I know this doesn’t seem a very veterinary topic, but stay with me now…

You know the lolcats, right?  They’re the silly, sad and sometimes frustrated cats (and other creatures) pictured with cartoonish captions to indicate their inner thoughts…as we mere humans might interpret them.

In case you don’t know, Icanhascheezburger.com is the flagship site for these pics. They’re funny, they’re...

Ain’t it just like a woman to ask for something…only to crush it with her high heel upon receipt?

A week ago I wondered why animals had been so blatantly excluded from the Presidential candidates’ conversation. It wasn’t my most thoughtful post ever, I confess, and now I’ll also have to own up to the fact that I wish I could take some of it back. (And no, it wasn’t just because I have a...

I know a shelter…no names named…that desperately needs a complete makeover. We’re talking way beyond Ugly Betty here.

Said shelter has lots of local claims to fame. Here are seven of its deadly sins…

1-It’s one of the biggest shelters in one of the largest, urban cities on the eastern seaboard.

2-It euthanizes 120,000 stray and abandoned pets every year.

3-It has two receptionists handling 2,800...

OK, so neither candidate is on my personal top-ten list for favorite people either—not right now. Both are casualties of extreme media over-exposure and, as such, they’ve managed to get under my skin a bit. Do you blame me?

That’s why tomorrow I’ll be casting my ballot with a big sigh of relief as I bask in that welcome, light-at-the-end-of-the-tunnel sensation.

In the meantime, there’s [at...

“That cynicism you refer to I acquired the day I discovered I was different from little boys.”

This brilliant line, scathingly delivered by Celeste Holme in the classic film, “All About Eve,” is exemplary of sharp-witted 1940’s cinema. It’s also to the point when you consider how female vets might feel when they suspect clients of rejecting their services on the basis of their gender.

Though you...

Have you ever had cause to marvel at the limited hours your vet keeps? Did you wonder if she was taking a nice nap at lunchtime? Taking in a round of golf?

Why can’t he stay open just one hour longer? You gotta wonder what’s up with a 4:30 drop-dead closing time.

Does it bug you that she closes at five sharp so she can get home to her kids? After all, doing so means she cares less about your...

The Daily Kibble comes to me...daily. It reports to me on interesting and newsworthy pet products and services available—usually nationwide—but aimed specifically (it seems) at sophisticated and well-heeled New York metro dog owners.

Though I’m not in the target market so-described, it makes me feel like I’m up-to-date on the frequent goings-on of the high-end pet trade, always a bellwether...

Some of you may know that I’ve undergone something of a conversion on the subject of raw in recent years. It’s not that I feed the BARF-style diet you may have heard about (ad nauseum in some cases). I still feed mostly home-cooked with some high-quality commercial supplementation. But I no longer fear the raw—nor the raw meaty bones the BARF diet and others employ.

Since opening my mind a bit...

You know, I’ve got no problem with someone trying to make a buck. I also don’t mind receiving an email about a new product for pets (and I get zillions). But I definitely draw the line when someone tries to sell me a product over and over again. It’s just not cool anymore—it’s spam.

You know the emails I mean…the ones about penile implants (as if I could accommodate one) or about Viagra...

My fifth-grader has an idea. He’s appalled at the practice of ear-tipping feral cats when it comes time to spaying, neutering and vaccinating them. He thinks it’s barbaric and he wants to put an end to it.

That’s what compelled him to come up with a science project-worthy idea to use ear tags to identify cats as owned, vaccinated and altered.

Granted, I’m OK with the ear-tipping thing. Sure, I...