Miami Herald

Does your dog need a massage?

Q: Do pets benefit from massage therapy? I’m a massage therapist, and after decades of living with pets I’ve found that cats and dogs with arthritis experienced increased mobility with massage. Is this something veterinarians routinely recommend for their patients? If not, why?

A: Pets are not so different from us when it comes to massage. In fact, massage has been used to soothe tired and sore muscles in racehorses for eons. Why should it be any different for dogs and cats?

It’s not. All domesticated mammals seem to respond to massage to some degree. Dogs, especially, seem amenable to gentle palpation and manipulation of their muscles. They tend to welcome this ministration almost as an extension of the affectionate petting you’d normally lavish on them ...

The Water Bowl

Trump’s Pets and the Future of the Furred First Family (A Curious Veterinarian’s Speculations)

Yes, there's a Presidential Pet Museum in Washington, a place that documents and honors the wild and wooly history of our many leaders’ animal company.

It’s kind of cool, right? More so when you consider that nearly every single president has enjoyed the presence of a pet during their White House tenure.

Which is why many avid lovers of pets (myself included) are waiting with bated breath to see what stripe of pet Trump will bring into the nation’s most symbolic building.

Pish posh! you say? What does it matter? Not so fast, y’all. It’s clear, to me at least, that there’s a correlation between a presidential family’s relationship to pets and the nation’s to its own dear fuzzed ones ...