Bringing Home a Baby to Your Pets

August 18, 2017 Kathleen Bell

“Good luck still celebrating Scruffy’s birthday once you have a baby”

Hello fellow mothers and animal lovers!

Did everyone tell you that your dog or cat would take a back seat once you have a baby?

How about everyone asking “Where’s Scruffy in this picture?” for ages after you welcome your sweet new addition? (Was I supposed to have Scruffy with me when we were at the mall getting Santa pictures?!)

Or perhaps people have snickered at you when you compare your experiences raising a puppy with raising your baby? (Seriously! There are lots of parallels!)

These are all rights of passage for people who are crazy for (read: who love and adore) their animals, but also love and adore their human babies. You don’t have to choose, but just as you have to readjust when you go from one child to more than one child, there certainly are some adjustments and some precautions that should be addressed when you are bringing a baby home to your fur babies. This list is by no means exhaustive, but it is a good place to start.

Our Baby Announcement from my daughter Maria!

1. Establish a Plan

Once you know you are expecting, it is a great idea to have a plan for bringing your little one to meet your pets when coming home from the hospital. There is so much going on and going through your head once you have this new little life to look out for, so knowing ahead of time the plan of attack will greatly ease your own stress which will translate to your pet also feeling less stress. The plan could involve one parent taking home some things that smell like the baby ahead of time so that they meet the scent before the meet the baby. It could also involve another friend or family member taking your furry companion for a couple of days so that you have some time to adjust to being home and your pet doesn’t join the mix until you have your ducks in a straighter row.

2. Prepare Your Pet

A new baby in the house means more noise, more furniture and “stuff”, and less time for your attention. The more of this that you can expose your pets to before the real baby is there, the better. It sounds silly, but even try playing YouTube videos of screaming babies on loop from time to time, or causing a big commotion in a normally quiet house so that this is less unfamiliar to your pets for the real deal. Many a childless evening in my house before my baby girl was born there were screaming YouTube babies blaring through the halls! Make sure to have the baby’s things dispersed throughout the home so your pets have time to adjust to this change as well. And finally, I am not suggesting that you should try to ignore your pet to prepare them for the sharing of attention, but it is a good thing to promote devoted attention and divided attention. What I mean by this is, of course, having plenty of time where you lavish your pets with the normal attention they are used to (and make sure to devote some time to this once the baby arrives as well), but also. help them establish ways to cope with your attention being divided. This could be by getting them used to and happy with their kennel or crate again by giving them treats or a peanut butter Kong, etc. so that they look forward to going in there. It could also be by simply having a special treat or toy that you give them at a certain time, and taking that time to go do something separate from them. This way if you notice you are unable to give them focus for a stretch of time due to your new baby, they have a routine they are already familiar and happy with for when you are preoccupied. This treat or toy should be reserved for these situations only to strengthen the positive association as much as possible. The stark contrast of you being 100% theirs to much less than that can be a bit easier to handle with some previously established coping mechanisms.

3. Do not force an introduction

However you decide to time the introduction, I do recommend exposing your pets to the smell of your baby ahead of time (with a sleeper or a blanket they have used at the hospital perhaps). This will make the new smell a little less surprising when it is attached to your baby. When you do bring your baby home, it is important not to be forceful in presenting him or her to your pets. Your pets should be given as much time as they want before your baby is introduced and you should be in complete control of the introduction. It is important from the very beginning to establish that they cannot freely engage with your baby without your permission. Your pets gauge a lot from scent, so allowing them to sniff is perfectly acceptable, but you should always be in a position to remove your baby from the situation and you should teach your pet that when you instruct them to disengage, they are to obey.

Do I have to wear these glasses just because you're educating me?

4. Do your best to give your pets attention

I truly do know from my own personal experience that it is difficult to impossible to maintain the level of focus on your pets that you had before you had a baby, and all that you can do is try your absolute best. Some strategies I can recommend are: having you or your partner commit to a certain length walk or playtime daily, and Make. It. Happen. While one of you is tending to the baby, the other can be devoting some time to the pets. Even if all you can manage is 15 minutes, it will still make a difference. Another one is: think of activities that you can do with both your pet and your babies (more applicable to dogs). For example: going on family walks or to the beach, or on camping trips. And finally: give both your baby and your pet attention by working on training your pets on how to interact with your baby. Most pets enjoy being engaged in training sessions (could it be the treats??), and it will help establish a positive association between your pets and your new little one.

