The following post comes to us from guest blogger Krissy Gogel. A web designer and cat mommy, Krissy can be found online at 6bdesign.com.

Continued from part one…

Sorry, No Vacancy

This time around, we decided to find a no-kill shelter for the kittens instead of raising them ourselves. Because we could only find four people to take five of the six kittens from the first litter, we figured that a shelter would be more successful finding these kittens good homes. But we had no clue that, due to factors like the mortgage and housing crisis, all of the no-kill shelters and rescues were completely overcrowded and not accepting new animals.

While I was busy calling and emailing different organizations to place the kittens, “momma cat” was moving them. A week later, thanks to a good neighbor, we found them – under her house. I spent an entire day in the sweltering August heat in a crawl space, under a house with a flashlight. I eventually found four 5-week-old babies, which we did take in. I was expecting to find six or more.

A Tragic Discovery

About two weeks after the under-the-house rescue, a neighbor knocked at our door to tell us that she had found the missing kittens. I went into complete shock when I saw them. (more…)

The following post comes to us from guest blogger Krissy Gogel. A web designer and cat mommy, Krissy can be found online at 6bdesign.com.

I live in a busy suburban neighborhood located minutes outside of Baltimore City. Between people ignoring the stray cat population in the area and all of the un-spayed/un-neutered “house cats” that are allowed to roam the streets, my neighborhood has become home to an overwhelming amount of feral cats.

If you live in an area overrun with stray or feral cats like I do, there are countless reasons why you should act to help them, one of which, Marley, is sitting next to me right now.

Hey, That’s Not a Rake!

In April of this year, I went to my shed for a rake to begin the process of cleaning my yard in preparation for summer. Instead of a rake (although I’m sure it was in there), I found six beautiful 4-week-old kittens; two of which had horrible eye infections. (more…)

A letter from one of our readers…

Dear Editor:

I discovered Halo products via the Ellen show several months ago, and I’ve been following the blog for several weeks now. After spending the weekend in Toronto, I decided to write in and see how people are feeling about dangerous dog legislation.

Ontario enacted a dangerous dog bill on March 1, 2005, and as of that day forward, you could no longer bring a pit bull into the province, and all pit bulls currently in the province, had to be sterilized. You can’t even drive through Ontario with a pit bull in your car. This, of course, generates a great deal of discussion between all of us dog lovers. I hate the idea of the ban; it’s so draconian, but admittedly, I cringe every time the neighbor’s pit bull goes crazy at the fence when I’m walking by.

I personally approach this discussion from several different angles. My best friend in the world has two Pit Bulls that I would trust with my children’s lives, whereas my Golden Retriever almost died because a woman couldn’t control her Cane Corso. On top of that, my heart was broken several years ago when my one-eyed Shitzu, who we rescued from the pound, had to be put down because he bit a child.

When you wrap all this together, I understand that every dog is its own person, but when something does go wrong, it can be devastating, and something can go wrong when you least expect it.

So what do we do? (more…)

The following post comes to us from guest blogger, Cat Sitter in the City. As a New York cat sitter, she writes a semi-daily blog about her experiences working with felines.

When I tell people I am a cat sitter, they always have questions.

What exactly do you do? That’s one of the queries, and people tend to ask it with a quizzical look on their faces.

I explain that most people hire me to make daily one-hour visits during which I feed the cat, clean the cat’s litter box, then play and cuddle with the cat, depending on what the cat wants to do, of course.

Do you really stay the full hour? That’s the question I get the most.

And, yes, I do stay the full hour. I even do sleepovers with some cats.

People are incredulous when I tell them this, and that’s because many people—even some cat owners—assume that cats are solitary creatures that are fine being left alone for days on end with a bowl of water and dry food while they are off on summer vacation sipping margaritas by the pool.

This couldn’t be further from the truth, and I’m not just saying this because I get paid to hang out with other people’s cats. I won’t bore you by citing studies, but do some research, and you’ll find more and more animal experts are declaring that domesticated cats are social—not solitary—animals with a strong need for companionship. As a cat sitter, I have seen first-hand how much felines crave company—oftentimes even more than food.

Take Fonzie. He won’t eat until he has had some lap time. Meanwhile, Pooper Katzenberger wants me to hold her before she chows down.

Other cats, like Juba and Lulu, do beg for food the second I walk in the door, but after they’ve had their fill, they want to be pet and held, and sometimes they get desperate about it.

Even shy and seemingly anti-social cats want some form of closeness. Case in point: Peeper, who, sadly, passed away a few years ago, didn’t want me to pet him when I visited, and he kept his distance. But when I sat on the couch, he sat nearby on the coffee table, and I talked to him, and during our sleepovers, I woke up every night to find him right next to me with his head on the pillow. That said a lot to me.

So, if you are going away even just for a few days this summer, hire a cat sitter to give your cat the companionship he or she needs. And if you can’t afford a cat sitter, ask a friend (make sure it is a friend who loves animals) to visit your cat and stay over a few nights if you are going to be gone for a week or two.

Your cat will appreciate the company and will be less likely to claw up your couch out of distress and loneliness.

To read more from this blogger, visit the Cat Sitter in the City blog.

Enjoy reading the Halo Purely For Pets blog? Subscribe to our RSS feed so you’ll never miss an update!

The following post comes to us from guest blogger, Barbara, of the Agility Beagle Xsara blog. Xsara regularly competes in Agility trials in her home country, Slovenia, and sometimes abroad.

Getting a dog is easy for some people, but it wasn’t easy for me because my parents didn’t allow one. That’s why it took me 20 years to get my first dog — a beagle, not an easy breed to work with. I have been told many times that working with a dog like Xsara was simply not possible, and that I shouldn’t have high expectations. Luckily, I didn’t listen to any of them, and I really wanted to try working with her anyway.

I admit that training her wasn’t easy and it’s still hard work, but I am proud to say that at four years old she can do pretty much anything a border collie could do – she can run practically any agility course without faults, do hundreds of tricks and impress any obedience judge. We compete on practically every agility trial in our country and sometimes abroad, and she never lets me down; every mistake that happens on course is always my fault.

Xsara is the reason why I believe that any dog can do pretty much anything their handler wants, as long as they are willing to train and work for it. In addition, I strongly believe that work is good for dogs. After all, that is what they were bred for. And I am always amazed by how much dogs actually love to work with us, if the methods of training are dog friendly. Of course, some dogs need more motivation than others, but if the handler can make work interesting enough, there are practically no limitations.

There are so many canine disciplines to choose from, so anyone can find something that suits their personality and that the dog will enjoy. And anybody who has ever seen the enthusiastic look on a working dog’s face will tell you that the training will eventually pay off – big time!

Watch Xsara in action and read more about her at Agility Beagle Xsara.

Enjoy reading the Halo Purely For Pets blog? Subscribe to our RSS feed so you’ll never miss an update!