Animal Wellness

Trish gave me a copy of a magazine called Animal Wellness and I liked it so much, I wanted to post about it. The entire magazine is full of very informative articles. It seems to have a holistic/organic edge to it which is pretty cool. There is one article called 'Making Household Cleaning Animal Friendly' which gives ideas for alternatives to harsh chemical cleaners that can make pets very sick. There was a site mentioned in the article called Eartheasy that is worth checking out if you're looking for safe (and inexpensive!) cleaning tips & tricks.
There were also some very heart-warming stories. One about Hurricane Katrina rescues, a reflection of life with a dog who has since passed. These sorts of stories are real tear-jerkers for me, literally, but I read them anyway. There were articles about caring for a special needs animal, how to train a deaf dog, Lyme disease, urban wildlife and so on. I think it's a great magazine.
Of course as with any magazine, it's chock full of advertisements. A lot of the products are herbal/organic. There was a big full page ad for Solid Gold. That's the food we give Simon. He eats Hund-N-Flocken. Simon doesn't get a lot of crappy treats either. Once and a while we'll buy him some Beggin' Strips or something like that and he goes nuts for them, but that is really just junk food for dogs. I prefer to give him more nutritious treats.
We do Simon's grocery shopping at Pet Valu because for starters, they carry the Solid Gold food and lot of other natural/organic treats that we like to get for Simon. With his allergies, one being chicken, it really limits choices where dog products are concerned. Reading labels on my food and Simon's has become second nature now. I do sometimes buy him canned food for a treat. One company that am quite impressed with is Merrick. Their pet foods contain no artificial colours, flavours or preservatives! The names of these "dishes" crack me up as well as the descriptions on the side of the can. Simon's favorites are Venison Stew and Mediterranean Banquet. They are quite expensive so he gets it for a special treat and I mix it with his kibble to make it stretch. They say the pet industry is a multi-billion dollar business...no kidding!
One ad in the Animal Wellness magazine that really peaked my interest was for Northwest School of Animal Massage. How cool would that be? Someone would ask "What do you do for a living?" and the answer could be "Oh, I'm an animal masseuse." Of course, I still want to go to wine school and get a better job in the wine industry (better than the one I have right now) What if I could do both? How gratifying and exciting would that be? I could even combine the two. A table, a glass of vino and massages in the barrel cellar! I'd think I'd died and gone to heaven!