BlogPaws is drawing my pet parent away from home for the weekend.  She is anxious to make new friends and learn more ways to make my blog fun and educational…do those two words really go together?

I have been told that there will be a lot of giveaways too so I have instructed my pet parent to take an extra suitcase to bring them home.  I am an excellent product tester. Watch for our pet product reviews when she gets back.

In the meantime, I will have to keep my pet sitter and my “dad” entertained. No sleeping on the couch this weekend!

The importance of people napping to become smarter is quite the buzz now. My pet parent loves to nap when he comes home from work and then again before he goes to bed…well, okay, I am exaggerating a bit. He doesn’t do it every night. 

People all over the world have known the value of napping but here in the United States if our pet parents are “caught napping” they could suffer severe repercussions on the job. Dr. Matthew Walker, a Berkeley psychologist, claims that it all happens in a part of the brain which temporarily stores “fact-based memories.” When pet parents nap, they clear out the memories so that they have room to take in more.  I wonder if that is the same as clearing the cobwebs from your brain which is the way our grand pet parents talked about the process.


So how does this memory stuff relate to us as pets? A writer for PetPlace reports that our memory banks need periodic purging and reorganization during sleep too. After we attend 5 weeks of training classes, our pet parents observe that we act like we have not learned anything at all.  Actually, our lessons are just going from short-term memory to long-term memory.  I wonder if the process would happen sooner if we took naps halfway through class…but then we would miss all the fun.


Does your pet parent feel that naps make them smarter? Have them leave a comment.

Pet Companion to animal lover Amelia

Who should be held accountable when the lack of safety of veterinary drugs breaks down the TRUST regarding what we are treated with and who is treating us?

Our pet parents take us to veterinarians that they know, like and trust. They rely on our vets to do the right thing for us. But what happens when veterinarians are not informed about the safety of the drugs that they are using to treat us?


A Veterinary Information Network has been co-founded by president Dr.Paul Pion to keep vets informed of what is happening. Veterinarians are not being alerted to safety recalls.  The manufacturers are not taking responsibility for informing their customers. Pion believes that everyone who has the information, whether they believe it’s their job or not, should share it. He goes on to say that any individual or company who has reliable information and doesn’t share it should be held personally and corporately responsible for any adverse reactions that occur after that.

When you have an adverse reaction to a drug, as I did to a vaccine, who does your pet parent hold accountable?  Have them comment on this very important topic.

Pet Companion to animal lover Amelia

An anonymous gift from a Texas woman calling herself Santa Paws as well as donations from pet lovers from all across the country means a brighter Christmas for 100 rescued dogs. Santa Paws gave $5000 to the group Dogs Deserve Better based in Altoona, Pennsylvania.  Another $5000 was raised on the Dogs Deserve Better web site.


As a result, Tamira Thayne, the group’s representative, was able to buy $10,000 in PETCO gift cards which will go to the foster parents of 100 dogs. Thanks to Santa Paws, Dogs Deserve Better has been able to buy three times the gift cards for foster dogs that had lived chained or kept outside. They will each get a bed, treats and some toys that they never had before.


How do you feel about dogs being kept in pens or chained outside?  Go to Dogs Deserve Better if you would like to support their cause.


Living in the moment,
Schatzi
Pet companion to animal lover Amelia
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