Category: Pets

Pets make the house a home.

Once more with feeling-Crash course in reality television

I had always been curious about reality television.  When I had the opportunity to have It’s Me or the Dog tape an episode at PAWS Atlanta I jumped at the chance.  Prior to their taping I had several conversations with the producers and explained why the shelter would be a good candidate for the show.  The producers had been kicking around the possibility of doing an episode of It’s Me or the Dog that was centered on an animal shelter, instead of a family having issues with a couple of dogs.  Continue reading Once more with feeling-Crash course in reality television

CATS-off Broadway and in your house

I’m a stay at home dad now. My wife said that she knew that I loved our son because when he was born I rubbed noses with him like I do with our cats.  For the first couple years of our marriage she would occasionally (sarcastically?) accuse me of liking the cats more than her.  Now we’re deeper into our marriage and I know that she was being sarcastic. 

Cats are great pets, but they sometimes get a bum rap.  Continue reading CATS-off Broadway and in your house

It’s a dog’s life

As a child everything I knew about dogs I learned from Snoopy.   Since then, I’ve worked at one of the largest animal shelters in Atlanta doing their communications, PR, offsite events and fundraising.  It was during that time, in addition to my own 10 years of owning dogs; that taught me lots about what works and what doesn’t for folks who are thinking about adopting a dog. Continue reading It’s a dog’s life

Where do pets come from?

I’m not talking about the birds and the bees, I mean from where will you adopt your cat or dog?  Odds are that your cat or dog will come from one of four sources, an animal shelter, animal control, rescue organization or breeder.  Here is an overview of the pros and cons of each source.

Animal control

Animal Control is the entity that your tax dollars help support.  They’ll usually be called by the county of residence animal control, XXX County Animal Control for example.   If it’s really called XXX, then Vin Diesel has really gone down hill or maybe you need to speak with your local politicians about their side jobs.  Continue reading Where do pets come from?

A primer on pets

So you’re thinking about adopting a pet?  Outstanding!!   Pets can be a wonderful addition to home situation.  Choose wisely, because the wrong pet or breed can turn pet ownership into a nightmare very quickly.

Before being a stay at home dad, PR guy and daddy blogger I did communications and fundraising for a large animal shelter in Atlanta.    I worked at PAWS Atlanta for five years and during that time I encountered the best and worst aspects of owning a pet.  My knowledge on exotic pets, snakes, spiders and the like is very limited, so for the purpose of this post I’ll just comment on cats, dogs and the occasional rabbit. Continue reading A primer on pets

Fringe Pets

When I was a child the only pets I had were a pair of hamsters, two rabbits and a crow.

I don’t have many memories of the hamsters.  Actually I do have one memory of the hamsters.  I went down into the basement and one of them had eaten the other one.  Immediately I called out to my older sister, “Jenny, come quickly (insert hamster name here) is dead and (insert other hamster name here) has just killed him!!”  It was a hamster homicide in the Burley Basement, film at 11. Continue reading Fringe Pets

Babygate and other conspiracies

Baby Mojo is right on the cusp of crawling so it’s time to safety proof the house and put up a baby gate near the stairs.  Prior to being a daddy blogger I used to work for an animal shelter and had pets of my own.  The great thing about baby gates is that they also keep pets out of some areas or off the stairs.   We’ve had one up for a while to keep the dogs downstairs and learned a lesson or two that might help you.

There are the temporary gates that you have to remove or step over and stronger ones that  allow you to open a door in the gate and step through it. 

The temporary gates are usually cheaper and very easy to move between door frames .   However these gates don’t allow you to step through them, so these would not be good if they are located near a highly trafficked area.  If you’re putting this gate up in the kitchen or office for a little bit that is an excellent location and a relatively cheap fix.

As we have two dogs our option was a more secure gate that we could walk through.  There are two options for this style of gate, one that is mounted to the wall and one that is not mounted, ie, no screw holes in your wall.

 We’ve got a wall mounted baby gate that is secured into the wall. 

Note the position when it’s closed and when it’s open.  In the photo to the right, it’s open and there is not a bar that requires you have to step over it.

Most wall mounted gates that do not require you to drill holes in your wall come in a three peice set up and have a bar parallel to the floor when the gate is open.  In theory this doesn’t sound like a big deal.  However, having to step over a bar at the top, or bottom of your stairs is annoying at best and dangerous at worst.

We had the three piece, dangerous gate for a week or two.  Then much to the chagrin of our walls, we exchanged it for the wall mounted version.  However, the wall mounted baby gates are stronger, have a secure lock for the kids and are super easy to install.

Bottom line:  If you’re getting a baby gate for stairs, don’t worry about your walls.

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