Have I mentioned recently how much I love this cat?

I don’t think we could have asked for a more perfect kitten for us.

He seeks Meredith out and will cuddle with her for hours. If it looks like she’s forcing him, she’s really not. She just likes to hold on to him. But if she moves her arms away he still stays.

Even Sorcha loves him. We had people over the other day who couldn’t believe that a dog and a cat would play the way these two do all the time. Sebastian doesn’t love him, but will tolerate him and even play with him.

It took us a long time to name him because none of the names we came up with really fit him. For now, he’s Casper. Nothing to do with the ghost, though the description does fit. It seems to be sticking. Just as often he’s still “Kitten”. Regardless, he’s a much loved addition to the family.

Related posts:

1. Meet Happy Birthday Cake
2. Dog-Friendly Dog Training
3. This and That

Fiona is already over three months old. Unbelievable! She’s growing so fast and definitely not my tiny, squishy newborn any more. Now she’s my tiny, squishy baby. She’s very chatty, much more so than I remember Meredith being, though it’s hard to remember so long ago. She’s starting to be able to roll over fairly consistently on soft, flat surfaces, and occasionally on hard surfaces as well. She can sometimes balance a little bit to sit unassisted for very short periods too. She reaches for things and will play with toys. She already seems to adore Meredith, and smiles and reaches for her. Unfortunately, often she ends up with a hand full of hair. So far Meredith has been really understanding, and will normally just tell her “No grab my hair, Nona!” and pull her hair out. (Meredith calls her Nona or Nenona or sometimes Kiona. She can’t pronounce “f” yet.)

Meredith still seems to be doing well with Fiona, though she is going through a bit of a difficult (for us) phase right now. She seems to be much more sensitive to things like being hungry or tired, and as a result has a lot more tantrums. (I don’t love the word tantrums because it has such bad connotations, but I’m not sure how else to describe them in a way that’s obvious what I mean. I feel very similar to this author about tantrums and what causes them though.) And now when she has tantrums, she will often scream when we’re trying to talk to her or help her, and if we come near sometimes she will hit at us (though she hasn’t actually hit us yet) and scream at us to go away. It makes it especially difficult, because often when she’s really upset, all I want to do is hold her in my arms. Once she’s feeling better, she will usually let me hold her and I try to talk with her about how she’s feeling and why she’s feeling that way. Thankfully, so far she hasn’t taken any anger out on Fiona or the animals, though if Sorcha or Sebastian come over to see what’s wrong sometimes she will tell them to go away too. She hasn’t yelled at the kitten at all yet. These more intense tantrums are a pretty new development just in the last couple of weeks. We try and explain to her that it’s hard to help her when she’s screaming and we don’t know what she wants, and I’m hoping this phase is short-lived.

I’ve discovered too just in the past couple of days, that if we go out earlier and get home before 2 or 3, she seems to do a lot better. If we’re out around 2:30, she will often start getting upset over things that normally wouldn’t upset her, and is often inconsolable. If we’re home, that’s the time that she wants to do something quiet, like reading a book, cuddling and watching a movie, or even just playing alone in her sand box. So I’m going to make an effort to do things earlier in the day so that we can be home and have some quiet time in the afternoon.

Of course, most of the time, she’s still very sweet and I just love watching her imagination starting to take off (she’s making me all sorts of different foods and juices in her play kitchen as I type this ) and continuing to discover the world and learn and grow. We recently repeated the toddler science experiment we did last spring, and it was once again a big hit with the kids.

A lot of people tell me how much Fiona looks like Meredith. I don’t really see it. To me, Meredith looks more like Kris and Fiona looks more like me. But I’m bad at seeing those things anyway. I found a picture of Meredith around the same age Fiona is now. Fiona definitely has more hair. I thought Meredith had a lot too but hers was lighter so not as noticeable, but looking at the pictures there’s a difference in the amount too.

Fiona around 3 months

Meredith around 3 months

Lastly, our kitten is really awesome and I think he was a really good choice for us. He’s fun and friendly and loves to come cuddle on our laps. Meredith can be a little too much for him sometimes, but then five minutes later he will be following her around looking for attention. I hope he stays so friendly and social as he grows.

