Maureen Berry commutes from Roslindale to work in South Boston with Nicholas,
her 13-year-old Yorkshire terrier, in his stroller.
September 24 – 30 is Deaf Pet Awareness Week
Pet trusts protect animals if they outlive their owners
According to the 2012 AVMA pet ownership survey, there are some 164 million cats and dogs in homes across the U.S., and attorneys Elizabeth Carrie and Robert Kass recommend that pet owners plan for the possibility that they may no longer be able to care for their animals. Naming a caregiver, providing detailed pet care instructions and dedicating money specifically to the pet’s care are all important parts of the plan, according to Kass and Carrie. Bundling all the essentials into a specific, separate trust is the best way to ensure the plan will be implemented in the manner the owner intends, they said. Fox Business
If you’re a parent, odds are you’ve thought about the unthinkable: Who will raise your children if something happens to you? Who do you trust to love and care for them the way you would? How do you provide the money needed and ensure that it will be used properly?
These concerns also come into play if you become disabled, even temporarily. Who can you depend on to step in until you recover?
Now consider this: there are three times as many households in the U.S. that have pets than have children- 57%, according to the American Veterinary Medicine Association’s 2012 survey
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Compared to the 28 million children living in this country, Americans own more than 164 million cats and dogs. Adding birds to the mix brings the total to nearly 181 million pets (not to mention horses, small animals, fish, etc.).
For many of us, our pets are our “children.” And, if you want to know they will be properly cared for in the event you can no longer do this yourself, Detroit attorneys Robert Kass and Elizabeth Carrie stress that you need to take some basic steps to ensure your wishes will be carried out.
Kass cites the case of a woman who committed suicide by jumping off a bridge. Although her body wasn’t recovered for months, it took five days for co-workers and neighbors to realize she was not just away on a trip, but actually missing. During that time her cats were without food, water, and of course, their primary human companion. “When the authorities finally went into her apartment, the cats were crazed,” he says.
If no one steps forward to take in an animal that, for whatever reason, can no longer be cared for by its owner, it is routinely taken to a shelter and put up for adoption. That’s traumatic enough. Unfortunately, unless it is a “no-kill” shelter, if it isn’t adopted within a certain period of time, an animal that was once your beloved pet, will be euthanized.
As Kass and Carrie point out in their book, Who Will Care when You’re Not There?, the biggest mistake a pet owner makes is assuming she or he will outlive her cat, dog, rabbit, African Grey. If you truly care about your pet, that’s a pretty big risk. Depending upon your age and health, the life expectancies of many species- parrots, for instance- make it very likely your pet will outlive you.
Another potential disaster is assuming that your cousin (Fast) Eddie- who always got along great with Fido on Thanksgiving visits- will: 1) know how to care for him (favorite toy, food allergies, medications, afraid of thunder, etc.) and 2) be willing to do so, even when Fido grows old and arthritic
While Eddie may, in fact, be an animal lover (he’s always been fond of the horses- the Kentucky Derby and Belmont kind), there have been sporadic family rumors about money problems. If you leave a bequest to cover the cost of Fido’s care, are you certain Eddie will use it for this purpose?
In the event Eddie surprises the family and ends up being a flawless replacement for you, what if he, himself, is incapacitated, hospitalized, or dies? Naming a successor caregiver is essential, say Kass and Carrie.
There are various avenues you can take to provide for the care of your furry and feathered “kids” if you become incapacitated. You can start with a Power of Attorney, which, unlike a typical POA (which generally covers financial assets) gives another individual the legal power to make decisions about your animal’s care. This includes everything from moving it into their own home, to giving them discretion to take it to the vet, and so forth. If the individual isn’t familiar with the pet, it’s a good idea to attach an instruction sheet listing the veterinarian and grooming names, the preferred type of food and any other important notes about the pet to help it assimilate to a new home.
