HoundsGood: Chronicles of a Virtual Volunteer

Many items in our food pantry and garden can act as natural and dietary remedies for people and pets, and conventional medicines also have some carry over in differing doses. Parsley added to dog treats or salads can safely freshen breath for both species, and aspirin can soothe aches if not taken with certain other medications, nor where other counter-indications are present.

One of the latest questions is if the antioxidant juices people drink can be good for pets, even as a last resort. One question in particular is if Nopalea, which is made from the juice of the Nopal cactus, can be also used for canines and felines who are suffering from inflammation. Firstly, the Nopal cactus comes from the Opuntia family, more properly, Opuntia Ficus Indica. The Opuntia is a tree cactus. According to the ASPCA, Opuntia is nontoxic to dogs and cats. If a pet accidentally eats a small piece of the plant, the results might be prickly, but there will be no poisoning.

Although the plant itself does not pose a high toxicity risk, the juice itself is not formulated for pets. Cactus juice, which as a slight laxative effect, is not sold in its pure form. To be palatable, Nopalea juice includes other ingredients as well as supportive antioxidants. The other ingredients, and not the cactus juice, makes it potentially highly toxic to dogs. The following is the list of Nopalea ingredients. Outlined in bold are ingredients helpful to humans but toxic, or possibly toxic to dogs and cats.

Proprietary blend of Water (filtered), Opuntia concentrate (nopal concentrate), Agave Nectar, Grape Seed extract (vitis vinifera), Raspberry extract (rubus idaeus), Strawberry extract (fragaria chiloensis), Cranberry extract (vaccinium macrocarpon), Apple extract (malus domestica), Apricot extract (prunus armeniaca), Mango extract (mangifera indica) fruit, Orange concentrate (citrus aurantium) juice, Papaya concentrate (carica papaya fruit with papain), Tomato concentrate (lycopersicon esculentum) fruit, Kiwi concentrate (actinidia chinensis), Guava (psidium guajava powder), Lemon concentrate (citrus lionum juice), Opuntia concentrate (nopal concentrate) powder, Peach concentrate (prunus persica) juice, Pomegranate extract (punica granatum with ellagic acid and punocaligans), Green Tea extract (camellia sinensis), Beet (beta vulgaris) juice, Bilberry concentrate (vaccinium myrtillus), Acerola cherry extract (malphigia glabra), Amylase, Cellulase, Hemicellulase, Proteases [bromelain from pineapple (ananas comosus) and papain (carica papaya) from papaya, lipase, phytase], Stevia extract (stevia rebaudiana) leaf, Guar gum, Maltodextrin, Natural flavor, Cherry powder, Xanthum gum.

• Stevia can be upsetting to the stomach or even fatal to dogs.
• Grapes are known toxins, which can cause hypercalcima, anorexia, lethargy and kidney damage.
• Parts of the prunis family, such as the leaves, stems and pits are toxic. The prunis family includes apricots, peaches and cherries. The actual fruit is not toxic, but in the blending process, other pieces of the fruit could potentially intermix.
• Healthy dogs produce their own Vitamin C. The jury is out on whether C supplementation is harmful or helpful, or may only be helpful in severely ill animals.

Before giving your pet a “home remedy,” note that their systems are not completely like ours. Read the ingredients very carefully. Not all products that do you good will do your dog or cat good, even if they are “natural.” Enjoy a glass for you, but don’t be tempted to give Mittens or Duke a sip.

At the age of 12, I proudly showed off my American Quarter Horse Association anatomy chart and coloring book that I received for free. My savvy little self wrote a nice postcard to the folks at AQHA asking for some. Too old for coloring books? On the contrary, the book was educational and provided many hours of tracing horses onto other mediums. To this very day, I still have the anatomy booklet.

Normally, I would not have pressed my luck, but I was emboldened by a wonderful leaflet that had lists and lists of things you could send away for, either for free or for the cost of postage or an SASE.

The little catalogs have all but disappeared, replaced by sites like ReallyFreeSamples.com and the like. Even though the internet is crowded with free free books online and free downloads, getting them does not feel like the personal victory my first coloring book did. Granted, you can get online freebies by mail where you will await a sample trial of toothpaste or a pocket schedule from your favorite team, but clicking a button doesn’t seem as much “give to get” work as actually writing in for something and waiting for your Little Orphan Annie Decoder Ring like Ralphie did.

What have you found lately for yourself or your pet that was absolutely free?

