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by Steve Peters
Owning any pet is a big responsibility. You must know all the basic steps on how to groom and care for it. This goes for every animal. If you are favoring the feline types, you must know all about cat care.
Owning a cat and having it as a pet is not as easy as bringing home a stray one and feeding it every day. As a pet, the cat needs more than food for it to be happy and healthy.
Responsible Ownership Just like you, your cats also have their basic needs. If you want them to purr to happily ever after, you've to work hard for your cats to attain it. Yes, caring for cats goes beyond the caring part. You have to know what to do and how to do it.
Here's a view of what you should be looking out after as a responsible cat owner.
Food Requirement Some people feed their cats leftover foods. But you have to understand that those were intended for humans. It may not suffice to the needs of your feline friend.
So scrap the idea and look over at your favorite grocery store. Weight in what would be the best cat food that you can afford and that most cat owners would also recommend.
It will cost you about $8 to $13 a month to be able to give the quality ingredients to your pets. It can be affordable. Just make it part of the monthly house budget. Or you can opt not to go to the cinemas or what about lessening your smoking habits. This way, you will be able to allot the right amount for your cat food.
Shelter Requirement If you will allow your cat to live with you, you have to make sure that the surrounding will be safe for your pet. It is just like when you have a baby at home, you don't want anything poisonous and hazardous lying around within easy reach.
You also have to provide a litter box for your pet. The price for this varies from $8 to about $200 for the superb deal and quality.
Make life easy for your pets. Provide warmth in the shelter. And add onto it with your care and affection.
Medicinal Requirement Again, just like a baby, your cat needs to be checked up by their doctors regularly. You have to bring them to the veterinarian as needed. They have to undergo spray or what is also known as neutering. There are also core vaccinations that they have to be subjected with. Each vaccine will differ in cost so you have to save up for each.
To be prepared, consult with your vet how much the next one will cost so that you can save up for it while you still can. Aside from that, your cat has to see the vet for an annual examination.
You also have to keep some allowance for your cats for emergency needs. You really never know when they would be sick or might encounter some accidents. It is better to be prepared for the worst than to be sorry in the end.
Cat care may be easy to say but definitely hard to do if you are not prepared for the responsibilities it intakes. So before you dream of being a care giver to a pet, think hard about it and check your wallet if you can afford it.
About the Author
Steve Peters is a caring and loving cat owner and owns a number of pet related websites. To learn more about cat care and cat clicker training you should grab our extensive ten part must have course, filled to the brim with cat care tips and secrets from http://www.catcarepower.com/10_Must_Have_Cat_Training_Tips.html
Seattle Times
Newsday
Rescue Dog Romance
by Michael Royce
A good friend of mine rescued a dog a while back. He didn't get him from the pound, he sort of "inherited" him when his owner (who had been gravely ill for some time) passed away. The dog, a male, 3-something-year-old named "Busy" had been abused through neglect due to the owner's illness and he brought with him a whole bunch of emotional baggage.
"Busy" only responded positively to one person in the household, one of my friend's daughters. Everyone else was mostly avoided like the plague. Men especially were feared and given the "low growl" treatment. Since I was over at the house on average 3 times a week, I got a lot of growls...and barks too. I decided early on that I was going to change that.
I got out my tools...Kindness, and Persistence
Every day that I went to the house and walked up the drive I'd get barked at. So I responded with an uber-friendly "Hello Busy Man!"...and sort of "woofed" back in a friendly way. When I'd get in the gate he'd high-tail it around a corner and I'd poke my head around it and keep up the friendly banter. I'd do just about the same thing when I left the house too.
This went on for literally weeks!
I didn't care though; I was going to keep doing it forever if that's what it took to get "Busy" to start to recognize me and trust me. It didn't take much effort...I just needed to keep at it until he was ready to come to me.
Then one day he did.
Instead of skulking around the corner, he actually (tentatively) stretched out to sniff at me. I slowly squatted down and kept up my usual friendly greeting. Then, for a few visits, this became our new dance.
Some more time passed, and by then he was actually smelling and touching my outstretched hand. A little more time passed and I was giving him "Knuckle rubs" in that space between his eyes.
Today, he barks once or twice until he hears my voice and then he calmly waits for me to walk through the gate and give him a good "pet" because he knows it's coming every time he sees me.
Am I a magician?...NO
But I am persistent and I knew it was just a matter of time because he wasn't overly aggressive and he was living with a truly loving family. All I had to do was keep making emotional deposits into his "doggy bank account" until I had enough credit built up for him to take a chance on me. Of course, when he did, I had to deliver even more strokes...and I did. Now we're buddies.
Most dogs are truly loving animals who want to be part of your "pack." In the case of Rescue Dogs though, sometimes that natural desire for attachment has been abused right out of them...often to the point where they become overly aggressive. You can rekindle that spark though if you're prepared to be persistently kind.
So if there's a Rescue Dog in your future, remember he or she will need more time and understanding from you than other dogs. Be prepared for that. And remember too that the training may take longer, but that just makes the reward at the end sweeter.
Thanks for reading...
About the Author
Michael Royce is an amateur dog trainer who has lived with, trained, (and been trained by) more than a dozen dogs in the last 25 years. He is a regular contributor to several websites and is co-founder of The-Dog-Zone.net.
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
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