However, to be on the safe side, Kass and Carrie recommend creating a free-standing trust, separate from the trust that deals with your material possessions and human children. You can fund it with an amount of money that you feel will cover the care of your pet(s) for the remainder of their lifetimes, leaving anything that remains to, perhaps, a pet-affiliated charity. They recommend using attachments to the trust since these can be easily amended as your pets and the care they need change.
Ideally, you want to have an attorney with experience in pet planning and the laws of your state draw up the documents. “If you can’t afford to do this,” says Carrie, “legalzoom.net offers pet trusts online for less than $100.” This document won’t be as customized, but it’s far better than nothing.
Consider everything you pet gives you- unconditionally and daily. Don’t you want to be sure it will receive the care it needs if and when you’re not able to provide it?
Ms. Buckner is a Retirement and Financial Planning Specialist and an instructor in Franklin Templeton Investments’ global Academy. The views expressed in this article are only those of Ms. Buckner or the individual commentator identified therein, and are not necessarily the views of Franklin Templeton Investments, which has not reviewed, and is not responsible for, the content.
8-year-old orangutan being treated with chemotherapy
Veterinarians and physicians are teaming up in an attempt to cure Peanut, an 8-year-old orangutan at Miami’s Jungle Island, of non-Hodgkin lymphoma, marking what is likely the first time an orangutan has been treated with chemotherapy, according to North Carolina Zoo senior veterinarian Ryan DeVoe. Her doctors are using a chemotherapy regimen similar to that used in humans, but at a lower dose. “I’ve never had the same combination of fear and enthusiasm in one patient before,” said oncologist Joseph Rosenblatt, one of the physicians helping to treat Peanut. CBS News/HealthPOP/The Associated Press (9/17)
(AP) MIAMI – Peanut is an 8-year-old orangutan and a star attraction at Miami’s Jungle Island. These days she’s also got a team of cancer doctors huddling around her, watching as the chemo drip flows into her veins.
Peanut, who was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma, is not the first great ape to be treated for cancer like a human. An orangutan with advanced stage cancer at the National Zoo in Washington had surgery to remove a cancerous intestinal tumor in 2000. In 2009, two female gorillas at the North Carolina Zoo underwent radiation therapy. All three cases involved much older apes, in their 30s or 40s, and all had to be euthanized.
But while other animals are treated with chemotherapy, it’s not common among orangutans.
Dr. Ryan DeVoe, senior veterinarian at the North Carolina Zoo where the two female gorillas lived, said he has found no record of other great apes being treated with chemo. But he also noted that many cases involving great apes with cancer are not reported or documented.
DeVoe said another unique aspect of Peanut’s case is that, unlike the older apes, she has age on her side for either being cured or at least experiencing remission and living normally and comfortably for a long period of time.
The orangutan has been undergoing chemotherapy to treat the aggressive lymphoma since August.
Peanut’s diagnosis came by chance when her veterinary team found she had an intestinal obstruction and further testing revealed the cancer. The private zoo had no board certified veterinary oncologist on staff and turned to the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. A team there, along with UM’s Division of Comparative Pathology, which specializes in wildlife, confirmed the diagnosis and is now providing guidance for Peanut’s treatment.
“I’ve never had the same combination of fear and enthusiasm in one patient before,” said Dr. Joseph Rosenblatt, one of the doctors treating Peanut. “We don’t know what to expect and yet we’re intensely curious and potentially hopeful that we can help the animal.”
Working on an orangutan is a first for Rosenblatt, who has never worked on an animal larger than a mouse.
“When the animal looks at you in the eye, it’s both a sympathetic as well as a look that radiates intelligence,” he said.
Peanut has a fraternal twin named Pumpkin, a rarity in the animal kingdom. They are the youngest of six orangutans at Jungle Island and a hit with park visitors. Both are highly intelligent and have been taught to use sign language and an iPad to communicate with their trainers, but they have distinct personalities. Peanut is welcoming and demanding, offering her doctor a twig in return for his water bottle. Pumpkin is quiet and her hair hangs low over her forehead. Pumpkin has not been diagnosed with the disease.
