great resource for cat owners

If you are like me, among my least favorite chores is to clean out the cat litter box.

It is necessary for sanitation, obviously, and also to eliminate the risk of toxoplasmosis - the parasite we pay attention to for our pregnant clients.

So how do we make it easier? By having the litter box do the work for us.

Several clinics where I did relief work had these automated litter boxes. What the box does is comb through the litter 10 minutes after the cat is in the box (the time is adjustable). It then scoops out the urine clump, or BM into a box receptacle that then gets emptied daily.

You do have to use clumping litter, but the Littermaid brand also has a nice rig like ramp that helps to trap the little litter particles so they do not get spread throughout the house.

There are several on the market, but Littermaid (at http://www.littermaid.com) does work the best. Several of the clinics mentioned to me they bought the less expensive ones, but this worked the best, and most reliably.

So something for your kitty's stocking - and yours!

Interesting trick for your cat or dog

We get to see and hear about unusual things in the clinic. It is fun to hear of the different tricks that you teach your pets. So when this came across our desks, I had to share.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4275440853107357955&q=cat+scuba+diving

Click this below to see a scuba diving cat! Yes, a cat that scuba dives.

Let us know of unusual - or the traditional tricks you teach your cats.

we all need pit stops

In car racing, we know cars take pit stops. Even if you don't follow car racing, you know about pit stops.

It does seem illogical to purposely take yourself out of a race, but we know logically that in a car race, you run out of gas and the tires wear down to nothing, and you quickly would not reach your goal.

So yesterday, October 10, we did not have a Dr in the office so I could spend time with my wife on our 21 wedding anniversary.

Sure, I could have just worked, and chugged along and 'gotten through', but when I have done that in the past, my tires have become ragged, and I have run out of gas in our relationship. It has been a hard lesson to learn, especially for a guy, who likes to do things.

But it was a wonderful day yesterday, we did some things together in the house, talked about what we had talked about 21 years ago, and how blessed and fortunate we have been to be able to live in this wonderful country, and to have the chance to be 'the family Dr' for the pets that call Lakeview Veterinary Clinic their family Dr.

We thank you for that privilege and look forward to seeing everyone back on Monday.