A Challenge To All Pet Bloggers!

You know we both love to write and we both believe in "The Power of the Paw"!

Well, so does Puccini, a gorgeous pooch who succumbed to cancer after a brave and history-making  battle with this disease.

After Puccini was diagnosed with melanoma, his Parental Unit, Linda  Cohen Wassong, enrolled him in a clinical trial for a new vaccine to treat canine malignant melanoma. This trial resulted in the first ever  USDA-approved vaccine for cancer in either humans or animals. And for Puccini and Linda, it gave them an extended period of irreplaceable time together.

In 2007, Linda created the Puccini Foundation to honor her late, four-legged family member and to help others become more aware of both pet and human cancers. The Foundation is also dedicated to  donating funds to pet cancer research and providing financial help to pet parents in need.

As Parental Unit mentioned in a post this spring, she's thrilled to be doing some part-time work for the Puccini Foundation's blog and social media. In her most recent blog post for the Foundation, she issued a call to action to all pet bloggers. She was inspired by the series of posts that our friend and blogging buddy, Melissa Clinton, of Barking from the Bayou fame, wrote about pets, cancer and tobacco smoke.

So now, we're asking you—each and every one of our pet blogging friends—to accept our call to action and write your very own blog post about human and/or pet cancer and include the Puccini yellow ribbon!

We'd love to see you share our beautiful ribbon by making it a permanent addition to your blog sidebar and sharing it with your friends and family. We're also looking forward to hearing (and heeding) your suggestions on how to rally our fellow pet bloggers!

Visit the Puccini Foundation website for tons of helpful information on both human and pet cancers to help you get started on your post. And feel free to contact Parental Unit directly @ jdemarti@columbus.rr.com. She'll be happy to do whatever she can to help you spread the good word. And she'll also promote your post on Bocci's Beefs and Puccini Foundation's social media, so your post will get coverage aplenty.

We'll look forward to seeing your blog posts! And as always, thanks for all you do to help pet parents and animals in need.

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How Much Do You Love Your Dog?

No matter how intensely you love, love love your dog, it's O.K. You're probably not weird or obsessed. In fact, it's all pretty normal. And it's also quite "normal" to intensely grieve the loss of that dog or other pet that you loved so much, so says a recent article in U.S. News & World Report.

     Photo of Parental Unit and me by Rachel Lauren Photography

Although we definitely agree with these findings, the article presents lots of research and a common sense understanding of that research to back up those claims. One of several professors quoted in the article explains it this way: "And so for at least 14,000 years, we have been ... creating an animal which understands our communications and we understand its communications and they have a bond with us." And when we lose that bond, we can feel even worse and grieve even more deeply than for the loss of a human companion. Another researcher says that because our relationships with other humans can be complicated and sometimes fraught with strife, we might grieve the loss of the uncomplicated, unconditional love from a dog even more. 

Some even call it 'true love",  not just puppy love. What say you? Do you think it's possible to love a dog more than your closest human companions or even relatives? Let us know!

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One Guy + One Cat + 19 Years Equals...

Photo of gorgeous kitty by Karsten Moran for The New York Times


It most certainly equals a profound and wildly funny essay, that's not just about one man and his cat, but about the eternal questions posed by humans' relationship with other species. Do our animal companions think, reason, laugh at us? Although we may never know the answers to those questions (especially the "laugh at us" part), those of us who share our homes with other species do know that their presence is real and strong-and when they're gone, the cavernous hole in our lives is real, too.

As a bonus, enjoy this interview with the author, Tim Kreider, to see what this man + cat thing is really all about.

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