Petside Items: Heat, swimming and Air Conditioning

Summer is in full swing, and as a sun bunny I am soaking up every minute I can outdoors - with sunscreen of course. Walking has become my new favorite activity, and my friends with pools are my new BFFs. Things have been going great, until I realized that for my Sheltie, Maxi, summer represents the opposite. Just like that, his quality of life has seemingly been on a sliding scale. Due to the dangers of the heat, gone are the extended walks just for fun. Now, the only time we take him outside is for the basic necessary functions, and then it's a quick return to the air conditioning. It's not that I haven't tried. Just yesterday I optimistically packed several plastic bags, donned my sneakers, and we set of for a long walk. But just after a few minutes, Maxi was slowing down and panting. When his tongue started hanging out, I decided to abort the idea and go home. In addition to the heat, the summer poses a few other dangers for our pets. Last week, our friend Rosie the Labradoodle busted through her electronic fence and galloped 1/4 mile to the Imperatore's house. First, I must give Rosie full honors for turning corners and weaving up hills to remember the way to a house she has only occasionally been taken on her daily walk. Genius aside, Rosie charged up the driveway, ignoring shouts, yells, and commands, and galloped herself right into the swimming pool. Luckily, the Imperatores and their visitors were in the pool, as it was only after she jumped in that Rosie 'realized' she couldn't swim. Sadly, the very next day, I heard about a dog who slipped through a pool gate and possibly, as she was an older dog, had a dizzy spell and fell in. Her fate was not as fortunate as Rosie, and she was found dead by her owners later that day. Stay tuned to petside, in the coming weeks we will be featuring more on the dangers of heat, the scoop on old dog dizziness, and even a list of dog breeds that are not capable of swimming. Yes, it's definitely a myth that all dogs can swim. In the news, we are still faced with the mortgage crisis and the fate of pets whose owners are victims of forced foreclosure. Do you have any tips to share on how to cut pet care costs? Do you know of any local groups helping adopt foreclosure pets? Write to us at stories@petside.com and share your tips.