5. Start teaching your baby how to treat your pets ASAP

This one is interesting! You would be very surprised at how early instructing your child on animal interaction can have an effect. It seems like when you are the one that has to move their hands to touch an animal that it wouldn’t make a difference, but using the word “gentle” and very gently stroking your pets with your baby’s hand can start to ingrain in them the idea that you should be gentle when touching an animal. Lots (most? all??) of babies develop a tendency to do some swatting as they turn into toddlers, and this habit is easily directed towards unsuspecting animals if they are around your baby a lot, and this can obviously create dangerous situations. Your baby will understand the instruction of “gentle” and be more likely to comply quickly if they have had this displayed and taught from a very young age. Leading by example is also important as well, of course J

6. MOST IMPORTANT: NEVER – EVER – EVER – TRUST YOUR DOG WITH YOUR BABY

I am focusing more on dogs here, although I do feel the same applies to cats. It just cannot be stressed too much with dogs. There is no such thing as a dog that should be trusted alone with a baby. I don’t just mean: “Any dog can have an unexpected reaction to a situation”, although I will come back to that. I also mean that your perfectly lovely dog, who does not break from their loyal gentle self, can STILL harm (or worse) your baby without meaning to do so. From laying on them, to stepping on them, to trying to steal the baby’s blanket and pulling them out of their basinet, there are many ways that a dog who never shows any signs of aggression or prey drive can still harm your child. In regards to the issue of harm via unexpected aggression or prey drive, it really is true that this could happen with any beloved family dog, completely irrelevant of breed or temperament. It comes down to instincts and natural reactions. It doesn’t mean your dog is mean or generally dangerous or anything like that, it is merely that the consequences can be too severe to take any chances in regards to this. The lives of our children, and our animals, are far too precious to leave anything at all to chance. DO NOT EVER TRUST YOUR DOG ALONE WITH YOUR BABY.

7. Try to avoid all of your baby-pet interactions being in the form of “No”

This can actually be pretty tough! When you are trying to establish boundaries for your baby and your pet, and you are short on time and patience, it is easy to end up constantly having to say “No” to your pet. Be sure to bring the focus back to rewarding your pet for good behaviour as much as possible, and to promote behaviours that you want to continue (like giving your pet lots of attention and maybe some treats when they calmly lay by your feet when you’re sitting on the couch with your baby).

I would like to finish off by touching on the beautiful thing it can be to raise your child with beloved family pets in the mix That is why these tips, tricks, and precautions are so important J I have had the good fortune to see so many of these special bonds through working as a veterinarian, and also have felt the warmth and comfort of a special kitty by my side my whole childhood.

It has been such a wonderful and fun thing to watch my baby girl grow close with our dog Mary (who she originally called “Maymay”), and gently lay her head on her saying “awwww, Mary”. The unconditional, undying, never faltering love that we feel from our pets is life changing, I love watching it unfold for my baby girl! Everything that we can do to help promote the fostering of that bond opens our children up to a richer life, as the human-animal bond is like no other!

Africa Special Case #2-Stompie the Honey Badger!

August 7, 2017 Kathleen Bell

Stompie is a baby honey badger that was one of the first babies bred at the rehab! Stoffel, the famous honey badger at the rehab was given a mate with hopes that it would prevent him from continually trying to escape. Athena the honey badger gave birth to Stompie at the rehab in the early spring of 2016. It was Athena’s first known baby, and she was a very inexperienced mother. Stompie got his name from his “stumpy” tail. The rehab thinks that in trying to sever Stompie’s umbilical cord, Athena may have accidentally bitten off his tail. He also ended up with a pretty bad infection around his eyes and mouth, causing him some pain when he ate.

He was removed from his mother and brought into the care of the girls in the rehab, who fed him and kept his infection clear. He thrived under the care of the rehab workers, and when I arrived he was a little over 6 months old! I was lucky enough to be tasked with his care for a little less than two months while I was there. Stompie was on my rotation starting at 5:30am with several feedings through the day. He was still on milk for a few meals a day along with chicks 2x a day. He pooped a LOT and I spent countless time cleaning up gross honey badger poos in his enclosure hahaha.

