Chester's Corner

Chester’s corner

As “THE” Cat responsible for Client Communications I get a lot of time to talk about the important things in life for us cats and dogs with the many patients I see in hospital. As a result I have completed a poll of the things WE as a group need to have to experience long happy lives as your most important furry family member:

Pet’s Wish List:

Regular exercise including twice daily walks for dogs and regular aerobic play sessions for both dogs and cats.

A sensible healthy diet (which must include some healthy treats).

Access to fresh, clean water

A safe and happy home with lots of Tender Loving Care

Clean bathroom facilities (for cat’s this means a litterbox cleaned daily)

Regular grooming, including pedicures, manicures and teeth brushing (much as we protest we know it is best for us)

To be parasite free—including flea free and worm free. See the website about new recommendations for deworming at www.capcvet.org

A place to scratch that is all my own—we hear the pet store has a great selection of scratching posts—some even have a place to sleep!

Yearly physical examinations, vaccinations and include a good look at my teeth at my favorite veterinarian’s.

Yearly dental cleanings because it’s not fun walking around with “fuzzy teeth”

Pet Insurance—because our health care isn’t covered by MSI.

Obedience Classes so we can learn to be good canine citizens.

Safe toys to play with like kongs, nylabones, interactive toys like Buster Cubes, a few squeakies - but you have to watch us because some of us like to remove the squeakies and that can be dangerous if we eat them :-) Cats would like some cat nip or honeysuckle toys, furry mice, kitty kongs and something we can play with together.

A collar and identification tag in case I get lost so we can be reunited quickly.

In addition Senior Pets would like the following:

Twice Yearly physical examinations with blood testing as an early predictor of disease—see the page on Senior Wellness Testing.

Special diets to support our aging bodies and our tendency to gain weight.

Pain medication if we are showing our age and our veterinarian thinks it will help—many of the patients note feeling a return to “puppy vitality” when pain medication is introduced.

A soft bed to sleep on.

A modified exercise program—even though we are old we still need to keep our joints moving so we don’t get stiff.