn’t seem right that Smoke was left behind, he said in a telephone interview Saturday.

Folsom, the founder of a support group for military families, Wounded Warriors Family Support, decided to see if Smoke could be brought to the United States to serve as a therapy animal.

Thanks to Marge Wright for the Smoke tip.

Whole new definition of geek: Sometimes I find stories and I can’t adequately describe what I’ve found, yet I still want to tell you about them. This is a product that I know you’ll want to rush out and get for yourself or those special loved ones. It’s from geek.com, the product is called Necomimi, and it’s made by a Japanese company called Neurowear. It allegedly works via brain waves.  Please feel free to volunteer for a product review if you’re as fascinated by it as I am.

I always like to hear from readers, especially if you have tips, and links for interesting stories.  Give me a shout in the comments, or better yet, send me an e-mail.

Photo credits: CAPA gravestone, Houston Examiner. Portland screen capture, CNN. Smoke, AP.

Brewster belongs to Sandy Hall, a determined pet cancer awareness advocate from northern California. He is also the nephew of Hall’s previous famous Great Dane named Gibson, deemed the World’s Tallest Dog by the officials from “Guinness Book of World Records.” Gibson stood 42.2 inches high at the shoulders and soared more than 7 feet high when standing on his hind legs. Sadly, Gibson died from osteosarcoma two years ago.

In his memory, Hall is touring the United States with Brewster throughout the entire month of May in hopes of raising $1 million in donations to be made to the Morris Animal Foundation to fund research to find a cure for cancer. The tour is funded by Petco and Blue Buffalo pet food. Back to the backyard, though. The combined weight of my four pets (two cats named Murphy and Zeki and two dogs named Cleo and Chipper) barely tips the scales at 90 pounds. So all of them put together are less than half of Brewster’s weight. Despite being a mere 60 pounds, Chipper, my golden retriever-Husky, needed to do a parallel walk with Brewster and Hall down my street to silence what I refer to “doggy air guitar” and calmly transform into a polite canine host. The mutual side-by-side walk worked.

The biggest surprise meet-and-greet, however, occurred between Brewster and Zeki, my 9-pound Turkish Van mix. I adopted Zeki about a year ago after she survived a brutal knifing as a stray and then endured eye-related health issues in a foster home. She has every right to be a nasty, anti-social feline, but she has yet to meet a stranger, and that includes the many dog visitors who come into my home. Brewster’s only cat experience sparked a swat and hiss from a less-than-welcoming cat, according to Hall.

Zeki, relaxed and cradled in my arms, leaned over to a weary Brewster and delicately touched noses. Size wasn’t an issue for this confident cat. She was more focused on getting turkey treats than fussy about this giant canine in her backyard. Zeki has proven to be an excellent feline ambassador who is always up to meeting people and traveling to new places.

Brewster and Hall will be covering thousands of miles throughout the month of May inside a bus that gets a whopping eight miles to the gallon. I don’t even want to calculate that hefty bill at the pump, but you can’t put a price on the damage cancer causes. Cancer claims about as many dogs and cats at the same rate as people, according to the American Veterinary Medical Association. The Morris Animal Foundation officials drive it home with the sobering statistic that one in every four dogs die of cancer.

May is Pet Cancer Awareness Month. You can help by rounding up your receipts at Petco or making donations online at Pet Cancer Awareness. If you want to learn more about Brewster, billed as the World’s Tallest Puppy (yet to be officially sanctioned by the Guinness guys), just dash over to his site.
Brewster’s arrival drew curious interest from my neighbors, many of
whom were wowed by his towering stature. The most heartfelt response came from my neighbor, Flo Frum. Nearly 87 and possessing the same energy and wit as another senior (Betty White), Flo lost her husband Frank to lung cancer just six months shy of their 60th wedding anniversary six years ago. Her home is now shared by a spirited miniature Schnauzer named Buddy. She eyed Brewster, gave him a big hug, dismissed the drool he deposited on her pant leg and then hugged Hall.

“I hate cancer,” she quietly told Hall. “I love dogs. Thank you for making this trip. I just wish Frank was alive to see it.”

