Healthy Pet Products for Less

Did you know that Swanson Vitamins carries pet products for less? I order our human supplements from them and after discovering they sell some of the healthier pet treats and the line of supplements for pets called Pet Naturals, I got excited! 

Their line of pet products has expanded and their prices can't be beat! As a matter of fact, "Swanson Health Products goes another step beyond its competitors by offering powerful guarantees. All products are backed by a 100% Satisfaction, Money-Back Guarantee and our Price Matching. If you are not satisfied with your purchase for any reason, simply return the unused portion for a full refund of the purchase price. If you find a product priced lower from a qualifying competitor, let us know and we'll match that price. As a leading supplement brand, Swanson Health Products is Good Manufacturing Practices certified and also voluntarily participates in third party supplement testing by independent organizations including ConsumerLab.com."

Click on this link here to get $5 off your first order! For every friend I refer that places an order through this link, I receive a $10 reward coupon. This way we both save! And yes, I would still highly recommend Swanson Vitamins even if I didn't receive a $10 reward coupon! You can't beat them -- great products, great prices and great customer service. And they have pet products! Check it out!  :)

We Broke Another Record

Wow! Thank you! to our wonderful clients for making 2013 such a great year for Cozy Critters! This July we broke last year's record (also July) for most visits ever done in a month in our eleven year history. We also had the best March and August we have ever had. Now we are gearing up for the holidays so don't wait until it's too late! Make your holiday pet sitting reservations in advance to guarantee availability.

Cozy Critters Daily Dog Walks Book

Click here to view this photo book larger

Shutterfly photo books offer a variety of layouts and cover options to choose from.

The book fanatic that I am, I had to create a book full of pictures I have taken of the dogs we have walked on a daily basis over the last 11 years. It also includes many of my favorite quotes about dogs and animals. (Unfortunately, a few of the photos I had got lost during the change over to a new computer and all I had was a printed copy of which I scanned. These photos came out very grainy.) Now this gives me an idea about a cat book....

And Then a Miracle Happened

The week of my birthday was a memorable week. First, starting with my birthday (May 13th), our dog Ellie passed away. Then five days later on the 18th, my father-in-law passed away. Then the next day (19th) a miracle happened.

We were pet sitting a long-time client's Boston Terrier, Lou (pictured above), who will be 13 this year. Though we had been sharing the visits, my husband Clifton happened to be doing that particular visit. He had just given Lou his breakfast which was (chopped up) prescription can food. Lou began eating and Clifton stepped away from the kitchen for 60 - 70 seconds. When he returned Lou was laid out flat on his side. Calling his name, he checked for breathing and heart beat. There was neither. He opened his mouth and reached down his throat and pulled out a piece of can food. Then he gave Lou CPR. Then the miracle happened. Clifton felt Lou's heart start beating again. Lou started coughing and catching his breath. He was back! He was gone but now he was back! Clifton said it all happened so fast yet it was going in slow motion. He instinctively and intuitively knew what to do and just did it. All this took another 60 - 80 seconds. Lou sat up and wanted to get up and walk but Clifton made him stay still with a blanket wrapped around him. Clifton called me and I went over there and we kept Lou in the blanket, holding him, giving thanks to God. This story could have ended differently. We are so grateful it didn't. What a miracle! Lou was fine. He was still hungry and ready to finish eating! Though I don't know for sure if he knew what just happened to him exactly, he knew that Clifton saved him. That was incredibly obvious to us. He would not take his eyes off of Clifton. With his eyes, he was saying "thank you" for saving me.

What a nice gift...especially considering that that day, the 19th -- was the anniversary of Clifton's mother's death. What a week.....

Who would think a dog could choke on can food otherwise known as "wet" food? How many times have we stepped away for a moment to do something else after giving pets their food? How many pets "free-feed" on food? We have been pet sitting for over eleven years and we both have had multiple animals our whole lives. We've fed hundreds, possibly thousands of pets. (I have fed close to 100 animals in a single day before.) We have never had any animal choke on their food....before.

A lot of the prescription can foods are so hard and dry. They are the driest can foods I've ever seen. We started totally mashing Lou's food (which primarily consists of potato with venison) totally and adding enough water to make the consistency of oatmeal or even a little more soupy than that. He seemed to like that better too. (You just have to keep scraping it off the bottom of the bowl into a heap for them so they can get it all.) We noticed that even after adding all that water, when Lou was halfway though eating it, it had soaked up all the water and was becoming dry again. Incredible. So if your dog eats prescription can food, take note!