Guest post written by my buddy Aldo Mays

With a tummy full of butterflies, there was a big move in my family’s future. It has been many years since our little family had to move from one region of the US to another and we met the opportunity with excitement and enthusiasm. Our home search in New York turned out to be such a pleasant experience and we found an apartment for our family within a month.

I was beyond excited when I walked into my future kitchen and saw the gorgeous upgraded appliances any chef could ever dream of just waiting to be used. This was going to be the perfect test kitchen while I was in culinary school here in the big city.

In preparation for the move, I checked out energy suppliers to get rates for the new apartment and we were packed up and hitting the road before I knew it! Our move was complete within eight weeks and we were settled in just in time for orientation of one of the best culinary schools in the nation. My life could not be better!

There is one room in my parents’ home that has original hardwood flooring. It is the “forbidden room” when it comes to the dogs. There is a fear that their nails will ruin the finish. This is puzzling, since hardwood has stood the test of time and is the second oldest flooring option next to dirt. Sometimes hardwood flooring lasts for generations.

Granted, a pet can damage a floor but there are ways to keep both pets and the floor.

Selection: Choose a hardwood that is at least 3/4″ thick. The reason is that it will stand up to many sandings and refinishings if needed. Of course, you want to avoid refinishing the floor often, but choose with an eye towards longevity. A hardwood floor is not something that changes with the fickle changes in fashion, so care is important.

Cleaning Stains: To clean a stain, do not use ammonia based cleaners sometimes used for stubborn pet stains. Feces stains are easy to clean by picking the debris up with a tissue and following with soap and water on a cloth. Urine stains must be addressed as immediately as possible with water and vinegar.

Water and urine may cause a laminate flooring to warp or swell. With hardwood, the individual board may darken with repeated soilings or if the stain is not addressed in time. Individual boards can be replaced as needed rather than refinishing the entire floor.

High Traffic Areas: Consider an area rug, a runner or a throw rug for hallways and thresholds between rooms. If hardwood is near the entry where pets come in from outdoors, avoid excited dogs from slipping and sliding around the corners with a rug. When placing the piece, use a rug pad that has some grip to it. The rug won’t fly away like a magic carpet when dogs run around the corner.

Separation: Crate pets or restrict them to an area of the house when you are out, especially when the floor is new. It prevents injury to pets roaming the home in general as well as protects the floor. Of course, a living companion is more important than the floor, but most accidents occur when pets are left unattended, aside from situations that involve illness or chronic incontinence. It also removes the temptation to bless a new and interesting smelling item with their scent.

Interest rates are really not what they were for socking away money in the bank these days. Instead of hoarding my pennies, I have been investing my money in things that have a better return, such as a certification course that would help me find better opportunities. As for my mad money, I have been donating it to tax exempt charities. Savings rates are never completely insulting, even at 0.001%, as a savings account still teaches you to sock money away for a rainy day.

The upside of almost unsultingly low CD and savings rate is that loan rates are very low, so you can afford to make that long term investment of a home you have been saving for, or if you are a nonprofit, its a great time to purchase the land you have been needing to build your shelter or your ball field. Donated land is the ultimate, but it doesn’t always happen and sometimes the land is not correctly zone for intended usage.

The other “good debt” loan is of course buying a car. A friend if mine recently bought a car and was dazzled by the 0% interest rate. Actually, the 0% is not really 0%. If you read closely, the dealer will charge you one price and not charge you any interest, or offer you a $2,500 rebate for paying cash – your choice. So, really, you are actually paying the interest in a different way. The most important thing to consider is the bottom line number – the number you will ultimately pay in the end, rather tha the monthly payment.

If you do finance the car and don’t have perfect credit, you will have to pay some interest, though you DO pay interest when you pay 0% interest, as mentioned about. There is a sunrise finance auto loan calculator that you can use on the Sunrisefinance.com site that breaks it down when you plug in your numbers. You can try it free hand, but it takes awhile.

Interest rates are bound to go up again some day – but we really can’t have it both ways – low loan rates and high savings rates. It just doesn’t work. The best thing to do is to save for a rainy day, invest in things that will help us help others or have increased income in the future so that we may support our families and use other funds to make a difference.

Once I visited a home where the floors in the living room, kitchen and bedrooms were all textured concrete. The explanation? It was easy clean up for the pets and did not pose a tripping hazard for seniors. “It’s a long way down,” I thought to myself, as my hostess dropped a glass.

According to the Carpet and Rug institute, carpet is still a practical choice for both humans with mobility issues and for pets.

They advise:

For those individuals who use braces, canes or walkers, maintaining balance can be less difficult with low pile carpet combined with an extra firm cushion.

