Domestic Edition
Vacation time at last! You've double checked your reservations,
traveler's checks in your pocket, everything's packed, the kids
are waiting in the car, rehearsing their "Are we there yet?"
chant . . . and Fluffy and Fido are sitting by the door to send
you off for a well-deserved two weeks of R&R. Let's see,
are you forgetting anything?
No, because like a growing number of loving and savvy pet owners
who aren't at home as much as they'd like and can't always take
their furry friends on trips, you've made arrangements with your
local petsitter to visit them while you're gone.
If you're lucky, it will be someone like Kerri Hunter, a professional
petsitter since 1988 and the first inductee into the NAPPS Petsitters'
Hall of Fame. Before she found her true vocation, Kerri saw first-hand
how unhappy many sensitive pets were about boarding at the vet's
or a kennel. They suffered from the same kind of separation anxiety
as children at being left alone, and being caged in an unfamiliar
setting surrounded by strangers only made things worse. People
hire babysitters to come to their homes and look after their
children, Kerrireasoned, so why not "babysitters" for
your pets? After all, they're like our children, with the same
need for love, care and security.
It was love of animals and the realization that they would be
much happier in their own homes that brought Kerri and hundreds
of other animal-lovers to the petsitting profession. Others,
like Bob Shuster of Critter Care (Wayne, PA) and Ilene Gordon
of Creature Comforts (Cherry Hill, NJ), left fast-track corporate
jobs to gain control of their lives and do something that made
a difference.
Patti Moran, founder of Pet Sitters International, attributes
the growth in the petsitting industry to today's fast-paced lifestyle
that leaves adults with too little time at home and kids with
too many outside activities to fit in quality time with the family
pets.
Most communities have a variety of petsitting services, but not
everyone who hangs out their shingle can be trusted with the
care of your animal companions. Kerri recommends interviewing
prospective sitters carefully and only using professionals who
are bonded, licensed and insured. Pet Sitters International and
the National Association of Professional Pet Sitters, with over
1000 members, are two good resources for finding a reliable local
service. Kerri and many serious professionals belong to both
organizations. The benefits of membership are professional programs,
information exchange, and inexpensive group insurance, as well
as connections with a national network of veterinarians, trainers,
nutritionists and animal welfare organizations to help provide
the best possible pet care.
The most important qualities to look for in your petsitters are
reliability, dependability and commitment, according to Kerri.
Though she started out with the intention of serving only cats
(she currently has 9 of her own), she quickly broke that rule
and now has many canine clients among her 5000 or so regular
and ocassional customers. Some are vacationing families or travelers,
but many just work long hours and don't want to leave their critters
home alone all day. Other clients need daily medicine or routine
care while their owners are temporarily laid up.
Petsitting is not the cushy job some people imagine. In fact,
Kerri works a 12-hour day 7 days a week. When Philadelphia was
buried under 3 to 4 feet of snow, Kerri still trudged over dozens
of city blocks to care for the animals who depended on her visits.
"You sacrifice your life," she said, but knowing she's
making a difference for the animals she loves makes the work
joyful and fulfilling.
National Association
of Professional PetSitters (NAPPS)
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Poets from Thomas Gray to Robert Frost have sung her praise.
Her bucolic beauty has been immortalized by such master painters
as van Gogh and Mondrian. In India, she's cherished as a sacred
creature. Her subtle humor has been captured in the wacky cartoons
of Gary Larson. She's nurtured generations of children. Underappreciated,
even ridiculed, she remains good-natured, gentle and unassuming.
Multitalented, dependable, yet enigmatic, the cow is much more
than just a pretty face. The cud-chewing bovine grazing peacefully
in the field may be easily dismissed as an insignificant relic
of our rural past. Firmly rooted in life's slow lane, the cow
remains proudly low-tech, but what would our world be like without
her considerable contributions - a world without pizza with extra
cheese, hot-buttered biscuits, or whipped cream-topped dessert?
Every species has its own special charms, but the cow is truly
the cream of the crop.
Cows come in a variety of colors, sizes, and breeds. While Europe
claims some 40 to 50 breeds of cattle, a mere 6 major types reside
in the U.S. - the Ayrshire, Brown Swiss, Guernsey, Holstein, Jersey,
and Milking Shorthorn. All descended from the Bos longifrons and
Bos primigenius (the original "Bossies"). My personal
favorite is the Holstein, whose classic black and white design
is so aesthetically pleasing against a quiet rural setting. They
emigrated to the U.S. around 1630, accompanying human immigrants
from their Dutch homeland. Because they often lived under the
same roof as their human families in Holland, the Holsteins have
a more civilized demeanor than their bovines cousins, and their
production of lower fat milk may give them a competitive edge
over others in this fat-obsessed age.
