Category Archives: pets

Al Gore Was Right

Posted on January 8, 2013 by Rob| 8 Comments

There was an inexplicable surge of interest in a 2010 blog post I wrote about renting my cats. By “surge” I mean three comments — in my world, that’s a surge of interest. The tongue-in-cheek piece suggested that I was offering my three cats to people who need to get rid of rodents.

Then on top of that, somebody sent me this email:

Just stumbled across your blog researching how to get rid of mice. I know your post was written in 2010, but are you by any chance still doing the rent-a-cat thing? My roommates and i live in Brooklyn, and the traps don’t seem to be working. I would hate to make them suffer with poison or sticky traps, and I’m not sure we can keep a cat long term. Let me know if you’re still doing this, or if you know of anyone who is!

I wrote back, explaining that no, I’m not still renting cats and that I was just kidding. I also suggested the reader try peanut butter as mouse bait for the traps.

So what the heck is going on? My theory is that climate change may be influencing rodents. It’s possible that there are more mice running around – or some environmental factor is forcing them into residences in greater numbers. What do I know, I’m no scientist!

Anyway, maybe it’s time to rethink this whole cat rental idea?

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Posted in pets

Catabetes

Posted on December 10, 2012 by Rob| 15 Comments

Advances in veterinary treatments for household pets have raised an ethical question for their owners: how much are you willing to spend to keep your dog or cat healthy?

I went to the vet’s office recently to learn how to give my cat insulin shots. Like Wilford Brimley, Maeve’s got the dye-a-beet-iss — and it looks like she’ll be getting two shots a day, every day, for the rest of her life. This is not as complicated as it sounds. I had images of her wailing in pain and avoiding us like the plague for the rest of her days, coming out only when we were away from the house.

On the contrary, she barely notices when you stick her. It’s not expensive, either. One store gave us a huge box of syringes for free, and at Walmart the insulin cost a third of what CVS charges.

So that’s the new normal, and doing shots has taken on a new meaning. There was a time, not very long ago, that your pet with diabetes would just continue to have diabetes without any treatment. They would start having the side effects that come with the disease, and the downward spiral would begin.

Today pets get orthopedic surgery, cancer treatments, dental work — all sorts of fixes and therapies once reserved for humans. But like everything there is a price, and a decision to make about value, and the stark reality that some pets are blessed with deep pocketed owners, and others are not.

Honestly, I don’t know what my budget is for the pets. Is is the same for the dogs and the cats? There are no easy choices.

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Posted in pets

Why I Could Not Shave Today

Posted on August 30, 2012 by Rob| Leave a comment

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Posted in pets, Tiny Annoyances

The Clock Will Kill You

Posted on February 6, 2012 by Rob| 6 Comments

Most people did not get what Bill Belichick was doing when he allowed Ahmad Bradshaw to score — hell, even Ahmad Bradshaw didn’t understand until it was too late.

Belichick decided to trade points for time. It was a ballsy thing to do and a calculated risk that did not pay off. And you know what that’s like, don’t you?

So many writers have waxed poetic about baseball, but it’s football that reveals the truth about life. It’s a game of triumph and struggle and tragedy. Pain and glory, winning and losing. It’s a place where perseverence is rewarded — but sometimes it’s just better to be lucky.

And ultimately, as in life, it comes down to the clock.

Now, on to the sideshow. Most of the Super Bowl commercials sucked, but I really liked the Silverado apocalypse commercial, which would have also been interesting with zombies. However, the spot I can’t stop thinking about is the Cat Killing Dorito Dog. The audacity of extending the cat vs. dog trope this far, for the dog to… well watch the commercial:

This made me laugh out loud, the cats storm out of the room, and the dogs give high-fives all around.

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Posted in Dogs, media, pets, sports, zombies

The Dog Vote

Posted on January 11, 2012 by Rob| 9 Comments

Dogs can not vote, but that doesn’t stop me from speculating about their politics.

I tend to think of our dogs as libertarians: they oppose any sort of regulation or interference in their personal business. They don’t want anything impinging on their freedom to be dogs, but like many libertarians, they are also full of contradictions. For example, the dogs tend to be in favor of programs that benefit them directly — handouts, if you will — which is just human nature. Or dog nature, I guess.