All the technical gross stuff isn’t as fun as telling you all about Stompie himself! Stompie is the sweetest little soul. He was so smart (honey badgers are geniuses)! He loved going for walks, and we often took him into the back field and put honey on trees for him to climb up and lick off. He loved being roly-poly, and laying on his back for belly rubs. There was one volunteer I worked with for a little while who built these mobiles to hang in his enclosure and he loved playing with those as well! His playing style was like a kitten, he would chase the rake when I was cleaning his enclosure, and chase a string with a feather on it around on the ground. If someone walked by his enclosure and didn’t pay attention to him he would make little noises until you rubbed his nose through the fencing.

Toward the end of my stay, Stompie made an unlikely friend with the resident rhino orphan, Ntaba. He scratched Ntaba’s legs (if you know a little about rhinos, you may know that they are always looking for something to scratch themselves on) and so the two became the best of friends. It was an accidental meeting with the best possible result. You would not be likely to see a rhino and a honey badger as best friends in the wild!

Stompie made my love for animals with a wild side grow. He was so sweet and kind, and was quite honestly one of the most interesting (and stinky) animals on the rehab. He had amazing people to bring him up, and I was so lucky to spend the small amount of time I did with him! If you’re interested, you can go on YouTube and search “Stoffel the honey badger” and get to know a little bit about honey badgers, Stompie’s father and Moholoholo rehab!

Thanks for reading guys, I hope you’re enjoying my Africa series!

-Megan

Dogs and Exercise - Are they getting enough? Are they getting too much?

July 22, 2017 Kathleen Bell

Dogs and their needs, am I right?

When it comes to exercising dogs there are so many right answers, and that is the problem!

Every dog is different, and this has to do with several factors: breed temperaments, environment, personality, companions, the list goes on. Tailoring a dog’s physical activity schedule is a trying task, especially if you have several dogs of the same breed, different breeds, or just one mixed breed dog!

Because of how different all dogs are, there is no cut and dry method to making sure they get the right amount and kind of exercise. This is something that you and your dog will have to figure out together! Let’s start with puppies!

Puppies almost always have an abundance of energy. Finding the right exercise for your puppy is important not only for the health of your dog, but for your own sanity! Having a rambunctious puppy around the house can be incredibly hard on the patience of even the most patient owners. Tiring out a puppy mentally is just as important as tiring them out physically. Often a puppy can run and run and run without a second thought, but they will do better with mental stimulation. They can wear out their body but if they’re physically worn out and not mentally, this can result in restlessness or “unrestful resting.” In some cases this can lead to nail chewing, licking paws, wandering, destruction of property, and other behavioural issues. Making sure to try more than just walking or running your dog is a very helpful tool to prevent these behaviours! Teaching a puppy to fetch is a wonderful place to start. Depending on the breed, you may want to introduce them to tracking, obedience or agility. Puppy classes are highly recommended, as well as “doggy daycare”, as this will give your puppy a chance to get used to other dogs besides their litter mates, and puppy classes will give you a chance to connect with your puppy in ways you may not be able to without coaching!

Big dog exercise vs small dog exercise: Small dogs require different kinds of exercise than big dogs, but again, this is often dictated by breed. Some small dogs, like certain terriers, love a fetch game, whereas breeds like Maltese and Lhasa Apso may prefer a walk over rough running. Bigger dogs can also have preferences. For instance, Greyhounds like light walks or fast sprints, not jogging. Giant breeds like Danes, Newfoundland dogs, and St. Bernards may prefer walks, and then something lower impact like swimming, to running, as it can be hard on their joints.

How much exercise is too much exercise? I know there are tons of dogs out there that would chase a ball until they collapsed! The best thing to do for an over-active dog is make sure the exercises they enjoy are both mentally and physically stimulating. For instance, if you can’t get your dog into something like tracking or agility, you can spice up your fetching! Try not throwing the ball until they have completed a trick! They can learn tricks this way as well, and the ball is a very good source of positive reinforcement. Eventually your pup may learn that they have to sit or shake to have the ball thrown, and that is when you can add in a second trick - you see where I’m going with this? Making your pup think it through every time they want the ball makes them as mentally tired as physically. Now to actually answer that question! It may be hard to notice if your pup is tired, but here are some of the signs you may not notice as being signals for tiredness:

- Rolling around instead of engaging.

