Kitty Snuggles!

Phoenix is such a sweetie! She puts up with all sorts of kitty shenanigans! 

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween everyone! I hope you all have a fantastic night!

Our Best Halloween Safety Tips for Dogs and Cats!

Halloween is one of my most favorite "holidays". It's fun and festive and there's chocolate! For our pets, though, Halloween can be stressful and even scary if not downright dangerous. So here's my best tips for a successful night!

1. Halloween Candy is not for pets. All forms of chocolate, especially dark chocolate can be dangerous. This year we even have a new scary substance to worry about: Xylitol, which can be found in sugar free treats. It's so important to keep your candy up and away from your dogs and cats. We like to keep ours in plastic containers that have a tight sealing lid.

2. On Halloween Night, keep all of your pets safely indoors! Halloween is not the night to be leaving pets outside. My parents made that mistake long ago and their cat was hurt very badly by some awful people. Keeping your pets inside is the best way to make sure that they are safe. I would even recommend keeping your indoor/outdoor kitties inside for a few nights before and after Halloween. Black cats are especially at risk for horrible pranks and cruelty that some shelters won't even adopt them out around this time of year so it's important to be cautious with our feline friends.

3. Keep your pets away from the door on the night of Halloween. People coming to the door can be stressful for our dogs during any time of the year and even more so on Halloween where it happens over and over. Some dogs are terrified of children and it's also very common for dogs to be suspicious of people in costumes. Also, Halloween is not the time to work on door dashing, so if you have a dog who is nervous of kids and people or a dog that likes to dart out the door, I would recommend removing them completely to a safe room or crate with a good chewy bone or kong. Or if you've done mat work with your dog, this could be the time to pull it out. If they are comfortable settling on their mat and will stay there then that's okay, too. Remember to give lots of rewards to your dog if they are behaving appropriately and doing what you ask.

Phoenix and Zoe practice settling on their mat.

4. Be careful with lit pumpkins and electrical cords. Pets who get too close to candles can get burnt or even knock it over and cause a fire! We like to use the battery powered candles in our pumpkins and they make some really cool ones these days! You also need to be careful when using decorations that have electrical cords. Some pets like to chew on cords. I have a cat who was a cord chewer. They make cord protectors that you can buy at any home improvement store and we've found them to be extremely helpful in keeping our cat safe.

5. Desensitize your pets to Halloween Costumes before the big night. Make sure you try on your pet's Halloween costume a few times before the big night to make sure you've got the right fit and that it's comfortable and also to desensitize your pet to it. Make sure you give them lots of tasty treats for putting up with being dressed up and make it fun! When Zoe was dressed up as a shark, we played with toys and did her favorite training games! She hardly noticed that she was wearing a costume because we made it so fun for her. We also didn't leave it on for very long, mostly for some cute photos. If your pet does not like being dressed up don't force them to do it.

6. Desensitize pets to YOUR costume. Both dogs and cats can be wary of novel items and if you plan on wearing a scary mask, wig or some sort of funny hat, let your pets smell it and check it out before you put it on. Letting them watch you put it on is also helpful. That way they know the "scary" thing is actually just you and it's not a big deal. Feed them a few treats while you're dressing up and make it a good experience. Don't come out of the bedroom fully dressed in something they've never seen before. It can be very startling and it's not okay to scare your pet intentionally. 

7. Not all dogs were made to go door to door, Trick Or Treating with their people. Even dogs who are great with their family and kids don't like strangers or other people's kids and that's completely fine! Not to mention other households have dogs, too! If your dog has ever shown signs of being nervous of strangers, kids or other animals it's best to leave them at home where they will feel the most comfortable. Like I said above, it's very common for dogs to be nervous of people in costumes so it's important to keep everybody safe. Some dogs are okay to go with their people out into the Halloween night but they need to be practically bomb proof (excellent temperament, good with people, kids and dogs and have good nerves) with a very well trained leave it. Remember that it will be dark and there could be hidden dangers. There could be chocolate on the ground and it will be hard to see. Also keep in mind that your neighbors may not be as dog savvy with their management skills as you, they are probably not expecting trick or treaters with a canine buddy and their dogs may not want strange dogs visiting their house. If you do take your dog with you, remember to bring lots of tasty treats so that you can reward them for good behavior and distract them if they do end up getting scared by something.

8. Last but not least, your pets should be wearing ID. ID tags are important any time of the year but even more so during these holiday events where the door is being opened repeatedly. Chances of escape are much higher and accidents happen. Wearing proper ID with your updated information can be lifesaving and definitely increases the chances that your pet will make it home safely.

