Pets

Protect Your Dog or Cat With a Pet Safety Light

Wednesday, February 1st, 2012

I love dogs! They are my passion and, to be unabashedly honest, they are the center of my life. I have five canines that were rescued from one bad situation or another: one I rescued as a wee pup from certain death along Interstate 70; another was wandering around a busy rural highway, malnourished and in-heat; a third was a just-weaned puppy who wandered into where I was working; my German Shepherd-mix was sadly neglected by her owners and was slowly starving to death; and the 5th was a stray who I volunteered to foster for a few days . . . almost 4 years ago. I never set out to acquire a pack of dogs. It just happened that way, and since I live in a rural area with a large fenced yard, I am able to provide a loving, stable home. Their health, safety and happiness is a priority.

Living in the country, I am always aware of the plight of the stray and the neglected. Dogs are often dumped in rural areas, the ignorant who leave them behind perhaps believing that dogs are able to fend for themselves in the wild, like their wild cousins, the fox, coyote, and wolf. Sadly, dogs are too domesticated to survive for very long on their own. Too many people neglect to spay and neuter their pets and we are left with millions of unwanted pets crowding our local shelters or facing starvation, exposure, predation, or death by auto as strays.

One small and FREE thing we can all do to protect dogs and cats is make a daily visit to The Animal Rescue Site.com. On the home page, just by clicking on the big purple button, you can donate food to animal shelters, again, it’s FREE. But there is a lot more to this website. In addition to just clicking, you can buy any number of products and each purchase includes a donation of food to animal shelters. The merchandise is quality stuff and is very fairly priced. And, no, they don’t gouge you with shipping and handling charges. The most I’ve ever paid is $2.99 (for any size order) and they often have free shipping offers or $1.00 shipping offers. And you don’t have to be an animal lover to shop on The Animal Rescue Site. Many of their gifts are not dog- or cat-themed. There are too many categories to list here, so go check it out! Buy a birthday present for your girlfriend, do some early Christmas shopping, buy Mother’s Day and Father’s Day gifts . . . make your shopping count for something.

Something else you can do to protect your dog or cat (or your friends’ and family members’ pets) is to make sure they can be seen at night when they are outside with a Pet Blinkie. Pet Blinkies are vibrant, multi-color pet safety lights that attach easily to a collar, leash or harness. They are waterproof and visible up to 1/2 mile away and are available in 6 blinking, vibrant colors. If you love your pet, get them a Pet Blinkie!

Now go and hug your pet!


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Posted in Pets, Safety Lights, pet safety | 3 Comments »

More on Pet Safety: What’s Lurking In Your Pets’ Food?

Sunday, January 15th, 2012

What’s lurking in your pets’ food and treats? Salmonella, E-coli, Botulism? Remember the huge 2007 recall of pet food that contained wheat gluten contaminated with melamine? Scores of cats and dogs suffered and even died as a result of unscrupulous manufacturers who attempted to fraudulently boost the protein content of pet food with a deadly combination of melamine and cyanuric acid.

Since that time, there have been other pet food recalls, some we never heard about in the mainstream media. In July 2010, for example, a voluntary recall of Iams prescription food for cats occurred. As far as I could determine from searches on-line, the company caught the possible contamination in time and no cats died as a result of eating the food.

It seems these days, you never know what’s going to end up making us or our pets sick. Remember the massive egg salmonella contamination recall during the summer of 2010? This begs the question: how do loving pet owners protect their pets from contaminated food and treats? Unfortunaetly, there are no guarantees. The best we can do is remain vigilant and keep reading the labels on all pet food packages. Some owners have turned to making their own dog and cat food and treats. This is one alternative as it gives the owner a bit more control over what goes into the food, as long as the main ingredients themselves are safe and uncontaminated, of course.

Another alternative is to buy only organic, or at least natural, food and treats, which may be safer because they are less likely to be mass-produced and therefore have more safety precautions taken in the process.

Did You Just Say "Treat"?

But buying only organic food, like for humans, isn’t exactly cost-effective. As a compromise, I do buy some of my dog treats from organic sources and others from smaller companies that put more care into what they make by using only natural ingredients. Two companies I trust when buying treats for my pack of five rescued canines are Three Dog Bakery and Alaska’s Bakery.

