Category Archives: Pets and Family

Happy Birthday, Leaplings! Celebrating Dogs Born on Leap Day

Oskar, a leap year dog, on a couch wearing a Happy Birthday crown
Leap Year rolls around every four years. For those born on February 29, they age (numerically) 75% slower than the rest of us because their birthday happens only every four years. The chances of having a “leapling” pet are about one in 1,461. Since the Schwarzman Animal Medical Center sees 50,000+ patient visits each year, I thought there must be some leapling patients in our system and, sure enough, when I queried our medical records, there were a number of them. To celebrate Leap Year 2024, here are their stories in order of their birth!

Caring Canines: How Pets are Helping Cancer Patients

A woman in a hospital with a therapy dog
November is National Pet Cancer Awareness Month and, for the rest of the month, my blogposts will focus on cancer and cancer treatment in pets. Last week, I provided a cancer care roadmap for pet owners following the diagnosis of cancer in their favorite fur person. Today, I am taking a bit of a different approach to cancer and pets. I am looking at some recent studies of how important pets are to people with cancer.

4 Remarkable Ways Pets Improve Your Health

A woman and dog exercising
We love pets for the enjoyment and companionship they bring to our lives. Their antics brighten our day, and their presence in our beds at night is reassuring, even if a bit crowded. But pets are more than just companions or entertainers – they make us healthier. Let’s take a look at the different ways pets improve our health.

5 Fire Safety Tips for Pet Families

National Fire Prevention Week, sponsored by the National Fire Prevention Association, is October 8-14. This year’s theme is “Cooking Safety Starts with You.” While pets don’t cook, they can start kitchen fires and are sadly victims of housefires. In 2021, CNN reported on cats causing kitchen fires by jumping on stoves with touch sensitive buttons. Once the cats turned the stove on, it overheated and caught fire. In this blogpost, I’ll discuss the pet health hazards of house and apartment fires and what you can do to keep your family safe.

Does Your Baby or Toddler Pose a Risk to Your Pet?

A baby with a dog
Many of my readers might be surprised by the title of this blogpost. Usually, the question is posed in reverse, i.e. “Does my pet pose a risk to my baby?” True, pets do pose some risks to children, but the benefits of pets in teaching responsibility to children, providing companionship and preventing allergies are well known. In most cases, you can mitigate the risks to children from cats and dog bites. So, in today’s blogpost, I will focus on the flipside of this question and discuss the risks your baby or toddler poses to your pets and how to make your child-friendly household pet-friendly as well.