And I do know this about my dogs: they would never vote for Mitt Romney. Not after hearing the story of Romney strapping his dog to the roof of a car to make a 12 hour vacation trip, like Clark Griswold with an Irish Setter. Just Google Romney dog for the ugly details.

To my dogs this is a sort of a canine Chappaquiddick, absolute proof that Romney can not be trusted to serve.

Don’t get me started on the cats. They are all about receiving services while not contributing much to the household. Not to get into any tired old sterotypes, but they are clearly the entitlement class — and certainly Democrats.

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Posted in Dogs, pets, Politics

Delicious and Forbidden

Posted on November 17, 2011 by Rob| 8 Comments

Does cat food really taste that much better than dog food?

I’m not about to try it to find out.

Our dogs are so obsessed with the dry cat food that they lurk around while the cats are eating waiting for their chance to swoop in and scarf it up.

The dogs sit and stare. ”How do the cats enjoy such wonderful bounty when we must eat the same thing every day?”

When we forget to take the cat food off the floor, it’s like they hit the dog lottery.

Some have suggested that cat food needs to be especially delicious beause of the legendarily finicky nature of felines. The dogs are so enthusiastic about it that we can use it instead of expensive treats. They’re nuts for the stuff.

Have you ever seen your dog dreaming? They get fitful and may whimper a bit, or even growl. I used to think they were off in a world of  balls and squirrels; now I think they may be dreaming of the cat food.

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Posted in animals, Dogs, pets

Dogs and Cats Living Together

Posted on October 3, 2011 by Rob| 11 Comments

OK, I hope you’re not having lunch.

It’s no secret that dogs do disgusting things, often involving eating or rolling in vile stuff, but I have recently observed another revolting dog behavior.

Maddy has gotten into the business of feline hygeine and will assist the cats by licking them clean. If she were just helping groom their faces that would be OK. Cleaning their ears? Mildly offputting, but still sort of cute. But no, she’s been licking their asses.

The cats? They seem to enjoy it.

What could possibly explain this horrible behavior? My theory is that she’s acting on her maternal instincts, that she’s keeping the cats tidy in the same way she’d tend to puppies. Or maybe she just likes the way it tastes.

Either way, in case you needed more evidence that dog’s mouths are not really cleaner than ours, there you have it.

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Posted in Dogs, pets

Sewercide

Posted on April 27, 2011 by Rob| 12 Comments

Yes, some of you are plagued by irrational fears. Heights, confined spaces, flying, dogs, birds, spiders. There are scores of things that terrify people — and you can read about them all on the Internet. The oddest one I found is genuphobia, which is a fear of knees.

My irrational fear is not on the list: I worry about dropping my keys down the sewer.

This may sound a bit wacky, but whenever I’m near a sewer grate, I clutch my keys tightly in my hand or zip them inside my jacket.

It’s not like dropping your keys in the sewer is the end of the world. You’d call the department of public works and feel like an idiot while you watch them fish around in the muck. Most likely you’d want to tip those guys; I’d say twenty bucks would be appropriate.

But the sewer thing? It may have started when I was a kid.

Our poor little poodle, Dondi, was hit by a car an somehow ended up tumbling into the storm drain. As I remember it, my father lifted up the grate and went down to retrieve our lifeless dog. It was tragic — but we eased the pain by joking he’d committed “sewercide.”

Your brain makes crazy conections that nobody can understand. Is this one of them? I don’t know, but hold on to your keys, and keep the dogs away from the sewers.

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Posted in pets, psychology

Kegs and Eggs: Canine Edition

Posted on March 17, 2011 by Rob| 11 Comments

Kegs and Eggs Dog

If my dogs think they can take pictures like this and still get away with their drunken shenanigans, they’ve got another thing coming.

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Posted in Holidays, pets

Gratuitous Cat Photo

Posted on January 21, 2011 by Rob| 6 Comments

It’s estimated that there are between 60 and 70 million cats in America — and all of them have their picture on the internet. Not all of them, however,  are doing something interesting like Mia.

She enjoys getting in the bathtub after we shower and staring at water dripping from the faucet. Look! Isn’t that amusing?

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Posted in pets, The Internets