Allie’s Answers

The above photograph is of the fur I brushed off of my dog yesterday (shown with cat to illustrate scale). Now, before you worry, this has nothing to do with his recent cancer. This happens twice a year, every year, and it’s just par for the course when you have a 95lb German Shepherd (aptly nicknamed German Shedders) with a long stock coat.

But the sheer magnitude of said sheddings made me think twice about just tossing it in the trash. Apparently, I’m not alone.

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Pets for the Environment just sent around a new e-mail with a very disturbing fact about pet food. (more…)

Pets for the Environment, the new campaign started by the Environmental Working Group is working to test the safety of pet food. (more…)

When I posted my make your own kitty litter recipe a few weeks ago, Sherri asked if there were issues with the ink from the washed newspapers going down the drain.

Janet, a reader from Winnipeg, Canada, did a little research and was kind enough to e-mail me her findings. (more…)

The biopsy report from my dog’s surgery came back this morning and it looks like they got wide enough margins around the tumor to remove all the cancer cells, which is amazing news! Phew!

Thank you so much for all of your good wishes and support. I was having a hard time with the waiting and not knowing. Your comments and e-mails were such a comfort to me.

Now we’ll go back to our regularly scheduled eco-friendly stuff, right after Argo and I take a victory lap around the block.

Our German Shepherd is one of the brightest spots in my life. He’s almost 100 lbs and looks a lot like a wolf, but understands the word cuddle and always tries sit in my lap. He has a favorite blanket that he drags around the house. He’s managed to win the hearts of hard core dog haters, and people who have always been utterly terrified of German Shepherds. He jumped on the mailman once, but only so he could lick his face. He herds the cat like it’s his job. He snores while I write, and it’s the best sound I can think of.

When we brought him home four years ago, he was a funny looking five month old puppy with a head he needed to grow into and legs like tree trunks. I fell in love with him immediately. I was so terrified by the idea of losing him, that I took him to the vet to get microchipped. (more…)

My cat’s favorite place to sleep is in an old mixing bowl, lined with a towel, propped up on the guest room bed. Don’t ask how this came to be. It was a long process. But after years of buying her fancy cat beds that she never used, she blissfully naps in her mixing bowl every afternoon.

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My cat is very patient when it comes to changes in her kitty litter. I don’t even have to do the thing where you add a percentage of the new litter to the old litter and up the percentage until you’ve totally switched over. Whatever I put in the litter box, she’ll use. So I’ve been testing out a lot of different natural kitty litters, and honestly, I don’t like most of them. (more…)

Is your dog the love of your life? (more…)