Photo credits: Arden Moore

The findings arose out of a study published in the March issue of Veterinary Dermatology. The study’s lead author, Thierry Olivry, DrVet, PhD, Dipl. ACVD, along with resident Ursula Oberkirchner and pathologist Keith Linder, DVM, PhD, all of North Carolina State University, reported on a Labrador retriever diagnosed with ProMeris-caused PF. From the article in Veterinary Practice News:

“Dogs (in the study) developed lesions in a draping pattern or along the dorsal side after having ProMeris Duo applied,” Olivry says. “Some dogs showed systemic signs that included lethargy, generalized pain and anorexia. In the case of a 7-year-old (spayed) female Labrador, a two-week history of skin lesions and lameness was presented.

“Ten months prior to referral, the dog’s monthly flea and tick prevention was changed from Frontline to PD. The patient received a total of three PD applications, three and five months separating them. One month after the third application of PD, the owner noticed extensive crusting on the application site between the shoulder blades as well as lameness in the left front leg. The dog was examined by the primary care veterinarian, who suspected a tick-borne disease as the cause of this dog’s lameness. Doxycycline was then prescribed.”

Olivry expressed concern that many general practice veterinarians might similarly misdiagnose the patient.

“The patient’s health worsened dramatically over the following days. The dog appeared in pain, she showed lameness of the left front paw and skin lesions had progressed. The veterinarian prescribed prednisone (1 mg/kg twice daily) and tramadol, while a fentanyl patch was applied and doxycycline was continued.

“Only minimal improvement of the lameness and skin lesions was seen with this regimen, and the patient was referred to North Carolina State University.

[....]

Olivry and his team concluded this case with a diagnosis of PTPF.

“The dog returned for a re-evaluation visit the following week,” Olivry says.  “At that time, skin lesions had improved, as there was only minor crusting left in the interscapular region and pinnae. The dog no longer exhibited signs of lameness, and tramadol was discontinued. The dose of prednisolone was tapered progressively over the following 11 days. The disease has remained in remission without any relapse for more than two years.”

For more information, including signs of PF and what to do if you used ProMeris on your dog and she is showing any of them, read the complete story here.

Note: Pfizer is a Pet Connection sponsor.

This is great news. Cats have traditionally been the also-rans in the world of veterinary pharmaceuticals — an afterthought, if thought of at all. I have been a practicing veterinarian for 25 years, and continually frustrated at how few medications get into my hands are approved for use in cats. So my response to this news is, huzzah!

The chemical name of the new drug is robenacoxib, and the trade name is Onsior.

It’s important to understand the context in which this product is approved. From the document in the Federal Register, it is approved for “control of post-operative pain and inflammation associated with orthopedic surgery, ovariohysterectomy, and castration in cats weighing at least 5.5 pounds (2.5 kg) and at least 6 months of age, for up to a maximum of 3 days.”

Always best to start with the precise verbiage associated with the approval of such a product. Looking carefully at the language of this approval, it is a fairly narrow application — an oral formulation, around surgery, only for 3 days, cats must be at least 6 months old and weigh at least 5.5 pounds. The recommended dose is 1 mg/kg given once daily, and Onsior comes in a 6 mg tablet.

From the information I could find, the tablets are not designed to be split, though I need to confirm that detail. Limitations aside, this is the very first oral NSAID made available to veterinarians specifically licensed to use in cats as part of a post-operative pain management regimen.

I’ll take it, restrictions and all.

The licensure process means that we have data demonstrating both efficacy and safety in the target specie (the cat). It also opens the door for ongoing research into using this drug for other painful conditions in the cat such as trauma or wounds, and the biggie, osteoarthritis.

Is this the “magic bullet” for cats? Nope. No such thing. As with any pharmacologic tool in our “pharmatarium,” Onsior demands the same respect as any other NSAID. Common sense cautions for the veterinary practitioner considering this medication include not using this (or any NSAID):

• in a cat with GI ulcers
• at the same time as a corticosteroid
• with another NSAID
• for a cat who is dehydrated
• for a cat with impaired kidney, heart, or liver function.

These precautions fall into the category of advocating for what is best for the patient, and looking at the condition of the whole patient before making a decision.

Perhaps this approval will open a door for more scrutiny and attention to what else our feline companions need to enhance their health, wellness, and comfort.

What do other cat-lovers think?

Photo credit: Dr. Robin Downing

A bill before the Iowa legislature would make it a crime to produce, distribute or possess photos and video taken without permission at an agricultural facility. It would also criminalize lying on an application to work at an agriculture facility “with an intent to commit an act not authorized by the owner.”

