Archive for the ‘What I am Doing This Week’ Category
Camp Kindness 2011
Wednesday, July 20th, 2011
Cat Expo
Monday, July 11th, 2011Saturday’s Cat Expo at Nebraska Humane Society was very fun! I neither tripped nor drooled, but I did speed talk. More time for questions! And there were great questions, many about diets for fat cats, so we should talk more about that here soon.
Kitty Dybdall did a great presentation on cats and litterboxes. I took notes like crazy – I really think more cats are rehomed because of litterbox issues than anything else. One of my Life Goals is for every cat owner to get to have their cats for twenty plus years, and their (unintentional) pee antics and their peoples’ (understandable) frustrations are interfering with my Life Goal!
The Nebraska Humane Society team did a great presentation on cat grooming. They have a handout on nail trimming that I am sure you could get if you need.
The Cat Agility Demonstration was SUPER CUTE! Two kittens, Oreo and Twizzlers, who have been working (playing) very hard on their skills showed what they had learned on the screened in agility course. You are very talented, Baby Cats!
My talk was on Common Medical Issues at Different Life Stages. Even though the audience was composed of very engaged, intelligent cat people with decades of experience, I am pretty sure at one point I said “Cats are super cute.” Wow. Cutting edge information. Oh well. Very nice group of people, and they had great questions. Here are links to the articles I gave out after. If you want printed copies, I have more…Pretty sure I did not lose my train of thought or say “um” in any of the articles :)
Choose Your Own Adventure, Litterbox Edition, Introduction
and
Choose Your Own Adventure, Litterbox Edition
on Riley and James
on Riley and James
Wuzzy Chronicles, Omaha.net
Thank you for including me in your awesome Cat Expo Nebraska Humane Society! I hope tons of cats and kittens were adopted!
What’s New?
Friday, July 8th, 2011Hi! What’s new?
I feel as though my poor website has taken a back seat of late and I have not gotten to interact with you all here much. I did not mean to show up here so infrequently! Here are some highlights from my past few weeks!
I attended a Beth Moore event with my Mom-in-law, Karen, which was wonderful. One of the absolute highlights of the weekend was this cat painted on the parking garage near Pershing Auditorium in downtown Lincoln:
My girls attended Camp Kindness at Nebraska Humane Society, which was, as always, awesome.
While we were there, we accidently met a baby Chinese Crested puppy and her two equally adorable brothers. She was throwing toys at her brothers’ heads and dancing around in a happy I-am-just-the-greatest dance. Her mini dress says “Major Attitude.” My friend called this the Princess and the Pea picture. :) That is her equally cute, more furry brother to the left of her. HE has been adopted. I do not know if she or her other brother or their Mama have yet.
The awesome Jana Rade of Dawg Business published this post I wrote on xylitol toxicity:
Xylitol is an artificial sweetener present in many products, most notably some sugar-free gums. After the scare with this poor dog, we do not even allow xylitol into our house anymore!
My weekly articles at Life With Dogs are up and running…
The CareFRESH Blog is up and running too…
Any small pet health topics you would like to see covered?
Veterinary Economics published my story about Joy the Puppy missing her Ebony Dog, which is neat to see in print, but brings up all of my (still pretty raw) sadness over Eb.
Joy’s eyes are still intermittantly baldy-bald, and we are still all moping around, but we are doing ok!
Next month, Veterinary Economics is publishing my post on how to make a Veterinary Pen Holder!
That will be lighter, and a fun article. Pretty silly!
Tomorrow, I am speaking at the Nebraska Humane Society Cat Expo at noon. When I do public speaking, I tend to drool and stammer and mumble and talk so fast I am done in ten seconds instead of one hour and trip over my own feet standing still (or at least I feel like I do). So that should be fun for everyone.
Nebraska Humane Society Cat Expo
If you are in Omaha, come if you can! A cat behaviorist, Kitty Dybdall, is speaking at 10 am, which I am very excited about, and a CAT AGILITY TRAINER, Jill Archibald, is doing demonstrations! I am SO excited to see that!
Hope you are having a wonderful summer!
The Dogs of Summit County
Friday, June 17th, 2011We have been on a family vacation in Summit County Colorado for the past week. We are heading home Saturday. *sniff*
SO not ready to leave our Nelson family. Some are in Ohio and the rest of us are in Omaha. Even so, I still wish we all had more time like we have had this past week to just BE together. *sigh*
We do miss Omaha and our friends and the rest of our family! Here is the list of the dogs who have graciously stepped in for Joy the Puppy and Noodle the Poodle and Max the Cat to make our week full of amazing and beautiful pets. Thank you awesome doggies!
