About Us / Contact

Welcome - "About us"

2009-03-30T10:18:00.015-04:00

My husband and I have been married 20 years and own a local business in our small town. We live in a rural community in Northwest Ohio outside of Toledo, and share our home with 2 dogs, Abby and Rosie and 2 cats, Gidget and Lola. We met in our late thirties, and are now in our 50's. I author two blogs, "the Cat/Dog Log" and "Living Well."

Long before we met, each of us were advocates of regular exercise, eating healthy foods, and doing all we could to hold back the aging process and hereditary health problems that exist in both of our families. My husband has lifted weights since his late teens and participated in many sports including soft ball, basketball and golf. I've always enjoyed gardening, swimming, walking, golf, aerobic exercise, and since marrying him, occasional weight lifting. For years my husband has subscribed to alternative health publications for advice on diet, supplements, and overall fitness.

One day he read an article by Dr. William Douglass on pet food in which he was advocating a raw food diet as close as possible to the food our pets would eat if they lived in the wild. He mentioned that many of the diseases that affect our pets are because of the chemicals in commercial pet food, skin allergies being one of them. Our cocker spaniel Abby had been suffering with chronic skin allergies and ear infections for several years. She was on Prednisone for the skin itching and antibiotics for the itching ears, and it had progressed to the point where neither of the medications were doing much good. She was miserable.

So began my quest to improve her health and find a natural alternative for her allergies. Approximately 1 month after changing her diet, her itching was greatly relieved, and I began weening her off the Prednisone. A simple breeder's home remedy solved her itching ear problem and she no longer needs antibiotics. As of 2009, it has been over 2 years since removing her from commercial pet food, with no sign of itching skin. Her dramatic improvement was the reason I started blogging about pet health to share my experiences and help other pet owners having the same problem. After we adopted our dog Rosie from Lil Paws Rescue and I became aware of the good work these organizations do to save animals from being euthanized, I expanded my blog to include rescue and adoption efforts as well. And we can't leave out the kitties. Both Gidget and Lola were rescued by our local humane society prior to us adopting them, and I cover information on natural/organic cat diet and products, as well as health and behavior issues.

In addition to pet health, my blog covers information we have learned over the years for staying healthy and reducing chemical exposure in our lives. I pass along tips we've learned about diet, natural cleaning solutions, gardening tips, and generally anything to help you have a healthier home environment.

I hope you enjoy your visit with us and return often for our updates.

* Please note - I am not an expert on pet or human diet and health. The information I provide on my blogs is based on my research and personal experience.

Disclosure: I am occasionally paid to write an article by various companies. If so, the disclosure will be shown at the bottom of the article.

Abby's story

2009-03-30T07:00:00.008-04:00

We picked Abby out from a local breeder at only 2 weeks of age, after having lost our 15 year old cocker spaniel to liver failure. At first I wasn't sure which pup I wanted until I held Abby in my lap and she nuzzled me just the way Ginger always had, and it was love at first sight. We had to wait an additional 5 weeks before we could bring Abby home, and it seemed like forever. Right from the beginning, she was a handful with boundless energy. I remember my husband giving her cardboard boxes to tear up so that she would expend some of her energy. And she is a typical cocker that loves to tear up tissues, toilet paper, paper towels - any soft paper. At first I tried to paper-train her, and all she would do is shred them. Almost immediately she embraced going outside to potty, and was very easy to housetrain.

At around 3 years old, she developed skin allergies and was put on Prednisone to control the itching. She remained on a seasonal dose for several years until it wasn't doing the job any longer and I started researching alternatives. That is what lead me to change her diet, along with all of my pets to an all-natural, chemical free food, after feeding Eukanuba to Abby and Hills Science Diet (at the recommendation of my vet) to the cats all those years thinking I was giving them the best possible food. Almost immediately Abby's itching stopped, and her allergies have disappeared with no recurrence in over 2 years. Eventually even her chronic otitis (ear infections) disappeared as well, and all of my pets have the softest, shinest coats I've ever seen.

Abby also gained 8 extra pounds during her years on Prednisone, which no amount of measuring her food could turn around until I changed her diet. She returned to a normal 25 pounds. Abby's successful turn-around was the reason I started my blog to begin with, as I was so upset from the petfood recall in 2007 and the poisons I learned were in many petfoods at the time. I encourage everyone to read the ingredients on your petfood bag, and if you don't know what they are, do an internet search to find out. Chances are if you don't recognize what it is, it's a chemical and it shouldn't be going into your pet's body.

