Pet Tails

This note is mainly about the humor of what happens when you don’t clip your dog’s nails.

It is funny to hear the little “click-click-click” as they walk on hardwood floor or tile.  You can always tell where they are in your home.  And you watch them as they take their rear paw and scratch the hell out of their head and you think, “Gosh that would tear off my skin!”  Well just so you know those nails will tear your skin, and I have proof of it.

I wear shorts in the summer time, all the time.  As soon as the weather breaks it is shorts and t-shirt or tank top.  I shed the Eskimo attire and look more like a human than a bag lady come warmer weather, and at least people can recognize me, even family members.

The problem I run into when wearing shorts are dogs.  Small dogs, large dogs, medium dogs; all of them like to jump on me.  Though I know you are saying, “Well that is not a well behaved dog”, and you are right it isn’t, but needless to say it happens.  My dogs do it too from time to time, but they reach much higher than my legs.

So in the course of my travels and visiting with my 4-legged clients, I do get jumped on a great deal, and because of that I have many “marks” on my legs and arms.

I know they are just happy to see me, and they just want me to acknowledge their presence and I try my best to deter them to not jump or paw at me, but it still happens.  But when you get the smaller dogs with the pointy nails and when they jump up they reach right above your knee cap and they paw at you with such happiness and they have that smile on their face, and are filled with so much joy to see you, meanwhile you are realizing the marks on your legs and arms looks like you just came from some type of whipping!  Or worse and I will keep this G rated.

I am not complaining, I just look down at my legs and see the red marks, and realize some of them will turn to bruises and I will just laugh about it tomorrow, knowing that this is just part of the job; one of the hazards of the position.  Some of my friends may ask, “How’d you get that mark on your leg or your arm or your neck or even your chest?”  And my answer is “Oh a dog jumped up on me.”  After so many times, they don’t ask any more, so I will show them the damage done to my body.

Last week my own dog Sherlock was just so happy with me that he jumped up and when he came down he caught my shine with his nail, and yes he left a mark, but this one bled.  He has also gotten me around my collar bone or the opening of my t-shirt, and yes it hurts, but again, he is just happy, smiling and filled with joy to see me, so I can’t get mad.

This is not a note about the importance of clipping your dog’s nails, but yes it should be done on a regular basis; every 3 weeks is best, but it is also the humor of what happens when those sweet lovable members of your family greet me and You, and I am sure they do it to you when you get home, now just multiply it by 10 and have it done everyday…that is what it is like for me.  So I just laugh.  Oh, I forgot to mention, bare feet and dog nails!

Because it appears a number of people enjoyed reading the ones I had posted yesterday, I thought I would post some more that I had found.

“It occurs to me that every time I lose a dog, he takes a piece of my heart with him. Then every new dog who comes into my life gifts me with a piece of his heart. Therefore, if I should live long enough, all the components of my heart will be dog, and I will then become as generous and loving as dogs are!” ~ Author Unknown 

“An animal’s eyes have the power to speak a great language.” ~ Martin Buber 

“A cat is a puzzle for which there is no solution.” ~ Hazel Nicholson

“Who can believe that there is no soul behind those luminous eyes!” ~ Theophile Gautier

“A dog is the only thing on earth that will love you more than you love yourself.” ~ Josh Billings

“Until one has loved an animal,  a part of one’s soul remains unawakened.” ~ Anatole France 

“If having a soul means being able to feel love and loyalty and gratitude, then animals are better off than a lot of humans” ~ James Herriot 

“And God took a handful of southerly wind, blew His breath over it and created the horse.” Bedouin Legend 

“Every boy should have two things: a dog and a mother willing to let him have one.” Anonymous 

“I’ve met many thinkers and many cats, but the wisdom of cats is infinitely superior.” Hippolyte Taine 

“There are two means of refuge from the misery of life - music and cats.”
- Albert Schweitzer 

“Cats are smarter than dogs. You can’t get eight cats to pull a sled through snow.”
- Jeff Valdez 

“The real measure of a day’s heat is the length of a sleeping cat.” - Charles J. Brady 

“He is your friend, your partner, your defender, your dog. You are his life, his love, his leader.  He will be yours, faithful and true, to the last beat of his heart. You owe it to him to be worthy of such devotion.” -Unknown

“Old age means realizing you will never own all the dogs you wanted to.” ~ Joe Gores 

“Cats take naps, only humans put them to sleep.” – Unknown 

“If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you. This is the principle difference between a dog and a man.”  - Mark Twain 

If you enjoy reading these, I will try to find new and different ones to post on a weekly basis.  I think a number of them make you think and become more aware of the wisdom, comfort and understanding of what owning a pet means.   

I would suggest if you enjoy reading classics, read some of Mark Twain’s stories, especially the “Book of Animals”.  I found it to be very enlightening to read that considering the time that these stories were written, how he would describe the atrocities posed on animals; dogs, cats, horses, etc.  And later became one of the first advocates for animal welfare.

I know some of these you may have already heard, but I wanted to share with you some of my favorite sayings or quotes by authors and famous individuals that too were pet lovers.

The first one has no author, but I have always loved this one.

“In Hebrew folklore, the cat came about because Noah was afraid that the rats might eat all the food on the ark.  So he prayed and asked God for help.  God responded by making the lion sneeze and out came a little kitten.”

