This Drive-Thru Went To The Dogs
Amanda Brown - Bane & Vader's Doggie Drive-Thru

The idea to start a doggie drive-thru came to Amanda when she read an article stating that fast food has literally gone to the dogs. It mentioned that there were a high percentage of people that go through a drive-thru and add an item for the dog or even go through just for their dog. Amanda felt that if that was the case, why not do something that is fun and healthy for the dogs.

Amanda Brown partnered with Fresh Pet, who makes all fresh, meats, fruits and vegetables for dogs. You were able to create a custom bowl by picking your protein, favorite vegetables, grains if you'd like, and a scoop of any of their extras.

Their base consisted of different options, which were grain, grain-free and raw. After picking your base, you could then add two toppings. These toppings included fresh fruit like strawberries and watermelon, with the vegetables including things like sweet potatoes and carrots.

For those who feed their dogs a dry kibble or canned food diet, Bane & Vader's may have seemed like an unnecessary luxury. However, more and more pup parents are opting to feed whole-food and home-cooked diets, which can be quite expensive and time consuming to prepare. The Bow Wow Bowls offered a healthy alternative for busy dog owners to feed a balanced meal on-the-go.

Cats Keep NY Shops Lively
Tamar Arslanian, Shop Cats of New York

Do you know of a business that has a token cat? If you do, you'll certainly appreciate the "Shop Cats" in Tamar Arslanian's book. She features, in both picture and the written word, the most notable shop cats in New York stores. Take for instance the wine store cat that had his own chiropractor, or the cat that was a mascot at a dog boutique, or the occult shop cat that toted a magic wand in her mouth.

Shop Cats of New York covers legends inside New York institutions like the Algonquin Hotel, Bleecker Street Records, Kings County Distillery and many more. From the amusing to the benevolent, this book uncovers these 40 cats' different personalities and the shops they deemed home.

Tamar came up with the idea for this book because there are a couple of shop cats in her own neighborhood. And since Tama is a cat blogger, her friends would also share with her stores that they had found in the area with a shop cat.

Before writing her book, Tamar wanted to know if there was a book out there like this. While she found articles about these cats, and older books that referred to them as working cats, there was nothing about these shop cats that just sort of hung out.

Most of these cats are mascots for the stores. Tamar states that these cats aren't the best mousers and really don't "work," but some of them still have titles like "customer therapist," "assistant buyer," and even "head social media."

Tamar mentions one bookstore cat named Tiny. When people came to the store with their dogs, they told the bookstore people not to worry, their dog likes cats. However, they were then told that Tiny did not like dogs and would stalk them. While Tiny was not a working cat, there was one episode when Tiny took things into his own hands. The store occasionally has story time where children are present during a reading. The bookstore people didn't realize that the person telling the story had planned a little surprise at the end of the reading. It seems they brought in a live chicken and had it hidden in their coat the whole time. Of course the kids were thrilled, but so was Tiny, and the chicken was whisked away in the nick of time! Good thing, or these kids might have need post-traumatic stress counseling!

Tamar believes that when people see cats in shops, it give it a little more dimensionality and makes you think about the manager and the people working there as being more loving and caring. Tamar doesn't know whether or not this is all true, but the people she's met at these shops were very warm and they loved their animals. It just gives a nice warm feeling to the business and makes you want to frequent it, as opposed to a similar shop that doesn't have a shop cat. These cats are also a great way to start a conversation, especially in a city like New York, where it's not always easy.

How To Achieve Litter Box Success - Dr. Debbie

It's important to realize not all cases of inappropriate elimination are a "behavior" problem. In confirmed behavioral driven house soiling cases, 20-percent of the cats also had a contributing medical condition at the time. So even if it sounds like a behavioral problem, see your veterinarian to ensure your cat isn't the 1 in 5 that has discomfort, infection, or other health problems influencing her litter box use.

Drawing Kitty To The "Right" Spot
Check the condition of the box - is it urine stained on the bottom? Throw it out and get a new one. Keep the box clean by scooping twice daily and by performing a complete litter change out twice a week for non-clumping litter or every 2-3 weeks for clumping varieties.