Final note on Abby: In December, 2010 at the age of almost 13 Abby was diagnosed with Auto Immune Hemolytic Anemia. I came home one day to find her collapsed by her water bowl, her gums were pale, she was breathing heavily and couldn't stand on her own. I rushed her to my veterinarian, where x-rays and bloodwork were done. The x-rays came back first and showed she had no tumors, very little arthritis for a dog her age, and her heart and lungs were in excellent shape. We were hopeful at this point. But then the bloodwork came back showing low red blood cells and very high white blood cells and the dreaded diagnosis of AIHA was given to me. She was put on Prednisone and antibiotics and began to show signs of recovering, although I was told that most likely within 6 months her immune system would figure out a way to get around the prednisone which was suppressing the immune response and allowing her red blood cells to rebuild and the disease would return with a vengence. Since my veterinarian told me that conventional medicine had no answers, I consulted with a holistic veterinarian. I learned that Abby's recent vaccination at the end of May was most likely the catalyst that set the immune disorder in motion, as the vaccine is a live virus which the immune system sees as a threat. This response usually occurs a few months after the vaccination, and looking back we saw subtle changes in her that at the time we thought were age related. With this disease, it's thought that the dog is born with a predisposition for it, and the immune system actually attacks the red blood cells, causing severe anemia. After her diagnosis, I learned that 1/3 of all dogs that contract this disease are cocker spaniels, and females are more predisposed even than male cockers. The average age the disease shows up is around age 4 to 6, with the outside age ranges as young as 1 and as old as 13. 50% of dogs don't survive the first two weeks, and overall the disease has an 80% mortality rate. The drug Prednisone has a list of side effects and among them is digestive upset and ulcerations of the digestive tract. When we first started Abby on the Prednisone, she had no appetite and I had to give her the Prednisone on an empty stomach, so to soothe her digestive tract I added some parsley tea to her drinking water (parsley leaves and 1 cup of water blended together). With the advice of the holistic veterinarian, I fed Abby a high protein diet of boiled chicken breasts and beef with eggs to help rebuild her red blood cells and fight the anemia. A teaspoon of plain yogurt was added on the side to help rebuild the good flora in her digestive tract that antibiotics kill off with the bad bacteria. I also gave her dehydrated beef liver strips as a treat as it is high in iron. Her appetite came back with a vengence (Prednisone causes an increased desire for food and water) and soon she sppeared to be on the mend and grew stronger each day. With an ok from my veterinarian, I started giving her a supplement to stabilize her immune system and one to detoxify the liver because the drug Prednisone is very hard on the liver. Our hope was to eventually ween her off the Prednisone once the supplements had time to stabilize her, but supplements don't work as fast as drugs and Abby ran out of time. The disease returned full force at the end of December and we decided it was time to let her go. We were obviously devastated by this disease - Abby was a very healthy 12 year old prior to it's onset and it all happened very quickly and without warning. In hindsight, I wish I had not allowed the vaccination to be given, and in the future will be using the Serum Titers test in it's place. It tests the amount of antibodies the animal has so that pets are not needlessly vaccinated. If you'd like to read more about this test, here is a link I came across: W.Jean Dodds, DVM on Serum Titers . I only wish I had known more about this test over the past years - Abby would most likely still be with us, happy and healthy.

Jackie's adoption story

2009-03-30T06:50:00.000-04:00

This is my cat Jackie's rescue tail. She was initially rescued from a cruelty situation in late 1999 where there were about 100 dogs and cats being held in cages in a small petshop. The person was well-intentioned, but the situation was out of control and she was unable to properly care for all the animals she had taken in. I remember seeing it on our local news at the time. The animals were taken into custody as evidence, and the Toledo Humane Society took over their care. None of them could be put up for adoption until the court case was settled, which took 8 months.

In March of 2000, my cat Kitty passed away at age 17. My dog Abby was then 2 years old and missed having a companion, so I went to the Toledo Humane Society to adopt a cat. The room was filled with cats in cages, but one stood out to me. All of them were meowing loudly and trying to get my attention, but Jackie (then known as "Sleepy" because that's all she wanted to do) was very polite and ladylike in her cage. As I looked them all over, she very gently stuck her paw out and touched my hand, and I instantly knew she was the one. They thought she was approximately 1 year old, and after just recently dealing with the loss of Kitty, I thought oh good, she'll be with me a long time. On the way home, she was adamant she didn't want to go into the carrier, and I didn't have the heart to force her after being stuck in one for 8 months. She climbed right up in my lap and slept all the way home. She got along well with Abby and adjusted quickly to our household.