I have lots more to write about and some things bouncing around my head I’d like to say. We’ll see if I actually get to them or not. I’d like to start posting more regularly again. I see this blog as somewhat of a journal for myself to look back on. I want to be able to come and have a timeline of when we did things, and what’s going on in our lives at any given time. But I don’t want to spend so much time on the computer that I miss my girls’ real lives either.

Related posts:

1. Sisters
2. First Haircut

Otherwise known as Cricket, at least right now. Yep, we got a new kitten. Sort of on impulse, though it’s actually something we’ve discussed off and on for years.

Meredith loves little animals, and last summer we had thought of getting a kitten. We got a new dog instead, and then I got pregnant, and the kitten idea sort of fell away. Then this year it came up again. We discussed various options: Did we want an adult or a kitten? Where should we get it from? How could we best make sure it would fit into a household with two kids and a dog and cat already?

I looked on a few rescue sites and contacted a few rescues. We went to a local pet store that adopts out animals for the SPCA and there was a sweet, adult black cat there. Kris and I both have a soft spot for black cats, since Sebastian is such a sweetheart but was in foster care for 8 months even though he was a kitten. It’s hard to find homes for black cats. But this particular black cat was super sweet, and then scratched Meredith with very little provocation. I think it made us a bit cautious. It’s so hard to know what a cat is actually like in an environment like that, but we really don’t want a cat that will quickly move to scratching or biting.

For years now, I’ve wanted a Ragdoll cat. But it seemed a bit silly to get a purebred cat when there are so many cats and kittens out there waiting to be adopted. But it suddenly didn’t seem so silly anymore. Ragdolls are known for their wonderful, social personalities. With a busy household and a friendly, social cat already, we really wanted a cat who would be adaptable to noise and not be constantly wanting to hide. We did look in the classified ads at some kittens, but in the end I decided my standards for a cat were the same as they were when we were looking at dogs: either a rescue from foster care (or potentially the SPCA, but you get a much better picture of what an animal is really like from a foster home), or a purebred from a good breeder.

I had actually contacted a Ragdoll breeder who had an adult female Ragdoll available who she had decided not to breed after all. I’d kind of wanted a male (they are supposed to be friendlier, more adaptable, and more social), but we figured we’d at least meet the female. I also contacted another Ragdoll breeder who I’ve talked to before. She has a male on her site who I am absolutely in love with.

When I contacted her, I asked if she had any adult cats available, and as a bit of an aside I also asked if she had any kittens that might grow to look like him. We were still sort of thinking a kitten might be better because we could adjust him or her to our family right from day one.

She emailed me back and told me that she actually had a male kitten who she had been planning to keep as a breeding cat who is half-brother to the cat above and who she thought would look very similar. He ended up developing a black marking on his leg that would disqualify him from showing. She had just decided that very same day that she would have to sell him as a pet kitten instead. So long story short(er), he is now ours.

Meredith wanted to call him Happy Birthday Cake at first, but we all seem to have settled on Cricket. His dad’s name starts with C and his mom’s name is Lady Bug, so it fits. He is a sweetheart. The first evening we brought him home he started coming to us when we went into the room we are keeping him in. He sleeps at night with us and loves to cuddle and purrs all night long. He’s a little cautious around Meredith still, but he will generally run over to her and rub against her legs, purring the whole time, as long as she doesn’t move too quickly.

He loves Fiona. I think he thinks she’s another baby kitten or something. If I put her down in his little room he will go over to her and curl up with her or rub himself against her. At night he likes to curl up right next to her. She is still a bit flaily and will grab at him or kick him and he doesn’t seem to mind at all. In fact, I think he thinks she’s trying to play with him.

We’ve only had him three days, but he seems to be adjusting very quickly. We’ve let him loose a bit the last few evenings and he really wants to explore more. He’s fearless about Sorcha and loves to bat her ears and tail. She is tolerant, and I think really wants to play. She can be quite rough when she’s playing though and I don’t think I will trust them unsupervised together until the kitten is much sturdier and faster. She’s showing zero signs of aggression though and is listening quite well when I ask her to down or leave him.

