Pets

Sun - November 4, 2007

East Hill Pet Sitting

My wife Dee has just launched her new business, East Hill Pet Sitting. www.easthillpetsitting.com

If you or a friend need pet care while away on a trip or want someone to daily walk your dogs, consider Dee! (assuming you live in Renton, Kent, or selected areas of south King County, WA.)

Dee is also launching a pet blog, which'll recount her experiences as an animal lover and pet sitter. Subscribe here.

Posted at 12:47 PM

Sun - October 14, 2007

Wake Up! I'm Hungry!

If you have a cat, perhaps you will find this somewhat familiar. I certainly do.

Posted at 12:20 AM

Tue - June 12, 2007

Clipping Nails

We have a lot of pets, which means we end up clipping a lot of pet nails. Cats are easy enough (for two people), but our dog Hektor wouldn't stand for it.

He would whimper pitifully if we held his paw and brought the nail trimmer close. If we actually touched the nail trimmer to his nail, he would yelp as if being beaten. It was horrible, and we could never bring ourselves to go through with clipping even a single nail.

So, we always took him to the vet, once a month, to have the professionals do it. Somehow, they did it quickly and determinedly enough that Hektor realized hysterics wouldn't save his nails. But, he still hated it.

Probably partly due to the fact Dee left the Humane Society (so we no longer received premium vet care at cut rate prices), we tried to trim Hektor's nails again ourselves. This time, I thought I'd try to hold his new favorite treat (Natural Balance) in front of him to try to distract him while Dee clipped his nail. It sort of worked, and as a reward after the first nail, I gave him the treat. After all, we'd clipped one nail!

So, we tried another. I held another treat, and with the clip successfully completed, gave him another treat.

Pretty soon, we'd clipped all his nails. A month later, we did the same thing, clipping each and every nail with nary a whimper. We realized we had inadvertently "clipper" trained Hektor.

Now, Hektor LOVES to get his nails trimmed. He wags his tail throughout the process, and greedily snatches each treat from my hand when he hears the snick of the clipper shorten another nail.

We're still amazed.

Posted at 07:12 PM

Wed - January 24, 2007

Loss

Hemingway, the lost dog we found, was a couple years older than we thought. He turned out not to be an adoption candidate because of some underlying health issue as well as his advanced age. So Dee and I kept him as our foster for the last half year, during which time he became a fixture around the house.

However, his health slowly declined, and yesterday Hemingway, or Old Dog as he came to be known, found his final rest. He had a good run these last 5 months, sleeping in our warm house over the winter, eating wet food which he LOVED, getting a treat every time he came in from his frequent walks around the yard, plus meds to keep his arthritis pain at bay.

We miss him.

Posted at 08:37 AM

Tue - October 31, 2006

Superman Returns

A classic some of you will remember: Hektor loves halloween!

Posted at 08:52 AM

Wed - August 23, 2006

Lost Dog

On our way home from the dog park on Sunday, my wife and I saw a lone dog walking along the road near a school. We stopped, and found a starving and dehydrated, 12 year old german shepherd mix without a collar. Luckily we had treats and a leash, and were able to approach him. He was friendly enough, but dazed and confused. We took him to Bethany, the full-time veterinarian at SeattleHumane.org, and had him checked out, his wounds treated, vaccinations, bloodwork, and he received fluids.

Bloodwork came back and it's pristine! So, he's an adoption candidate at the Humane Society, and failing that, a candidate for Pasado's AARF project.

Now he's at our house for a month or so while we put some muscle back on his bones (he's down to 50 pounds; he should be at 75 or so!). After only a few days, he's become a playful and extremely happy dog, and he's doing great.

We've named him Hemingway.

When he gets back into shape and goes into the adoption queue, I'll likely post an adoption video.

Posted at 02:59 PM

Sat - August 12, 2006

SENSE-ation Harness

Our dog Hektor, despite a couple classes and long-term follow-through on our part, refuses to walk well on leash. Pinch collars and choke collars each have their safety issues, and neither really seemed to stop Hektor from pulling for all he was worth, so we stuck with the flat collar for a long time.

A little less than a year ago we finally tried the Gentle Leader collar. Wow! The difference was night and day! We thought we were on to something, but Hektor really started to hate the feel of it. He'd try to scrape it off repeatedly, even after several months of use.

Finally, we heard of the Sense-ation harness, first developed for pit-bulls whose short snouts were incompatible with gentle leaders.

Since we've started using the Sense-ation harness, Hektor is every bit as walkable as he was on the gentle leader, and he doesn't try to free himself from the harness every 30 feet as was the case for the gentle leader.

If your dog is bad on leash and you can't seem to find a way to reliably train him to heel, I recommend you try the Sense-sation harness.