The Brown Swiss, of course, arrived on our shores from Switzerland;
the sturdy Scotch Ayrshires arrived later, by way of Canada. The
others are all of British extraction.
The cow's convoluted digestive system complements its complex,
contemplative nature. Four stomachs, working in unison like a
well-oiled motor, keeps the cow occupied with grazing and digesting
pretty much full time. In fact, it takes 3 to 5 full days for
food to be thoroughly processed through all 170 feet of intestine
to produce a nitrogen-rich brand of "fertilizer."
Clearly the cow has a lot to think about as she munches her grass
and takes in the scenery. Some people take her pensiveness as
a sign of stupidity. In fact, it reflects her quiet dignity and
sense of harmony with nature. Cars zip by, strangers come and
go, but the important things in a cow's life generally stay put,
so there's no need to rush. Cows usually keep their thoughts to
themselves, but occasionally we can glimpse their inner lives
if we take the time. In the delightful book About Cows, one Wisconsin
native recalled how neighboring cows had lined up along the fence
to listen to her sister play the organ, then quietly dispersed
as soon as she stopped. Some modem dairy farmers are convinced
that their music-loving bovines give better and more milk when
they have their favorite tunes piped into the stables.
The Working Cow
Since the 1920s The Laughing Cow has been the trademark for French cheese manufacturer Fromageries Bel and the famous Elsie the Cow (originally known as Flossie, then Bessie the Cow) trotted into the limelight in the 1930s as Borden's cartoon representative. A more corporeal and singularly cool cow, the sporty black and white sunglass-clad Easter became a TV celebrity, hawking Wisconsin tourism.
Cows in Art
The artist Grant Wood, best known for his grim farm couple, reputedly stated that "All the good ideas I've ever had came to me while I was milking a cow," and cartoonist of the bizarre Gary Larson finds cows innately humorous. Cows have inspired artists from the anonymous prehistoric painters of the Lascaux caves to impressionists like van Gogh and contemporary artists including Picasso. Cows have figured in popular tunes from blues and jazz to country western and traditional "cowboy" songs. Film credits include co-starring roles with Buster Keaton (Go West), Harold Lloyd (The Milky Way), French star Fernandel (The Cow and I), and Billy Crystal (City Slickers), and countless supporting performances. Cows have been featured in verse from the famous cow who jumped over the moon to Spenser's epic The Foerie Queene.
Notorious Cows
On an otherwise quite Sunday evening on October 8,1871, possibly America's most notorious cow allegedly kicked over a lantern in the O'Leary barn, starting the fire that razed the great city of Chicago. Though there were no eyewitnesses, Mrs. O'Leary's mischievous cow probably deserves her infamy more than another gentle bovine forever associated with a fiery holocaust - Enola Gay. Paul Tibbets, who piloted the plane that bombed Hiroshima, named his aircraft after his mother's cow. Enola lived out her days peacefully grazing in an Iowa field, blissfully unaware of the bomb dropped from her namesake that wiped out four square miles of a city and annihilated more than 60,000 people.
Holy Cows
According to Icelandic legend, Audumla, born from melting drops of primeval ice, licked the first god, Burl, free from a mass of salty ice. The bovine goddess suckled the giant Ymir, from whose flesh the earth was formed, with her four rivers of milk. Hindus praise the cow in hymns and reserve a high place for the holy beast in their sacred literature: "a radiance first came out of the Creator's face and later it was split into four parts - the Ved as, the Fire, the Cow and the Brahmin." Not bad company'!
Cats were born to be admired, the center of attention whenever they stroll onto the scene. So why are those canny canine showoffs hogging all the best parts on TV and the big screen? It seems those negative stereotypes of feline "temperament," "aloofness," and "untrainability" have been hounding Hollywood's aspiring cat thespians since the days of silent pictures. How many Cat Hepburns and Brad Pusses have had their dreams of stardom shattered while all the juiciest animal roles . . . well, go to the dogs?