I hope everyone has a fun and safe Halloween! We will be staying home this year! 

What are you doing for Halloween? Are you dressing your pets up? What will they be?

It's HOT!!! Candid Caturday

Suddenly, it's too hot to live in Oregon! Nobody in the PNW likes 100 degree days, especially not us!

I think Lilly and I could both use one of Ruby's margarita's right about now!! :D 

Also, sorry we haven't been around much! 

This week has been hectic and it's the Doggy Dad's birthday!

DogMaze, Puzzle Toy Feeder Review (Dog & Cat Product!)

If you've been following me for a while, you will know that I feel mental stimulation for our pets is extremely important. I work really hard to provide my dogs and cats with new and exciting toys that enrich their lives. I've always hated just pouring their kibble until a bowl and I believe they have a lot more fun working for their food. Zoos and Aquariums provide this sort of enrichment for the animals under their care as well! So I was really excited when I was given the opportunity to review the DogMaze puzzle toy feeder by Buster! We received our DogMaze bowls in exchange for an honest review.

Phoenix shows the size differences between the two options!

Buster provides two versions of this toy/bowl. DogMaze is for medium to large dogs and DogMaze Mini is for small dogs and you can also use it for cats!

The idea with this toy/bowl is that you fill it with your pet's food or favorite treats and they have to use their nose, tongue and paws to move the treats through the channels and out of the exits. By being able to see and smell the food your pets will be very motivated to continue trying to get them out until the maze is empty. It keeps pets mentally stimulated and it keeps them busy for longer than a regular bowl would. The DogMaze is great for pets who like to scarf and barf as it slows down their eating.

The DogMaze is also dishwasher safe, which is a huge plus! This bowl/toy is made from durable hard plastic. It's a very sturdy toy, that being said, I always recommend that you monitor your dogs while they use these kinds of items and never leave them down when they are not in use or unattended.

Check out our video of all four pets using the two DogMazes!

All of my pets really enjoyed using the DogMaze! It kept the dogs busy for a really long time and they were not able to tip it over. I was also really surprised at how much fun my cats had batting their treats around the channels and scooping them out! These feeders provided all of my pets with a lot of mental enrichment! I think they would be great for most dogs, although the brachy breeds (like pugs, boston terriers, etc) might have a harder time with it. 

I would definitely recommend checking the DogMaze out! Buster also offers a variety of other kinds of puzzle toys for both dogs and cats and you can find the other items on their website. Just follow the link!

ZoePhee was provided with the DogMaze and DogMaze Mini in exchange for an honest review. We were not monetarily compensated and all opinions are my own. Buster is not responsible for the content of this blog post.

We All Make Mistakes and The Elephant In The Room.

You guys may have noticed that I didn't participate in the blogger challenge. This year it just didn't feel right to me. I've been feeling down more than I'd really like to admit and I wasn't sure I had much advice to offer.

I'm happy that you guys are all here with me on this journey. 2015 was a pretty good year for the blog, even if I personally didn't have the best year (more on that in a bit). I feel like I have the best followers anyone could have. You guys are always so kind to me. The blogging community has been a second family to me and it's been wonderful. I've hardly ever received a bad comment and I've never received a nasty email. I really appreciate it. We also acquired some amazing sponsors which was also awesome and very fun. The dogs love trying new stuff and I'm always excited to share things with everyone.

That being said, we all make mistakes and I wanted to say that if anyone felt like I was trying to say I was perfect or my dogs were perfect or if you felt that my post about "It's Not About Being Alpha" was condescending, then I'm sorry. That was not my intention and we are far from perfect. I've screwed up a lot and my dogs are definitely not perfect. They are great house dogs for the most part but they both have their quirks. The point of the post was that the training I do isn't because I think I need to be alpha, it's just about keeping everyone safe. I never meant to put anyone down if they've had an accident with their dogs. Dogs are dogs and sometimes they do really dumb things. People are forgetful sometimes. Family members who are not dog savvy visit. Stuff happens. If I can help you manage your dogs better and show you what I do to keep mine from getting into stuff then that's what I want to try to do but I didn't mean to make anyone feel bad.

One of the things that's always bothered me about the online world is that some people have "personas" that they put out there. They have a whole fake online world and when you meet them or get to know them better and you are totally blown away by how different they are from what you thought. I don't ever want anyone to think that about me. I want this blog to be as real as possible. When you come here you know that I'm not screwing with you and this is life, real life. That is why I never write about things that I don't have first hand experience with. So for the blogger challenge my one huge piece of advice is to just be real with people, be yourself and write about whatever you love.