-http://www.softouchconcepts.com/

Posted at 12:42 PM

Thu - July 27, 2006

Catapalooza 2006

-Download the full poster here: http://www.seattlehumane.org/CATAPALOOZA.pdf

At Catapalooza you can expect:
Games & Activities
Kitten Petting Area
Face Painting
Crafts for Kids
Door Prizes

For Adopters:
Great cats and kittens for adoption
Adopt Two cats, Pay One Adoption Fee (special)
Free food for a year from MudBay for 10th cat adopter
Chance to win two FREE Washington Dinner Train tickets for all cat adopters

Posted at 02:28 PM

Thu - July 20, 2006

Kitten Season

Ever wanted to foster a kitten? Now's your chance!

Kitten Season is in full bloom. The Humane Society for Seattle/King County has nearly 300 kitties in their care. All of their spaces for cats and kittens are full and more are arriving daily.

Consider expanding The Humane Society for Seattle/King County into your living room, your spare room or even your bathroom. If you will take an adult cat(s) right now for two weeks to a month, you will be making a life-saving difference.

If you're already a volunteer at the Humane Society, contact v1olunteers@hu2manesociety.o3rg [[remove red numerals to render foregoing a live email]]. If you're not already a volunteer, check out how you can sign up to become a volunteer/foster parent here:

-http://www.seattlehumane.org/foster.shtml

Posted at 04:24 PM

Wed - May 24, 2006

Humane Society Affiliations

This is a minor point, but one which becomes more meaningful when a particular Humane Society manages to tarnish its name.

The point: Any animal organization can use the word 'Humane Society' as part of its title. However, the Humane Society in one city has no affiliation with a Humane Society in the next. Each is its own organization, run by its own staff. Despite similar names, each Humane Society follows its own internally concocted rules and procedures, and is governed by its own board of directors (if the organization is large enough).

As a for instance, there is no connection to the campus of the Humane Society for Seattle/King County, for whom I sometimes do adoption videos and volunteer for, and the Tacoma Humane Society.

Organizations pick up the name Humane Society because it usually grants them instant recognition from the public. But sometimes that recognition is soured by poor practices in one organization. It's a fine line. Should an an animal welfare organization adopt or keep the Humane Society title for the recognition and traffic that drives to the campus, or should the organization go its own route so it is not tarred by the lapses of poorly run facilities who've adopted the freely available Humane Society moniker? A difficult question.

Posted at 12:55 PM

Mon - May 8, 2006

Charity Fundraiser Tuxes & Tails a Success

I volunteered at Tuxes & Tails last Saturday, and am happy to report the Humane Society raised just shy of $600,000, a new record.

My eyes are still a little bleary, but I had a great time. I met several fabulous fellow volunteers, including Liberty (thanks for helping me manually match bid numbers to table names ahead of time), Jennifer (thanks for dealing with that wine issue through to its resolution), Frank (thanks for THINKING of matching the bid numbers to table numbers!), and several people who's name badges I couldn't see, and the hundred others I never interacted with at all. And that doesn't even include the staff whose every waking moment has been focussed on this event for weeks prior. Everyone worked hard, and in the way of all large events, scrambled to overcome each obstacle that reared its head so that attendees experienced only a seamless event.

One volunteer, who also happens to be the heir of a millionaire, stood up and pledged $50,000. Wow.

Posted at 10:17 AM

Thu - April 27, 2006

Tuxes & Tails 2006

If you're a patron of the Humane Society in Seattle, or would like to be, put Tuxes & Tails on your calendar for May 6th! (actually, if you want to go, you should probably register for tickets very soon...) Tuxes & Tails is the Humane Society's premier and most important annual fund raiser. The fundraiser includes a delicious dinner, an evening of fabulous entertainment, plus silent and live auctions. Also a few local celebrities and their four-legged animal companions. If you want a bottle of wine signed by Steve Ballmer, there'll be one here for auction. A picture of Elvis signed by the King himself? Also here. Plus many other cool items and experiences.

Posted at 03:33 PM

Thu - April 20, 2006

Adopt-A-Pet Center

Redmond Town Center donated space to the Humane Society for an off-campus facility where people out shopping can stop by and adopt an animal in need of a home. Check out the video I made at the grand opening last weekend; scroll down the page and see it embedded on the right hand side of this page

.

Posted at 09:19 PM

Sat - February 25, 2006

Adoption Video Tech Upgrade

If you look down the right hand side of my site, you'll find the latest adoption animal video embedded right here, playable here, instead of linked off to another site as was previously the case. Awesome! I'm a sucker for shiny new web apps! :-)

Posted at 07:15 PM

Fri - December 30, 2005

All Fosters Adopted

I'm happy to report that 2 foster pets we've had in our home for some time have been successfully adopted, right before Christmas.

One was Grace, a Shar Pei/Doberman Pinscher mix. Much cuter than it sounds--not too many wrinkles, luckily. As a matter of fact, most mixed breed dogs are healthier and have better temperaments than pure breeds, but that's a topic for another day.

The other lucky foster pet was Sammy, a very shy cat that didn't visit well, but my video attracted the people that eventually adopted her.

Posted at 09:50 AM

Super Hektor

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