The injustice really rubs Hollywood's top cats the wrong way. When asked about the problem, Morris III(the world's most famous feline), nearly spat in frustration at the persistence of these myths. "Show biz humans claim we're too independent and unreliable to learn our lines and meow on cue - that we hold up production stopping to groom our fur in the middle of a scene," the normally soft-spoken cat hissed. "It's not true at all!! We're totally professional on the set. Look at me, a simple shelter cat, like my predecessors [Morris I and II], and frankly, I'm a real pussycat to work with. That finicky business is just an act, and I bet Murray couldn't pull it off as well as me, even if he is the most popular mutt on TV.
"Cats are the number one pet in the nation, but you can count the felines you see on TV on one paw, and still have a few claws left over. It's an outrage!!"
Scott Hart, who coached some of the most successful working cat actors in the business, agrees. "All cats can be trained," he assured cat owners in a recent Cat Fancy interview. Karen Thomas, who works with the very high-profile and high-energy Friskies Cat Team, even recommends "professional" training for regular house kitties. Learning a few amusing tricks will keep them from becoming bored "feline couch potatoes." Hart adds that a trained cat handles stress and disturbing household changes better, too.
Anne Gordon, whose animal clients have appeared in Homeward Bound, Free Willy 2, and Northern Exposure (the famous Cicely moose), has written a helpful manual for coaching your feline companions at home. Packed with insider trade secrets for getting cat actors to perform cute cat tricks on cue, Show Biz Tricks for Cats (Adams Media Corp.) lays down two essential principles for working with cats: "You will never get a cat to do something it does not want to do" and "Pack loyalty is by no means a strong drive in cats . . . . punish a cat and it may never listen to you again." Keeping these golden rules in mind, a determined trainer is practically guaranteed success in teaching her furry little star any trick he really wants to learn.
As Salty, feline star of Caroline in the City, puts it, "Training a cat is never a waste of time. I've gotten hours of amusement from working with my trainer. And what's more important than having fun with your cat?"
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From a small dog-sized creature known as the "dawn horse,"
who lived 40 to 60 million years ago, the noble, majestic modern
horse emerged. Today there are more than 250 equine breeds, ranging
from the heavy draft animals to the light horses, ponies and
miniature horses. Horses are also designated as hotbloods (light,
fast, high-strung breeds, from warm climates) and coldbloods
(northern, heavy, even-tempered).
Wild horses once roamed every continent but Antarctica, though
they later disappeared from North America until the Spanish conquistadores
reintroduced them.
The human-horse relationship began around 4000 BC, when central
Asians first tamed horses for riding. The relationship, since
then, hasn't always been good for the horse, despite our admiration
of its strength, speed, and nobility. The horse' own good nature,
according to zoologist and animal watcher Desmond Morris, has
made it vulnerable to abuse and exploitation. Thousands of war
horses were slaughtered in bloody battles. Horses have been raised
for food (our aversion to horse meat is relatively new), and
many more have labored as beasts of burden.
The introduction of labor-saving machines and cars brought a
new era for horses, who have become primarily "pleasure"
animals, for riding, racing, and show events.
The equine vocal repertoire isn't large, but their snorts,
nickers, neighs, and squeals get their message across effectively.
A foal's response to its mother's nicker is so instinctive it
will even follow a human who imitates the sound.
But most horse communication is through body language - the position
of the ears and tail, head movements, facial expressions and
the body's positioning and carriage.
Ears are especially expressive. Pricked ears show interest and
alertness, drooped or flopped ears show drowsiness or apathy.
Flicking ears indicate a horse is about to bolt. Anger and aggression
are expressed by pinned back ears. Ears are drooped but turned
backward to register fear of the rider - a good sign of an abusive
owner.
One interesting equine facial expression is the flehmen face
- the top lip curled up to expose the upper teeth and gum. In
stallions it expresses interest in a female horse's scent, but
it sometimes indicates investigation of any strong, unfamiliar
smell. A stallion can detect a mare in a field half a mile away.
An extraordinary sense of smell
shouldn't be surprising - the horse's elaborate, convoluted nasal
passages cover an area equal to their entire body surface! The
refined horse makes new acquaintances with a friendly exchange
of personal identifying scents, accomplished by blowing into
each other's nostrils.
As a prey species, horses sleep on their feet for only three
hours a day, usually in brief periods. On the other hand, in
the wild they spend up to 16 hours a day eating, grazing slowly
and selectively on a variety of vegetation. This natural feeding
behavior explains some of the so-called vices of stabled animals
fed high-quality food only a few times daily. Missing the long
hours of leisurely socializing, munching and chewing, they compensate
by chewing their stalls. A low-grade food supply, available all
day would probably be more satisfying.