Sebastian is a very laid-back and friendly kitty, but he seems a bit put off having a kitten in the house. When the kitten has been downstairs he usually goes to another room. He’s hissed a few times, but we’ve been giving him lots of attention and treats and I think he’ll be fine in a few days. We’re taking their introduction really slowly though, as we want it to be as positive as possible for both of them.

Related posts:

1. Happy Birthday Meredith!
2. Happy Birthday Fiona!
3. Meredith’s birthday on Mayne Island

• 12-14oz canned salmon, not drained or deboned (unsalted is best)
• 1 1/2 cup of flour
• 1 tsp garlic
• 2 eggs
• a pinch to a small handful of parmesan (optional)

Either dump it all in a food processor and blend it up well, or just use a fork and add the ingredients one at a time and mash them up well each time. Flatten it out on a baking tray. The texture shouldn’t be runny at all, so I used a baking sheet bigger than I really needed and just flattened it to the thickness I wanted.

Bake at 350° for about 15 minutes, but keep an eye out on it as if you bake it too long it could get crunchy. You basically just want the egg to cook enough to hold it all together well. Use a pizza cutter to cut pieces to the size you want to use, and voila! They’re really stinky, so don’t do this when you’re expecting guests over.

These got a big thumbs up from Sorcha, Sebastian, and Meredith. Yes, Meredith loves these. I give her ones without bones but I can’t get one out for the dog or cat without handing one (or more!) to Meredith as well. Who knew?

Related posts:

1. Stuffed and Smothered Salmon
2. Baked Seasoned Salmon
3. Grilled Lime Salmon with Avocado Sauce

I keep telling myself I want to start running again and get into shape like I used to be. I’ve never really had the motivation. Now that I have a dog who I can take out into public during daylight hours though, I feel like that could be motivation. I want to do agility with her too, and so we both need to be in pretty good shape for that. She came from a foster home with three other dogs, and her foster home in Arkansas had other dogs to play with too, so I want to make sure to keep up the activity and exercise now.

My biggest hesitation is that we are wanting to have another baby. When I ran a lot as a teen, I had very sporadic periods and had very low body fat. I’m not sure if that’s something I should worry about over ten years later when trying to get pregnant again? My cycles aren’t consistent even now though. Also, what if I got pregnant in week three or four or something. Is it okay to keep up a program like that while pregnant? I’m sure eventually as I got big and sore I would have to stop it, but I assume that as long as I’m comfortable and not pushing myself it would be okay to keep going, albeit maybe increasing the times at a slower pace. I was so tired and sick last time though, if it’s the same this time I might just lose all motivation to keep going anyway lol.

I sort of started this Monday night, though I keep forgetting to bring a stop watch with me and have just been counting slowly in my head. Two minutes is surprisingly not too bad at a time, though my legs feel a little bit jelly-like the rest of the evening. We have training classes on Wednesday nights, so my schedule will be modified. Maybe Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday. I did some more tonight. We walk to a park in a big field every night with Meredith, so I’ve been doing laps around the field while Kris is on the park with Meredith.

Sorcha doesn’t really heel yet, but we have a regular training leash and a *gasp* flexi for her. I know flexis get a lot of bad rap, but I’ve pretty much only been using the flexi when Meredith isn’t nearby. We decided when she’s on a regular leash she needs to know not to pull and (eventually) to heel, but when she’s on the flexi she’ll get more freedom. So I’ve been putting her on the flexi while I’m running and letting her run around with it. She can only go as far as the end of the flexi so she still has to pay attention to me and which direction I’m going, so I think it will be good practice for agility when she will have to pay attention to me while still running some distance away.

Anyway, here’s the program as written from Runner’s World:

Your 10-Week Training Plan

The following running schedule was created by Budd Coates, Health Promotions Manager at Rodale Inc., who instructs a corporate beginning running program. Coates has taken nonrunners and, in 10 weeks, helped them reach their goal of running the 3.5-mile Chase Corporate Challenge.

Before you start with this schedule, get your legs ready with eight days of walking: walk for 20 minutes a day for the first four days, then increase to 30 minutes a day for four more days. Now you’re ready to begin with week 1.

Each week of the program, do your run/walk workouts on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday, and take Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday off.

10-WEEK TRAINING SCHEDULE

Week 1
Run 2 minutes,
walk 4 minutes.
Repeat 5 times.

