Go Fetch Gifts Blog

Another close call for Aura kitten

Go Fetch Gifts — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 02:20:17 +0000

Two weeks ago, I spent a lot of time typing “cat ate string” into search engines. Aura, my 10 month old Ragdoll, ate some. A lot of some.

In my 15 years of cat ownership, this is the first time I’ve had to deal with this, other than the time when my late Persian ate about 2 1/2 inches of string and I didn’t know it until I found him running all over the house trying to pass it on the carpet.

Da Bird toy of death

Aura ate the string from her Da Bird toy. I had read about what a great toy this was, and it was for a few months. She loved it. I was always vigilant about putting it away when we were done playing with it, but she’s such a calm kitten in general that this time I didn’t. I was out all Saturday night at a wedding, then came home and went to bed. When I woke up Sunday morning, I went to pick up Da Bird. The pole and the feathers were laying side by side. The two feet of string that connect them was gone. There was about two inches of string left attached to the pole and then attached to the hook that the feathers connected with. The cuts were pretty clean.

I looked everywhere, but I couldn’t find that 2 feet of string. I panicked. I cried. I blamed myself. I deduced that it had to be Aura. My other cat never chews on string, and Aura does at times. My other cat hardly has any teeth left. My dog isn’t the type to chew on string, either. As a test, I picked up the remaining string and showed it to the dog. He sniffed and looked away. Aura sniffed and immediately tried to take a bite! A ha! I watched her like a hawk. I started giving her vaseline twice a day. She wasn’t exhibiting anything odd. She was still passing normal looking stool once a day. But after four days of constant worry, I took her to the vet for an x-ray.

I love striiiiiiiing!

The vet thought she felt something hard in Aura’s tummy, but looking at the x-ray, all looked normal. The danger was, if she hadn’t passed it by then, it could be binding her intestines causing internal damage and bleeding. It could be sitting there gaining bacteria. It could cause blockage. Or it could be wrapped around her tongue, and the rest could be trying to pass through, thus pearling up her intestines (however I think this string is a bit on the thick side for that).

But it is now two weeks later, and had I not known that that 2 feet of string is missing I would be none the wiser. Nothing has changed. I’ve seen no sign of the string. I’ve tried to check every stool, but a new discovery brings to light the fact that I have missed some opportunities. This morning, it was confirmed that the dog does indeed eat out of the litter box at times. Great.

So, besides the fact that my cat eats string and my dog eats cat poo, all is well here!

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Win Anti-Pet Dander Pillowcases from Bed Bath & Beyond

Go Fetch Gifts — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 05:20:15 +0000

It’s summertime and allergies are running amuck! I’ve got good news for pet lovers who hate allergies. Bed, Bath & Beyond is sponsoring this blog post by giving away two standard size Allergy-Luxe anti-dander pillow protectors. Value of $30.

I used to work at my local humane society, and most of my co-workers there were allergic to animals or had allergies that were worsened by dogs or cats. And most pet lovers love sleeping with their pets at night! As we age, allergies come and go and our body’s immune response to stimulants waxes and wanes. It can be difficult to get rid of allergies, and then they can come right back. So prevention is important even when we are feeling fine.

That’s why the Allergy-Luxe pillow protectors make a wonderful addition to any pet lover’s home. You just never know when allergies are going to strike!

These two luxurious, ultra hygienic pillow protectors are allergist recommended, physician endorsed, and laboratory tested. They measure 20 inches by 26 inches.

To enter to win both pillow protectors:
- simply post a comment to this blog letting me know about your allergies.

- Bonus 2nd entry for following me on Twitter, and

- bonus 3rd entry for tweeting this: @LeighPeterson is giving away two Bed Bath & Beyond luxury anti-pet dander pillow protectors! http://bit.ly/ah-choo

Must be 18 or older to enter and have a US mailing address. Entries accepted until midnight EST the morning of July 18.

