petz

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While at the Collin County SPCA with my cats (see below info), I found a great pet magazine. Think of it as a "Dallas Child" for pets. It is called City & Country Pets, and it was filled with great articles about enjoying and caring for your pets, plus ideas such as pet photography and teaching tricks. 

Here are websites that list links for pet rescue information. What is pet rescue? A network set up for finding lost pets and finding homes for pets that have been found but unclaimed, or for neglected animals that are looking for new homes.

The rules for keeping infants and toddlers safe from household chemicals, plants and drowning hazards should apply as well to pets, and information for preventing animal poisoning are on a helpful website from the NATIONAL ANIMAL POISON CONTROL CENTER. It's a horrible thing to consider, but pets do chew on a lot of things that they shouldn't. In case anything strange happens and you need some help, contact your veterinarian or the animal shelter as soon as possible. To get valuable information on the subject, refer to this helpful site:

This organization also sponsors a toll-free pet care hotline that offers pre-recorded information on a selection of topics. The phone number is (888) 252-7387.

If you have a dog or cat, you may want to have it spayed/neutered, but have found that it can be expensive and/or difficult to arrange during the times that the services are available. I just recently went through this for two cats and was surprised at the range of charges for the service and how high it could be at some locations. I found a good alternative cost-wise, but it required a little extra driving from Plano. It was worth it to have the services done safely without having to spend up to $200. If you need to find a spay/neuter service that won’t break your budget, contact the Collin County SPCA in McKinney. SPCA offers a low-cost spay/neuter service that takes one day and is done by veterinarians at their McKinney location. Contact them at:

SPCA of Texas - Collin County

506 Interchange St,

Mc Kinney, TX 75069-1885

Phone: (972)562-7387

What to expect

While researching spay/neuter services, I found that typically you are to bring your dog/cat to the clinic by 8:00 a.m. and pick it up that same day around 5:00 p.m. The service is generally only available Monday through Friday. This can be very difficult for folks with jobs during the same hours. Fortunately, McKinney SPCA is open until 6:00 p.m., which can give you time to get there after work, depending on where you are driving from.

Please follow the recommendations of the vet/clinic where you are going to take your pet. Ask about food/water intake the night before and after the surgery, plus any other recommendations they have to help your pet.

It was extremely helpful, necessary really, that I brought our cats to the clinic in a pet carrier. This not only kept them safe and contained on the drive there, but also prevented me from driving off the road while the panicked cats jumped around the car or nestled under the brake pedal. After the surgery, the cats were very woozy from anesthesia and it is important NOT to give them water or food until the next morning. THIS IS NOT CRUEL. If you have ever had anesthesia, you know that you can be very nauseous afterwards for hours. If you allow the dog/cat to have water or food right away, they will likely return it in an unpleasant manner.

So, the pet carrier came in handy for us again as the cats spent their woozy night in it, safe from temptations of food/water, safe from falling down and hurting themselves in the house. The next morning I put fresh water and food in the bathroom and left them in there for the day while we were gone at school and work, so they would again stay safe and contained, and any mess they created would be contained as well. Now this works for cats, since you can leave a litter box in there for them. Dogs would require different arrangements!

Have you found a wild bird or other animal that needs medical attention? Do you need to identify the creature that you found? Try contacting the Outdoor Learning Center in Plano:

Outdoor Learning Center, Plano

3100 Shiloh Road - Plano, Texas 75074
Phone: 972-519-8168 Phone: 972-519-8761 Fax: 972-424-6839

If you have not already heard of the Outdoor Learning Center in Plano, you soon will if you have children. You may see one of its specialists, Jim Dunlap, discussing animal care on the Mr. Peppermint show on Saturday mornings on Channel 8 (is that show still on?). Jim also appears at schools, libraries and book stores discussing animals and their care. Pre-schools and PISD schools bring students to the Center for informative visits and hikes. The staff at Outdoor Learning Center works with domestic and wild animals and can make qualified recommendations.

Recently my family visited Dinosaur Valley State Park in Glen Rose, just southwest of Ft. Worth. While there, they featured a wild bird rehabilitation discussion, led by a local couple that is licensed to take care of wild birds that have been injured. The key word there is licensed. I learned that only licensed individuals are permitted to keep wild birds and rehabilitate them. It is best for the birds, as they require very special diets of items not typically found at our grocery or pet supply stores, not to mention facilities for them to mend properly. While there, I learned that if you do find a wild bird that has been hurt, it is best to move it carefully (with gloves) to a shoe box to keep it from being hurt more. It will need water… and a good temporary food for the bird, believe it or not, is dry dog food that has been softened in water to a mushy consistency. There is not a lot of advice about how to exactly get the water and food into the bird, and that will depend on the bird’s injury. Be careful not to drown the bird trying to get water into it!

My only experience with reviving a wild animal was last year when, admiring the mass of spring ducklings at a nearby pond, we found a duckling clinging to life at the edge of the water. We took the duckling home (where we share a house with cats, no less!) and I began to evaluate what its problem was while trying to keep it warm and safe. I did carefully get some water into its mouth with a medicine dropper, watching that it didn’t choke. I noticed while giving it water that it had a lump of white bread stuck in its throat. Have you ever eaten a peanut butter sandwich on white bread and it stuck like cement to the roof of your mouth? That was the duckling’s problem and it was choking him. Again, carefully, I probed the stuck white bread out of its bill and throat and I could see the duckling begin to recuperate quite rapidly afterwards. Where it was limp and gasping for air and unable to make the characteristic "peep" sound, the next morning it was jumping and running around in my bedroom, having successfully escaped its haven of safety that I’d made for it out of an overturned laundry basket and shoe box. Amazingly, it had eluded the attention of my cat that had been sleeping nearby. I had the privilege of taking the duckling with my kids back to its pond and releasing it to watch it quickly fall in line with other ducklings behind a mommy duck. My childhood wish of caring for a hurt wild animal was fulfilled and my kids enjoyed the experience of caring for an animal and truly helping it.

LESSON: when feeding ducks and ducklings, try to only throw very small pieces of bread, hopefully stale bread that isn’t too soft!

It seems that dogs and cats get the major share of attention when it comes to the subject of pets. But, in recent years, more and more "exotic" animals have become commonplace as household pets. Finding good care for them may be challenging, but there are a lot of resources I have found for them as well:

In Plano, there is a vet that offers a "Pet HMO" program. Call this vet to see what they have to offer for HMO pet services:

Paws and Claws Animal Hospital

2145 W. Park Blvd., Plano TX 75075-2949

Phone: (972)867-8800

OK, it's the '90s, and soon to be the 21st century...so I guess the time has come for a service that comes to your home to do the duty...or, the doodie...There are now businesses established across the country that come to your home and remove pet waste from the yard. One such business is in Plano, and they have their own website:

And, let's not forget the kitties. They say people have been trying for years to build a better mousetrap, but nowadays they're trying to build a better kitty litter box:

If you have found some terrific resource for pet care, medical services or kennels/pet sitting, please share! I would like to offer as much helpful information from folks’ practical experience as possible. Send your helpful information to me at:

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