-Panting +/- looking for water

- Unusual barking

- Losing interest

- Being “sooky” or cuddling up to you

- Getting nippy

- Being cranky

Young dogs in their “teenage years” are more at risk of over-tiring themselves, and you may have to help them learn their limits. Make sure that their exercise is plentiful, but try to realize when any of these signs are present, and make them take a break.

Making sure that dogs use their inside time as a restful time is important in helping them understand that outside time is play time and inside time is re-coup time. If you can learn to crate your pup inside, it can help make their rest time… well… restful. Teaching a dog that after playtime it is rest time is one of the best ways to make a crate a happy place. Now, I obviously don’t mean that your pup should be crated all the time when they’re inside, but what I do mean is that, if your pup has a tendency to stay wound up even after an eventful playtime, putting them in a kennel to wind down can be so helpful for their recovery! Having some fresh water and a snack in their kennel can be a great treat for them after a good run or game of fetch.

All in all I guess what I’m saying is each dog is different, and you will have to work with your pup to find out what works best with you both. I hope this sheds some light on any questions you might have had in regards to dogs and their activity!

Dealing with a new addition-Hyperactive Kitten Edition

July 7, 2017 Kathleen Bell

Dealing with a new addition-specifically a hyperactive cat.

In December I decided that my long-time best friend and kitty companion, Bensen, needed a little brother. Since I have the great honour of working with Katie, we end up at the SPCA once a week to do viral testing on the kitties that come in! I was in the perfect position to get to know a lot of kittens and cats at the SPCA. I knew that I didn’t want a tiny baby kitten-it’s too hard to tell what their personality is going to be like. But introducing two adult cats can be pretty tricky. Bensen is a very chill submissive cat, so I was afraid bringing in another adult male cat that may potentially be dominant. So after about a month of looking into different options and making decisions I adopted the newest member of my family, baby Benjamin.

Statistically speaking, black cats take longer to be adopted if they do at all. Benji was really dark when he was younger, but now he’s getting in a very beautiful chocolate brown coat. He has beautiful emerald green eyes and is polydactyl (all four paws.) He hasn’t met someone that hasn’t fallen for him. That being said-they don’t have to go home with him at the end of the day. My new family member is so incredible, but let me tell you a little bit about the last 7 months of learning how to deal with a hyperactive cat!

As I’m sure many of you know-cats are nocturnal creatures. This is something I was aware of from having a cat growing up, and a cat of my own for the past 6 years. Some things I had not experienced with cats before having Benjamin:

· Full nights of not sleeping

· Crying for attention

· Destruction of property

· Misbehaving for attention

Mama what do you mean I'm not allowed in here?

The first night I brought Benjamin home, he slept through the night easily with Bensen and I in the bed. The next night was not the same at all. He wouldn’t lie down for more than a minute without getting right back up. When I stopped paying attention to him he would knock things off of counters until I got out of bed, or he would cry. Not like a small meow, I mean WAIL until I held him and consoled him or played with him. He chews everything he can get his teeth into, dumps over his food and water dishes, tosses his wet food to Bensen when I’m not looking. (Bensen is on a diet) He would up and down the hallway like a terror, bounce from the couch, to a dividing wall between our living room and kitchen, to the chairs on the other side, onto the counter and back again in a seconds time. It took me a long time to adjust and be able correct these behaviours, as I was under the misconception training cats is hard.

Fuzzy but I can't sit anywhere without him sharing my chair!

The truth is cats are incredibly smart; and training them, although tedious, is possible and even easy if you are willing to take the time. The key to training cats is the key to training any animal- consistency. Benji now understands several commands such as: Get down, no, come, sit, stay, give me a kiss, and high five. Commands lead to treats, and he knows that. It is a little easier to reign in his wildness with commands!