While the laws are meant to keep animal activists from revealing some farming practices (like shocking treatment of dairy cattle exposed in recent years), the proposals will also help keep puppy-mills behind the curtain of secrecy. They  could even protect poorly run shelters from being exposed (cough cough, Memphis, cough cough), argues the website care2.com:

The legislation proposed in Minnesota attempts to crack down on activists who have exposed repeated animal welfare violations. Among its provisions, the bill targets anyone who documents an “image or sound” of animal suffering in a sweeping list of “animal facilities,” including factory farms, animal experimentation labs, and puppy mills.

According to Will Potter, author of “Green Is the New Red: An Insider’s Account of a Social Movement Under Siege,” Minnesota’s House File No. 1369 goes even further.

The bill, introduced by six Republicans, also includes a number of other provisions that have popped up in “eco-terrorism” bills and “animal enterprise terrorism” laws over the years. Similar legislation has also been introduced in Florida and Iowa to target undercover investigators.

The Minnesota bill includes a number of dangerous parts. Among the most important:

1. “Animal facility interference.” This provision targets those who, without the owner’s consent, “produce a record which reproduces an image or sound occurring at the animal facility.” Even worse, it targets those who “possess or distribute a record which produces an image or sound occurring at the animal facility.”

Translated: Taking pictures and videos is illegal, but so is uploading them to YouTube for public consumption. Anyone else have a problem with this?

Community supported agriculture for pets! I have friends from Maine to California who participate in community-supported agriculture (CSA) programs. Perhaps you do it in your area. But here’s a new wrinkle: CSA for dog food. Kim Thornton sent me this link from the Village Voice, about Jake Dickson of Dickson’s Farmstand Meats in New York.

The new “dog-food program,” Dickson explains, “allows us to close the loop completely so we’re nearing zero waste.” The parts that he doesn’t have much use for, such as the 80 pounds of beef liver he receives each week, make ideal canine sustenance. But rather than just package and sell them as is, Dickson partnered with Stacy Alldredge, a dog trainer and canine nutritionist who, Dickson says, “is a big advocate of cooking real food for pets.”

Great idea. Use naturally-grown agricultural products that would otherwise go to waste, give dogs fresh, nutritious meals, and support local farms. Everybody wins. To see how this concept works already, check out the SFRaw co-operative, to which Christie and Gina both proudly belong.  It’s a little different in operation, but the local, sustainable and humane ethic is the same.

“I’m not asking you. You’re not nice.” Dogs beg people for food. Not exactly a news flash, is it? Here’s the kicker: it seems dogs know who to ask, by paying close attention to how people interact with each other. This article from The New Scientist article on the finding is frankly scaring me. (thanks, Patti S.)

Luxury in Boston for all: The Boston Globe spotlights the trend we’re developing here in the Boston area for creating –  and supporting –  ultra-luxurious vacation spots for pets. As a Red Sox fan, I found this next snippet irresistible.

At Fenway Bark, the best room in the house, the 72-square-foot Owner’s Box, costs $150 per night. True, that’s almost as much as the $155 average daily rate for human hotels in the Greater Boston area, according to the Massachusetts Lodging Association, but it does come with unlimited dog-owner Skype sessions, bottled water upon request, and custom-made beds with 6-inch orthopedic foam.

The Skype was a perk that Tara Philbin of South Boston could not resist. Before heading off to her bachelorette party in New Orleans Saturday, Philbin downloaded the Skype app so she could chat with her boxers Declan and Kiera.

I particularly like Fenway Bark‘s website. Check it out, unless you’re a Yankees fan, in which case you should just move on to the next paragraph.

Highlights from around the Pet Connection Blogosphere. Recent posts I particularly like from our distinguished blogroll:

A shout out to Ingrid: Our own Ingrid King‘s personal blog The Conscious Cat has a post I particularly like. This one is about World’s Best Cat Litter and how they’re supporting shelter causes in Texas.

Woo Woo! Photo essay posts from Three Woofs and a Woo always make me smile.

Happy Tax Day: Love this cartoon from SmartDogs.

Finally, speshal nom from icanhascheezburger.

see more Lolcats and funny pictures, and check out our Socially Awkward Penguin lolz!

I always like to hear from readers, especially if you have tips, and links for interesting stories.  Give me a shout in the comments, or better yet, send me an e-mail.

Photo credit: Memphis Animal Shelter video snapshot courtesy of YesBiscuit.wordpress.com.