♥ Tiny Poodle in a backpack ♥ Long-legged Dachshund mix ♥ Boxer mix ♥ Boston Terrier ♥ Schnauzer ♥ 2 German Shepherd mixes ♥ Wheaton Terrier puppy named Myro with a dandelion necklace and headband (three way tie with Charlie Boy and Olive Girl for THE cutest thing I have seen all week!) ♥ English Bulldog who was in such great shape he almost looked like an American Bulldog – crazy! ♥ “Normal” English Bulldog ♥ 5 Golden Retriever mixes ♥ 9 Golden Retrievers including a Golden Retriever puppy *sigh* :) ♥ Lab Boxer mix who looked like my Raisin-in-law and came right up on our deck to say “hi” ♥ 2 Miniature Poodles ♥ Schnoodle ♥ Chow-Chow in a Breckenridge shop ♥ Chow-Chow out and about ♥ Australian Shepherd in a Breckenridge shop ♥ 2 Australian Shepherds out and about ♥ 2 Australian Herding dogs ♥ Weimaraner ♥ Pomeranian ♥ Fox Terrier ♥ Chihuahua X Pomeranian ♥ Lhasa Apso mix ♥ Doberman Puppy ♥ 2 Boxers ♥ Lilly the super-cute Chihuahua X Terrier with a “Caution – I Bite” harness in For Pet’s Sake Thrift Shop in Breckenridge ♥ Long Haired Chihuahua ♥ Standard Poodle ♥ Pug ♥ 3 Small Mutts ♥ 1 Medium Mutt ♥ 1 Big Mutt ♥ 2 German Shepherds ♥ 2 Old English Sheepdogs ♥ 1 Husky in a Breckenridge store ♥ 5 Huskies out and about ♥ Pomeranian mix ♥ Bichon Frise ♥ 3 Yellow Labs ♥ Yellow Lab mix ♥ 2 Border Collie mixes ♥ Greyhound ♥ Swiss Mountain Dog ♥ Yellow Husky mix ♥ 5 Black Labs ♥ Black lab mix who did not look anything like Ebony but reminded me of her so much she made me cry ♥ Chocolate Doberman mix ♥ Bishon mix ♥ 2 Pit Bulls ♥ 2 Chocolate Labs ♥ 2 Collies ♥ Dalmatian ♥ Short Haired Chihuahua ♥
Lilly the Chihuahua X Terrier
(Almost) Wordless Wednesday
Tuesday, June 14th, 2011We are on vacation this week with my parents and brothers and families in Summit County Colorado. Any time I get to spend with my family is my favorite time ever, and this week is no exception!
We’ve been taking pictures of Colorado “animals” so I thought I would share those with you…Happy Wednesday!
Life With Dogs
Friday, June 10th, 2011I am starting a weekly writing project with Life With Dogs! I am joining the always awesome NEIL who has made the site what it is. (See how far back you can go on the website and read his earliest posts – some are hilarious! And they are all great!) Already writing with Life With Dogs is AMY of Go Pet Friendly, another favorite site of mine. And jumping in with me is NANCY of Good Dogz training, a friend and favorite!
I will be writing about dog health issues, with an emphasis on preventative care. Truth be told, I was a little intimidated by the VOLUME of readers this website attracts, and it took me a full week to post my first post, (An (Un)Exhaustive List of What I Know About Dogs) which if you are used to the immediacy of my posts here on Riley and James, is a crazy amount of foot dragging! So far, very fun…and not scary :)
Like I so recently said about the new CareFRESH blog, THIS is going to be fun people!
Here is a link to the site…If you love dogs, you probably already have it. It is a great site. I am so excited to be a part of the team. THANKS NEIL!!
yay.
Veterinary Pen Holder
Monday, June 6th, 2011I was helping take out trash at work the other day, when, for the first time ever, I noticed that empty blood vial containers look really cool. Instead of recycling the one I found (I mean, like normal people recycle!) I took it home and wrapped it in wrapping paper, and now I hold my Sharpies in it. It is my favorite pen holder ever.
It is super easy to make a veterinary pen holder…
1. If you work in a veterinary hospital, go dumpster diving in your recycling container and find a test tube or blood vial holder. Note: The dividers in the boxes that hold purple top tubes will be too narrow to hold Sharpies or big highlighters, but will be fine for regular pens. The one in the picture held red top tubes.
Also, if you dumpster dive in front of your boss, she may assume you are doing so out of necessity, not to make a Super Awesome Veterinary Pen Holder, and may give you a Pity Raise. This is not as cool as a Merit Raise, but hey, it is something!