Commands only go so far for a hyperactive cat! My plan of attack for Benji was "exhaust him as much as I can." In the morning I open the door and Benjamin and I take off down the hallway on a tear and make a couple laps from the front of the house to the back. I have his toybox on the counter and toss toys the entire time I am eating, working, watching TV, reading, or doing anything that is not committing my full attention to him. Exhausting him while I am home is the best way to ensure he might be a little bit more calm later on in the day. While I’m gone I have an assortment of interactive toys that do not require me to be around that he uses to happily exhaust himself. One is a rotating ball with a feather on top that keeps him entertained for hours. Another is a squeak toy attached to a long elastic string that hooks over a door. (See bottom of post for links to these toys.)

The past 7 months have been a long road, but I am now to the point where 50% of the time, Benji sleeps in the room with me overnight. This is a huge success in comparison to when I first got him. The key is to never stop working with them- to always be consistent and never give up that one day they will be as behaved as you would like them to be. I know I spent nearly 2 months wondering how I could ever keep this kitten if he was this insane, and now I have a well behaved almost one year old cat, and I wouldn't trade my sleepless nights for the world. Let us know if this post was helpful, or if you have any questions about your crazy cat!

All the best!

-Megan, Bensen and Benjamin.

Spinny Ball with Feather- https://www.walmart.ca/en/ip/smartykat-feather-whirl-electronic-cat-toy/6000196083626

Hanging Door Mouse toy- https://www.walmart.ca/en/ip/play-n-squeak-cat-toy-batting-practice/6000001838538

The Africa Series – Special Case #1 – Skylar the Serval Kitten

June 23, 2017 Kathleen Bell

The Africa Series – Special Case #1 – Skylar the Serval Kitten

In the first Africa post, I did a short introduction on special cases, and Skylar the serval kitten! Skylar was estimated to be about 4-6 weeks when he was brought into the clinic as an orphan. When I was at the rehab centre, Skylar was about 3 months old, and was able to interact with the volunteers, instead of just the staff. I was blessed to be the first volunteer allowed to have Skylar as a special case! I want to give a little run-through about what a typical day with Skylar was, for a more in depth explanation on why having a special case is such an honour, and a task!

Skylar was kept in the clinic overnight until it was warm enough for him to be in an enclosure outside through the evening. This meant every morning and evening, he would need to be transported to and from his enclosure. Now I don’t know how many of you have tried, struggled and failed at forcing your domestic cats and kittens into cat carriers, so just IMAGINE trying to get a wild kitten into a box!! It was a task in itself some days! His enclosure needed to be cleaned daily, poop-scooped, water bowls cleaned, raked and occasionally scrubbing his concrete house! The bedding in the house needed to be changed if it was soiled. Just typical animal husbandry, however this was always done outside the normal rounds. Hence the “task” part of my intro!

When I first started caring for Skylar, he was on mainly liquids. By the end of my time, he was eating more solids than liquids. He needed to be fed earlier than our normal rounds, and in between, whilst other volunteers were on their break, and last feeding was after rounds at the end of the day. Preparing his food included heating milk, and thawing and preparing his meat. There was a LOT of handling raw meat, definitely not for the weak stomached. Although he was essentially hand reared from a month old, he retained a lot of his natural behaviours; one of this behaviours being food aggression. You needed to set the food down very quickly when you were feeding him or you would end up with very marked up hands!

My friend and fellow volunteer, Milly,  on morning Skylar watch. — My friend and fellow volunteer, Milly, on morning Skylar watch.

Skylar was high-energy, and as a kitten he needed as constant of attention as could be offered. There were “babysitting” shifts scheduled, and someone was with him at all times through the day to make sure he didn’t eat anything he shouldn’t, and had someone to play with him at all times. He was too young and light for quite some time, and could not have flea treatment as they didn’t have a small enough dose for him. All the supplies are donated to Moholoholo, so they do not always have the right sizes or doses for all the animals. Skylar had fleas and ticks picked off him daily, which seemed like a never ending task, but he was always grateful.

As wonderful as it was to be able to “play” with a wild serval kitten all day, it is important to always remember that Skylar is a wild animal, all these animals are wild animals. The attachments we try to form with them are to keep them from having to be confined with no other animals or interaction. the longer they are able to interact with people and not pose a significant threat, the longer they have some amount of freedom. Skylar could never be released, because of how young he was when he was brought in. I love Moholoholo, the staff and all they stand for. I think that all the animals in their care may have had a rough start at life, but are very lucky now. This entire experience was an honour, and caring for such amazing animals will always be the greatest experience of my life!