(T)hat doesn’t mean I don’t love stuff — I do. I just want items that are truly useful, and of good quality. And I want a clear conscience, so when I review something, it’s always a product I bought with my own money, on my own initiative, and one that I really use.

I realized just how much I value some of my favorite dog products when I tried to narrow down the packing list for an upcoming cross-country trip.

The dogs and I will be spending our summer in Michigan, and anything that’s going to earn its place in our tightly-packed U-Haul is definitely a “must-have” product in my book.

My test dogs are Kyrie, a 69-pound, 12-year-old borzoi with arthritis and a long, shiny coat that looks quite glamorous but is a grooming nightmare, and Rawley, a 103-pound, one-year-old Scottish deerhound with a propensity for long-distance running and sofa-cushion destruction.

These are the products Rawley, Kyrie and I can’t live without… (Read the rest here…)

Hint: The Kong Wobbler is number one!

Photo: Jack, one of the dogs at the Maddie’s Fund office. He belongs to Shelley Thompson, who found him on an Alabama roadside and adopted him. Thanks, Jack, for being such a great model! I tried to take some photos of Rawley — that’s his crate in the back of my car — but dark dog in a dog crate interior equals a bad photo!

He’ll stay in NYC to do a circuit of national shows, make a fast stop in Princeton, NJ, for a book-signing, and then fly to Houston to meet me, my dog McKenzie, and a 45-foot wrapped bus and a  crew consisting of tour manager, bus driver and a couple of tour assistants to help with events and drive the chase car. On April 25, we start our BIG Bus Tour, with a series of events in Houston, then hop on the bus for the drive to New Orleans … then Tampa … then Miami … then Jacksonville … then … well, you get the picture. Our days will start before dawn with media interviews, then a lunchtime event for veterinarians, then a public event at a PETCO. Every day, five days a week, for seven weeks.  (Above is what the bus will look like, so please wave if you see us!)

Yes, it’s completely insane, as all truly wonderful ideas are.

We’ve been planning it for months, and at times we weren’t sure we’d pull it off. The number of moving pieces in a tour like this is truly astonishing, and if any one of them doesn’t fit just so  the whole enterprise is in peril. But we locked them in, one by one, with the help of Dr. B’s agent’s team and my own much-appreciated Sacramento graphic designer and web team, as well as our publicist, Kathie Kerr, whom you’ve already met.

For those of you near one of those 30 cites, I hope you can turn up and say hello. Here are the details. But really, that’s not what I’m writing about today.

I have four dogs, one cats, eight chickens and two ducks. Getting personally ready for this tour is, for me, something akin to planning the invasion of Normandy. Although I’m not an inexperienced traveler, packing to be away from home for nine weeks (I’m leaving early for Texas to visit with my friend Mary on her ranch before the trip) is pretty challenging. At least McKenzie, who’ll be the official tour dog, doesn’t need to pack clothing — two simple vests with her name on them (one red, one purple) will be her entire wardrobe for the tour, along with some fancy leashes and collars. Throw in some tennis balls, a lot of poop bags, 40 pounds of Honest Kitchen, some probiotics to help prevent G-I upsets (I’ll be on my own probiotics as well!), Frontline and Heartguard, a crate, some shampoo and the all-important tennis balls (so important I list them twice) and she’s set.

Not so me.

Every week we’ll have a day for laundry and rest, sometime two, so there’s that. But I still have to pack enough “business casual” to get me through five or six days straight, with enough diversity to handle everything from heat waves to downpours. Oh, yes, and since my role (in addition to dog-walker) is reporting on the tour, my biggest challenge is electronic: Coordinating the laptop, iPad, videocam, smartphone and digital SLR for a continuous stream of updates to multiple media platforms  — including McKenzie’s page! Honestly, I love that stuff, so the actual work of it is a challenge I can’t wait to tackle. But the packing? Ohhhhhh … hate.

Then there’s the home front issue, and in this, I got lucky. A former colleague who’s between homes will be staying at the house with his dog, caring for the animals who remain here, Ilario and the poultry. Since he’s a writer, he’ll also be taking over my pet duck’s popular Facebook fan page.

As for the three dogs not traveling with me: Drew is staying up north with regular blog commenter Susan Fox. Faith, the youngest retriever, left for Mary’s ranch a month ago (I’m taking advantage of the opportunity to get the youngster field-trained, since Mary’s one of the best field trainers around). Woody and McKenzie will drive to Texas with me, and Woody will then stay on the ranch for a vacation — although I doubt Mary can stand to keep from putting more training on him, too!

