Pica in Dogs–Or, Eaten Any Good Rocks Lately?
It's not often that a photograph motivates a topic for the blog, but when friend and colleague Melissa McCue-McGrath sent me this image of her dog Captain, along with a suggestion to write a post on pica, how could I resist? In spite of the amusing photo (no, Captain didn't really drink any booze), pica can be a serious problem. I saw one dog who lived by a rocky outcropping, and ate rocks compulsively. The vet had already done three surgeries to remove them, and said there was too much scar tissue to attempt another.Pica refers to the ingestion of non-food items, often with an assumed compulsive component to it. This isn't too difficult to diagnose in people, but gets a bit trickier in Read More
Joyful-Dog Play Personified
I'm reading a book called Joyful: The Surprising Power of Ordinary Things to Create Extraordinary Happiness, by Ingrid Fetell Lee. If you need a lift (who doesn't now?), get yourself a copy of this book immediately. I bought it awhile ago, feeling somewhat abashed that I'd been convinced by slick marketing to spend money on a superficial "feel good" book with little substance.Oh, how happy I am to have been wrong. Joyful is a wonderful combination of stories, experiences and science that truly does have the power to make our lives better, without massive investments in time, energy or money. The author has spent a considerable amount of time figuring out what actually, truly makes people Read More
A Voice
I just can’t write much today. I’m both gutted and enraged by what’s going on nationally related to sexual assault and trauma. I cycle between stunned immobility and anger-fueled empowerment. I've struggled about what to write--nothing? Repeat a post? But the feeling that I had to say something wouldn't go away. And then I realized I’ve already said something. As a matter of fact, I wrote a whole book about it. Here's part of it:From The Education of Will, Healing a Dog, Facing My Fears, Reclaiming My Life:I wasn’t crazy about my job at the nonprofit, but I did enjoy organizing our annual conference. During my last year there, I was also responsible for presenting a talk on the Read More