Category Archives: Pets and Family

New York City is in the midst of two human infectious disease outbreaks: Legionnaires’ disease and cyclosporiasis. Both have been in the news recently, and both raise an understandable question for pet families: Could my dog or cat be at risk, too? Here’s what these diseases are, how they spread and what they may — or may not — mean for your pets.

June is Adopt a Cat Month and, from a blog writing perspective, my favorite month because I get to write about cats for four consecutive weeks! Today, I’m going to start at the beginning and talk about kittens. That’s because Adopt a Cat Month also coincides with peak kitten season — the time of year when shelters, rescues and veterinary teams see more kittens needing care.

A recent article in the New York Times described a number of research studies on “gifted word learning” dogs that can associate spoken words with objects, sometimes after very little exposure to the object. But what about cats? Do they learn language in a similar way? In this blogpost, I’ll explore what science tells us about how cats understand human language, how this differs from dogs, and whether it’s possible to teach your cat words.

While pets are nearly perfect, one thing they could improve is their lifespan. Wouldn’t it be great to bring home a dog or cat as a child and have that pet with you for the rest of your life? That question led me to investigate what factors influence how long our pets live—and what we might be able to do to keep them with us just a bit longer. What I found is the subject of this blogpost.

The end of 2025 is upon us—a natural time to reflect on the past year and set goals for the new one. Many of us will make New Year’s resolutions to improve our own health and habits, but what about those of our pets? If you’re hoping to prioritize your pet’s well-being in 2026, the Schwarzman Animal Medical Center’s Usdan Institute for Animal Health Education can help. In 2025, the Usdan Institute held twelve educational events, nine community events and three AMC signature events. In this blogpost, I’ve curated a list of on-demand recordings that align perfectly with common pet-health resolutions.