Pet Health

My sleek and elegant cat,  Sophie, is perfect in every way except one.  Just lately she has begun to pass gas. How do I know this?  Because my eyes are still watering. OMG, she can clear a room. What should I do?

My cats, Ben and Jerry, ages 7 and 9, have been with me since they were kittens, but they seem to be getting less and less active.  They used to be a lot of fun, but now it seems like they mostly just lie around all day.

I came home with a poinsettia plant yesterday and my house mate went ballistic, accusing me of trying to poison our pets. I tried to explain to her that beliefs about poinsettias being poisonous to pet are sort of an urban myth., but she read somewhere on the internet that they are indeed poisonous and I can’t persuade her otherwise.

I am trying to finish my Holiday shopping early but I am fresh out of ideas for my pets, Rufus, the dog and Elmer the cat.  I mean how many squeaky toys and little pretend mice can these guys need?

Hundreds of thousands of animal lovers  have already told the USDA to issue new rules to close this loophole that exempts puppies sold over the Internet from any oversight by federal inspectors. Now the ASPCA needs our help to tell the USDA to implement the proposed rule so it can start protecting dogs now.

I have been reading about Superstorm Sandy and how both people and their pets are doing. We don’t get hurricanes much up here in central New York, but we sure get a lot of other horrible weather. Do you have any advice about how we should be prepared for disasters.

I adopted a new puppy, Buster, several months ago, and, to tell you the truth, it turns out that I’m not much of a dog trainer. He is housetrained (most of the time) but doesn’t come when he is called, jumps up on people who come to the house (including me), chews things all around the house relentlessly.

Three times this year I have witnessed animals that seemed to have just been abandoned on country roads. The first time was a sweet little dog with a limp. I took him home and called the dog control officer and she came right out to collect him. I heard later that he had to have his leg amputated because it was injured and badly infected.

It’s almost time for Halloween and I have been planning the costumes for my little Puggle and his best (feline) friend Miranda. But my husband thinks this is just stupid and will only stress them out.