Animals as Gifts

It's that time of year again, and some people have decided to give a pet to someone they love as a gift. Let me make a few suggestions!

First, it's imperative to know if that person REALLY wants to have a new animal companion, as it's not fair for the animal, if it has to be returned.

If you are sure that they do, please find out if they would prefer a baby animal or one that is a little older, as training a puppy or any youngster is a lot different experience than an older animal who already is potty trained, etc.

Lastly, please, please, go to your local shelter to ADOPT! There are hundreds of animals ready and waiting for that perfect someone!

Can you hear me?

Don't think your animal needs to go to the vet? Recently, I've been working with a lot of animals who have wax build up in their ears. If untreated, it can lead to them becoming deaf. So, even though your animal partner may be in great physical shape, it's always a good idea to make those annual or semi-annual visits to the vet, to make sure those ears are clean and clear. :)

Our cat is a little over 17 years and he goes every 3 months. He's in great shape, the vet is always quite impressed, but always needs to have everything, including his ears checked. :)

I could go on about a lot of other things that need to be checked, but I just wanted to bring attention, in this post, to the ears. :)

Fun fact from Wikipedia:
Humans and cats have a similar range of hearing on the low end of the scale, but cats can hear much higher-pitched sounds, up to 64 kHz, which is 1.6 octaves above the range of a human, and even 1 octave above the range of a dog.