Week 2
Run 3 minutes,
walk 3 minutes.
Repeat five times.

Week 3
Run 5 minutes,
walk 2.5 minutes.
Repeat four times.

Week 4
Run 7 minutes,
walk 3 minutes.
Repeat three times.

Week 5
Run 8 minutes,
walk 2 minutes.
Repeat three times.

Week 6
Run 9 minutes,
walk 2 minutes.
Repeat twice, then
run 8 minutes.

Week 7
Run 9 minutes,
walk 1 minute.
Repeat three times

Week 8
Run 13 minutes,
walk 2 minutes.
Repeat twice.

Week 9
Run 14 minutes,
walk 1 minute.
Repeat twice.

Week 10
Run 30 minutes.

Note: After completing week 9, if you feel tired, repeat this week of training before moving on to week 10.

Related posts:

1. Sleep Training Guide for the Infant
2. Catching Up
3. Potty Talk

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Or at least that’s the name she had in foster care. We’re still debating between Sorcha and Shiloh, though right now I’m leaning towards Sorcha. Feel free to add your vote in the comments. She came from Mosaic Rescue, has already had a litter of puppies though she’s likely not far out of puppyhood herself, and was on “death row” at the shelter she was in before the rescue picked her up.

She is a sweetheart. She seems to love everyone she’s met so far and isn’t phased by loud, rambunctious two year olds. She had never been with cats before but seems to be taking to ours pretty well, though we still keep a close eye on them when he’s not on his cat post. Unlike with Tipsy, she actually pays attention when he hisses or swats and knows to back down. We’re trying to keep the interactions really positive so that there is no need for hissing or swatting, but it’s happened a couple of times.

We’ve started obedience classes with her already, and they’re going well. We’ve only done one class, but she seems to pick everything up quickly. I started working on walking nicely on the leash with her too. I was going to wait until it came up in class, but it’s way too hard to walk with a two year old and a dog who’s pulling. I’ve trained dogs to heel before. It’s actually coming along not too badly. She doesn’t necessarily always heel yet (though she’s gotten pretty good at home with no distractions), but she doesn’t pull on the leash nearly as much as she used to. I brought her to Costco and sat outside with her while Kris and Meredith ran in, and she wasn’t at all phased by the loud carts rattling by and the people walking around.

She did snap at a couple of dogs the other night, which worries me a little bit, especially since the rescue we got her from told us she loves other dogs and plays really nicely, besides being a bit pushy sometimes. The trainer we have brought her to said she can see a little bit of aggression in how she interacts and watches other dogs, but that if we keep on top of it and show her how she should react it probably wouldn’t become a problem. She said there’s a difference between an aggressive dog (our last dog), and a dog who can be aggressive at times, and that the latter often just needs to learn how to play and greet dogs properly. The other night, when she did snap at a couple, I think it was just an overwhelming evening for her. There was a huge, very rude dog that bounded up to her a few times and then bounded away. Then another rude tiny dog who came yapping up to her and started snapping. She snapped back at that one. There were a few other dogs who she sniffed noses with and was okay with. Then we were walking home and there was a dog on a leash. At that point, I could tell she was feeling a bit overwhelmed and so had planned to hang back and not have her meet that dog, when I realized the other lady was coming towards us wanting them to meet. I thought to myself that I was probably just being paranoid since our last dog was so aggressive, and walked towards her for them to meet. But I know that I was tense and I’m sure she sensed that, and she sniffed noses for a minute and then snapped at him with no provocation. Since then though, she’s met a few dogs and walked by them with no problems. Our neighbour’s dog kind of attacked her last week (she wasn’t hurt, thankfully), but I hope that didn’t make her fearful at all. I’m going to talk with our trainer about it when I see her next, since she specializes in aggression. I’m not worried yet, but I certainly don’t want to do anything wrong to escalate it to the point that it does become a problem. I wish there were more enclosed dog parks around here, so I could find a quiet time to take her and let her play with just a few dogs at a time.

Luckily though, any aggression or pushiness she has is towards dogs only. She is wonderful with Meredith, and Meredith is in love with her. I often find them curled up on the couch together, or playing outside, or Meredith walking around the house with the dog following along behind. We’ve had people come to the door and she greets them quite happily. She does jump up somewhat, but we’re working on that and she’s getting much better.