Those that know me well and all the research I've done....know that this leads me into a topic of which I am passionate about: pet foods. But that's another article for another day. Until then, check my blog (use the search button) for previous articles and videos on pet foods. You can also find a list of helpful website links related to pet foods and nutrition on my website. Just click on the "Links" button.

And remember......EXPECT miracles!   :)

In Loving Memory of our Dog Ellie

We said good-bye to our sweet Australian shepherd, Miss Ellie (aka Wiggle-Butt), on Monday, May 13th. She was suffering from Lymphoma and her quality of life quickly declined. We used Houston Mobile Vet so Ellie could remain in the comfort of home. Dr. Angela Donaruma and her assistant were great and I highly recommend them. Ellie went very peacefully with us there beside her. She had a good, long life of 15 or 16 years. We aren't sure exactly how old she was as we adopted her in 2001 from a shelter.

I'll never forget the day we went to pick up Ellie. We had been searching for a playmate for Einstein, our oldest dog, who at the time was four years old. Einstein went with us to get her and bring her home. Ellie had been at the shelter for around six months. As soon as we got her in the truck, we noticed she stunk pretty bad and she was covered in ticks. So the first thing she got when we got home was a bath to remove the ticks and get rid of the stink! The first thing Ellie wanted to do was roll in the grass! There was no grass outside (just dirt) at the shelter and she thoroughly enjoyed rolling in the grass at her new home as often as possible.

Her favorite thing was going to our ranch with Einstein (and then the other dogs too). As soon as we would arrive, she and Einstein would bark at us to go for a walk on our trail around the perimeter of the property. They had acres and acres to run but wanted to go for our walk! Ellie always had to be the leader, usually way ahead of us, stopping occasionally to let us catch up. She had the best time there, running as fast and as far as she could. She was really fast too! She could run circles around Einstein and then stop on a dime. They would chase each other through the creek that runs through our property and go swimming in the pond or find some old deer or cow bone to drag home.

Ellie loved people so much, every time someone in the vicinity was coming out of their house or car, she would want to go over and see them. She thought everyone was here to see her and give her pets. One time on a trip to the ranch with my husband, he stopped at the feed store to get some feed and hay for the horses. He left the window in the truck rolled down when he went inside the store. Ellie jumped out of the window and went in the feed store just talking up a storm to everyone. After that, she always had to go in the feed store and say hello to everyone. She was the sweetest dog. So full of love for everyone. 

She loved the country life and she loved the city life too, with all it's activity, people and her walks in the neighborhood. She loved our other dogs and was happy to give her position of alpha female to Cali once she joined the family. She was always sweet with the cats too. Ellie was a good singer. A fast licker. She loved to give kisses. 

She was so incredibly resilient. She went through a lot health-wise. She had arthroscopic surgery on her elbows, two surgeries to remove mast cell tumors, a splenectomy and tumor removal and then had  immune-mediated hemolytic anemia. All within about a four year span. It's no wonder she got highly stressed out going to any kind of vet clinic. Thank God for the recent advent of mobile vets. I'm comforted knowing that now she has crossed over the rainbow bridge, she is whole again, without the pain and suffering, running and playing with the rest of our pets who have crossed over.

We couldn't have asked for a better dog. Such a sweet angel. We will miss her a lot!

In Loving Memory of Our Cat Emma

Our sweet little Emma passed away peacefully at home yesterday. She had been under hospice care for the last couple of weeks. We're not sure exactly how old she was but our guess is at least 17. We "officially" adopted her nine years ago when we finally managed to catch her and bring her inside. We had her checked out by a vet along with being spayed, her teeth cleaned and two teeth pulled. We had been feeding her for about a year and a half on our front porch; at first once a day and then twice daily. She was a petite (weighed 8 pounds at her heaviest), scrawny cat with a very thin coat and a back full of scabs. She looked like she had been always living outside and that she had had a rough life. She just appeared one day in our front yard. We weren't sure where she came from but we suspected she came from a house on the next block over that had a lot of cats in the backyard. Those people had moved, the house had been torn down and a new two-story house was taking it's place. We put out some left over can food that our cats didn't finish and she showed up every morning to get fed. Eventually she started showing up in the evening as well so we fed her twice a day. She would only eat the food if we went back inside, out of sight. She was hungry, but she was not trusting of people at all. She would always stay several feet away and if you tried to get closer, she would back away. It took us a year and a half of feeding and talking to her before she let us close enough to pet her. 