So this is me being real. I'm a crossover trainer and I used to rely on punishment. For a very long time, my first instinct was to immediately punish anything an animal did that I didn't like. It didn't matter if that animal had the tools to know what they should be doing or should not be doing. It was just do whatever to make that animal stop doing whatever "bad" behavior they were displaying. I've learned a lot since those days and I think I've come along way. I still have more to learn, though and I never plan on stopping. I regularly read books and watch seminars on training and behavior. One of the major differences between back then and now is that I really care about giving my dogs the tools they need to know what they are supposed to be doing, which was what I was trying to convey in my other post. I'm human and sometimes I still make mistakes, especially when I don't feel well.

When my dogs pull on the leash, it hurts me and my first instinct is to jerk the leash. When I'm have a Ménière's attack and the world is spinning around, normal every day activities are very hard to accomplish. Between the balance issues, the nausea and pain in my ears things can get bad really fast. I have to actively make sure that I don't jerk leashes or use any other sort of aversive. I'm working really hard to remain patient, even when I don't feel well. I'm not perfect at all but I keep trying to get better. I work with my dogs and I work on myself. I try to make training as fun as possible for my dogs. Things aren't always rainbows and butterflies but we make it work. I love troubleshooting behavior and trying new things. I'm always thinking about what I can do to make something better or what I wish I had done differently and what I'm going to do differently next time. Nobody is perfect and I hope you never think I'm trying to say that I am because I'm really not.

Now let's talk about the major elephant in the room. It's the only thing that I have not shared with you. It wasn't meant to be a secret or anything and I always planned on writing about it. I just wasn't ready to talk about it yet. It's the one thing that I've had the hardest time with last year and it's the one thing that keeps me up at night. Let's talk about my cat, Hurley.

This is my absolutely favorite photo of Hurley.

I got a ton of comments on Pandora's "Gotcha Day" post about how no one ever knew I had any cats. I used to write about them more regularly. In fact, I was thinking about starting a second blog just for the cats. In March of last year, I removed all of  the cat profiles from the blog when we made the agonizing decision to rehome Hurley. Let me tell you how much rehoming him absolutely sucked. The day he left, I could not stop crying and I have cried pretty much the whole year on and off. I feel like I completely failed him. I hate that we had to rehome him and still to this day, I'm having a really hard time with it. When I adopted Hurley, I had every intention of keeping him for the rest of his life and it makes me so sad that we couldn't do it. Every time I see one of those "I'm a Forever Pet" memes on facebook, I cry some more.

We have always had problems with Hurley. He is a big boy of around 15lbs and we noticed right away that he had issues when we first got him. We figured everything would get worked out eventually. He just needed more time to settle in. We waited several years for him to settle in and "calm down". Things progressively went downhill with him. He would randomly attack my other cats and he started attacking the dogs. The attacks became more frequent as time went on. I tried to work with him, I even trained him to do some tricks. I own all the cat behavior books by Pam Johnson-Bennett and several other authors. I read them religiously and implemented a lot of Pam's ideas and strategies for dealing with a problem cat. I could probably do Jackson Galaxy's job with everything I learned about cats in the time of having them. Things never got better and when I tell you we tried everything, I mean it. We even had him on RX anti-depressants to help with his stress and anxiety.

Hurley was putting holes into Pandora. He was twice her weight and he would hold her down and bite her. At one point right before we ended up rehoming him, he ripped out a lot of the fur on her belly and she also had abscesses from him getting a hold of her. Like I mentioned above, he also went after Lilly and the dogs, to the point where the dogs were too scared to walk past him. Zoe started lashing out at him because he would just walk right up to her and bite her, even when she was sleeping. We were never sure why he would do this and it was always out of the blue. One minute he was okay and the next someone was screaming. He was always fine with people, though.

You start to look at things a lot differently when one of your pets is putting holes in your other pets. When the stress level is so high and all of your furkids are on edge. I was on edge. I never knew when he was going to attack someone. I never wanted any of this to happen and I definitely did not want to rehome my cat. It was also effecting my marriage.

I always said that I would never live the crate and rotate lifestyle. It's just not something I ever wanted to have to deal with. I was so careful when I selected Phoenix because I wanted to make sure I would never have to segregate anyone. "That lifestyle is just not for me", I would tell anyone and everyone who asked. That's a pretty laughable thing, since we were pretty much doing that with our cats. Things got harder when we moved into the one bedroom apartment. It became more and more difficult to keep everyone out of each others space and keep the peace. After their last altercation, another abscess for Pandora, the decision was made for me. We just could not deal with it anymore.

