Pithy aphorisms abound in all professions and practices. Whether you milk goats for a living or paint in oils, there’s something somebody somewhere says that’s intended to make your job more intelligible…or perhaps simply entreats you to do things their way.

Same is true for veterinary medicine. In vet school we’re exposed to a continuous stream of these alternately folksy and blackish-humored...

For Dolittler's Memorial Day 2008 edition, here's a satirical look at the Menu Foods settlement offer...

In case you hadn’t heard, Menu Foods announced a settlement offer of $24 Million to compensate pet owners for the expenses they incurred after last year’ massive pet food recall.

According to lawyersandsettlements.com, if the presiding New Jersey court approves the offer…

“…any and all pet...

OK so I caved to your recommendations in favor of keeping no less than two guinea pigs at a time. It seemed a fair recommendation, especially after noting how well my goats do in tandem.

Orange (pronounced oh-ronj-uh, as in the German word for the eponymous fruit) is now a part of our household, along with Apfel (apple in German). She snuggles with her con-specific and relaxes nicely when...

After this weekend's gravitas, I thought I’d offer you some light fare on the topic of something sweet and hopeful.

Yes, I keep a Guinea pig. Her name is Apfel (means “apple” in German, after her round physique) and she’s been living with us for a couple of weeks, during which time I’ve been stressing out about my son’s allergies (Guinea pigs are NOT hypoallergenic).

Thankfully, my son’s...

With a deep bow to PetConnection, whose blog posts I was catching up on this morning, I feel compelled to address this timely issue: Why there are no Google ads on Dolittler.

Though I’m grateful to Google for all the traffic it sends Dolittler’s way, I will never use their AdSense service to populate this site with revenue generating advertising—not unless there’s a way for me to weed out the...

For some reason, my email inbox gets more play on the issue of moving outdoor and feral cats than just about anything else (except those pesky deals on Viagra, which I definitely do not need and am utterly confused as to why this kind of spam gets addressed to me).

People perhaps view me as someone who would actually know more about moving and relocating felines than the average Joe. And...

Today is Earth Day and it’s a great time to consider the impact of our household pets on the planet and what we humans can do to reduce their “carbon pawprints.”

Yes, it’s true. Households with pets have larger carbon footprints than others. Pet loving homes tend to consume more foods, generate more waste and utilize energy at higher rates. Nonetheless, there are a number of steps pet owners...

I’ve been clicking away at this keyboard for over two years. I’ve written almost a thousand posts on the ups, downs and sideways of veterinary medicine and life as a vet (901 with this entry). And I’ve yet to be offered a book deal. So it goes, woe is me and all that…

Then here comes this vet surgeon from out of nowhere and writes a memoir about being a vet surgeon at Angell Memorial in...

A quick survey of my favorite veterinarians revealed the following white lies we vets are guilty of:

1-She’s not fat, she’s just Rubenesque (as in, morbidly obese).

2-You might want to cut down on his food just a tad (as in, he’s morbidly obese).

3-She’s not stinky, she smells just like a spring breeze (…and like a Golden retriever after a summer downpour so next time don’t do me the favor of...

A couple of days ago I took off a couple hours off mid-day to give my son’s math and science class a talk on veterinarianism and animal care. I dragged along a tech, my Sophie and little Tulip, who is no longer so little. (At forty-five pounds, she’s more than doubled her weight since she first came to me six weeks ago.)

The small class of thirteen gifted-program fourth-graders was so full of...