Alaska’s Bakery was founded by a dog-owner who wanted to make sure her dog, Alaska, ate only the best organic dog treats. I don’t buy from this company often because I have so many dogs to treat, but my canines absolutely love Alaska’s Oatmeal and Date cookies. The only difference between these cookies and human cookies is the sweetness. Alaska’s Bakery doesn’t use refined sugar of any kind. The Oatmeal and Date cookies are sweetened with organic apple juice.

Three Dog Bakery makes dog (and cat) treats with all-natural ingredients. Because they are a larger company than Alaska’s Bakery, their treats cost less. This company was also founded by dog lovers who started making their homemade treats for their three dogs, Dottie, Sarah Jean, and Amazing Grace. My dogs drool whenever I open a box of “Sweet”hearts Cookies baked with real molasses. Three Dog uses no artificial colors, flavors or preservatives, no added salt and no refined sugar.

Sounds pretty yummy, huh? Just try to find cookies for humans in any store that are made with better ingredients.


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Posted in Pets, pet safety | 2 Comments »

Pet Blinkie Pet Safety Lights are for Pet Lovers

Wednesday, August 11th, 2010

This post will be slightly off-topic, but should be of interest to pet lovers. I have five dogs, all of whom I rescued from one bad situation or another, so you can guess that I am a true dog-lover. They are part of my family, just as much as my human relatives. Their health, safety, and happiness top my own life’s priorities because of the joy and contentment they bring to my life every day. Dogs are always happy to see you when you come home, are always sad to see you leave, and content to just be with you around the house, no matter what you’re doing. One of my dogs, Shasta, even seems to like it when I vacuum. After I turn it on, she immediately comes over to it and gives it a sniff and often lays down in the area where I’m vacuuming, unafraid no matter how close the noisy machine gets to her. Maybe she likes the vibration of the floor … who knows! Dogs are funny like that.

Another of my dogs has a real sweet tooth. I buy cookies made for dogs from Three Dog Bakery and give each dog one cookie after their evening meal. If I’m slow to walk into the kitchen after they are all done eating, Sammi, my beagle-mix, stares intently at me until I get the hint and ask if they are ready for a cookie. If I don’t notice him staring at me right away, he’ll move closer, with this intense, inquisitive look on his face, as if he’s trying to say, “So are you going to give me a cookie?” It never fails to make me laugh and sometimes I’ll wait for cookie-time, just to see his sweet face staring at me in that way.

Living in a rural area, the plight of the scores of unwanted and neglected dogs and cats is impossible to ignore (and is why I have five formerly unwanted and/or neglected dogs). I am a strong advocate of responsible pet ownership, including the necessity for spaying and neutering all pets. Along those lines, I created a web page on Squidoo about responsible pet ownership and the importance of “fixing” our pets. I am proud to say that my “lens” (web page) won Squidoo’s Summer Sunshine Award this week and as a result, $99 will be donated to Hero Dogs, Incorporated, a non-profit organization that trains service dogs for our disabled veterans. I was also awarded $99 and will be adding another dollar to it and donating it to my local low-cost spay/neuter program. If you’d like to see and read my winning web page, it’s titled Dogs are a Girl’s Best Friend. How You Can Return the Favor. If clicking the title doesn’t take you to the correct page, you can also just go to www.squidoo.com and type in “Dogs are a Girl’s Best Friend” in the search box and you’ll see it at the top of the list. If nothing else, you’ll get to see some pictures of very cute dogs (mine).

A small portion of my lens describes the Pet Blinkie Pet Safety Light, which I sell here on my website. If you walk your dogs at night, or any of your pets are out and about near or after dark, make sure they can be seen by using pet safety lights. Pet Blinkies are colorful, vibrant lights that attach easily to your pet’s collar, leash or harness. And they are visible up to 1/2 mile away. They also make great gifts for your animal-loving friends and family. Click HERE to see them and/or buy now.


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Posted in Pets, Safety Lights, pet safety | 1 Comment »