Category Archives: Pets and Family

April 22, 2025 was the second annual National Parvovirus Awareness Day. This year’s celebration coincided with the launch of a Parvo Tracker and a new treatment for this highly contagious and potentially fatal disease of puppies. I’ll use today’s blogpost to discuss the these updates in parvovirus prevention and treatment.

April 13-19, 2025 is National Dog Bite Prevention Week. This week aims to bring awareness to the fact that, although dogs are part of the family and provide companionship and immense joy, any dog can bite. National Dog Bite Prevention Week focuses on preventing dog bites to humans. Most dog bites occur in children, and most children are bitten by the family dog or dogs belonging to friends. The Schwarzman Animal Medical Center has resources for parents to help them educate and protect their children against bite injury. For National Dog Bite Prevention Week 2025, I thought I would focus my blogpost on a different type of bite injury – those sustained by dogs and cats from other dogs and cats.

Most of us in New York City live in apartments. While there are days when every New Yorker wishes for a house with a yard, the culture and convenience of city living ultimately win out. One of the downsides of apartment living is the noise from your neighbor’s apartment renovation or building repairs. This disruption can affect your pet’s daily routine, causing anxiety and distress for your favorite fur person. Take for example my former foster kitten, Luke. His building needed the leaky windows fixed. Whenever the workmen and their jackhammers were outside his apartment, he stopped using his litter box and peed on the bathroom floor. Today’s blogpost will focus on strategies to mitigate pet stress from construction noise.

Valentine’s Day is just around the corner, and many of us are planning to share this special day with our favorite fur person. But not everything about Valentine’s Day is pet friendly. This blogpost will give you suggestions to plan a safe celebration for you and your pet.

Puppy owners are overwhelmed by food choices available for their new family member, according to a recent survey. This feeling might be in part because dog owners have to make all the food decisions alone: dogs lack the ability to order their own food on UberEats or communicate their preferences in a helpful way! Several recent research publications highlight factors impacting dietary choices for dogs. I’ll discuss those findings in the blogpost below.