Death of a family pet.

Last Saturday my auntie to rang to tell me that their dog had been admitted to hospital, with a swollen painful abdomen. The Vet was now advising them to transfer to an after hours center for intensive care over the weekend, the bill could have been in thousands of dollars. What should they do? This is always a difficult question, but harder when it is about a family pet that I could not see.
I rang the vet hospital where the dog was staying and spoke at length with the vet on duty about the case. There was no way they where going to spend thousands of dollars at an after hours center, but there was the possibility the dog might get better by just staying on a fluid line. I suggest The dog stay at the hospital without supervision. It was against the policy of that vet hospital, but as long as the owners understood that it would be okay. On Sunday the dog seemed brighter and was able to go for a walk. They where very hopeful that he might go home the next day. But Monday came and the dog was a lot worse and they decided to euthanize. I felt sad for them and so much more involved as I knew that dog. It also made me wish I had my own vet hospital so that I could have helped treat the dog.

Value of pet loss sympathy card

I was looking at Parkridge Animal Hospital on the web, and I noticed they had a review

Park Ridge Animal Hospital is a fantastic...‎

By carpet - 22 Aug 2008

place to take your pets. I had to have my 12 year old cat put to sleep a few weeks ago. They were very caring and they sent us out a hand written card a few days later, with their sincere condolences for our beautiful cat. I would recommend anyone to take their ...‎

www.truelocal.com.au/business/...animal-hospital/park-ridge.

To me it shows that end of a pet life is so important, and people often remember vets for the smallest of gestures. This really encourages me to continue to promote pet loss cards

I was sent this email today about the intelligence of dogs. I think we all believe our dogs are smart, it is great when there are studies that demonstrate that.

Dogs Think Similarly to Young Children and Can Learn Words, Counting Skills and More

Dogs have an intellectual capacity similar to that of a two-year-old human child, researcher and author Stanley Coren said at a presentation to the 117th annual convention of the American Psychological Association.

"One of the most recent breakthroughs is that people began to use tests which were originally designed for young humans -- for pre-linguistic or limited-linguistic humans -- to see whether dogs had certain capacities," Coren said. "And that allows you then to do a whole bunch of things, not only to determine whether a dog has a certain thinking skill but to place him in terms of where would you be in terms of human beings, as well as in terms of other animals."

According to Coren, who has written more than a dozen books on understanding dogs, recent studies have confirmed that the animals have a higher cognitive capacity than scientists had thought. They are able to learn the meaning an average of 165 words, including hand signals; the record for most words learned tops 200. Coren said that dogs are also capable of performing basic arithmetic that involves counting up to four or five, and that they have been shown to intentionally deceive humans or other dogs.

Coren also reported on studies comparing the intelligence of different breeds of dogs. He noted that there are three different kinds of dog intelligence: instinctive intelligence, which is highly breed-dependent; adaptive intelligence, which involves problem-solving and learning from the environment; and working and obedience, which involves trainability.

According to measures of working and obedience intelligence only, the top seven "smartest" dogs are border collies, poodles, German shepherds, golden retrievers, dobermans, Shetland sheep dogs and Labrador retrievers. The hounds have the lowest degree of obedience intelligence.

"We all want insight into how our furry companions think, and we want to understand the silly, quirky and apparently irrational behaviors [that] Lassie or Rover demonstrate," Coren said. "Their stunning flashes of brilliance and creativity are reminders that they may not be Einsteins but are sure closer to humans than we thought."

Note: I taught my son to read at 8 months. At one year he had 50 word reading and vocabulary skills. Animals tend to remember what causes an emotion in them, like food or attention. 'Dog Beach' is a good example so remember this if you intend on training your take to talk or read!-)

Sources for this story include: www.usatoday.com; www.apa.org.