Whether it is your first pet, or you already have a family of furies, bringing an adorable puppy or kitten home is a decision not to be made easily. If you decide to own a pet, you are making a commitment for the life of the pet. This decision is expensive and time consuming for the whole family. A pet is much like a baby. At least for the first few weeks, the pet is completely dependent on the members of the family for everything from feeding to training and exercising.  

Choosing the right pet for the family can be difficult. Pets are fairly expensive and their care is as well. Certain shelters make sure all animals up for adoption have had their vaccines and proper care, other do not. Whenever you adopt a pet make sure that their healthcare requirements are up to date. Also, make sure all other pets in the house have had their shots before introducing a new play mate for them. Viruses spread fast and can become costly.

Controlling our weight is hard. What we eat, when we eat, and how much we exercise are at the forefront of our minds when we decide we need to lose a few ponds. There are many options to aid us in achieving our goals from gym memberships, to personal trainers, nutrition experts, and diet foods. However, our busy lives and lack of money can impede us from sticking to any plan. So, if it is this hard for us to lose weight with all our options, it makes sense that it is even harder for our pets. According to a recent survey, more than half of our beloved cats and dogs are overweight.

The media and certain campaigns focus on raising awareness about the risks of being overweight for humans. Well, our risks are a lot like those our pets are exposed to if they are overweight. These include breathing problems, type two diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, and kidney disease. And if your pet is sick, your wallet is surely going to cry. Vet bills are astronomical and very few pet owners have any type of medical insurance for their animals. Only two pounds overweight for cats can cause complications, and only 5 pounds for dogs.  Pets might be cute and fluffy when a bit overweight but if their weight is endangering their lives, shouldn’t you help the stay healthy and happy?

Dog owners, beware!!! The Arizona Humane Society issued a valley-wide warning about two new strain of Distemper disease, a deadly disease for man’s best friend. If you want to help protect your dog, make sure his vaccination is up to date. Many people ignore their own annual checkups and biannual dentist visits. So, it is easy to ignore the recommended vet visits. But this can be dangerous especially since Distemper disease is very easily spread among pets.

According to the Arizona Humane Society, there is not known cure for this deadly disease, which starts as a respiratory infection and spreads quickly throughout the body. Distemper spreads among dogs just as fast as the flu spreads among humans, especially in communal areas for dogs like dog parks, dog spas, and more. Typically, an increased number of cases of the disease are observed during the spring due to increases in the number of puppy litters. However, signs of the condition have been appearing much sooner and cases have spread as far away as Ohio and Georgia.  Dr. Bradley, veterinary and member of the Arizona Humane Society stated that this was not considered an outbreak as of yet, but the number of cases is noticeably on the rise.

          Walking with Faith. It’s not an easy thing to do, especially when Faith is a two-legged dog. The eight years old Labrador-Chow mix inspires hugs, smiles and even tears, hobnobs with celebrities, jet sets around the world and has even been made an honorary sergeant in the U.S. Army.

          Faith’s owner, Jude Stringfellow told us, “She’s an inspiration!” Faith, who was brown without front legs in 2002, was rescued by Stringfellow and her husband. After Stringfellow knew the fact that Faith couldn’t be fixed, she was so disappointed. However, she never gave up and Stringfellow thought they could help the dog even though she couldn’t be cured. At the beginning, they Stringfellow had to carry Faith to keep her off her chest and chin, but with peanut butter and practice, Faith learned to walk on her two hind legs. Stringfellow taught Faith to walk by luring her with spoons of peanut butter. Since then, Faith has been on “The Oprah Show” and has rubbed paws with celebrities including Lindsay Lohan, Samuel L. Jackson and Ozzy Osbourne.

          Faith is also a regular at U.S. Army bases and military hospitals, lifting the spirits of wounded troops and veterans, for which she was named an honorary E-4 Army sergeant.