Related posts:

1. Dog-Friendly Dog Training
2. Catching Up
3. Getting into shape

First, Meredith is doing wonderfully. She seems to be going through a learning spurt right now. It seems that she says a new word we haven’t heard her say before every day. She has so many new abilities, she’s even counting a little bit and seems to recognize some letters and colours. Though we don’t drill her on any of these things, so I couldn’t say for sure. I think she is on the verge of potty training. If we leave her diaperless, she will often go and sit on the potty of her own accord to pee or poo. With diapers on, she still doesn’t signal before she goes, but we’re definitely getting there. She has started sitting her doll on the potty or toilet and making our “psss” sound for peeing though, and then pointing and clapping for the doll. It’s really cute.

She finally got her eighth front tooth last week, and I think she may still be teething this week. She’s nursing pretty much constantly. It’s actually really starting to wear on me. She was up every hour or two through the last couple of nights nursing (prior to that she slept 6-8 hours in a row most nights) and it seems during the day I can’t sit down to relax without her wanting to come join me and nurse. Don’t get me wrong, I love our nursing relationship, but it is hard some days. And while most days if I don’t feel like nursing at the time she asks she is okay accepting food or a drink or play and cuddling as a substitute, these last couple of days she hasn’t been at all. I remind myself that there is a reason, whether I’m aware of that reason or not, and that the times she needs it most are not the times to refuse her. We’d been discussing how she’d gotten tall and thin, so it’s possible that it’s because she is growing out now, or maybe it’s just all the learning she’s been doing recently.

We went to Calgary for a visit with family a few weeks ago, and it went really well. My parents have been separated since the beginning of April, and it was obviously a good thing that should have happened years ago. They are both so much happier and more pleasant to be around. The trip was a bit of a whirlwind, trying to fit in so many people in just 7 days. We drove both ways, though I think until Meredith (and any other children we have in the future) are a bit older, we may fly from now on. The ride wasn’t actually that bad either way, but twelve hours stuck in a car, even with breaks, is a lot to ask of anyone, let alone a two year old. We did do most of the driving at night, but even still.

Now, we are currently dogless. We left Tipsy in Calgary with my mom. Part of me is sad and I miss her, but I have to be honest and say that mostly I feel relieved that she’s in a home where she seems much much happier, and is doing so much better. I volunteered at the SPCA for seven years in my teens and used to scorn anyone who would rehome a dog, so I never thought I would do it. I don’t think I would still ever dump an animal at the SPCA where I don’t know what would happen to it or where it would go though. Reactions when I tell people range from “It’s about time, that dog was neurotic”, to “I wondered when you were going to find her a new home”, to “When are you getting another one?”. lol, unfortunately for her, it doesn’t seem she was well thought of around here, which is too bad because she is a very sweet, friendly little dog when she’s comfortable and happy. Anyone who knows her really well actually really loves her. But she also had neurological problems and fear aggression, and because of the two combined wasn’t very trainable in some ways. We got her from a breeder who was ill, and she was the only puppy in her litter, and so for the first 6 months of her life she grew up completely unsocialized.

We didn’t walk Tipsy except at night because she was aggressive and stressed with other dogs or people around. We are the type of dog owners who want to be able to give a dog an inch and not worry about it. We want to be able to let a dog run ahead on the leash and sniff sometimes, come up on the furniture, go first out the door, sleep in our bed, get free love, etc. We are the type of owners who have a dog to be his companion and friend, not his master. Tipsy was the type of dog who if you gave her an inch, she’d take a mile, and then try and take more. We had to make sure she knew we were dominant, or she would get stressed and nervous. When new people visited, she often had to be locked in her kennel or she’d be a nervous wreck. There’s so much more I could say about her, but I don’t want to go into all the reasons we had for giving her to my mom, suffice it to say that she is doing wonderfully there, in a quieter home with a very friendly, submissive dog, and it really makes any guilt and heartache we had over the decision dissipate. My mom had a dog pass away two summers ago, and her current dog has been in mourning ever since. He loves having another dog around too and Tipsy is learning about doggy communication from him, so it’s a good partnership.

