We love Franny’s the Cats Guide over at About.com Cats, and she recently posted a great in-depth review of an incredible book called “Making Rounds With Oscar – The Extraordinary Gift of an Ordinary Cat” on her site. You can read her full review here, but here’s the beginning of it and you can already see why we say this is an incredible book with an incredible story! “On the surface, Oscar does appear to be an ordinary cat, perhaps one you’d see sitting in a neighbor’s window, or even in a cage in an animal shelter, waiting for adoption. His dark eyes, although clear and bright, don’t show any evidence of what almost appears to be Oscar’s supernatural ability of sniffing out the impending death of one or another of the patients in the third floor dementia ward of Steere House Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Providence, Rhode Island.” Yes, Oscar is that famous cat wh’s self-appointed job is attending to patients right before they die, giving families and loved ones a chance to gather around for a final goodbye. Incredible! Thanks Franny for the review and letting us know about this book!

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What kind of Easter Bunny makes a great gift to give and receive? Chocolate bunnies! Sadly every year, baby bunnies and adult rabbits are purchased as Easter gifts, and then when the rabbits get older, the excitement of Easter wears off, and the reality of owning a pet that requires daily cleaning, feeding, exercise and socialization sets in… the poor bunnies are dropped off at animal shelters where few make it out alive. Or worse, let loose in a field, where they become hawk or coyote food. So thank goodness for Rescue Chocolate’s Make Mine Chocolate Bunnies! Yummy adorable chocolate bunnies wrapped up with a pretty ribbon, ready for delivery and devouring! Rescu Chocolate’s website says: “To break the cycle of purchase and abandonment, Rescue Chocolate has partnered with House Rabbit Society  to promote “Make Mine Chocolate,” a campaign that encourages the purchase of chocolate bunnies for Easter rather than live rabbits. For more information about rabbits and how you can help, visit the House Rabbit Society website and the Make Mine Chocolate campaign. Ingredients: cacao beans, sugar, cacao butter, soy lecithin, vanilla.” Yum! You can click to buy yours online here.

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We love the wisdom that senior pets bring to our lives. Senior cats in particular, since they can live such long lives, seem to possess a worldly knowledge that surpasses many other species. The Daily Mail seems to have more and more stories about incredible ancient domestic felines, such as Lucy from South Wales, who is age 39 or Cream Puff, age 28 in Texas — yes that is in human years! It’s not just the press that is recording cats living longer lives: According the Cornell Feline Health Center at Cornell University’s College of Veterinary Medicine, “Just as people are living longer than they did in the past, cats are living longer too. In fact, the percentage of cats over six years of age has nearly doubled in just over a decade, and there is every reason to expect that the “graying” cat population will continue to grow.” The CFHC has even put out a brochure called “The Special Needs of the Senior Cat” (click here to view it online). Read on to find out what it reveals…

The CFHC brochure points out an interesting  way to more accurately calculate your cat’s age in human years: “The commonly held belief that every “cat year” is worth seven “human years” is not entirely accurate. In reality, a one-year-old cat is physiologically similar to a 16-year-old human, and a two-year-old cat is like a person of 21. For every year thereafter, each cat year is worth about four human years. Using this formula, a ten-year-old cat is similar age wise to a 53-year-old person, a 12-year-old cat to a 61-year-old person, and a 15-year-old cat to a person of 73.”

This age calculating is based on averaging cat data, which includes both indoor-only and cats that spend time or live outdoors. So obviously, an indoor-only pet would have a MUCH longer average lifespan than 15 years.

Ironically, many people still look at an 8 year old cat as a senior pet, but given the information above, you may want to consider adjusting that age bracket up a number of years! We see many cats living into their 20’s nowadays. That is an important piece of information when you are looking at adopting a pet, especially if you are in your upper years as well.

Another good article about growing old with your cat (which you can read in full here) has some helpful tips on feeding your pet a lower calorie diet if they begin to gain weight as they age, and touches on the common illnesses that senior cats can face — and hide very well!

Some tips we like for when you own or adopt a senior cat:

– Watch for any changes in appearance or behavior, even ones that seem “normal” or “insignificant” for an aging cat (such as slowing down, changes in appetite, coat appearance, litter box use or volume) can be signs of a disease that is developing, that could be stopped or greatly diminished with early vet care intervention.