To entice kitty back to the litter box try a litter box attractant like the herbal-based cat litter additive called "Cat Attract."

Multi-cat homes, or those with outdoor cats nearby, should use pheromone (scent hormone) products to ease social stress and facilitate litter box harmony.

Kitty Eliminates Near, But Not Quite In The Litter Box
Your kitty is telling you that she understands what you want her to do, but something isn't quite right in the litter box environment. First start with providing a larger box, even if this means buying a plastic under bed storage box for this purpose. Look for one 18 x 36 inches in size.

Remove any litter box covers. Revisit the traffic flow in the litter box area. Ensure the box is in a quiet, low traffic area. Keep the box unquestionably clean.

Is Your Cat Urinating In Tubs Or Sinks?
Chances are your cat has urinary tract inflammation or infection. The cool surfaces provide relief to the inflammation or discomfort of a medical condition. See your veterinarian for a urine evaluation and treatment since environmental changes alone will not stop the behavior.

To preventing further episodes, decrease access to tubs and sinks, close doors to bathrooms, or fill the bottom of sinks and tubs with a small amount of water.

Kitty Eliminates On Throw Rugs And Won't Use Litter Box
Your cat has already made a litter preference. Perhaps the texture of carpet is more appealing than the litter used. Provide a litter box smorgasbord. This is when you provide multiple litter pans at the same time, each with different litter varieties such as clay, clumping, and natural pine litter. Be sure to include one litter box with sections of throw rugs or carpet remnants lining the bottom. During this time, remove all throw rugs from the house or block kitty's access to those areas.

If kitty demonstrates a litter preference, switch her litter boxes to that style of litter.

If kitty chooses the rug-lined box, then continue providing carpet lined litter boxes to establish a good pattern of repeated box use. Gradually start sprinkling small amounts of cat litter in the box on top of carpet surface. With time, many cats can be retrained to accept the box as the carpet is phased out and just litter remains.

Prevent Returning To Scene Of Crime
Clean all house soiling accident sites with an enzyme based pet cleanser. The enzymes break down the chemical component of the odors and do more than just cover up with scents. Do not use ammonia based cleansers on accident areas - doing so is counterproductive. (Remember that urine contains ammonia products.)

Cats dislike eating in areas that they eliminate, so place food and water bowls in the site of the accidents, or try placing pieces of aluminum foil in areas to deter kitty's use.

Citrus scents are offensive to cats and can be an effective cat deterrent. Use citrus or potpourri scented air fresheners in the area. If your cat is eliminating in house plants, place lemon or orange peels in the pot to make the area less attractive. And of course, make sure you aren't using citrus scented cleaners on the litter pan!

To keep your kitty away from areas she continues to eliminate on, use double sided sticky tape or turn plastic carpet runners upside down. Another option is to invest in motion-activated devices that spritz out citronella or puffs of air when the electronic eye picks up motion in the off-limits area.

The Tough Reality
For some cats, environmental changes aren't enough and drug therapy may be a necessary tool. But remember that behavioral medications aren't a shortcut - drug therapy must be used with veterinary monitoring and in conjunction with environmental changes.

Want to hear some bad news? In households struggling with many years of feline house soiling, it may be necessary to discard urine marked furniture, change out carpet, carpet pads and treat sub-flooring to effectively remove scent triggers for future elimination issues. It may sound extreme, but it can be important step to achieve faithful feline litter box success.

5 New Year's Resolutions For The Pet World
Robert Semrow, Listomania

Another year has ended and as we begin the next one, promises of change and doing better are bouncing through our minds. So, I thought I'd give you a gentle reminder that your pets need you to include a few resolutions for 2025 as well.