Horses are highly social group animals. Mothers are fiercely
protective of foals and bonds of friendship are strong. Their
society is organized more around affiliations than a rigid dominance
order. Affection is shown by mutual grooming-nibbling gently
on each other's manes. Some human companions have imitated this
ritual to build rapport with their horses by "finger nibbling"
their manes. But as Desmond Morris warns in his book Horsewatching,
wear something old when you try this. If the tactic works, the
horse may well return the favor by nibbling on your clothes.
The horse's sensitivity to its environment is remarkable.
In discrimination test, horses learned to distinguish among 20
pairs of patterns with 73-100 percent accuracy, and remembered
the information even a year later.
Clever Hans may be the most famous proof of horse intelligence.
The amazing "counting horse" solved simple math problems
and tapped out the answer with his hoof. Even when his trainer
was removed he got the answers right. But his trick was revealed
when the audience was taken out of sight. It turned out he was
so sensitive to human body language he knew when to stop tapping
because the audience members tensed up in anticipation of the
correct answer.
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As many pet owners know from experience, an animal left alone
all day can be a very bored and unhappy pet. More than a few pouting
pups and krazed kitties have welcomed their humans home with a
mouthful of expensive upholstery or the remnants of the shredded
living room drapes creatively arranged around their paws.
Fortunately, today's pet owners have several alternatives to leaving
their pet pals home alone.
Sitters & Walkers
Pet sitters and dog (or even cat) walkers have become fairly common
these days - a natural response to growing numbers of busy urban
families, working couples, and pet owners who travel extensively.
Professional dog walkers can be a godsend to the elderly or shut-ins,
who can't exercise their companions adequately but value their
friendship too much to give them up. But they also collect latchkey
dogs for regular outings that combine healthy exercise with socialization
opportunities.
Typically, a pet sitter visits prospective clients in advance
to ensure compatibility. Pets don't have to go to a strange place
or have their routine disrupted, but can be fed and cared for
on their home turf. Your vet can probably recommend a local sitter
or walker.
Doggie Day Care
An interesting new trend, originating in (where else?) California
is day care centers for latchkey canines. According to director
of San Diego's Best Friend Puppy Learning Center, Carol Schatz,
pack animals like dogs feel safe and secure only in the presence
of their pack members. Being alone all day is not only boring,
it can fill them with anxiety and neurotic loneliness. Like their
wolf ancestors, dogs need days filled with exercise, play, eating
and sleeping, mutual grooming, and interaction with friends.
At day care centers like San Francisco's trailblazing Doggie Day
Care, Animal Keeper in Encinitas, California, and Doggie Daycare
in Williston, Vermont, dogs socialize, play, try out agility equipment,
or brush up on their training whil owners go to work with peace
of mind.
Pet Friendly Homes
Of course, not everyone can afford there options, so pet scientists
have researched some interesting ways to spice up your home-bound
pet's life on a shoestring budget.
Every July 14, the French celebrate their
nation's independence with Bastille Day festivities. But for the
other 364 days of the year, France's freedom loving spirit is
represented in that quintessential urbane canine - France's national
dog, the poodle
That dog-loving American wit, James Thurber, often wrote about
his most beloved dog, the delightful standard poodle Christobel.
Intelligent and dignified, she revealed the impish side of her
gallic nature in her love of a good joke. If Thurber dropped a
particularly bon mot, she would not only laugh heartily, she'd
glance over her shoulder at Mrs. Thurber, as if to let her in
on the joke.
In his definitive poodle study, Mackey Irick categorizes the poodle's
intelligence as unique in dogdom, not so much because he's smarter
but because he thinks more like humans than other dogs. Perhaps
the poodle is more finely tuned than other breeds.
Smart and sassy, urbane and witty, the sophisticated poodle epitomizes
the best of its adopted country. Its true origins may be lost
in history - Germany and Russia have been suggested - but the
poodle's special savoir faire and joie de vivre mark it as French
at heart. Cosmopolitan down to the roots of his wooly fur, the
poodle's sturdy water-retrieving heritage is strictly French provincial.
Here's how Irick summarizes the breed:
"The Poodle is a gentleman with all the reserve,
dignity and delicacy of feeling the word implies . . . . He makes
up his mind about you in his world and very seldom changes his
idea about your worth."
How very French!
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