Here’s to All the Big Sweeties, and the Little Pocket Furrys! We Love our Pets!

From the big to the small, the furry to the scaly, the American public loves our pets. But, having a pet, any kind of pet, can be confusing and troubling. Establishing a good rapport with your veterinarian is a good way to start, but what if you just have a quick question and it is after hours? Most people have a Plan B for everything else in their lives, they should have one for pet care questions as well.

Books are okay, but do you really want a book shelf groaning under all of the various titles? It is faster, and easier these days to search the Web for the answer to your dog care questions, but simply typing a few animal related words into your search engine could reward you with some very odd results. It is better if you know a site, so that you can know for sure where you are going and what you will find once you get there. A very

good website to check out is www.weloveourpets.com. The Home page features some very adorable pictures of dogs, as well as links to other sites. For instance, there is a link to pet supplies- with some valuable advice on what you actually need for your furry friend, and what is just an extra bonus.

One of the nicer features of this website is the link to help shelters and shelter animals. So many of our special friends end up sitting in a small cage waiting and hoping for a forever family, some of them are lucky and find one, others are sadly euthanized after a very short time because of limited space and even more limited funding. Every pet owner should do full research on how much time and money, not to mention love, they will need to invest for the lifetime of the pet that they are considering. They should also consider temperament of the breed as well as the family, and activity levels. A high maintenance breed with a far too busy family would not be a good fit, nor would a Husky owned by a group of couch potatoes.

Also on the Home page is a collection of previously asked questions and their answers. Some of them are specific to certain breeds, but some of them are general enough for every pet owner. This is a helpful feature, especially if you are just wondering about something but do not want to read through a full article (although the articles are really well done on this site and worth the read.). As an example, there is a question listed which asks how to find a local trainer for a specific breed of dog. Clicking on this question will take you to a link for the answer from a veterinarian. After reading the question and its answer, you can log onto the site to add feedback for the poster. Perhaps you had some really good luck with a doggy training video, or perhaps your experience was not all that positive. Giving honest and reliable feedback can help us all to become better pet owners, and form a tight society as well. I know that I like being able to talk to someone who has a dog of the same breed for support and advice.

I love my pets, from my fish, to my cats and my dogs- they are not just animals to me, they are part of my family, so I will do whatever it takes to ensure that they are happy and healthy. One of the easiest things that I can do, besides picking them up and giving them a snuggle whenever possible, is to log onto www.weloveourpets.com and become one of their newest members. Hope to see you there as well!