#1 - Get your pet's identification microchips and paperwork updated. I know we've all promised this before, so stop what you are doing and as a famous sports philosopher says, "Just Do It For The Sake Of Your Pets." If your pet isn't already microchipped, what are you waiting for? Please don't tell me your pets can't get out or lost, because they can and if it happens, your best chance at being reunited with them is by having them microchipped. If you do have them microchipped, update their information and make sure that your local shelters have microchip readers that would read the chip. Verify it's working, it's accurate and that the information on file will bring them home to you.

#2 - Time. Resolution number 2 is so simple that if you don't do it, you will be cone of shamed by your pets at some point. Spend some extra time learning about your pet each day. I don't mean sipping tea and discussing your favorite books, though I have found that Zoey has great taste in books. What I mean is, actually get to know your pet by really studying their body and noting changes that may not have been there the last time you really looked. It is so important to know your pet with a nose to tail check weekly, if not daily.

#3 - Learn something to improve your pet's lives. Learn something this year with them or for them. Maybe you will learn a new sport or activity that you can do together. Or maybe you will take the time to learn more about what benefits your pet, what harms your pet or what you can do to enhance their lives. There is a lot of great information out there to help you achieve improvement.

#4 - Help your pet be healthier this year. From nutrition to play to mental stimulation, fill 2025 with a healthy outlook and activities to give them a healthy change that is sustainable and makes a difference.

#5 - Begin a daily or weekly journal. It only takes about 15 minutes to do daily. What did you and your pet do today? What was their health like? What special moment occurred that you would cherish?

I use my personal pet journal to communicate with my pet care team. I'm able to give them updates on their health, their care and what is happening normally and out of the normal. Something I learned when Sugar passed was that I would also look back fondly and treasure these notes about my soul dog and our other pets.

Do you have New Years Pet Resolutions? Share them with us on our Animal Radio Facebook Page.

Animal Radio News - Lori Brooks

Will There Be An Animal In the White House?
Every previous president in the past 150 years has had pets in the White House. Some of those pets have been dogs, cats, parrots, sheep, horses, bear cubs, a pygmy hippo and an alligator. John Quincy Adams let an alligator live in a White House bathroom. President Obama didn't have any pets when he was elected, but changed that by bringing home Bo (a gift from the late Sen. Ted Kennedy) and later, Sunny. Both were Portuguese water dogs. From President Washington to President Obama, the White House has always been home to our four-legged friends, so will Trump uphold this long-standing American tradition to have a 'First Dog?"

Clothes Wearing Alligator Received Pardoned
Following months of negotiations with Florida state officials, a woman was given a permit that allowed her to keep her pet alligator, who she said was fully trained and not a "normal" gator. Initially, she was told she would have to find another home for her alligator when state officials said he'd grown too big to remain at her home, where he was known for sporting fun outfits and riding ATVs. Since adopting the alligator, he had grown to be over 6 feet long and an added permit stipulation required gators that size to live on properties with around three acres of open space. Before the alligator was rescued, he lived in a crowded tank in a dark closet with four other alligators. Those living conditions made them ultra-sensitive to light and skittish around other animals. When the woman rescued him and also brought the other four gators home, she tried leaving them outside, but they couldn't handle the sun and began to die. This alligator was the only one who survived. As a result, the gator was dressed in clothing to protect him from the sun and was mostly kept indoors. The state wildlife commission ended up issuing the woman a personal pet license allowing her to keep her gator, but it did not allow the gator to be out in public for classes or even charity events.

Goat In a Duck Suit - No Joke!
Polly the rescue goat sufferred from anxiety, just like some humans do, but she dealt with it by wearing a duck suit, a costume that made her feel secure. After Goats of Anarchy rescued little Polly, a New Jersey-based rescue organization that cares for neurologically challenged baby goats; she was diagnosed with mental anxiety. Since the feeling of being swaddled in a blanket usually comforted Polly, her caregiver figured a costume would be no different. That's when she started treating Polly's anxiety attacks by zipping her up in the cozy little duck pajama suit. Even though her caregiver received some online criticism from viewers believing that the suit would cause anxiety rather than cure it, the goat expert insists that Polly was a special case with special needs.

Listen to the entire Podcast of this show (#1309)