This year, no one came for Thanksgiving with my mother except me. So I was a little down. She recently moved into a new place, and I thought it would have been nice to have some additional family, but everyone had other plans. So be it. After our meal, she went to take a nap, […]
Whenever I see a “Do you know this dog?” (or cat) posting from Canton Animal Control on Facebook, it makes me wonder why so many folks seem to have a hard time keeping identification on their pets. It isn’t difficult at all to affix an ID tag to your pet’s collar, so why do so […]
I am your neighbor. I am middle-aged, white, educated, articulate. I own a home, pay taxes, and even license my dog. I work a full-time job that I’ve had for 17 years. I haven’t had a traffic ticket in over 20 years — not even a parking ticket. My FICO score is in the top […]
Two weeks ago, my dear cat Ming reached the end of his journey. It wasn’t sudden, and it wasn’t a shock. After all, he was 16 years old. The inevitability of his passing doesn’t mean it was less painful for me. I had him put to “sleep” by a house-call veterinarian, Pawsitively Mobile Veterinary Services. […]
When I was a kid, a tick was just a disgusting thing you had to occasionally pull off the dog. I vividly remember my dad deciding I was old enough to start doing it myself instead of running to him and telling him, “Dad, there’s a tick on the dog.” I didn’t want to touch […]
A few weeks ago on a beautiful Saturday morning I met up with a woman who I have called a “friend” for about 10 years now. Kerry Wyler from Portland, Maine. It was on the happy occasion of her looking at the available greyhounds at the Greyhound Pets of America-Massachusetts kennel in Middleborough. Kerry has […]
Separation anxiety (SA) is a condition affecting both young and old dogs, newly purchased puppies, secondhand dogs from the shelter, or in my case, adopted ex-racing dogs. SA can range from mild to severe, and too many dogs are returned to shelters or adoption groups by overwhelmed owners who have no idea how to deal […]
The partnership between man and dog goes back nearly as far as man and dog can be traced. Dogs do all kinds of jobs for us, from herding sheep to providing independence to the blind. The service dogs most of us are familiar with are the seeing eye dogs. When I was a kid, they […]
It was in the late 1990s that a woman I knew named Barbara contacted me about a stray cat she had taken in. Barbara wasn’t allowed to have pets in her apartment. Despite that, she had captured a cat that was hanging around her neighborhood and brought him home. She was hoping I would take […]
I may be one of the few people in Canton who would much rather walk in the cold than in the heat. When it’s cold, I can add a hat, an extra sweater, wool socks — the possible number of layers is almost endless. When it’s hot? There is only so much you can remove […]
