Have you ever taken your pet to the veterinary clinic for some problem and gotten the feeling that your veterinarian just wasn’t listening to you? Or you got the impression that the vet had already made up his or her mind regarding the cause and proper treatment of the problem before getting what you considered a complete history or thoroughly examining your animal? At that time, you might have thought that the veterinarian simply didn’t care about your animal or you. But more often than not, these people really do care. It’s the way they’ve been trained that creates
Read more →Over the past few months I’ve read several books that have referred to the Theory of Mind. Never heard of it? Well, I’ll give you a hint about its content: If you were a researcher with a strong human bias who believed in this theory, the title of this commentary would be an oxymoron. And the reason for this would be because the Theory of Mind is often used to define what these folks consider the mental qualities that make humans superior to animals. You might think that the Theory of Mind is some really complex concept, but it’s
Read more →Last month a big news story contained two elements the media and public love to talk about: great gobs of money and animals. That Leona Helmsley earmarked her estimated $5-8 billion estate to be used to establish a charitable trust devoted to the care and welfare of dogs had many in a tizzy, some in joy and others in disgust at what they perceived as a gross waste of money. No doubt those in organizations whose work could in any way be construed as benefitting dogs are already sharpening their grant-writing pencils and brushing up on their schmoozing skills.
Read more →In many ways, for me the best time of day is when I take the dogs out first thing in the morning. Particularly at this time of year, I love that everything is so fresh and clean. And quiet. It’s the quiet that’s particularly engaged my thoughts lately. These past weeks I’ve become almost obsessed with it as I’ve attempted to master the basics of podcasting. There’s nothing like walking through your home talking into a sensitive voice recorder to point out just how much noise there is that’s slipped your notice. (You can hear some of the noises
Read more →Recently Walter Brandes of To the Tipping Point, a New Hampshire business consulting practice, contacted me for permission to use that business name because I’d already claimed TippingPoint Inc. I agreed and then he and I had a delightful chat about the role of tipping points in human and animal behavior. That discussion later caused me to muse yet again about how much more readily our society accepts what we can learn from animal physiology compared to animal behavior. For example, most people are aware of and accept that countless animal studies still form the foundation of our drug-testing
Read more →Last month I was invited by the New England Federation of Humane Societies to participate in a panel discussion about shipping un-owned companion animals from areas of excess to those where potential adopters exist. I was happy to accept the invitation because this is another one of those animal-related practices that superficially appears to be a win-win situation for animals and humans alike. But is that really the case? Much as I dread triggering the wrath of passionate advocates of the practice, the answer to that is no. My starting point was to view the animals being transported not
Read more →No, this commentary isn’t going to be about people who are addicted to animals or animal-related activities, although that’s also a subject worthy of exploration. This commentary is about the kind of animal addiction hinted at in a video clip I recently received entitled “African Booze Tree” that shows animals of multiple species getting soused on the fermenting fruit of the African marula tree. This got me thinking about two things. The first was whether this behavior was problematic from an evolutionary standpoint. The second was whether a similar phenomenon occurs in companion animals. That some animals will consume
Read more →Years ago I heard an interview in which author Ray Bradbury extolled the value of fan letters. He wasn’t just referring to the letters that his own fans had written him that had given him great joy, but also to those letters he himself had written to those from all walks of life. I still recall his passionate message: Don’t put it off. Do it now. Tell them before they die how much you admire them. Not to long ago, it hit me that Whittington is going to be 14 this spring, a thought that elicited all those death-related
Read more →This month I’m going share some thoughts about hormones as they relate to an on-going miracle that so struck me as so amazing, it was impossible not to write about it. Can you guess what that miracle was and is? If you took one look at my picture and guessed menopause, you’re wrong. Although I do consider it amazing, it’s not nearly as amazing as the hormonal miracle I have in mind. It began the week before Thanksgiving when I bred my amazing shitzu-terrier mix, Frica, to an equally amazing poodle-terrier mix named Bailey. That set into motion a
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Day of Reckoning: Frica Louise Gets Spayed
Last month I had my dog Frica spayed after contemplating all the pros and cons so many times I was dizzy. I learned a lot from this experience, including that there are a lot of clichés that can be applied to this sometimes grueling process. I started thinking about having Frica spayed after she had her litter last January. Since then, I’ve reviewed many of the studies that are listed in my References section as well as some I haven’t gotten around to posting there yet. But the reality is that there’s not a lot of concrete information out
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