I took her to my veterinarian for a check-up, and he felt she was older than 1 year, but couldn't tell exactly. It turns out she was more like 11 years old, because the following year at her check-up, she was determined to have the beginnings of cataracts, which cats get around age 12. She had a relatively healthy next 7 years, except that she lost her hearing around age 18. Jackie passed away in October of 2008 after being diagnosed with hypothyroidism 6 weeks earlier. She seemed to tolerate the medication when first given, but when the dosage was doubled after 4 weeks, she had a bad reaction and never recovered from it. She was always the gentlest of my 3 cats by far, but had a knack for getting her own way. My rescued dog Rosie (pictured here with Jackie) always wanted to control my lap, but when Jackie decided it was her time, she just pushed her way in. Rosie would crinkle her nose and grouse about it, but Jackie never let that stop her. 2 years before her death, it sounded like she was nearing the end, her organs were starting to fail, she had lost weight, and I also noticed she was missing her litter box quite often by just a few inches and her stool had gotten very small- all signs of ill health. It was at that time I changed her diet to an all natural food, and she began to improve. After she gained back some weight and returned to normal, I began giving her some raw food as a treat, which she loved. She also stopped missing her litter box, and she became more active and playful. At the following year's vet visit, she was pronounced to be much improved and holding her own. If only I had made the diet changes earlier in her life she may have been with us yet a little longer. I still miss her every day.

Gidget's adoption story

2009-03-30T06:40:00.000-04:00

This is the adoption story of my cat Gidget.

No, she's not feral; I caught her in mid-yawn after a nap on her favorite window perch.

I first saw Gidget when she was 8 months old in April 2001 while at my vet's office with my oldest cat Jackie. I struck up a conversation with the woman who brought Gidget in, and learned that she was 8 months old and had been found living in a dumpster not far from our home. Some boys had been seen throwing rocks at her. When brought to the humane society, she was suffering from a severe upper respiratory infection, and part of her ear was missing, most likely caused by frostbite. Gidget was brought to my vet to be spayed as he donates his services to the area humane society.

I was not looking to adopt another cat, as I had Abby and Jackie at the time. But I couldn't get Gidget out of my mind all weekend, as the woman had said they worried she wouldn't get adopted because of her ear, and the humane society was severely overcrowded. The prospects for Gidget did not sound good. After thinking about it for 2 days, I ended up tracking the woman down who was fostering her in her home, and made arrangements to adopt her on April Fools Day, 2001.

When I brought her home, she bonded with us immediately. She was still being treated for the stubborn upper respiratory infection, and I didn't want to keep her in the cold basement that first night. So I slept on the couch and held her, keeping her covered up and she snuggled up to me like she had always been with us. This surprised me since she was considered a feral cat.

Looking back, I think those early months living on her own did some damage to her nervous system, because she is still quite fidgety and nervous at times, and doesn't like to be held for very long. She will bolt and hide at the slightest sound until she's sure everything is as it should be. But from the beginning, I couldn't ask for a more affectionate and loving cat. When it's her idea, she will lay on me with her paws wrapped around my neck for hours if I sit there long enough. And she is the most vocal cat I've ever had, making her wishes well known. Her nickname is the "Squawker" since she will sit on the kitchen windowsill, yapping at us, and won't let up until she gets what she wants. She is still full of energy and loves to play, and she really seemed to mourn the loss of Fritz when he died suddenly. She was the reason we decided to get Lola, so she would have another young cat to play with. Gidget wasn't too sure about this newcomer at first, but they have formed their own relationship and play well together. She has been a wonderful addition to our household.

Fritz's adoption story

2009-03-30T06:30:00.000-04:00

We adopted Fritz at around 6 weeks old in September 2006 from a nearby farmer. Fritz was born to a sickly barn cat who wasn't taking care of her two remaining kittens. He was malnourished and suffering from an intestinal infection, eye infection, and ringworm when we brought him home. After some veterinary treatment, he began to thrive and was the picture of health with boundless energy and curiosity. He was quite a handful at times, but we loved him dearly.

