When Senior Pets Get Dumped

It's heartbreaking when any pet is relinquished to a shelter or abandoned. It's even more heartbreaking when it's a senior pet.

A few years ago, I saw celebrity Anna Faris giving an interview in her home. Anna has starred in movies like The House Bunny and the new movie, What's Your Number? In the interview, she picked up her cat, a beautiful white Persian who was also a movie star. She had starred in Stuart Little, and was named Mrs. White after the story's original author. I remember at the time wanting to reach out to Faris because she mentioned in the interview that Mrs. White had a little trouble "remembering" where the litter box was and suffered from diarrhea. I also had a Persian at the time, and he also suffered from smelly troubles of the behind, sometimes of a lovely green hue. Persians are notorious for suffering from IBD, inflammatory bowel disease. In…

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The Local Leash

Senior Cats and Feline Siblinghood

For everyone who ever has, or ever wanted to bring home a new cat when that home is already owned by a senior cat.

If you turn to page 30 of the September issue of Cat Fancy Magazine, you'll see the story of yours truly and how I successfully introduced a kitten into the home of Charlie, an alpha, senior tomcat, who was 14 at the time and cranky. It's a lovely and succinct story that describes all the careful planning I undertook to design a happy, multi-cat household around the desires of King Charlie, rather than around my own. It doesn't tell the whole story, which was quite a challenging chapter in our lives. I didn't want a kitten and I didn't want a girl. I have an affinity for boy cats, even though I'd never had a girl cat before. If it had been up to me, I would have gone to the Summit County Animal Control (aka "the pound") or the Humane …

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The Local Leash

How Ohio is Letting Dogs Down

Why did a bill to increase animal protection legislation in Ohio die before making it to the Senate for a vote? What can we do about it?

When I worked at the Humane Society of Greater Akron, I did a job I could be proud of. I took animal abuse calls and dispatched them to the wonderful Humane Officers, who were out daily rescuing dogs and cats and appearing in court every month to testify during animal abuse cases. What I didn't know then is that Ohio ranks among the worst--45th--when it comes to the treatment of convicted animal abusers. Only four states lack subsequent-offense or first offense felony animal cruelty laws, and Ohio is one of them. What brought this to my attention was an animal advocate named Nikki Moustaki who is taking Ohio's lax animal laws very seriously...and she doesn't even live in Ohio.  Nikki is eating dog food every day until a bill called Nitro's…

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