If you do NOT work in a veterinary hospital or other medical facility, ask your pets’ veterinary team to set aside a blood vial box or test tube box for you. They may not have one to give you right away, but probably will not mind saving one for you!
2. Gather your favorite wrapping paper, stickers (Secret Penguin stickers are the best!), clear wrapping tape (narrow), clear packing tape (wide) and scissors.
3. Take the cardboard divider out of the box.
4. Wrap the box like a present, tucking the edges of the wrapping paper into the top of the box. Tape all of the loose edges with the narrow tape.
5. Tape the four top edges of the box with the wide tape to reinforce it.
6. Decorate the box with stickers (or whatever!) and put the cardboard divider back into the box.
7. Add pens.
8. Take a picture and send me a link to it!
9. Make a pen holder for your favorite veterinary team to say THANK YOU for letting you dumpster dive/humoring your odd request. They will probably get a kick out of it!
CareFRESH Blog!
Monday, May 23rd, 2011I am SO excited about my newest writing project! I have been working with CareFRESH for a little over a year, and the team decided to start a blog on the website. I love it!
- Lavender CareFRESH bedding complimented Fuzzy and Wuzzy’s gorgeous skin the best of all the colors…
With this project, I will be less able to just go with my random kicks, and need to focus on themes and schedules and such much more than I do here on Riley and James, which, honestly, will be very good for me!
I am fairly disciplined, but (I have only ever told Russ this, and just very recently…) a large part of my discipline is extrinsic. For example, I love having a made bed every morning, but if FLYLady did not tell me to make my bed, I probably would not! I love being a veterinarian, but if I had not had the structure of veterinary school, I would not have learned all that I have.
And I love writing about environmental enrichment of <hamsters>, but if I were not led to write about it, I probably would not!
I will write somewhat shorter posts than what I normally write here, focus on small pets – rats, guinea pigs, hamsters, gerbils, mice, rabbits and ferrets – and send the team every single picture I have of Fuzzy, Wuzzy, Princess and Piggy! Feel free to send cute pictures of your Warm Fuzzies too!
- Wuzzy in her Classroom in a Box
I will let you know where on the CareFRESH website the blog is as soon as I know. It will probably attract a similar crowd to the Ask-a-Vet part of the CareFRESH website (kids and adults who are in love with small pets – two of my very favorite subsets of humanity!) It will be an interactive blog, which will be very fun. I hope you will come join me as often as you can!
For now, will you help me come up with topics? Do you have questions that would be best answered in a longer post than the Q & A of Ask-a-Vet? Are there things about your own favorite small pet species that you think everyone should know, but may not yet? THIS is going to be fun, people! :)
- Princess Gerbil
Good Dogs!
Saturday, May 21st, 2011Guess how much we learned about behavior and training in veterinary school? The best explanation I have heard for what is taught in vet school is this: “Four years is much too short to learn EVERYTHING. Vet school is for learning how to THINK like a vet.” So true. Still…
The answer is…NOTHING! Maybe these days, with all of the great behavior medication and knowledge on how mental and emotional health are linked to physical health, behavior is better covered in vet school. Everything I know is from trial and error, reading and…you guys. (Thank you so much! I don’t need to be a genius, I just surround myself with them!)
So we have always had great dogs, but we have never had very well trained dogs. Here is what I know for sure:
Positive reinforcement
(reinforcing the desired behavior, ignoring the undesired behavior)
is ALWAYS best.
And, um, that was going to be a list, but really, that is all I know.
The Doorbell Song
This week we have buckled down on the barking-at-the-door training. When my wonderful Aunt asked me for help with her pup’s barking, I realized that I am a lame barking training resource. Joy and Noodle are the worst door barkers there ever were. So I told my Aunt what I knew (but have not practiced well!) and set out to train our barkers.
When the doorbell rings or people walk by or New Mailman delivers the mail (their three biggest barking triggers) I thank them for warning me after the first bark, ask them to come to me and sit then give them a cat treat. That is all I have done, and it has worked like a charm!
The real test will be SUMMER, when kids are in and out of the front door constantly. I will let you know how well my novice training holds up!
Trainers, behaviorists, dog owners who are more successful in training than I, what have you done to teach your dogs not to bark incessantly? And next up on the Finch dog training…teaching Joy and Noodle not to jump on friends when they come over! I would love your suggestions!
Nice to Meet You!
Wednesday, May 18th, 2011
zzz
Dr. Becker, Teresa, Gina, McKenzie, Rebecca, Dan, Simon the Cat and friends and Council Bluffs PetCo team, it was so nice to meet you all! And Dr. Backlund, it was very nice to see you! We had a very fun afternoon.
From,
Joy the Puppy and me :)