– Checkups: If you have a newly adopted senior cat, you won’t have known them long enough to notice any “changes” in their appearance or behavior. Plan on vet visits every 6 months for a checkup for the first  year, or even two – then yearly. Since stress is not good for any pet, especially a senior cat, ask if your vet makes housecalls. Many offer this service for a very minimal fee.

– Brush & kitty massage weekly – or daily! Not only does this help a senior cat keep their coat sleek, reduce hairballs, increase circulation, but the massage part is a mini-exam and you will notice any lumps right away.

– Exercise. Just like with people, daily low-impact exercise is critically important for keeping your senior cat healthy. Make time each day for a short play session with a feather toy or laser toy, or any game that gets kitty moving!

So now you’re ready to adopt a “senior” cat or two! You can select “senior” as the age in the Adopt-a-Pet.com Cat Search tool to find loving senior cats for adoption near you.

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We are avid fans of Adopt-a-Pet.com’s spokesperson Dr. Pia Salk’s blog posts over on the MarthaStewart.com “The Daily Wag” blog, and her last post on her judging the “Go Dog Go’ fundraiser show for HeARTs Speak, an organization that offers a unique and creative way for artists of all ages to help homeless animals, um… forgive the play on words… “illustrates” exactly why! Pia writes: “The first annual “The Go Dog Go Show” was the brainchild of Rhinebeck New York’s Pause Boutique owner, Laura Betti. Laura’s motto for the event that showcased dogs of all ages, breeds, and talents was, “Barking allowed. Big personalities rewarded.” When asked what motivated her to create this annual event, Laura said, ” I place high value on organizing events that bring together families in support of positive animal causes. These types of events serve as a venue for the much needed education of responsible pet ownership, advocacy for animal rescue and awareness overall about the role we play in protecting animals. Collaboration is key.”

You can read the full blog article with all the super fun photos right here.

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The Young Person’s Guide to Woofs & Growls is a wonderful free poster from world-famous canine behavior specialist Jez Rose. With easy-to-understand cartoon illustrations, it walks a child through what to do – and not to do – around dogs to be safe. The short descriptive sentences are easy for young readers to comprehend, but parents of even younger children can use the poster as a discussion tool to explain how important it is to respect  that a dog is a dog, and not all dogs are the same. You can download this great poster for free right here: Understanding Woofs and Growls poster PDF. The Jez Rose website has a whole section of free training resources available here and we really appreciate their allowing Adopt-a-Pet.com to feature their poster downloads to help adopted pets!

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Sometimes as a new puppy grows up, they suddenly reach a size where they realize if they stand on their back legs, they can help themselves to those delicious-smelling things you put on the counter for them! Of course you don’t really leave it there for them, but for a puppy or dog to understand that, you have to train them first. Counter-surfing isn’t exclusively a puppy problem either, some adult dogs enjoy counter-surfing too! They might be newly adopted dogs that were never trained to behave politely (or even allowed) in the kitchen, or maybe your adult dog does his counter-snatching only when your back is turned, or you’re not home. Whatever the pup’s age or circumstances, we have some training tips that will help your food-loving pooch keep his paws on the floor where they belong and off your countertops!

1. Put it away
If you have a counter- or trash-surfing dog, the first step in training them is to put it away. That means totally out of reach. You may not want to permanently keep those yummy-smelling (to the dog) sponges or other edible items in a drawer, cabinet, or big heavy screw-top jar at the back of the counter. Think about it: every time your dog jumps up and gets something yummy, that is just like reward-training him TO jump on the counters!

2. Don’t feed them off the counters
Do you fill up their food bowl on the counter? Cut up treats or put treat bags on and then give them treats out of the bags off the counters? Stop doing as much of that as you can! Move where you fill up their food bowl and store their treats out of the kitchen, like to the laundry room, garage, hallway, etc.

3. Positive reinforcement
Whenever you are in the kitchen with your dog, you can randomly reward them for being there with food on the counter when they are NOT jumping up. Work on your sit, stay, and down commands in the kitchen and give them rewards out of your pocket and hands. Practice a sit-stay and then walk towards the doorway out of the kitchen, then do a recall and reward.  Work up to walking out of the kitchen with them on a sit-stay in the kitchen, gradually increasing the length of time they are holding the sit-stay, then coming to you when called for the reward.