For pets, look at a carpet’s pile. A looped carpet is a poor choice when you have pets that like to dig or display a kneading instinct. Claws and paws can become stuck and cause panic, or the loops can simply be torn, making the carpet look ragged. Carpet color choice is only a factor if you don’t vacuum often. If you seldom vacuum, most dog hair colors are noticeable on dark carpets.

What about material? Here are some popular choices and some considerations:

If you have multiple pets or kids, wood floor and  is still practical if you choose the right one?

• Wool is the longest lasting carpet fiber. It is naturally more flame retardant (don’t confuse this with fireproof) than most synthetics.  No harmful chemicals are used in creating a wool rug. The trade off is that they do require professional cleaning when stains set, but wool rugs can potentially last for generations and hold its color. Some enzyme cleaners can be used on wool.
• If you are chemically sensitive, avoid carpets with a “stain resistant” treatment. Treat stains yourself. If you use synthetic, stain treated carpet, place them in areas where children and pets won’t be sitting on the floor or licking the carpet frequently. The chemicals will dissipate over time, but are most concentrated when the carpet is new.
• Olefin is very water resistant and static resistant, making it a good choice for indoor/outdoor carpet and aisle ways near kennels. It also works well for rooms where sensitive electronics are stored or repaired. It is a budget choice when compared to wool.
• Polyester is very stain resistant, soft and easy to clean. It is not easily damaged by skidding canes or ride-on toys, but polyester sometimes gets matted over time. Polyester throw rugs are a budget an alternative if you change your style frequently.

If you want carpet for warmth and comfort, do not assume that pets, canes, walkers and kids are a reason to go with tile. With a few careful considerations, your house can be exactly what you envisioned, without the concrete living room.

Many items in our food pantry and garden can act as natural and dietary remedies for people and pets, and conventional medicines also have some carry over in differing doses. Parsley added to dog treats or salads can safely freshen breath for both species, and aspirin can soothe aches if not taken with certain other medications, nor where other counter-indications are present.

One of the latest questions is if the antioxidant juices people drink can be good for pets, even as a last resort. One question in particular is if Nopalea, which is made from the juice of the Nopal cactus, can be also used for canines and felines who are suffering from inflammation. Firstly, the Nopal cactus comes from the Opuntia family, more properly, Opuntia Ficus Indica. The Opuntia is a tree cactus. According to the ASPCA, Opuntia is nontoxic to dogs and cats. If a pet accidentally eats a small piece of the plant, the results might be prickly, but there will be no poisoning.

Although the plant itself does not pose a high toxicity risk, the juice itself is not formulated for pets. Cactus juice, which as a slight laxative effect, is not sold in its pure form. To be palatable, Nopalea juice includes other ingredients as well as supportive antioxidants. The other ingredients, and not the cactus juice, makes it potentially highly toxic to dogs.  The following is the list of Nopalea ingredients. Outlined in bold are ingredients helpful to humans but toxic, or possibly toxic to dogs and cats.

Proprietary blend of Water (filtered), Opuntia concentrate (nopal concentrate), Agave Nectar, Grape Seed extract (vitis vinifera), Raspberry extract (rubus idaeus), Strawberry extract (fragaria chiloensis), Cranberry extract (vaccinium macrocarpon), Apple extract (malus domestica), Apricot extract (prunus armeniaca), Mango extract (mangifera indica) fruit, Orange concentrate (citrus aurantium) juice, Papaya concentrate (carica papaya fruit with papain), Tomato concentrate (lycopersicon esculentum) fruit, Kiwi concentrate (actinidia chinensis), Guava (psidium guajava powder), Lemon concentrate (citrus lionum juice), Opuntia concentrate (nopal concentrate) powder, Peach concentrate (prunus persica) juice, Pomegranate extract (punica granatum with ellagic acid and punocaligans), Green Tea extract (camellia sinensis), Beet (beta vulgaris) juice, Bilberry concentrate (vaccinium myrtillus), Acerola cherry extract (malphigia glabra), Amylase, Cellulase, Hemicellulase, Proteases [bromelain from pineapple (ananas comosus) and papain (carica papaya) from papaya, lipase, phytase], Stevia extract (stevia rebaudiana) leaf, Guar gum, Maltodextrin, Natural flavor, Cherry powder, Xanthum gum.

• Stevia can be upsetting to the stomach or even fatal to dogs.
• Grapes are known toxins, which can cause hypercalcima, anorexia, lethargy and kidney damage.
• Parts of the prunis family, such as the leaves, stems and pits are toxic. The prunis family includes apricots, peaches and cherries. The actual fruit is not toxic, but in the blending process, other pieces of the fruit could potentially intermix.
• Healthy dogs produce their own Vitamin C. The jury is out on whether C supplementation is harmful or helpful, or may only be helpful in severely ill animals.

