The "Hot Dig-Kitty-Dog" Blog
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- Written by: DJ Geribo
- Category: Our Pack
Yes, our girls do spend a lot of time napping throughout the day, especially when we are busy working and don't have time to play with them. I'm actually surprised that Meko, sleeping soundly here, was awake most of this day especially since she woke me at 3:30am and spent the next few hours barking until I came downstairs at 7:30am.
And why was she barking? She and Kitsu, my other Pomeranian, sleep on my bed. They usually sleep through the night but this past summer Meko was getting up a lot during the night, looking for a drink of water and needing to pee. She was getting up quite regularly and I was getting tired of it, literally! Dogs love their routines and this was becoming too much of a routine. So I had her sleep downstairs and then she would come up at 5-5:30am, waiting to come back up on the bed and sleep for a couple more hours until it was time to get up.
Last night she was on the bed and jumped off to go downstairs. I put her in the kitchen, put papers on the floor for her to use along with one of the beds that we have in the living room for her to use, and I went back to bed. She was not happy about this arrangement and proceeded to bark, thinking she would get her way. She didn't. I was as stubborn about not setting up this routine as she was about getting back up to my bed.
Unfortunately, last night it was at the expense of any of us getting any sleep!
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- Written by: DJ Geribo
- Category: Petpourri
In an effort to close down all puppy mills, the San Diego City Council voted to ban the sale of dogs, cats, and rabbits in all pet stores. The second largest city in the country to follow the ban, Los Angeles, already banning pet store sales, is the largest city.
Puppy mills are notorious for breeding animals under the most heinous conditions, forcing them to nurse their young under the most unsanitary and unsafe conditions. Driven only by profits, the animals are only useful to them as long as they are producing. The pet stores around the country and often found in shopping malls, are the biggest clients of puppy mill offspring.
To put an end to puppy mills and the continued mistreatment of the innocent animals in their possession, contact your city and state officials and convince them to follow in the footsteps of San Diego and Los Angeles by asking them to ban the sale of animals in pet stores. Dr. Gary Weitzman, CEO of the Humane Society, assures responsible and reputable breeders that they will not be affected by the ban.
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- Written by: DJ Geribo
- Category: Our Pack
If you are a dog or even a cat owner, most likely you have come upon your pet eating something it definitely should not be eating. With our three dogs, and even more so with our first Pomeranian, Samara, there have been times over the years when we have caught them with something completely unedible in their mouths. One time Sammy got into a tied-up trash bag, that was ready to go to the dump, and ripped it open to consume the rancid beef suet we were throwing out. Just the thought of it makes me gag, and that was about 15 years ago! She was notorious for getting into the trash baskets around the house, pulling out used kleenex and tearing them to shreds, leaving a scattered mess all over the floors. When she was a puppy, and we did not know any better and left far too many 'things' within her reach, she got hold of a beautiful gold cross pen that Jim had just bought me and left a series of teeth marks all over it. She also destroyed many pairs of my underwear (that's right, mostly my stuff) and a variety of other items. When we got Meko, Sammy tried to teach her the fun of getting into the trash but Meko never grew as tall as Sammy so was unable to get into the trash quite as easily.
And of course, I can't even imagine the amount of money we've spent on stuffed toys that end up chewed, ripped, destroyed with all of the contents pulled out and either ingested or found in clumps around the house. I'm pretty sure my dogs aren't the only dogs who destroy stuffed animals in this way, which makes me wonder, why don't they stuff these things with something that is actually edible instead of something with a warning label that says 'poisonous if eaten' on it?
Jacquay enjoys pulling trash out of the buckets from time to time, especially if that long nose of hers smells something she just can't resist. I have learned not to throw any wrapper that once had food in it, even if there is no sign of food in the wrapper, into the trash buckets we have around the house and that she can reach.
Living rurally now, it troubles me when we take them for walks and they find something on the ground, grab it, and chew and swallow it before I get a chance to stick my fingers into their mouths to try to take it out. I will occasionally watch them as they wander around our front yard when I've put them out to do their business, but instead they find something that smells just too good to pass up and into the mouth it goes. I make a mad dash to try to stop the putrid-smelling item from entering their intestinal tract. Often though, if they don't get a chance to swallow the unknown bacteria-laden pod, they will quickly drop and roll in it, determined to get the smell somewhere either in or on their bodies.
So far, none of them has gotten too ill from eating anything, except the time Sammy swallowed a piece of bone that got stuck in her esophagus that the hospital had to cut out of her... but that's another story!
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- Written by: DJ Geribo
- Category: Petpourri
There are lots of fun facts about cats and I found a few recently on the Purina website. One that I found very interesting, that a lot of you may not know, is that cats purr without taking a breath - they actually purr while inhaling and exhaling.
Another common misconception about cats is that they can see in the dark. They can, rather, see quite well in low light. In fact, they see about six times better than humans can at night. It all has to do with the construction of the cats' eyes which allow in more light. Which probably explains why they like going on the prowl at night.
Cats have amazing hearing such as the high-pitched sounds rats and mice make to communicate. This helps make them excellent hunters for reducing the rodent population in your home.
Although we do not have cats in our home since Jim is allergic, if he was not, I'm sure we would have at least one cat which would put us into the group of people who live with America's favorite pet (81 million). About 72 million homes have dogs.
If you've ever wondered why cats have such long whiskers, rest assured they aren't just for looks. They use their whiskers to measure whether or not they can fit through tight spaces. It also helps them detect objects when walking around in the dark. This is why you should never cut a cat's whiskers.
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- Written by: DJ Geribo
- Category: Our Pack
There are no rules to naming your pet. Unlike children whose parents often name them after themselves (so there is a "junior") or a grandparent or they want a Christian name for their newborn, dogs and cats often end up with some of the silliest names. Some of the recent silly names that people are naming their pets are colors (friends of ours call their cocker spaniel Mr. Blue), months (April, May, always popular, even for people), days of the weeks (seven up, 7-11), and states (Carolina, Philly). There are always cute names, based on your pet's looks (furball, snowball) and names after Hollywood stars (Rocky for a bulldog or Arnold for a doberman).
We always check every source, from baby name books to the internet, when thinking of names for our pets. And it seems to take longer to come up with a name than it does to actually decide on which puppy to buy (never from a pet store). The names of our dogs were decided on after much careful consideration. And now that they have each had their names for quite sometime, I really think the names fit them perfectly!
Kameko ("Meko")
Kitsune ("Kitsu")
Jacquay ("Jacqs")
In the Press
News about Help Shelter Pets.
Our Pack
Life with our "pack" - Meko, Kitsu, and Jacquay.
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Animal news, product reviews, and other useful information for pet owners.