What you, dear reader, learned from Pet Pause these past two years, for the most part, I learned, too. But, sadly, this week is the last column. I will miss this small space, where we celebrated our pets, learning what we could about how to feed them well, keep them cool in the summer and warm in the winter; how and when to treat for pests before they bit. And overall, how they make our lives better. I started this column as a pet enthusiast. Then I proceeded to get married, buy a house, and, as I type this, our son, Peter, born two weeks ago, is feeding right down by my hands. Those are …
“Hey, guys — wait, why are you acting so weird?” Those were the thoughts that crossed Sistercat's mind as we walked through the door with our new son, Peter Aaron, who to her looked like nothing more than a car seat. Jamie (my husband) and I were giddy, with obvious reason. We couldn't believe we were introducing Peter to his home, even if he was sleeping through the big event. Nine months is a long time to wait, but you can't imagine how it will feel to carry him over the threshold till it's actually happening to you. A couple of days had passed since we'd seen the cats; no doubt they knew …
At the time of this writing, I am sitting on my couch with two cats -- one on the cushion above me, one on my torso -- looking across the coffee table at my husband, who is enjoying a glass of Côtes du Rhône. We're also exactly 7 hours 45 minutes from our due date, and waiting for my body to tell us it's time to deliver our son. It's the best and the strangest time of my life, and one cat in particular continues to make it even better and stranger. Muppet's been fairly consistent this year, sticking to her usual appearances throughout the day and finding places to lay within eyesight but not …
There's the overeating, the overeating again, and then there are still the desserts. For anything left over — and there still will be, even after all of that, even after Dad's thirds — here's last year's column on Thanksgiving-style pet food. And for those of us who already know we'll be so stuffed after our smörgåsbord that the thought of stuffing will make us nauseous, well, let's redirect our attention to the day after. The day of doorbuster sales and stretching one's legs to move faster than one's neighbor toward savings. The day we temporarily turn our attention from overeating to …
There must have been a point in my life when I thought, “Dogs can sniff out drugs? No way.” Some distant point in my youth I no longer recall. Seems a socially accepted truth these days. So it may surprise some that the question, in part, is now before the U.S. Supreme Court — casting doubt on the training of the dogs and how well they do their jobs, and whether the Fourth Amendment, the one that protects us from unreasonable search and seizure, should be able to stop them from doing their jobs at all. “Dogs make mistakes. Dogs err,” lawyer Glen P. Gifford told the justices during argument in…
With five weeks to go, the Ward nursery finally looks like a place a baby could live. We've assembled the crib and the changing table. We've laid a rug and cushioned a rocking chair. We've even washed, folded and sorted all five loads of clothing into the drawers. (Well, I have.) Sharing this news, coworkers and neighbors of older children have gone giddy over the mention of Dreft, let alone its trademark scent. No, it's not ill preparation that made me anxious last week, but a threat does still linger in that little, yet-empty room. I'll take the blame for my husband's fear that Sistercat …
The image sticks with me, of majestic lions, tigers and bears laid out along a muddy Zanesville driveway. All of them lifeless, wet from rain, their underfurs muddy from the chase — It was already a year ago October 18 that this happened in Ohio, and somehow a year has made this picture even more unbearable as I sit here on a Sunday morning nibbling biscotti and drinking coffee. Tragic death always feels more rotten after time, not better. At least it does for me. I think about how the deceased have not passed the time with us. Details that emerge after a year also tend to be more chilling; …