3. Negative correction
a.) Active: If you have a counter surfer who jumps up even when you are standing there, make them wear a “drag leash” when they are allowed access to the kitchen. A drag leash is one they drag around all the time – great for keeping puppies out of trouble. They should only wear one when supervised, so you can untangle them if it gets tangled in a chair or table leg for example. When your dog puts his paws on the counter, firmly but gently pull the end of the leash to get him off the counter and say a firm “no”. We don’t like grabbing a collar as part of a negative correction, that is why we advocate a drag leash. You always want hands reaching for a collar to be a good positive experience.

b) Passive: There are devices invented to keep pets off surfaces and also household items you can also. You can stack empty soda cans along the edge of the counter, and when the pet jumps up, the cans will fall making an unpleasant noise. For a determined counter-surfer, consider pet motion-activated spray cans or even snappy traps, see photo below.

4. Exercise, training, toys
Giving a dog enough exercise every day, doing daily training exercises and giving them food puzzle toys to keep their mind engaged will also help reduce their desire to find something interesting and delicious to explore on your counters!

Humane snappy traps protecting the prize sponge from a big puppy!
They make a ‘snap’ noise deterrent to ward off  pups jumping up.
(Note muddy paw prints on countertop!)

We love hearing stories of amazing animal saviors, and the great lengths that caring compassionate people go to in order to help pets and give them a chance at a well-cared for life in a loving home. We consider these extraordinary people – and the volunteers, donors, and adopters who make their mission possible – heroes to homeless pets! This week we’d like to introduce you to Garo Alexanian, a true pet hero. To sum up all Mr. Alexanian has done in the past 25 years to help improve pet welfare and lives in New York City would take volumes! But to give you a little understanding of his background, he started rescuing animals when he was 9 years old, worked in a veterinary hospital starting at 16, and his best friend was a German Shepherd named King. His early experiences, and his profound love for King led him to promise himself that he would dedicate his life to helping animals. He’s been a passionate advocate for positive change in the animal control system ever since. You can read the rest of his history on his Companion Animal Network TV website here.  For this article, we spoke to Garo about two amazing programs that are having a wonderful and measurable impact on animals’ lives in New York City: 1) Safety Net – a surrender prevention program, and 2) a super low-cost full-service veterinary program.

Garo explains more: “Our 25 year old “mom and pop” volunteer organization had been lobbying three different animal control administrations for 10 years to permit us to launch a never before tried program to prevent surrenders. In 2005, we finally resorted to appealing to the Board of Directors of NYCACC, whose Chair is the NYC Health Commissioner. To our amazement Health Commissioner Thomas Friedan liked our proposal and we were given the opportunity to implement the nation’s first surrender prevention program at an animal control agency. We invented, funded, and operated a telephone and animal HelpLine we named the Safety Net Program. It was open 7 days a week, 365 days a year, with me personally taking a hundred or more live calls per week, including animal control calls referred from the NYCACC.” (NYCACC is “Animal Care & Control of NYC” – who, since 1995, has been responsible for NYC’s municipal shelter system, rescuing, caring for, and finding loving homes for nearly 40,000 homeless and abandoned animals in NYC each year.)

What was Garo’s background that made him the right person for this immense job? Garo says, “We founded our organization’s HelpLine twenty years prior, and had serviced over 200,000 calls in two decades. So we had already been doing what rescuers dread most, taking tens of thousands of “I want to give away my pet” calls when we got this semi-official opportunity to work with NYCACC. After a few years of operating the expanded HelpLine, and realizing that a small volunteer organization with one full time call-taker (who else, me of course), could not advance and progress the surrender prevention program’s capabilities, we turned the HelpLine over to the Humane Society of the United States.

Several years later, the HSUS renamed the program Pets For Life, and it now handles up to 500 calls per week, with several paid full time staff, and over 50 volunteers, with supportive small grants for special situations. It was so successful that within a couple of years NYC turned over all 311 animal emergency calls to the Pet for Life HelpLine instead of animal control, removing a massive burden so NYCACC can concentrate on better treatment of animals and increasing adoptions.

Some of the services the HelpLine provides are referral to low cost boarding, low cost veterinary services, free animal and owner training, assistance in obtaining service dog qualification, free attorneys for landlord tenant issues, allergists who, unlike mere MDs know what they are talking about, and do not automatically advise people with allergy concerns to “get rid of the pet and see if it gets better,” to name just a few.