“Of all God’s creatures there is only one that cannot be made the slave of the lash. That one is the cat. If man could be crossed with the cat, it would improve man, but it would deteriorate the cat.”  ~ Mark Twain

“I loathe people who keep dogs. They are cowards who haven’t got the guts to bite people themselves.”  - August Strindberg

“The great pleasure of a dog is that you may make a fool of yourself with him and not only will he not scold you, but he will make a fool of himself too.”  - Samuel Butler

“Animals are such agreeable friends - they ask no questions, they pass no criticisms.”

~ George Eliot

”We can judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals.” ~ Immanual Kant

“There’s no need for a piece of sculpture in a home that has a cat.” ~ Wesley Bates

”Dogs are not our whole life, but they make our lives whole.” ~ Roger Caras

“You think dogs will not be in heaven? I tell you, they will be there long before any of us” ~ Robert Louis Stevenson

“The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.” ~ Mahatma Gandhi

“The average dog is a nicer person than the average person.” ~ Andrew A. Rooney

“A dog has lots of friends because he wags his tail and not his tongue.” ~ Anonymous

“If it were not for my cat and dog, I think I could not live.”  - Ebenezer Elliott

If you know of any famous quotes or sayings, please feel free to share them with me. 

Remember our world would not be the same without our companion animals that we choose to share it with, they make our lives different and more full.

Everyone keeps what we humans may need for our aches and pains or any of our body discomforts, but we don’t think of home remedies for your pets, and this is something you should always consider when you can’t get to your vet for something that may be solved at home.

This is not to say, you can solve your pets problems by using some of these “over the counter” remedies, but it may help your pet until you can get them to the veterinarian to have them checked out thoroughly.

The most common items you should keep for your pet, especially for your dog, is aspirin.  Keeping generic aspirin in your medicine cabinet or first aid kit for your dog can help out a great deal.  Just as aspirin helps us with mild aches and pains, or joint inflammation, it can do the same for your dog. 

You cannot give your cat aspirin.  Aspirin to a cat is poison; this will kill your cat rapidly in a most devastating way.  Aspirin given to a cat stops their blood from absorbing oxygen and the cat will actually suffocate to death.  Now I know of some clients that give their cat a very small portion of a generic aspirin as part of other medical issues, but this is closely monitored by their vet.

Another item to keep on hand for your dog, especially in the summer is generic Benadryl. 

If you have a dog that may get runny eyes, or have mild allergies in the spring or summer, or you have a dog like my Sherlock who loves to chase bees and often get stung, this can be a life saver.  Giving them a Benadryl for a couple of days relieves them of their runny eyes, or itchy ears and for mild skin irritations.

Cortisone cream is another item to keep on hand for the same reason, especially for bug bites or mild skin irritations.

Neosporin is an anti-biotic cream that we may use on our children or ourselves for mild scraps and cuts, but you can also use it on your cat or dog.  Yes, they may lick it off, but as long as you apply it to your pet a number of times a day, it will aid in their healing process.  Always make sure the cut is clean, free of dirt and debris and dry prior to applying this ointment.

Another good one is Peroxide.  Now we use peroxide to clean cuts and scraps on our selves and you can use it on your pets too, but you should really dilute it 10:1 prior to using it on any scraps or cuts.  It will still be effective on your pet, but it won’t “burn” them or irritate their skin when diluted.

Other items to keep handy are very simple ones. 

• Oversized gauze pads
• Ace bandages or sticky bandages you can wrap a leg or paw with
• An E-Collar (dog cone and cat cone)
• A syringe (oversized without the needle to administer liquid meds to dog or cat)

Some other items to keep on hand that you may not think of are right from your kitchen cabinet.

Canned Pumpkin – This is a gentle laxative for cats or dogs.  I usually dilute it with some condensed chicken soup to add some flavor to it. 

Carrots – these are also a simple solution to give to your dog to aid in constipation.  You can give them shredded, sliced and mixed in with their food, or even just plain.  My dogs prefer some ranch salad dressing on theirs if fed raw.

Baby food – Yes, if you cat is sick and you want to make sure he gets some nutrients in their belly or to get a pill him the, baby food works really well.

Antacids – Yes, if you dog has a belly ache, you can often give these to them too. 

Milk of Magnesia, Mylanta, and Pepto Bismol are other items to keep on hand for your pets.  Yes, they work the same way for your dog as they would us humans.  You would of course administer it slightly different based upon their weight.  I do have to say, I have never given these items to a cat, I have used other remedies for my cats that are less evasive.

Keep in mind any of the above remedies should only be a fix for your pet until you get them to the vet for a proper examination.  You as a pet owner know your pet more than anyone else.  So you know when it is a true emergency or something that may go away in a day or two.

I have used all of the above at one time or another, and have also told friends, clients, and family members they can use them to. 

Other items that are not medicinal but I carry in my car at all times are the following:

• A pillow case – for cats that don’t like a cat carrier
• Antiseptic wipes
• Extra leashes and collars
• Disposable vinyl gloves
• Extra towels
• A first aid handbook

Any or all of the above items should be included in “your” travel first aid kit especially if you travel with your pets.