Editorial

Every so often, a little flame war will erupt in WDJ’s Letters to the Editor, comment section on the WDJ website, or WDJ’s Facebook page. People will get mad. Other people will try to humor (or correct!) the angry ones. Some subscribers will cancel their subscriptions; others will pledge their support in the face of these tribulations and buy subscriptions for their friends.

My friends and family members know that I have a standing offer: If they know anyone who is looking for a dog – any sort of dog – I will keep an eye out for the dog of their dreams at my local shelter. And if I find a particularly good candidate, I will even take the dog home and foster him for a few weeks. I do this so I can work with the dog a little, to make sure he knows a few basic behaviors to impress his new owners (and fit in well in his new home).

Rain has been falling relentlessly in Thailand since July, and many parts of the country are experiencing the worst flooding reported since World War II. Bangkok, the capital and the most densely populated city in the country (with more than 9 million residents) is suffering from particularly severe flooding. This is in part due to the fact that one of Thailand’s major rivers, the Chao Phraya River, flows through the city, and the city sprawls over the plains and river deltas that lead into the Bay of Bangkok. Many inhabitants (human and otherwise) have nowhere to escape the flooding.

A recent headline for an article on petfoodindustry.com read, “Thank goodness for the humanization of pets.” The article discussed how industry sales data and recent surveys of pet owners suggest that pet foods that are made to appeal to human appetites are responsible for most of the growth in the industry.

Can we talk? I need some advice about WDJ. Last month, I mentioned that both my writers and I have endured some various challenging life events this summer, which delayed the appearance of a few articles. Fortunately, other terrific pieces were prepared ahead of schedule, or in a few cases, appeared out of thin air from one of my regular contributors. Despite the drama, we’ve been able to bring you a full 24 pages of information you could immediately put into practice – even if it wasn’t on the topics we hinted at in the “what’s ahead” bar that appears on page 24.

I think I may make this announcement every fall: I’m sorry that some of the articles that we’ve been promising (seen in the “What’s Ahead” column on the back cover) have not yet appeared. And other, unheralded ones have popped up. Even after nearly 50 years on earth, I can’t seem to manage my summer schedules properly.

Why, oh why, does Consumer Reports even “go there”? I have the utmost respect for the magazine’s reviews of vacuums and DVRs and such, but pet food is beyond their ken. Yet they persist. In “Tame Your Pet Costs” in the August issue, its authors advise readers not to “pay a premium for ‘premium’ dog food.” They put the quotes on premium dog food, to indicate their apparent opinion that there is no such thing. Sigh.

A few years ago, I asked Whole Dog Journal’s readers about the use of the words “owner” versus “guardian.” The response was polarized; either term makes some people see red. Perhaps that’s why the phrase “pet parent” has become so popular – it seems to avoid the third-rail effect of the other options, and conveys both caring and responsibility. But I have to admit; when one of my friends talks about her “canine son,” I tense up a little. I can’t even tell you why; it’s weird.

Bringing a baby or toddler (or even grade school-aged kids) into a dog park is the inappropriate human behavior I most deplore. When our kids were about 8 years old, a friend took my son, his twin boys, and their dog to the dog park – and then left them all there together while he drove someplace to get coffee. When he got back to the park, he was alarmed to see an ambulance in the dog park parking lot . . . and then horrified to see that the EMTs were gathered around one of his sons, while the other two boys stood by with frightened expressions. It turns out that the boys were playing (and probably completely absorbed in their own world) when one of them got flattened – knocked to the ground, hard – by a dog who was running by with a pack of big, boisterous dogs. Mike was okay, but he had the wind knocked out of him (and he has asthma anyway), so when it appeared that he couldn’t breathe, and the nearby dog owners learned that the boys were there without a parent, someone called 911.

Some months ago, I received a note from a subscriber that was titled, “Why I’m buying my next dog at the mall.” At first, I thought it was a joke. Then I read the rest and realized that the writer was perfectly serious. He described what had happened when he, as a first-time dog owner in his 40s, decided to get a dog.

For months now, I’ve been planning and thinking about and making notes for “Itching to Be Well,” the article about canine allergies that I wrote for this issue. My last dog, a Border Collie named Rupert, has been on my mind as I’ve been working on the article. Rupe was itchy most of his life, and though I became aware early on that he had a severe hypersensitivity to flea bites – the bite of a single flea could turn him into an obsessively scratching, chewing, red, irritated mess within hours – it took me almost a decade to discover that he also was allergic to chicken.

I received an email this morning, forwarded from a friend who manages a pet food company. I gather that my friend is feeling just like my husband. “Dear Sir or Madam,” said the email. “We have a new freeze drying factory, Tianjin Ranova Petfood, in Tianjin, China. Do you have time to visit us? We got ISO 9001 and ISO 22000 (HACCP) certified. Please see the attached pictures of freeze dried Pet Treats and prices. The prices have already included costs for irradiation. Are you interested in these products?