At just 1 1/2 years old, he suffered a blood clot that paralyzed his hind legs - they diagnosed him at the emergency vet's office as having Saddle Thrombis, a very rare genetic heart problem from which there is little to no hope of recovery. Just the day before he was the picture of health, running and playing and tormenting Jackie and Gidget as he usually did. At 5:00 on a Saturday morning, we found him lying at the bottom of the basement stairs panting and crying in pain and unable to stand up. I noticed an injury to his rear foot. I thought he had fallen somehow. We called the emergency veterinary clinic and they said when a cat pants, it is life threatening, so off we rushed to the clinic. As soon as we arrived, they asked if he had a history of blood clots, and I said no, he's only 1 1/2 years old. They finished their examination, and immediately took him to the back and sedated him, as he was in such pain. They then came to tell us that a blood clot had broken loose and paralyzed him, and even if he survived the day, he would continue to be in a lot of pain, with very little hope of recovery even with physical therapy. Apparently the paralysis caused severe pain in his foot, which they said compared to 100 times worse than pins and needles we feel when our foot or hand goes to sleep, and he chewed his own foot to relieve the pain, but unable to feel that he was damaging it. They also mentioned amputation of his legs might be necessary, and that this type of thing can happen without warning in cats. We decided we had to let him go to put him out of his misery. It still all seems like a dream now - it happened so quickly. The day before we had a healthy, happy cat and then he's gone.

In retrospect, we look at it that Fritz would probably not have survived his kittenhood if we had not adopted him, and that thankfully he had a fun-filled year and a half of life before this awful disease took him from us. We still miss you sweet boy!

Rosie's Adoption story

2009-03-30T06:20:00.000-04:00

This is the rescue tail of my Rosie, a 3 year old chihuahua that we adopted on July 22, 2007. Not much is known of Rosie's history, except that she was found in Dayton, Ohio and held by the dog warden. No one claimed her, and she was scheduled to be euthanized just hours before Lil Paws Rescue saved her and brought her to a foster home, my next door neighbor.

The first time I saw Rosie was just after my neighbor brought her to her house. She was also fostering other dogs, and has 3 of her own, and they were all outside playing, except for poor Rosie. She wasn't dealing with her arrival very well, and just shook and tried to hide her face while my neighbor held her and let me see her. By the next day, however, Rosie joined the other dogs at the fence when I'd walk over to talk to them. She often was the first one to come running up to see me, tail wagging like crazy and wanting me to pet her. She and I took a real liking to one another, and while I hoped she would get adopted, I also dreaded the day she would, because I was getting so attached to her. I already had Abby, Jackie, Gidget and Fritz, and had told my husband after rescuing Fritz that he was the last one. I didn't have the nerve to ask him to take in yet another lost sole. But he started becoming attached to her also. His fatal mistake was kidding me about adopting Rosie, and then he said he wouldn't mind adopting her. That's all it took for me to set about getting approved for adoption. While waiting for the approval process, my neighbors moved, so I couldn't see Rosie every day and I missed her terribly. She also needed some dental work done before they could officially let me have her. Finally her adoption day arrived, and she's been my constant companion ever since. Luckily Abby has accepted her very well and doesn't object to her being near me all the time. She just jumps up on the other side of me and settles in - yes my dogs get up on the furniture, and they also sleep on our bed. I guess we don't have very good pack leader/dog boundaries in our house.

One of Rosie's knicknames is "the bug", because she bugs us all the time. She loves to lay out in the yard in the sun, no matter how hot it is. Long after Abby heads in to the air conditioning, Rosie's still laying out there soaking up the heat, so we keep an eye on her. The picture above was taken on one of the hottest days last summer. And as much as she loves the heat, she hates the cold. Our Northern climate is nothing like that of Mexico from which her breed originated. I may invest in some boots for her next winter, as it really seems to bother her feet. As I've written in previous posts, Rosie has had her issues, and we're working through them little by little. It's obvious to me she's been abused; at first she would cringe if I tried to touch her face. She would also duck and cower when we stooped down to pet her. She has improved quite a bit in this area. And she's getting better about being around men, but still is cautious. At Thanksgiving, after viewing all the men in my family guardedly for a while, she actually sat on the floor between my brother and nephew and begged for some turkey. I work with her every day on the food gobbling. She obviously went hungry in the past and she may never get over that. She'll still eat dog poop if given the chance, but we're working on that as well. The only accidents in the house are when the weather is really bad and she sneaks down to the basement and squats on a throw rug. My husband and I try to be as diligent as possible, but if it happens we know we weren't watching her closely enough. Luckily our basement is not carpeted, and it's a rare occurrence anyway. All in all, she has been a wonderful addition to our family, and she is worth the little extra work to rehabilitate her. I can't imagine life without her now. If it weren't for Lil Paws Rescue, this sweet little girl would no longer be alive. I read somewhere recently that for every dog or cat that is found and saved, there's another one that isn't--so sad.