Rosenblatt said doctors chose a plan for treatment that has been most effective in humans, adding that they are treating Peanut’s lymphoma with slightly reduced doses in an effort not to overshoot. The process that might take four to five hours in a human takes about three hours in Peanut, who will get six doses — 21 days apart — unless her body can’t handle it.
Peanut’s doctors caution against raising expectations about her future and how effective the treatments will be.
“They work very well in human beings, but we don’t know if they will work as well in this setting,” Rosenblatt said.
Unlike humans, Peanut must be sedated for her treatments at an animal clinic in Miami. And although doctors know anesthesia causes nausea in animals, it is not clear if that or the chemo caused Peanut to vomit after her first treatment. She stays indoors out of sight of park visitors soon after the treatments and comes outside into an enclosure only when she feels up to it.
Her caretakers say explaining cancer to a human is difficult, but explaining it to a highly intelligent animal such as Peanut who communicates with her trainers and park visitors is nearly impossible.
“That is one part of cancer we do not have to deal with,” said veterinarian Jason Chatfield, Jungle Island’s general curator. “We made it a point not to even talk about the cancer in front of her because she may not comprehend cancer, disease, lymphoma and all these fancy words. She absolutely knows something is wrong, something is different with her.” He said the team wants to keep a positive attitude around her.
Born in captivity, Peanut and Pumpkin came to the zoo when they were 6 months old.
“I have been with her since she was born,” said Linda Jacobs, Peanut’s trainer, holding back tears. “So I really am very sensitive to her needs and her moods.”
Jacobs said Peanut is fatigued but hasn’t lost much of her reddish-orange hair “and she still has that twinkle in her eye.”
Despite possible complications and an uncertain outcome, Rosenblatt said Peanut is still a model patient “and God willing, she will be a cancer survivor.”
Pet strollers keep older animals on the go
U.S. pets are living longer than ever before, and with age often comes back, hip or knee problems. Owners are increasingly purchasing pet strollers to improve their pets’ mobility. AVMA statistics indicate that between 1987 and 2011, the percentage of dogs in the U.S. over 6 years old increased from 42% to 48% while the share of older cats increased from 29% to 50%. The Boston Globe
Strollers for dogs: The latest in pet pampering
Strollers offer one way for people to get around with pets that are inform, elderly — or just a little lazy
Really, it should be no big deal. After all, we already live in such a pet-centric world that the sight of a dog wearing Ralph Lauren, or checking into a five-star hotel, or dining on organic, locally sourced food, barely causes a stir. And yet, even in 2012, a dog riding in a stroller seems one pamper too far.
“Sometimes people make snide remarks,” said Soderstrom, 28, an executive assistant who also designs and markets her own line of jewely. Or they point and laugh, and hint that 5-year-old Louis is a “diva.”
Let the public mock. The white dog with the big pink ears has long struggled with a bad back and hips, but he got around OK until a few months ago when he injured a knee, making the two-block walk to the park impossible. “But I wanted to keep him happy,” Soderstrom said.
She carried him back and forth for a while, but that was exhausting. Enter a $130 dog stroller from eBay. “Louis loves it,” she said. “He stands right next to it waiting to be picked up and put in.”
It’s probably too early to declare pets-in-strollers a full-blown trend, at least in Boston. (In certain neighborhoods in Manhattan, Los Angeles, and southern Florida, the unusual dogs are reportedly the ones who are walking.) But the warning signs are building:
Two Pekingese pups were spotted recently in a stroller in the Prudential Center. A Yorkie was seen riding in the South End, where a cat was also observed taking a drive. In Cambridge, a long-haired dachshund was parked in a stroller in front of a Star Market. Reports of stroller dogs enjoying Castle Island and the Gloucester waterfront have also come in.
