The Power to Heal
The experience led Mr. Jones to invite Tuftss therapy animals to the Red Crosss headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts, a city that had been on virtual lockdown just days earlier when the younger of the two bombing suspects was still on the loose. The horse, dogs, and other animals also went to visit doctors and nurses who had been dealing with amputees and other victims; people who had gathered for memorials; and others affected by the bombings.
Too Close an Encounter with Anothers Pet
That the small animal hospital at Tufts sees several cases of dog-on-dog bite wounds each week - between 100 and 200 a year - was just another statistic to me: unfortunate, but still, a number without emotional impact. Then, just last week, when my wife had our border collie, Franklin, off leash in the dog-friendly park nearby, he was bitten by a pitbull. It was a dog he had seen before; the two had always…
The Right Way to Take Your Dog for a Drive
Both Ann Smits of Hyattsville, Maryland, and Kathy Holmes of Milton, Wisconsin, took us to task for showing a photo of a dog sticking his head and paws out the window during a car ride in our March issue. It is not safe for a dog to ride unrestrained in a car, Ms. Smits wrote. …
When Letting Go Is the Kindest Thing You Can Do
We had probably already waited too long. Ellie was clearly miserable and was ready to be relieved of her pain once and for all. So we said our good-byes while the vet waited outside the exam room. Then she gave Ellie the injection that would let her body go, with us kissing and petting her and leaving afterward with aching hearts. We still ache for Ellie, in fact, as much as we love the dogs currently in our lives.
Two Dogs, Two Different Meal Plans
The vet finally told us what we had known for some time but needed to hear. Franklin the border collie, tipping the scale at 62 pounds, was due for some serious dieting. Rosie the shiba inu, on the other hand, was perfectly proportioned at a svelte 28 pounds. …
To Breed Or Not to Breed?
When my niece, Melanie, told me eight years ago that she had just adopted a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel from a breeder in Georgia, I worried that she was in for heartache. The little guy was only 11 weeks old, but I had read that virtually all Cavalier King Charles developed mitral valve disease in middle age, a condition that leads to heart failure and often causes premature death. …
What We Will – and Wont – Do for Our Dogs
Cathy Park of Worcester, Massachusetts, is more than a trooper. Shes a lifesaver. If she werent willing to inject her beloved dog Bunson with a needle every single day, he wouldnt be alive. The beautiful white Labrador Retriever has chronic kidney failure, and without the extra fluid she gets into him by way of a daily shot, he would have long ago succumbed to his disease. But here he is still, perkier than he had been for some time, enjoying car rides and lolling around the house.