Lola's adoption story

2009-03-30T06:10:00.000-04:00

We were still mourning the loss of Fritzy, but decided we were ready to give another little kitty a chance at a happy life. So in March, 2008 we went to our local humane society and adopted Lola, a then 1 year old brown tiger cat who was found as a stray.

On their website, it showed that on any given day, they have approximately 100 cats up for adoption. I had 4 or 5 likely candidates I was interested in, but that all went out the window as soon as we saw Lola, and she saw us. We had looked at about 60 or so cats, entered the 4th cat housing area and were checking out the cats on the right side of the room. From behind us, we heard a kitty calling out to us, climbing the cage and making her presence very well known. So we looked to see what all the noise was about, and it was love at first sight. We spent the next 20 minutes getting to know her, but could tell right away she was going to fit in well with our other pets. She was very affectionate and totally content with us, so we filled out the paperwork and set off for home.

I had planned to keep her in the basement for a while so that she could get used to a quite area and learn where the litter boxes were before meeting her other sisters. But she had other ideas, and immediately wanted to go upstairs to see the others. Abby and Rosie were quite curious and receptive of her. Gidget hissed a couple of times, but soon got used to Lola, and Jackie (our 19 year old cat) slept through the whole thing. Lola seemed to settle in very quickly and everybody was getting along. The only problem was that she didn't want to eat, but the papers we received said not to be alarmed for up to 2 days during the adjustment process.

However, on Sunday Lola started vomiting, and it continued for about 24 hours, and the only thing she would eat was a bit of tuna. On Monday, she drank some water, a bit more tuna, but wouldn't touch the cat food. Our vet and the humane society vet said to give it some more time but watch her closely, so my husband bought the same food she had been fed at the humane society, hoping that was the problem. But it wasn't. It turned out that she had an infection, most likely a result of her being spayed 2 days before her adoption. Meanwhile, I came down with the flu, so she and I had a miserable first few days together. She was prescribed an antibiotic which improved her appetite almost immediately and she began making up for lost time eating.

You may not be aware how dangerous it can be for a cat to go without food or water for as little as 1 or 2 days. It's important to keep a close eye on the situation and seek veterinary help if it continues.

Angel's story

2009-03-30T06:00:00.000-04:00

After losing Jackie on October 2, 2008, I wasn't looking to take in another cat. But my former neighbor needed to find a new home for her cat because her daughter had developed allergies. So we once again had a 3rd "wildcat" in our house.

Angel was 10 years old, and a very sweet and affectionate girl, although she wasn't too sure about having her picture taken. She lived with 3 dogs, so accepted Rosie and Abby almost from the start. However, she had never been around other cats, so we had to move slowly getting her used to the idea of having 2 other cats sharing her space.

Abby, Rosie, Gidget and Lola were all very accepting of this newcomer, amazingly so. We took her entry into our fur filled household slowly, but in just 4 days she was feeling secure enough to venture outside of "her room" and investigate some other rooms in the house. When she started feeling nervous, she would run back into her room where she felt secure.

There wasn't much information on transitioning an older cat into a household with other animals, but I did find a very helpful site by the Humane Society which said it would take 10 to 12 days, maybe even 3 months before an older cat could be safely placed with other cats.

In spite of all we tried, Angel never got used to the other two cats in our home and spent most of her time in our bedroom, complaining if they stuck their heads in. We made the best of the situation, adding a litter box in the closet for her to use, along with her food bowls and a bed. She seemed perfectly content to exist within those four walls as long as we came in to be with her from time to time.

After about 10 months, there was a change in my neighbor's household which allowed them to take Angel back home. At first Angel wasn't sure about leaving, but within a day she had settled in nicely in her old home, and at last report she is ruling over the household and quite happy to be home, where there are no other cats to upset her. We miss you sweet Angel.

Contact Us

2009-03-30T05:42:00.006-04:00

Have a question or want to advertise on either of my two sites?

For "the Cat/Dog Log," please email Chris at "thecatdoglog at GMail Dot Com."

For "Living Well Naturally," please email Chris at "WereLivingWell at GMail Dot Com."

Thank you.