All that being said, we (and by that, I mean mostly me, though Meredith has gone looking for her a few times) really miss having a dog around. But I’m being picky about any new dog we get. He/she has to be friendly, good with kids, confident, trainable, friendly… Because I stay at home, I have lots of time to spend with a dog, but I want to spend that time having fun and going for walks, not constantly correcting behaviours or trying to change bad habits. We weren’t really in a rush, but I put out a few feelers to some local rescue groups, and as it turns out we may end up adopting one sooner rather than later.

Kris got his tonsils out last week. He’s been in a lot of pain this week. He had obstructive sleep apnea, and neither of us were getting much sleep because of it. It caused other problems too, like he has always had problems breathing through his nose. He went to an ENT who recommended a tonsillectomy. He got a second opinion from our GP, who is very holistic, and a naturopath. Both gave some suggestions on things to try, but after looking at his throat said his tonsils were some of the biggest they’d ever seen. (He also had a hygienist say the same thing to him without being asked.) He went on an elimination diet for 13 weeks, which did seem to be helping a little. He was snoring less at least, but he still wasn’t getting a good night’s sleep or breathing easier, so when we got a call that the surgery had been scheduled he decided to go ahead with it. It’s too early to tell if it fixed the sleep apnea, but we’re hopeful. He’s been drinking a lot of green smoothies and other cold, soft foods.

This weekend we’re heading out again, this time just for a short plane ride to Kelowna though, for Kris’ grandmother’s funeral. She was 95 and had lived a good life, so I think it will be more a celebration of her life than a mourning of her passing. Hopefully, Kris will be feeling well enough by then to go.

Related posts:

1. Sleeping Baby
2. Life in a nutshell
3. 18 Months!

I have to say, after watching it, that while I do follow what he says for Meredith, as far as being respectful, assuming her intentions are good, and realizing that she doesn’t always understand what I want and isn’t just trying to push my buttons, I certainly don’t always follow it with my dog.

Now don’t get me wrong. Dogs and kids are two very different creatures. Dogs do have a hierarchy and I think that while Dr Dunbar discusses all the similarities in raising each, there are a lot of differences too. And I’m not sure how to apply his methods to aggression or chasing the cat. I mean, I can’t ask her to sit and then reward her by letting her chase the cat. But it certainly has me thinking a bit more on what is working with her, and what isn’t. And I know yelling when she chases the cat doesn’t work. Locking her in the kennel when she’s aggressive may work in the short term (in that she doesn’t try to eat my friends when they visit), but it certainly doesn’t change anything.

Really I’d like to have her on a leash at all times, and be able to give her feedback constantly about what she’s doing and help her see what she should be doing, rather than telling her what she shouldn’t be doing without giving her any alternatives. It’s hard when I also have a 14 month old though. I’ve been trying to keep her with me more. The problem is that when she’s off leash again, it seems like she forgets anything I did with her while she was on the leash. It’s something I’m going to have to think about and keep trying new things and try to find something that works. I need to recognize when something really isn’t working and stop doing it over and over again, especially since that’s a parenting style that I really don’t like either. Plus, just like in parenting, all it does to punish a behaviour without giving options is stop a behaviour while you’re around, but the behaviour probably continues when we’re away.

Lastly, I want Meredith to grow up knowing to treat everyone with respect, regardless of size, age, race, species, etc. I want that to extend to pets, and while I think I treat my animals with a lot more love and respect than many people, it’s definitely an area where I could improve.

In other news, I am planning on probably creating a private section of the blog for discussing certain things that are a little more personal. For those who use RSS readers, I don’t think private posts would show up there, but I probably won’t have many anyway. You would need an account to see them. Unfortunately, the way our server is set up, you can’t create your own account for the blog. But if you’d like an account, let me know what you want your user name to be and what your e-mail address is and I can set one up with a generic password that you could then change to whatever you wanted it to be. Let me know who you are too if it’s not obvious already.

Related posts:

1. Introducing our new dog
2. Sleep Training Guide for the Infant
3. A video & an addendum

For today though, here are some links and articles about vaccines in animals.  Most people don’t realize that the reason we are supposed to vaccinate animals yearly is because that is the longest any official tests to determine whether they are still working have been done.  It doesn’t mean that after a year the vaccine has stopped working or is losing efficacy, it means we don’t know how much longer than a year they will continue to work.  Many studies have been done which show that vaccines last a lot longer than that, some say the animal’s whole life.