At the pet-friendly Boston Harbor Hotel, canine guests have begun arriving in strollers, particularly in the winter, the better to protect their paws from ice-melting salt. “It’s a nice easy way for them to get around,” said concierge Rob Fournier. (A stroller even helped one guest sneak a pooch into the hotel’s Rowes Wharf Sea Grille, a jaunt that lasted until a staffer noticed that the body in the stroller was a tad furry.)
And a dog stroller made the iconic September issue of Vogue magazine. “Two days before my dog Rose died, I put her in the stroller and pushed her down the sidewalk,” the best-selling author Ann Patchett wrote. “When my friend Norma bought Rose a dog stroller the summer before, I hadn’t wanted it, but feelings of idiocy were quick to give way to Rose’s obvious pleasure.”
The stroller movement is the natural outgrowth of several other pet-related story lines, including an increase in spending on pet health care, a growing population of elderly pets, and an increasing belief that our pets are not our animals, but rather our children.
In 2001, US pet owners spent $7.1 billion on pet health care, a number that jumped to $13.41 billion in 2011, according to the American Pet Products Association. Along with that spending has come an increase in the percentage of senior pets who, having benefited from life-prolonging therapies, need help getting around.
In 1987, forty-two percent of dogs were 6 years old or older, according to the American Veterinary Medical Association. In 2011, that number had risen to 48 percent. The percentage of senior cats is growing at an even faster rate. In 1987, 29 percent of cats were 6 years old or older. By 2011, 50 percent of cats were “of a certain age.”
But strollers aren’t just for infirm or elderly pets. Some are for perfectly mobile pets who are more child than pooch. Because dogs can be zipped securely into their strollers, the carriages allow pets to accompany owners on an entire day’s worth of activities.
“We like to include our dogs in what we do,” said stroller-user Debby Vogel, the owner of three Chihuahuas, a 14-year-old with mobility issues, and two 9-year-olds who know a good thing when they see it. “The girl is lazy,” Vogel, the Animal Rescue League of Boston’s volunteer services manager, said of one of her younger dogs, “and the boy is nervous when people loom over him. In crowds he gets freaked out.”
Time was when dogs like that would have stayed at home, but that time is not 2012. In fact, Vogel and her husband, a muscular mixed martial arts fighter confident enough to push a dog stroller, are so eager to bring their dogs along that they have assembled a stroller wardrobe, one for off-road, one for in-town. “Our son is in college and [the dogs] are the second kids,” Vogel said, laughing.
The stroller trend started to build about five or six years ago, said Tierra Bonaldi, a “pet lifestylist” with the American Pet Products Association, and it’s moved from strictly small-dog doll-style strollers to joggers strong enough to hold a 150-pound dog, and manly enough for even macho men to be seen with.
On the Uncommondog.com website, The DoggyRide Lightweight Jogger-Stroller will run an owner $359.10, and is built on a light aluminum-alloy frame. On Amazon, the PetZip Happy Trailer jogger goes for $265, and comes in a jaunty red or a nice blue, and a Pet Gear Expedition stroller goes for $197. Pricey? Perhaps, but as one reviewer noted, the gear is not solely for the benefit of the pets. “The stroller was the perfect answer to the problem of our dogs tiring out before we did,” N. Brabec wrote, “and it has allowed us to take even longer walks.”
In South Boston, a pink stroller emblazoned with paw prints allows Maureen Berry, an assistant manager at the Fenway Bark dog hotel, to commute from Roslindale with one or two of her three dogs. The trip involves the Silver Line, the Red Line, and the Orange line, and wouldn’t be doable without wheels.
“What do you think, bud?” Berry asked on a recent afternoon as she and Nicholas, her 13-year-old Yorkie, left work. The 18-pound pooch, youthful but with mobility problems, sat upright in his carriage, the wind of Boston Harbor ruffling his tan and black fur, his adorable black nose sniffing like mad. Berry scratched his head and smiled as the pair made their way home, together.