Not long after we began feeding Emma, she showed up with a kitten. They didn't stay long and I never saw that kitten again. Then several weeks later in the middle of the night, I swore I heard a cat crying. In the morning I woke up to that sound again. The sound of a cat crying. I jumped up and went outside. I couldn't see a cat, but I could hear it. I couldn't believe no one else was looking for it, it was so loud. So I just followed the sound to across the street in a neighbor's driveway, next to the bushes and there was this tiny little six week old kitten just screaming his head off. I knew the people in this house or in the other houses near by did not have a cat and a kitten this small shouldn't be outside by itself. This is how I found Webster, our cat for 9 years. We believe he was Emma's kitten. He ended up getting adopted before Emma as we still hadn't been able to get close to her yet.

Once Emma recovered from her surgery and got acclimated to being indoors, she got to meet the other six animals; our four dogs and two cats. And although we had seen Webster and Emma together in the front yard more than once (like they knew each other) before we brought her inside, once she was in, Webster was the most upset by her presence. He really got bent out of shape that she was now part of the household. He acted afraid of her & would stay away from her. He did eventually get over it though. Emma was so sweet and passive to not only us but all the other animals. She was so happy and thankful to be safe, inside, and have steady meals. And she loved all the other pets. She never got in anyone's way, stole anyone's food or treats, picked fights or ever did anything wrong. Even if one of the other cats picked on her from time to time, she never fought back. She was happy to be part of a big family and to have a home. She got along with everyone. She was the best cat. She was even easy to litter box train. She didn't understand what the box with cat litter in it was at first, but all I had to do was put some dirt on top and she never, ever went anywhere other than the litter box.

When she was first brought inside and getting acclimated to the house, she was kept in a bedroom at the end of the hall. Once she was allowed access to the rest of the house, she came out into the living room and that's where she stayed for about the next six or seven years. She was always in the living room. She went into the kitchen to eat and drink and she went in the enclosed back porch that's off of the living room to use the litter box. She had a big cat tree that she spent a lot of time on. For whatever reason, she never went down the hallway and into any bedroom for most of her life here. It was almost as if she thought she wasn't allowed in that section of the house. Even though she was first kept in that section. We never gave her any reason to think she couldn't go down the hallway or into the bedrooms. All the other animals did. Most if not all of them slept in the bedroom with us every night. All but Emma. Until one day, for some (again) unknown reason, she went down the hall and started going in each of the bedrooms, looking around! We couldn't believe it! After she checked out all the bedrooms and discovered all the dog and cat beds in them, that's where she started staying. In each and every one of them. There wasn't a cat or dog bed that Emma didn't sleep in. She tried them all and there was a lot of them! She would change beds each time. She loved the variety but her favorite was the dog beds. She adored the dogs and liked to sleep cuddled up to them, if they let her. If she was in one of the dog's beds, they would politely sleep beside it or some where else. Ellie used to sleep with her on the couch a lot and let her snuggle in her long, thick hair. In the last couple of years, her favorite was to sleep in Cali's bed and Cali would sleep beside the bed, happy to give her bed to Emma. (And let it be known: Emma was the only one who could take Cali's bed and get away with it! Cali was the alpha dog.)

Once Emma came into our home, she never wanted to go outside again. She so appreciated having a home and being inside. She was allowed to go out if she wanted, through the cat door. Eventually she did go out for very short periods on the front or back porch with us. She liked laying in the sun for awhile. If we all went in & she was left outside by herself, she would get really upset and cry. She didn't like being alone and she didn't have to be any more. She had a big family and there was always someone around!

She was the only one of our cats who loved raw food. And I mean loved it! The first time I gave her some Rad Cat Raw Diet to try she acted like I had finally given her some appropriate food! She gobbled it down and wanted more. That's what she primarily ate for the last couple years of her life. Webster and Dusty would eat a little of it from time to time but Emma only wanted raw food the majority of the time.

Emma loved everyone and everyone loved Emma. She was the only cat we had that would not only stick around when other people came over but would ask them for pets. She was always patient with everyone, human or animal. She let me cut out the tangles and shave her when she stopped grooming herself. She let me dress her up in costumes. She was good at the vet's office. She never did anything she wasn't supposed to. She was one of the best cats ever. She was our little princess. Our little furry angel. We will miss her. Now she can be together again with one of her favorite dogs, Cali. 

Cali and Emma

Our 11th Anniversary

2002 - 2013

This month we are celebrating Cozy Critters Pet Sitters' eleventh anniversary! I was still digesting the fact that I've been pet sitting for a decade and now another year has already gone by. Time goes by so fast....

We are so grateful for all of our wonderful clients, both two and four-legged. We love meeting other animal-loving people in our area. We love getting to know each and every pet, caring for them and loving them as if they were our own. So many memories and funny stories are made over the years. But most of all, we love providing a great service: Pet Sitting! Looking forward to making more friends and memories....

Happy Valentine's Day!