However, it became clear that many, if not most, pet owners who considered surrendering their pets due to inability to afford veterinary care, had no means of transportation to the handful of vets who were participating in our Low Cost Veterinary program.

So we came up with the idea of buying a mobile vet hospital and going to the low income communities where NYCACC has its shelters, in order to provide super low cost and free veterinary services to prevent surrenders. It took about two years to find a low mileage, impeccable condition, used mobile vet hospital at a reasonable cost. I put my last penny into buying it, and fully expected to lose it all within a few months. But I always lived by the motto that it is better to give it your best shot and fail than not to try at all.

We launched the Low Cost Vet Mobile on July 25, 2009 at the Manhattan NYCACC. We had a live interview on the CBS Morning News that day and a major article was featured in the NY Daily News. One hundred pets needing care showed up on our first day! Two days later we launched the service at the Brooklyn NYCACC, and another one hundred pets showed up there – there were even fist fights over who would be seen first! We could not believe the response. We started with two days a week and were on site from 9AM to as late as 3 AM. Within two months we expanded to three days a week, with two days allocated to Manhattan. To keep the service staffed with vets, vet techs, medical record secretaries, and thousands of items to be able to perform major surgeries at a moment’s notice, I barely slept and ate for the next two and a half years.

When the NYCACC pet surrender statistics came out in 2010 at the end of our first full year (see chart), we were amazed. We had boldly predicted a 10-12% reduction in surrenders, and in actuality they dropped even more – by 15% with 5,094 fewer intakes of animals. In the previous 6 years surrenders had not changed much at all, hovering at around 40,000, give or take a couple hundred

Our second full year ended in 2011, and statistics show another 9.2% drop had occurred in surrenders. In two years time surrenders reduced from 40,742 to 31,561, a 24.2% drop! Thank heavens, as the adoptions simultaneously dropped due to the economic meltdown, so our Vet Mobile’s gains were more than able to offset the reduced adoptions, so euthanasia continued to dramatically drop.

It has been a team effort between the major players such as the NY City Health Department, the ASPCA, the HSUS, Maddie’s Fund, Mayor’s Alliance for NYC’s Animals, the rescue community, and our Low Cost Vet Mobile.

In 2012, our third full year, we are expanding to a five day a week schedule. We hope to save enough money in a few years to be able to purchase a strategically located building to provide NY City a new low cost 24 hr animal hospital, low cost boarding, and adoption center.

Two years ago I would have laughed at myself for being unrealistic and just another utopian dreamer. No more. I believe in dreams, but you must act out your dreams to make them come true.”

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Turn scary things into fun, positive experiences! Scary things from your dog’s point of view can include nail trimming, getting brushed, bathed or groomed, when you vaccuum or sweep, strangers wearing hats or glasses… and often times totally odd “normal” things like the washing machine running or a certain part of the street on your walking route!  Whatever the scary thing is to your dog, you can follow the simple, clearly illustrated steps on this great poster created by the world-famous canine behavior specialist Jez Rose.  You can download his great poster for free right here: 6 Top Tips for Desensitization poster PDF. The Jez Rose website has a whole section of free training resources available here and we really appreciate their allowing Adopt-a-Pet.com to feature their poster downloads to help adopted pets!

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So what is there than Kandu can do? Go skiing? Yep! Race around in his custom cart outfitted with three rollerblade wheels? Yep! Enjoy his life to the fullest! Yep – thanks to his amazing adoptive home, an inventive mechanic and a plastic product company, Kandu can do just about anything a four-legged dog can do, and he does it with a big doggie smile too! This awesome little Jack Russell terrier born with missing his two front legs doesn’t stop there either, he’s a certified therapy dog with Heeling Friends (a Delta Society Pet Partner affiliate) and visits patients in hospitals. Nothing like a happy super-optimistic dog who doesn’t let his physical challenges get in the way of having fun and being loved. Kandu has his own website http://www.kandu.us where you can read more about his incredible journey, and check out his “stuff” for sale where all proceeds benefit the Evergreen Animal Protective League (who first rescued him) and Heeling Friends. Kandu and his adopters are truly Pet Heroes! Click to see his videos and news stories below.

