We did a podcast over at Scratchings and Sniffings on Lyme disease yesterday. It's an interesting disease and I won't duplicate that post here, but Yvonne and I were wondering how insurance would factor in on the diagnosis and management of Lyme disease.

You'll recall that even in Lyme disease hot spots only about 5% of dogs that are infected with the spirochete Borrelia burgdorferi ever show clinical signs. The chief complaint in dogs that do show signs is a general malaise. They are "off their feed" or not feeling too well or just laying around. When we see them, this usually translates into a low grade fever of undetermined origin.

As you can imagine there are a great number of conditions in dogs that can cause a low grade fever.

My daughter in CO lost her beloved dog, Reznor, right around Christmastime last year. It was a sudden and  shocking end. Reznor had a bone disease which my daughter (and even the vet) did not know about. Reznor was part-greyhound and one of the best pets a person could have. We all loved Reznor - and his passing was very hard on us. As it always is, on pet owners.

Reznor's health issues speak to the need for pet health insurance. No, he did not have any, but...neither did we consider it, back then. Until Purina came up with this health insurance, we weren't sure about this new way to protect our pets. Insurance is certainly high on our list, these days.

The good news is that Carmie is much better. The really good news is that she is really much better.

There is no bad news. Yay!

Over the last 10 days we've been struggling with Carmie (see my post on the Continuing Saga here), since she slipped on our front steps Sunday the 7th. She gets SSSSOOOooo excited when we get her leash out, she goes a bit bonkers. Well, Sunday the 7th, she barrelled down our front steps, indoors - we live in a split-level house, and ended up sprawled on the floor.

Over the next few days, we had to help her get up and down, in and out, while worrying that she might have done real damage. Yes, we called the vet, but because she could walk fairly easily once up, the vet said to give her aspirin twice a day and watch her.

Purina isn't merely a pet food company. If you visit their website you'll see the tagline, "Your pets, our passion," and having worked with the company for over two years now, I can honestly say the people I know at Purina are all about that tagline.

So, when I found this page on their website, "Becoming a Cat Owner" - I thought I'd share it because it really covers the reality of being a cat owner. Understand that I love cats (and dogs, and turtles...but Purina doesn't make turtle food so we don't do turtles here - LOL), but I think they are often misunderstood.

Cats, for the uninitiated, are warm, loving, and playful. Cats are cuddly, funny, and interesting. Cats are every bit as dear to those of us who own them, as dogs are. The are just divine!

So, on the Purina site, where they talk cats, their call-out says, "Can you provide a minimum of two 20-minute play sessions every day?"

And, they complete their advice as follows, with my comments in brackets...[please visit site for complete info, and consider adopting an adult cat, too]

Carmel is sleeping soundly right next to my desk, as I write this. She has been giving us quite a bit of worry this week. On Sunday she barrelled down the front steps for her walk, and fell.

As many of you know, Carmel is a big dog - she's also old. This fall was worse than just a trip - she actually could not get up, for a moment or two. However, with some gentle nudging, she did get up and acted fine. We took her for her walk, and though she was a bit slow at the end, she did not even limp.

Once back home, however, everything changed. Carmel's routine is to have her morning treat after her walk, and to then follow me around until I finally sit down and get to work. Once back from our walk, she took to her bed and sat rather strangely on it; in what looked like a very uncomfortable position, to me.

I gave her a treat and some loving, and Tom and I went out looking at houses. This left Carmie (as we fondly call her), home to rest. That seemed like a good idea to me...and still does. I know she hurt herself when she fell, and I wanted her to just stay put...to rest whatever it was she injured (her leg or hip or whatever). And that she did.