I was recently introduced to a lovely sentiment about dogs and decided it was worthy of being adapted for us cat lovers, too: It came to me that every time I lose a cat they take a piece of my heart with them, and every new cat who comes into my life gifts me with a piece of their heart. If I should live long enough all the components of my heart will be cat, and I will become as loving and free-spirited as they are. I hope you enjoyed this ZenCat thought of the day.

Today was "Just One Day," a day when shelters all over the country pledged not to kill any adoptable animals, while making a greater effort than usual to get them adopted instead.  The concept was developed by Nathan Winograd and his No Kill Nation group as part of their ongoing effort to get everyone involved in dealing with "unwanted" animals to recognize that there is actually a home available for every adoptable dog and cat currently being killed in the US.  NKN has conducted surveys and compiled data showing that the number of people planning on getting a pet in the coming year is actually greater than the average number of cats, dogs, kittens, and puppies that are being killed every year.  Based on the FaceBook posts today, it looks like Just One Day was a great success--and I will hope the point has been made that Just One Day can become just one more day, and then another day, and another day, and another day, with all shelters becoming No Kill shelters. F

Veterinary school is hard. This should not come as a shock, but I never really imagined just how hard it would be. I just figured all those years in undergrad (and believe me, for me there were many, many years of undergrad) would have prepared me beyond a shadow for the veterinary school curriculum.   After all, you have to get mostly A’s to get into veterinary school (my GPA was a 3.6) which means you must know how to learn, take tests, etc., right? Truth be told, throughout my 150+ units of undergrad education, graduating cum laude with bachelor’s degrees in biology and literature, and a minor in French, I never really learned how to study.   I learned how to take great lecture notes and regurgitate that which was handed to me as What Needed To Be Learned in Order to Pass, but semester after semester my always-new textbooks remained mostly unopened, and other than reviewing my notes prior to exams I really never studied outside of class lectures:   listen and regurgitate—I was

Learning that your beloved feline family member has diabetes may seem devastating, but in reality diabetes is very treatable in cats, and proper treatment will allow your pet to live a longer and healthier life. If your veterinarian diagnosed diabetes in your cat during his routine annual examination and blood work, then congratulate yourself for being a responsible pet owner and saving your precious baby the suffering involved when the condition remains undiagnosed.   But if your beloved cat has been suffering from excessive thirst and urination, a poor appetite, lethargy, and weight loss, you may also congratulate yourself on being an observant cat owner and getting kitty the help he needs.   (They certainly don’t make it easy for us to know when they aren’t feeling well!)   Left untreated, diabetes can result in wasting of the back muscles and back leg weakness, depression, vomiting, diarrhea, coat and skin problems,   an enlarged liver, jaundice, and even neuropathy (a loss of fe