CBS News story: http://youtu.be/J1w1XDrhrVE

Using his mono-ski to run in the snow: http://youtu.be/AdBxIPv6w5A

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If you have ever witnessed a door-dashing cat or kitten, you know the challenges of stopping one! I owned a door-dashing cat. I adopted him as an 8-week-old kitten from a rescue who said he’d been living in a Chinatown alley. This little guy had some serious street smarts! When I first adopted him, I lived in an apartment building. I thought it was adorable how he’d hear the “bing” of the elevator door down the hall and would run to my front door. When I opened the door, instead of happily greeting anyone who came inside, he’d dart like a lightning bolt into the hallway. Then the game of chase was on! I learned to keep a fishing-pole toy in the umbrella rack by the front door to lure him back inside. My hallway was relatively safe (he did end up in the elevator once!)… but then, I moved to a house. A house in the hills filled with coyotes! Not to mention cars, dogs, raccoons, and all the dangers that await a cat outside. His door-dashing was no longer cute. It was a huge threat to his life. Determined, and though trial and error, I figured out what worked to keep one door-dashing cat inside. Read on to find out what I tried, and what may help you with your door-dashing feline!

–  Block front door access: If you can close a door to keep kitty out of the room or hallway that accesses the door, this is the easiest method. Many homes simply don’t have this option.

– Alternate entrances: If you have more than one doorway into your home, sometimes alternating randomly which door you go in and out of will avoid “kitty lying in wait to dash” and allow you to safely get in and out.

– Treat toss: You can train a food-motivated cat to run the other way when the door opens. Keep cat treats next to all your outside doors.  When you’re getting ready to go outside, grab a handful of treats, get your cat’s attention (like shake the treat bag or if you’ve clicker- or word-trained your cat, use that) and show him that you’re going to toss the treats before you open the door. Then scatter toss treats as far away from the front door as you can, then as quickly as possible get yourself/other people/dogs outside or inside. You can use this for coming inside too, if you can keep a jar of treats outside your door. My cat now waits by the corner of couch which is usually where most of my tossed treats end up.

– Add a “kitty-lock” door: Like a bank door air-lock, but for you cat. If you’re lucky your home may already have a hallway or entrance with doors you can keep closed, but you can also build one. How you create your kitty-lock depends on your home. Some front doors have a small porch that can be screened in. Or, if you have an interior entrance vestibule or hallway, you could install an additional interior door. This solution can be expensive, but it works 100% as long as you close one door before opening the next.

– Create a “kitty-lock” barricade: Like the above built-in door, a kitty-lock barricade can be inside your home or outside — or both! A kitty barricade needs to be something a cat can’t easily jump over or slip through, giving you time to safely get in or out. Try 36″ or higher folding wire dog exercise pens or extra-tall baby gates like the walk-through kind designed for stairs. If you a renter or can’t permanently attach them, arrange the end panels of a wire pen tight up against walls on either side of the door, with something heavy to hold them in place.

– Give kitty safe outdoor time: Create a safe outdoor cat enclosure like a catio or purchase a “cat walk”. Sometimes just a closed window (or open with a secure strong screen) with a window sill cat bed, or with a same-height table or bookshelf lounging spot, can give your outdoor-craving cat the experience she desires in total safety. If you have a fenced-in yard and are considering training your cat to walk on a harness & leash <– be sure to read that article first.

– Spray training: Please use this as a last resort, after trying the above. To avoid kitty associating you with the adverse spray, it’s best to use motion-detection cat deterrent spray cans like these. If kitty knows you are the source of the spray, that will likely happen. This is safest in conjunction with a kitty barricade, and if you can enlist a helper, all the better. The cans can take a little practice to get the aim right, so practice with yourself first. If you can’t get the cans, if your helper can hide outside around a corner (so cat will not see him) you can use a sprayer hose. Be sure to set up the kitty barricade on the outside side of the closed door, creating a safer area if kitty dashes out. Rarely cats don’t mind being sprayed , so this only works if your cat doesn’t like it. (Often the “stream” setting is more disliked.) Open the door, and when kitty dashes or even steps one paw outside, the automatic spray goes off in front of them and most cats will dash back inside! Close door. Repeat. It may take a few days and few sessions. If you cat keeps dashing after 3 days of 3 sessions, this training will not work for your cat.

Our foster cat Solace posed for these photos for us — he’s not actually a doordasher, and this door opens onto his catio, so please don’t worry, he’s safe!

How have you kept your door-dashing kitty safe inside? Share your solutions on the Adopt-a-Pet.com Facebook page, and share this article with your friends who are adopting a new cat, or are having difficulties with a door-dasher of her own!