Tag Archives: working animals

School Won’t Allow Seizure Alert Dog

Service animals are supposed to get free passes to go anywhere normal pets cannot. According to animal website Paw Nation, that almost wasn’t the case for Alaya the German Shepherd. Alaya isn’t your typical seeing eye dog; in fact, she’s not a seeing eye dog at all. Instead, she comes from Seizure Alert Dogs for Life, a group that trains dogs to recognize the signs of an oncoming seizure and alert the humans present to the imminent attack. She’s able to use her extraordinary talent to help Andrew Stevens. Andrew just wants to be a normal 12-year-old. Most of the … Continue reading →

Chimpanzee Testing to Resume?

A chimpanzee at work for NASA Animal testing is a tricky issue. Given my love for animals I’d normally think I’d come down firmly against it, but it’s not that easy. For a while I worked for a medical journal, specifically, an immunology journal. Immunologists are the ones who research and cure diseases. Although it was hard to read over the studies in which they used animals for testing, their findings were always applied to fighting terrible diseases. But none of that is the case here. The Huffington Post published an article on August 23 examining the plight of more … Continue reading →

Pets in Assisted Living

More and more assisted living facilities are welcoming pets along with people! I personally think this is a great idea. Pets have such a positive effect on people — mentally, physically, and emotionally. A transition to an assisted living facility can be difficult; if a pet eases the way, I’m all for it. However, there are some drawbacks to allowing pets to live in a facility. The cons of pets in assisted living: Staff members have to spend time and energy helping owners care for the pets. Pet food and health care is an additional financial burden on owners and … Continue reading →

Earning Her Catnip: Tabby Gets a Job

Last week I told you about Tabby’s “disturbing” new behavior. This week I’ve been dealing with another bad behavior. Except, unlike the one where she wakes me up at night with her blind jamboree, this one I can work with for my benefit –and safety. Lately Tabby’s been a maniac when it comes to papers. If she sees any loose papers –receipts, newspapers, computer printouts, magazines–she attacks. She shreds it up until there is only a tiny scrap left. Mr. Meow is sort of bad about this, too. (He got Murphy in trouble one time for his antics. See: The … Continue reading →