Truth About Vaccines Yahoo group -a group for pet owners but they discuss vaccines in children at times too

Some articles/studies:

Annual Dog Vaccines May Be Unnecessary

Once a year, Ronald Schultz checks the antibody levels in his dogs’ blood. Why? He says for proof that most annual vaccines are unnecessary.

Schultz, professor of pathobiological sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Veterinary Medicine, has been studying the effectiveness of canine vaccines since the 1970s; he’s learned that immunity can last as long as a dog’s lifetime, which suggests that our “best friends” are being overvaccinated.

Based on his findings, a community of canine vaccine experts has developed new veterinary recommendations that could eliminate a dog’s need for annual shots.

Vaccinations in Veterinary Medicine

Summary: Yearly “boosters” are unnecessary, provide no benefit if given (will not increase immunity). Thus boosters are either a legal issue (Rabies) or a manipulation issue (inducing clients to come in for examination rather than directly suggesting an examination).

Vaccinations: A Word of Caution for our Animals – Part I and Part II

A practice that was started many years ago and that lacks scientific validity or verification is annual revaccination. Almost without exception there is no immunologic requirement for annual revaccination. Immunity to viruses persists for years or for the life of the animal…… Furthermore, revaccination with most viral vaccines fails to stimulate an anamnestic (secondary) response…. The practice of annual vaccination in our opinion should be considered of questionable efficacy…

Heartworm: A Realistic Look – This is about heartworm, not vaccines, but is along the same lines. I find this interesting because of all the different factors that have to be just right for an animal to even contract heartworm in the first place.

Heartworm is of concern to all dog owners, and is a potentially serious, sometimes even fatal, disease. It is not, however, the unavoidable scourge that many vets and pharmaceutical companies would have us believe. If your dog is reasonably healthy, eating a SARF diet, is vaccine free, is not currently on any HW “preventives” or chemical flea and tick preventives, his immune system should be strong enough to fight off a heartworm infestation with none of the larvae reaching adulthood. In the event that some of the larvae should manage to get past your dog’s immune system defenses and survive to adulthood, it is still far from a death sentence. They will be much weakened, and the truly healthy dog will make a less hospitable host. Even at the adult stage, a healthy dog, possibly with some veterinary assistance, should be able to fight them off with no lasting ill effects to his health. Nor are the currently available cures more dangerous than the “preventive,” as the veterinary and pharmaceutical industries would have us believe.

Related posts:

1. How my dog getting sick changed the way we all ate
2. Diagnosing VPDs
3. Padding the Pockets of Big Pharma…

I’ve always planned on nursing to at least two years. After that, we’ll see. I can’t see myself ever forcefully weaning for any reason. Though thinking of nursing a four year old seems odd to me too, but I think that’s more because of the society I grew up in and not because I think there’s anything wrong with it. Most people know that the WHO recommends breastfeeding to at least age two. I’ve heard various arguments against that, the most common being that other countries don’t have clean water, but here in North America we don’t have to worry about that. Health Canada and Breastfeeding Committee for Canada both recommend breastfeeding to two years or longer though, so that argument doesn’t make sense. (Both Canada and the US should have longer maternity leaves if they want mothers to realistically meet these recommendations though, and should also make information about delaying solids and baby-led introduction to solids much more available. I think even making it to a year in the US is something to be proud of these days.) If you read the article I linked above, she discusses studies that have shown clear benefits to breastfeeding for two years or longer.

Meredith is still nursing as much as ever (if not more, as she gets bigger). Considering that when she was younger she seemed so interested in solids that I was worried she would wean early, now she barely touches anything besides breast milk some days.

Speaking of animals and weaning, my mom has a cat who had kittens last year. Two of the kittens lived at their house for over six months. (One is still there.) Both of those kittens would still nurse occasionally at 5 months old (when they were bigger than their mom), which is the equivalent of a 6 year old human child.

Aristotle at 5 months with his mom Kat

Related posts:

1. Baby-Led Weaning
2. Today
3. Bye-bye mush. So long, strained carrots.