Beth Teitell can be reached at bteitell@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @bethteitell.
Penn opens facility to train, study detection dogs
The University of Pennsylvania has opened the Penn Vet Working Dog Center, a facility where dogs will be trained to find humans in disaster situations, allowing researchers to help determine how the dogs are successful. “The detection area is so important because these dogs are better than any machine that we have — and they can save lives,” said veterinarian Cynthia Otto, an emergency, critical care and disaster medicine expert who founded the center. Dr. Otto worked with detection dogs at ground zero after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and has consulted with the military on search-and-rescue dogs. National Public Radio (text and audio) (9/11)
A detection dog-training center opens Tuesday, on the anniversary of Sept. 11, at the University of Pennsylvania so scientists can train dogs for search-and-rescue missions — and study what helps them succeed.
Cynthia Otto, who served on a team that used working dogs to search for survivors in the rubble at ground zero, created the Penn Vet Working Dog Center. She’s a veterinarian who specializes in emergency, critical care and disaster medicine, and she has consulted with the military about the health of search-and-rescue dogs, including Cairo, the dog who worked on the Osama bin Laden mission. She tells Fresh Air’s Terry Gross that detection dogs are invaluable.
“There are so many jobs now that dogs are being used for,” Otto says. “Originally it was kind of looked at as that patrol dog or the bomb-detection dog, but now they’re being used to find the IEDs [improved explosive devices]. Some of them are actually being used for therapy in the field, which is really incredible. But they’re starting to look at all of the different potential components that these dogs can contribute to…and the detection area is so important because these dogs are better than any machine that we have — and they can save lives.”
Annemarie DeAngelo, the center’s training director, founded the New Jersey State Police Canine Unit and has worked with canines for more than 13 years. With her dog partners, she has searched for missing children, criminals and drugs — one drug seizure involved 1,200 kilos of cocaine.
With her canine companions, DeAngelo says she feels “very confident that I know my partner is doing his job, and that no harm is going to come to me, and we’re going to find what we’re looking for.”
Interview Highlights
Penn CurrentCynthia Otto, a veterinarian who tended to the health needs of working dogs at ground zero, created the Penn Vet Working Dog Center.
A scientific approach to maintaining hydration for working dogs
Cynthia Otto: “One of the big concerns that we have not only with the military dogs but also the search-and-rescue dogs from Sept. 11 and Katrina is maintaining their hydration, and so that’s a project we’re very actively working on at this time because these dogs are so focused on what they’re doing. They’re really intent, and so they’re just gonna keep on doing it and they forget that they need to have a drink. And what happens is then they’re more likely to get overheated, they’re more likely to really get exhausted if they don’t take a break. …
“And so we’re looking at different approaches to keeping them hydrated so that they can stay safe, they can work well, and that’s a question that people have lots of ideas about, and no one’s taken that scientific approach. And that’s what we’re doing.”
On how dogs are trained to find the living
Otto: “With finding live people, it’s very important that they’re trained to very quickly identify a concealed person, and that allows them to work in an area where there are a lot of other people that are visible but aren’t concealed. And those dogs typically have what we call a very active alert — they bark. It may be used in the human remains also to have an active alert, but most of them are a more passive alert, which means that they would either sit or paw to alert that there is something there. The urgency with the live find is really what’s so important, because we have such limited time to be successful.”
Sarah GriffithAnnemarie DeAngelo, the center’s training director, founded the New Jersey State Police Canine Unit and has worked with canines for more than 13 years.
On how training dogs to apprehend criminals is different from search and rescue
Annemarie DeAngelo: “When you’re sniffing, the dogs are using their olfactories to locate a substance, whether it’s explosives or narcotics. When you’re making a criminal apprehension, that is when the dog is assisting the officer and he bites and holds the person until the officer gets there, or if someone is assaulting the officer, dogs are automatically trained to protect that officer. …
“[The training] starts out as game of tug of war and it evolves. It’s a long process, but it evolves to a sleeve, and you just keep training every day until the dog will go out and make a clean apprehension.”