You know … now that I type it all out, the fact is most everything IS locked down, and I’m in great shape! I guess really, there’s not much else to do but enjoy the adventure. And yes, I intend to!

Would you like to meet Nina Ottosson? She’ll be in our booth today at 3 p.m.

Now you’re talking! I’m on my way!

I’m not one to be wowed by “celebrity”; in fact, I asked our Ericka Basile to look in on the whole Cesar Millan shebang because I couldn’t be bothered. Victoria Stillwell was being honored at the media reception I skipped. The year before … Rachel Ray. Whatever. Got nothing against any of them, just couldn’t care less. Same with actors, sports starts, politicians. Not even actors/sports/politicians, and as proof I offer Arnold Schwarzenegger, who I almost literally bumped into outside a Sacramento eatery a couple years ago and all I said was, ” ‘Scuse me, governor” and kept walking. (He didn’t say anything, but one of the bodyguards grunted.)

But Nina Ottosson? I had to know: Why? When? How?

When I told our David Greene I was going to interview Nina Ottosson, he observed it was the first time he’d ever seen me at all star-struck. Well, sure. I mean seriously, does someone just wake up one morning and decide to start inventing the coolest line of dog toys ever? How does that happen, exactly? So off I went, in search of answers. And yes, to meet Nina Ottossson.  David tagged along to shoot a video interview, and Ericka to get some pictures.

Nina  was to be at the booth of  The Company of Animals, a U.K. based business founded by Dr. Roger Mugford, himself more than a little bit famous in dog training and behavior circles, and also as charming and friendly a person as you’d care to meet. He showed me a picture of his prized Devon bull and we talked a few minutes about sustainable small-holding farming while we waited for someone to find where Nina had gone. She turned up shortly, and happily started talking about how she came to design interactive dog toys, stopping now and then to find the word she was looking for in English (she’s Swedish).

First surprise? She isn’t — or at least wasn’t — a dog trainer or designer when she started, some 20 years ago.

“I was a normal dog owner, a nurse by training,” she said. “I had two children very quickly, and I didn’t think my dogs were getting what they needed. I was always aware that dogs have four legs and one brain, and they all need exercising. So I began.”

She labored in obscurity for many years, she said, and the initial reaction to her work was not encouraging. “I was working as a nurse by day and working on this at night,” she said, waving her arm at a display of her toy collection. “People said I was crazy. But I believed so hard this was good for dogs, and I kept at it for 10 years without much success.”

Finally, a behaviorist saw one of her products and contacted her … then a couple of veterinarians … the word spread and she was on her way. About five years ago she finally broke through with some international recognition, and now, with those two children all grown up, she’s making a living at the work she loves.

“It’s about building relationships,” she says. “And also recognizing that all dogs need something to keep them busy, working and happy. These are toys all dogs can use, even the very old. And they’re toys every pet-owner can use, as well. In fact, I’m really happy to tell you that these toys are used by people who have service dogs. A disability doesn’t keep anyone from helping a dog get some exercise. In Sweden, we’re now using these toys in nursing homes, with stroke victims using them to interact with dogs, and it’s really helping them!”

Nina has two new toys coming out soon. She showed them to me but made me promise not to write about them, so I won’t. But I will say I’ll be among the first to order them, but my dogs won’t be the first to try them: Everything she designs is tested by her own Bouviers first.

Before we left the booth, she handed me a toy to use as a giveaway. It’s the Dog Brick, which just happens to be the toy McKenzie’s puppies played with when they were seven weeks old, and also the toy I sent with them to their new homes. I don’t really have time to set up running a real contest, so you’re going to have to trust me to draw randomly for a winner. Put “NINA OTTOSSON” in your subject line and send an e-mail with your name and mailing address to McKutie@gmail.com by 9 a.m. PT on Friday, and I’ll choose a winner then.

Bonus: Here’s Nina Ottosson talking about her creations:

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Image: Me and David interviewing Nina Ottosson (taken by Ericka)

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Oh, and speaking of Victoria Stillwell, she came by to say hello to Dr. Mugford while I was interviewing Nina Ottosson, so a got a couple minutes with her, too. Smart, charming and real. I liked her. A lot. Here we all are with Dr. Mugford:

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Right after this picture was taken, someone asked, “Can we get another without … uh … whoever you are?”Ha!