Charlottesville has no shortage of things to do outdoors in the summer, and we’re lucky to live somewhere that pets are often just as welcome as people. From dog-friendly parks and hiking trails to Downtown restaurants that happily serve bowls of water to their canine dinner guests, there are worse places to have four legs. […]

I’ve completely lost track of how many coughing dogs I’ve seen in the last month or two. They come in honking like geese and hacking up slime. Yup, there’s a nasty case of kennel cough touring Charlottesville, and it seems nobody is safe (well… nobody who happens to be a dog). But wasn’t your dog […]

It can feel so unnatural to watch our pets grow old. It’s just not what we imagine when they first come into our lives. I was in high school when I got my first dog—a Lhasa Apso puppy I named Opus. I loved him dearly. He became part of my identity through college, vet school, […]

“So, is it really necessary to… you know?” asks the anxious new puppy owner as he unwittingly extends two fingers of his free hand into the form of scissors. The short answer? Yes. Yes, it really is. And for so many reasons. Here’s the sad truth: There are literally millions of homeless dogs and cats […]

As we roll toward the end of January, I gather a lot of us have New Year’s resolutions that are already unraveling and set to expire by Groundhog Day. C’est la vie—in 11 short months, you can give it another shot. In the meantime, maybe it’s time to provide some surrogate willpower to those who […]

Question: My cat can’t seem to figure out how to use her litterbox. She pees in it just fine, but poops on the floor next to it. Any ideas? Most cats are really easy to litter train. In most cases, it’s just a matter of giving them a litter box and letting them figure out […]

Think of the worst toothache you ever had. Try to remember how it drove you nuts until you finally got the problem taken care of. Now try to remember some other things about the experience. How did the tooth look? Pretty normal, I bet, just like the rest of your teeth. And did it make […]

One of the joys of having pets is sharing. We share our homes, our families—our entire lives—with them. And sometimes that means we share our food. Truth is, most “people food” is absolutely fine for animals (at least in moderation). But some things we eat just don’t sit well in fuzzier stomachs, and are best […]