Pet Blog By Bocci @ Bocci's Beefs: Dogs and Cats

Showing posts with label Dogs and Cats. Show all posts

Thursday, November 24, 2016

Thankful For Your Pets? Tell Us Why!

Parental Unit want everyone to know how thankful she is for the two of us, and here are just a few of her reasons: our constant companionship, incredible amounts of affection (even from the cat!) and a ridiculous amount of acceptance and love...

We really do show her affection and love...when we finally move from her bed!

If you have a minute amidst the hustle and bustle that is the Thanksgiving holiday, let us know what about having pets in your life makes you feel especially thankful, today and every day. We'd love to know!

In the meantime, we hope you have a fun, safe and bountiful Thanksgiving!

Dog Reminds Cat To Save Some Food

Take less than half a minute to watch this incredibly patient Border Collie...what's kitty doing eating from his big bowl, anyway?

BlogPaws Wordless Wednesday Pet Blogger Hop!

March is finally here (read: it's almost spring!) and I'm hoping to celebrate by making sure Parental Unit takes me on more walks—how will you celebrate the windy, rainy, sometimes cold intro to spring? Please let us know!

Meanwhile, back at the Ohio ranch...it's still in the 30's here today with a sprinkling of snow flurries, so we're both soaking up those sunspots!

Now on to the BlogPaws Wordless Wednesday Pet Blogger Hop to visit with our buddies.

Do We Love Our Pets More Now?

We know Parental Unit adores us!

And we also know she's loved the many pets she's had before we came into her life.. Although she may not love us more than her other pets, she knows so much more now—we all do—about the best ways to meet our pets needs. And that wasn't talked about nearly as much, if at all, say when Parental Unit was a kid. (Well, ahem,we didn't know much about anything 100 years ago). The idea is that Parental Unit has more time now to spend with us, and makes more time to understand and meet the needs we have as distinct species.

Anyway, this article in the LATimes explores some of the reasons why it might appear that we "love" our pets more today than we did say, 50 years ago. More disposable income to spend on our furkids, and advances in veterinary medicine that allow pets to live longer, healthier lives are just two of the possible reasons many humans shower us with more attention these days...or at least appear to.

On the other hand, the associate director of the Tufts Institute for Human-Animal Interaction, Megan Mueller, says "And, yes, a lot of people talk about their animals as being member of their family, but we simply don't have a lot of research about what people's relationships were like with their companion animals 50 years ago." How about Timmy and Lassie for example—they were pretty bonded, don't you think?

We'd love to know how you feel about this issue. Are humans more closely bonded with us pets than they used to be? Do we really love each other more, or is it perhaps just a construct of the $60 billion pet industry? Hmmm.

Cats Harassing Dogs

Cats harassing dogs? You might shrug it off with a "What else is new", and you'd probably be right, but we think this video compilation is particularly funny. We're not sure why the parental units in the third segment allowed the rather intense snarling to continue, but the rest are delightful.

Enjoy your Sunday while I continue to be harassed...

BlogPaws Wordless Wednesday Pet Blogger Hop: Pet Safety!

Today's "theme" over at BlogPaws is Pet Safety...and the ultimate in pet safety is adopting a pet, is it not? Don't miss this gorgeous family photo, including their newly adopted pup!

Meanwhile, back at the Ohio ranch...
It's just another lazy, rainy day for us two adopted furkids. And we look pretty safe, don't we?

Now let's move on to the BlogPaws Wordless Wednesday Pet Blogger Hop and see if these other bloggers are keepin' safe!

Inter-Species Friendships: What We Can Learn?

What's to learn? My feline housemate, Bella, and I have been friends from day one. (I just pretend I don't like her to keep up my image).

O.K. Maybe it's what you humans can learn. This fascinating New York Times article, complete with videos and slide shows, helps us all better understand what propels inter-species "friendships" and what, if anything, can be learned from these unusual bondings. It also seems that humans find such relationships endlessly fascinating: Will "the lion [really] lay down with the lamb", or will he or she simply toy with it for awhile before it becomes dinner? And more importantly, did that adorable Labrador puppy really win the hearts of those giant Clydesdales?

What this article so eloquently ponders is why, if various animals can bond across species, does the human animal have so much trouble bonding across ethnic, racial and territorial lines, for example.
Some humans crave to be reconnected to nature and simply find "odd examples" of inter-speices friendships funny or attractive. "Others see in the meeting of dog and doe, goat and rhino, tiger and bear, an idea of peaceful connection that humans too often find elusive."

We'd love to hear what you think about inter-species friendships, including some of your own!

How Do Dogs Drink?

Ever want to know the science behind how a dog drinks? No? Well, we didn't either. But it turns out it's quite fascinating, although the scientists admit that the research might not have practical application. Who cares about practical, though, when you can watch cute dogs and cats lapping up water or milk? Check out this minute and a half video to get your pet fix and science lesson for the day.

Quick fact from this New York Times article: Neither dogs nor cats can suck in water like humans do because their cheeks don't close.

Enjoy!

The Lucrative Pet Industry

Standard Poodle, Hattie, watching a video of her Mom. Photo: Jenn Ackerman, NYTimes

We love that the pet industry (those who make food and products to help you better care for your pet) is growing each year. According to the American Pet Products Association, humans spent upwards of $55.8 billion last year alone—all to care for, and yes, pamper us pets. And this recent article in The New York Times focuses on the start-ups in the pet business—those entrepreneurs who have a great idea to help you, say, commune with your pet while you're at work—see Ms. Hattie above, but don't necessarily have the money to get their idea to market.

Enter Kickstarter and savvy investment groups who see the skyward direction of the pet industry, and you've got a great combination that should ultimately benefit pets. The idea is that many of you who own pets, see us more like children, and in some respects, we think that's a good thing. The human who built the pet food giant Iams (which he ultimately sold to P&G for $2.3 billion), calls this change "quite a shift from the days when the dog slept in the garage, ate table scraps and 'occasionally got their burrs taken out'".

Anything that encourages humans to better care for and interact more with their pets is a positive step forward in our book! We hope you enjoy this glimpse into the expanding pet products world—let us know what you think.

Here's my high tech device to help Parental Unit and me interact...

Sunday's "Living With Your Pet" Tips: Top Ten Tips For Holiday Travel With Your Pet

Fabulous photo of me by John Clark of Clark Creative

You know we're fans of Dr. Karen Becker, one of our favorite holistic veterinarians, because of her in-depth, science-based answers to your pet dilemmas—and more importantly, how to prevent those pet problems. Here she's put together a slide show with ten substantial ideas to make traveling with your pet a lot easier and safer for both of you, all year round.

Dr. Becker isn't a fan of flying with your pet (at least on commercial airlines), but she nonetheless provides some important counsel on how to do so that's in the best interest of your pet. For example, she recommends a full medical wellness check fairly close to departure time to make sure your furry friend is physically fit to fly.

Me? I love to travel by foot or car, but Parental Unit doesn't think that I'm the right fit, so to speak, for flying. But enough about me. How many of you have flown with your pet? Let us know...

BlogPaws Wordless Wednesday Pet Blogger Hop!

It looks like the theme of the BlogPaws Wordless Wednesday Pet Blogger Hop is cat "payback" time to the dog of the house... And we've got plenty of that to share with you!

Bella here: You see, I do my "payback" by never leaving Bocci's side!