On whether dogs have a sense of service
Otto: “I would love to think that, but I think they think it’s a game. …
“They don’t care who they find. If they find somebody, they get their Frisbee; it’s a game and that’s what life is all about. I believe dogs have such an amazing connection with us, and I think that sometimes what it’s all about for them is what they’re feeling from their handler — that pride that we can give them — that feeling, just that connection, because that is important to them. But it’s about the game. I don’t think that they really do know that they’re being so amazing and so patriotic and so helpful. They’re doing what they do naturally.”
Connecting with animals is possible, even without pets at home
Some families cannot accommodate pets, but that doesn’t mean they can’t enjoy the benefits of connecting with animals, writes veterinarian Ann Hohenhaus. In this article, Dr. Hohenhaus outlines numerous ways children can get hands-on, repeated interaction with animals. Some of the activities such as helping out at animal shelters will benefit the community as well. WebMD/Tales from the Pet Clinic blog
Recently, the news has featured many stories about TomKat. No, not a story about a feline, but the ongoing saga of Katie Holmes and Tom Cruise. One story that caught my eye involved their daughter Suri having a tantrum in a pet store because her mother would not buy her a Morkie, a dog she wanted.
In every family without a pet, there is at least one child begging for one. But for health reasons, travel, or time in the daily schedule, a pet does not always fit into the family’s lifestyle. There are, however, other ways, even without owning a pet of your own, that you can bring animals into your family’s life. Here are my top ten tips to add the fun and adventure of animals to your family without actually owning a pet:
1. Attend the local animal show. The owners of dogs, cats, birds and reptiles love to show off their pets and talk to children about responsible pet ownership. In New York City we have the annual Meet the Breeds dog and cat show, but there are smaller local shows as well.
2. Volunteer to walk dogs at your local shelter or to help socialize the cats residing there.
3. Be a foster pet family. My local rescue group is always looking for host families for cats in need. I wrote about my experiences with my foster cat family last spring.
4. Head to your local library and check out some books on pet care. For the toddler set, try the series about “Sally,” a black Labrador retriever who visits the veterinarian, or for a comprehensive pet care overview, try the Merck/Merial Manual for Pet Health.
5. Participate in your library’s reading program featuring certified therapy dogs to promote reading skills in children. Reading Education Assistance Dogs (R.E.A.D.) has local programs nationwide. Therapy Dogs International sponsors “Tail Wagging Tutors.” What could be better than helping your dog-loving child read better?
6. Volunteer to pet sit for a neighbor while they are on vacation.
7. Become a member of your local zoo. Many zoos have an area where children can pet the animals. In the New York metropolitan area the Wildlife Conservation Society, which includes the Bronx Zoo, the Queens Zoo, the Central Park Zoo, Prospect Park Zoo and the New York Aquarium, has hands-on programs for various age groups, as well as educational exhibits and free demonstrations daily. Some zoos even have sleepovers!
8. If your child is an electronic wizard, there are a variety of electronic games related to pet care. Games are available for multiple game platforms and on the Internet. Try Hamsterz, Dr. Daisy Pet Vet, Paws & Claws, Pet Vet, or Webkinz.
9. Research the high schools in your district to see if they have a specialized program related to animals, such as the Chicago High School for Agricultural Sciences, or the Kansas State University co-sponsored high school program in Olathe, KS.
10. Volunteer at a pet outreach program at your local hospital, Ronald McDonald House, or senior citizens home. The program coordinator will know of a pet volunteer that you can “borrow” for the visits.
If your child is like Suri Cruise and wants an animal, but your inner Katie Holmes tells you a full-time pet is not right for your family, offer your pet-loving child one of these opportunities until the time is right for your family to love a pet of its very own.
Photo: Creatas
Posted by: Ann Hohenhaus, DVM at 6:17 am