I truly believe that Hurley was not a happy boy with us. The happiest I've ever seen him was when we lived with my inlaw's and he had the whole downstairs section of the house to himself. I knew after seeing him like that he would be happier being the only pet. I really wish it could of gone differently and I am so incredibly sad that we had to find him a new home. I think we did the best thing for him and our other pets, even though it was hard. I miss him every day and he was very loved. I'm thankful he was in my life for the time he was. I learned so much from him.

Lilly and Pandora

The stress level in our house has gotten a lot better than it was. The other two cats have completely calmed down. It was actually amazing to see how quiet the house was and how chill everyone has become. Lilly does have behavioral issues, too. She bites us and I plan to talk more about what I'm doing about it. I'm going to work on including Pandora and Lilly more in the blog. They are a big part of our adventures, even though the main theme is revolving around my dogs.

So that's about it and as real as it gets. We all make mistakes and we all screw up. Things are not always perfect. I haven't had an easy past year (not only with Hurley but some other family drama, too), I'm really hopeful this year will be better.

If there's anything you'd like to see more of from me on the blog let me know! I'm hoping to get better with filming videos and I would really like to make some training tutorials. I hope everyone has a great weekend and thanks for sticking with us!

Happy 6th Gotcha Day to Pandora and My Birthday!

6 years ago today, I was supposed to adopt a different cat through a private rescue. Unfortunately, the day I was supposed to drive out to get him it all fell through. I received an email that he wasn't neutered yet and didn't even have any vaccines. The owner of the "rescue" had lied to me and at the last minute told me she would not be able to adopt him out. I was really upset and felt that she was being seriously shady because as far as I knew from everything she told me, he was good to go.

It was my birthday and on a whim, I stopped by the local animal shelter in Reno with a friend. We wandered around and looked through all the cages and the very last one, there was a filthy, little green eyed kitty wanting to make friends with me. It was love at first sight and in that moment I knew that everything, absolutely everything happens for a reason. Pandora was meant to be mine.

Pandora is my heart kitty. She is the reason I was able to pick myself up and move on after Chloe passed away. She is truly a beautiful spirit. She's fun and loving. Everyone who has ever met Pandora has fallen in love with her. She's the best cat I've ever had.

Happy 6th Gotcha Day little girl!

Happy 5th Gotcha Day to Pandora!!

5 years ago today I brought home my heart kitty! I still can't believe it's been this long already!! Pandora is my special needs kitty. She's not really all there and will always have a kitten mentality but she's so sweet and really funny. She is my favorite of the three, despite her issues. She's the only one allowed in our bedroom at night (other than the dogs) and she will often sleep with me.

I'm so glad I found her! We had been looking at another cat and had made arrangements to adopt him when it fell through and after being really upset by that, I stopped by our local humane society. Pandora was the last cat I looked at in the last room. It was love at first sight and I adopted her on the spot. I definitely believe in fate. :D She's an awesome little cat and I love her so much!

 

Tropiclean Fresh Breath+Hip & Joint Review

Hey everyone! I have a review for you today on the Tropiclean Fresh Breath Plus Hip & Joint water additive, brought to you by chewy.com! Chewy.com is an awesome company that delivers high quality pet products right to your door. Their shipping is incredibly fast and they have wonderful customer service!

Tropiclean Fresh Breath Plus Hip & Joint is a safe, natural additive you squirt in your dog or cat's  water bowl each time you fill the bowl. It removes plaque and tartar, eliminates harmful bacteria in the mouth, and gives your pet 12 hours of fresh breath!

Preparedness - Rescue Dog Mistakes - A Series

I took this photo on the morning Zoe and I went to meet Phoenix at OHS.

"Really, Mom?? We're doing what?!?"

Doesn't Zoe look thrilled?

This is my new series on my mistakes with my rescue dogs. I'm going to do these posts at least once or twice a month on Thursdays. In these posts I will talk about some of the mistakes that I think I made and what I would do differently. I hope that reading about my journey with my two rescue girls will be helpful to anyone else looking to get a dog.

Wordless Wednesday - Mean Kitty Style

 

Throwback Thursday - Lilly Ann

Lilly is the only animal I've adopted as a baby. She came from the Humane Society in Reno, Nevada. She was only two pounds when we got her!! A tiny terror!!