This  is one of the handiest pet owners’ references I’ve seen yet. Why?

• It lives up to its title and then some. The “remedies” are not only for medical problems, but for issues like boredom, fears, and the habit of jumping up on you when you come home.
• At 400 pages, it covers the essentials without being thick enough to discourage you.
• The introduction includes a vaccination chart, a list of safe and unsafe medications, and tips on everything from choosing your pet to pet-proofing the house.
• Topics are listed alphabetically, from acne to wounds, making them quick and easy to find.
• Plenty of experts have contributed to it — including some I’ve consulted for my own articles.
• The articles on sickness and injury have “When to see the vet” boxes. After all, home remedies can only go so far.
• Many articles have sections for cats only and for dogs only. After all, giving a cat a bath is not the same thing as giving a dog a bath. (The book doesn’t downplay how hard a cat bath can be, either — “like wrestling barbed wire”.)
• The book advises you to spay and/or neuter your pets — but also shows you how to birth puppies and kittens, if need be. Nobody’s perfect . . .
• The line drawing illustrations are clear and easy to understand.
• My cat liked the cat puzzler I made him following the directions on page 82 (you just cut some holes, big enough for a cat to reach into, in a shallow box and put a small ball inside).

This book is written by the editors of Prevention Magazine Health Books and published by Rodale.

A recent article by Terry O’Neill said that, if people really wanted to reduce carbon emissions, they’d take the idea to its natural conclusion and get rid of their pets. Not that O’Neill endorses this – he’s just read about it in a book that claims:

simply feeding an average-sized dog has the eco-footprint of building and fueling a Toyota Land Cruiser. A cat’s eco-paw-print is somewhat less: about the same as a Volkswagen Golf.

(The book is Time to Eat the Dog? The Real Guide to Sustainable Living, by Robert and Brenda Vale, who, as O’Neill says, “may well be under police protection by now, as far as I know”.)

He also mentioned a member of Moms Against Climate Change who owned three “carbon-spewing” pets (two Volkswagens and a Land Cruiser). This woman later wrote to inform him that she doesn’t eat meat, which offsets her pets’ carbon pawprints. Excellent point, but the most important point came from another letter that said we simply can’t judge any creature just by its carbon footprint.

Dogs and cats make a contribution that we’d miss if they were gone. It’s well documented that they’re good for their owners’ health. Dogs sniff out explosives and help the disabled. They and cats both eat meat products that we humans won’t.

(Speaking of meat, which does have a large environmental impact, why don’t we research how much of it goes to waste and thin the herds by that percentage? Sure, farmers will suffer, but they’re used to it!)

Another letter pointed out that horses, once so necessary, have become “redundant” in today’s world – so why not get rid of them, too?
We could go on and on, deciding which animals aren’t worth the damage they supposedly do. But let’s not. We don’t live or die by carbon alone.

How do you sum up life with animals in a few words? Some writers have done a pretty good job. Here are their words, and my thoughts on them:

“I’d like to take them [her puppies] down to the shore, but I’m afraid they might damage the sea.”
Dodie Smith, author of The Hundred and One Dalmatians

I don’t know what kind of damage Ms. Smith was envisioning, but after seeing what two cats can do to a house in two weeks, I tend to think anything’s possible.

I like mice, and chipmunks and laboratory rats. I’d probably like sewer rats, too, but I’ve never met any. They live in sewers, I don’t — in spite of what some unfriendly people may say.
George Jonas

Even if someone did live in a sewer, they’d probably never meet a rat if they kept a cat around. Hey, it works for us.

The greatest pleasure of a dog is that you may make a fool of yourself with him and not only will he not scold you, but he will make a fool of himself too.
Samuel Butler

And the dog won’t tell anyone about it, even if you do.

If a dog jumps in your lap, it is because he is fond of you; but if a cat does the same thing, it is because your lap is warmer.
Alfred North Whitehead

True, I’m afraid – one of the most affectionate cats who ever stayed with us was a “hairless’ Cornish Rex. They’re known for being cuddly, but I think it’s their way of staying warm.

A hen is only an egg’s way of making another egg.
Samuel Butler

So, does this settle the question of which came first?

A few years ago, I decided to read the novel that was the basis for 101 Dalmatians. The children’s librarian said it was “far superior to the Walt Disney version”, and after reading it I tended to agree with her. I also was curious about the author, Dorothy Gladys “Dodie” Smith, and what led her to write so sympathetically about dogs.

Dodie Smith was born in Manchester, England, in 1896. She passed through several careers – struggling actress, department manager at an upscale furniture store, and finally successful playwright and novelist. (I may as well warn you here that, though she wrote good stories for children, the complete story of her life is for adults only.)

According to Dear Dodie: The Life of Dodie Smith, by Valerie Grove:

(S)he liked dogs. All her clothes were black and white; she lived in a black and white flat, and she had often said in jest that all she needed now was a Dalmatian.” Two friends (one of them was her future husband, Alec Beesley) took her at her word and gave her a Dalmatian puppy for her thirty-eighth birthday. This was the original Pongo, who was with her until his death in 1940.

Pongo was followed by two puppies, a female named Folly and “Freckles of Finchingfield . . . always known as Buzz”. These two eventually had their own litter of 15. Just as in The Hundred and One Dalmatians, their owners had to look for another nursing female to help out, and “somewhat miraculously” found one at a dog pound. It’s probably just as miraculous that they eventually found homes for 14 of the puppies and the foster mother.

Dodie Smith shared her life with her Dalmatians – and since her life was the source of her writing, it’s natural that they became some of her fictional heroes.