Before giving your pet a “home remedy,” note that their systems are not completely like ours. Read the ingredients very carefully. Not all products that do you good will do your dog or cat good, even if they are “natural.” Enjoy a glass for you, but don’t be tempted to give Mittens or Duke a sip.

It’s too late to make donations good for deduction for this coming April, but its the perfect time to get 2012 off to an organized start. Cell phone and ink cartridge donations programs are popular for groups to mount. However, you cannot always be sure the group is getting the maximum benefit. Different cell phone recyclers offer differing amounts for the same phone in the same condition, but not all of them participate in mass donation programs. They will credit organizations that collect phones and send them in a shipment, but might not credit random individual cell donations to a charity that has not registered.

An alternative is to shop around yourself and  sell mobile phones that are collecting dust and lint in your drawer at a competitive rate to a recycler, and then in turn give the proceeds to the group of your choice once the check arrives. Sellmymobile.com has a list of various phone models and the going rate at a variety of recyclers. The site does not purchase cellphones, but gathers the reported data in one place. Once a match is made, you send the phone to the selected company.

When you receive your check, you can personally donate the funds to your group of choice. Since you shopped around, the rate might be higher than the funds realized by a group in a dedicated cell phone program. The other benefit is that a charity need not be registered with a recycler to receive a benefit. Granted, a publicized collection campaign does drive donations when a group mount ones, but shopping around yourself when you clean out your drawer and spreading the word to your individual network creates initiative. Oh, and of course – you divest of the clutter in your drawer. You can’t save every one for a 2037 Antique Roadshow episode.

I picture moving around the holidays as a big stressful, slushy mess–especially if the move is unexpected. My first roommate dropped the bomb somewhere around December 2nd of that particularly year that she was moving on. She would have courteously told me two weeks earlier to give me more time, but since I had been sick, she didn’t want to worry me. Really?

Moves like that can be a panic bomb, but even so, if you take a deep breath, it IS possible to find a rental situation and bring your four-legged friend along. That goes for the areas that are hit with the cold weather early, like Calgary.

Flipping through www.rentcalgary.com, I found that about eight out of ten listings I looked at accepted pets in some form or another. Some took pets 20 lbs and under, but other properties had no size restrictions. Some properties appear to be apartments and condos, but there are single-family homes, too.  When renting from the owner of an individual condo unit or home, sometimes there is greater flexibility on pets. The landlord may give your dog or cat a chance after meeting them if they are just over the size requirement.

Luckily, your four legged friends have allies in Calgary, as early as 2000, the city reported that:

• 87% of impounded dogs were returned to their owners. Average in a city was 17% of the time.
• 9% impounded dogs were adopted into new homes.
• Licensed dogs are driven right home rather than having an officer intake them at the pound. A small fee is assessed.
• Those that truly cannot afford impound fees are worked with.

Unfortunately, it is not possible to search properties by Pets/No pets specifically, but you can click on an area of town, then narrow the choices down by the minimum number of bedrooms and price. Each listing has appropriate verbiage about which pets are welcome.

Angie’s List used to be mentioned on one of the local TV affiliates way before I regularly checked the internet for product or service reviews. There really is an Angie, and her name is Angie Hicks, pictured at left. Her “list” started out in Columbus, Ohio and has slowly crawled to include all parts of the nation.  While the company has grown, she still injects her common sense into the spirit of the site and in day to day operations.

When I first checked it out, I was a bit put off by the membership fee, but as I have recently learned, the site offers a little more than Yelp and Yahoo. Every member is verified as a real person. You won’t get the restaurant owner’s brother creating 50 aliases to write glowing reviews about a total dive. What’s more, is since the membership is paid, you can’t Google to find individual reviews. No one is getting search mileage from spewing their pearls of wisdom.

While verified identities might not matter when reviewing CDs, there is a bit more at stake when looking for reviews of contractors, child care facilities and even veterinarians and pet services (And it doesn’t seem to matter whether you are looking for a Tumbleweed City, New York City or Austin veterinarian. Just try your town or city.)

You might be able to rely on word-of-mouth on the pizza place on the corner, but when you are new in town or you only know two people that have ever dug a pool or needed surgery for their horse, you often don’t get the whole story or the service was required so long ago that memories are foggy or folks are out of business. Guess I’ll cross Dr. Livingston off the list and Pan-Am off the list.