**No Longer Accepting Entries**

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Pet Product Warning: Virbac Animal Health’s CET Aquadent

Go Fetch Gifts — Sun, 09 May 2010 21:12:13 +0000

I’m a big fan of xylitol in my toothpaste and sugar-free gum. It’s actually good for your teeth. So my ears perked up years ago when I heard that just like chocolate, xylitol is toxic to dogs and cats, and I should never leave my gum or toothpaste lying around where my pets could get at them. Not a problem.

If you've been giving this to your pets, stop today!

Then why on earth is Virbac Animal Health, a so-called “industry leader in the scientific research, development and manufacture of quality, proven pet pharmaceutical products” for OVER TWO DECADES, selling a product for dogs and cats that lists xylitol as the 3rd ingredient after water and glycerine!? I am shocked.

The product is called CET AquaDent, and it’s a drinking water additive for dogs and cats. It’s supposed to help keep their breath fresh in conjunction with brushing.

The ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center sees over 100 cases of xylitol toxicity annually. According to the center, dogs ingesting significant amounts of items sweetened with xylitol could develop a fairly sudden drop in blood sugar, resulting in depression, loss of coordination and seizures.”

With smaller concentrations of xylitol, the onset of clinical signs could be delayed as much as 12 hours after ingestion,” according to a 2006 press release from the center.

That was four years ago, Virbac. Shame on you.

In September, we’ll be giving away a pet oral health kit from Naturally Green Tropiclean, including a similar water additive and teeth cleaning gel, neither of which contains xylitol. Stay tuned!

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Take My Breath Away

Go Fetch Gifts — Fri, 07 May 2010 20:40:55 +0000

Spotted this love fest happening today and quickly got it on film…forever…with my camera phone. I think that’s all that really needs to be said about this photo.

Aura and Mr. Blue, in love.

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Donate Pet Hair to Help Clean Up the Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill!

Go Fetch Gifts — Thu, 06 May 2010 00:00:57 +0000

It’s difficult to feel helpless in situations like the huge offshore oil spill, especially when you love animals and you know that they are now suffering.

Don't throw out that pet hair, donate it!

Here’s something we all can do to help: Donate our pet’s loose fur, horse hair, and our own locks to help soak up the oil! Hair soaks up oil (which is why we have to wash it), and can be made into mats and poured into nylon tubes to help soak up the oil.

To learn more about how to donate, talk to your local hair salon and groomer, and visit Excess Access.

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May Giveaway: Cold Spray Anti-Bark & Training Collars

Go Fetch Gifts — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 19:07:28 +0000

First of all, congratulations to the winner of the FURminator, Jill of TheCatNetwork. Jill’s #2 was chosen by Random.org. Jill is part of a non-profit cat rescue in Florida, so a lot of hot kitties will be getting rid of their loose fur with the help of the FURminator deLuxe. Your FURminator is on its way, Jill!

Now onto our new giveaway for May, courtesy of WagAndBark.com. They have supplied us with two different safe, humane, pain-free anti-barking and training collars for dogs, as well as a Tic Taser so you never have to touch a tick again! That means with this giveaway, there will be THREE lucky winners!

In the past month, I have found a wonderful training method for my mischievous 8 month old kitten: a blast of cold air on her back from a can of condensed air. She hates the feeling, the sound startles her out of her behavior, and she immediately stops what she is doing. The training collars from WagAndBark.com work the same way. No jolts or painful electric shocks, no smelly sprays, no rolled up newspapers, no more cowering dog, afraid you’re going to reprimand him for something he doesn’t remember doing, whether it was ten minutes or three hours ago.

One lucky reader will win a complete JetCare System remote control training collar suitable for dogs of all sizes, over the age of 8 months. (Retail value $199.95!) One important element of dog training is to remember that dogs want to please us. They learn much better from positive reinforcement from the humans they love. This remote control unit allows you to train your dog without frightening him, and reward her when she stops doing something wrong and comes to you instead!

The JetCare^® System Education Pro Kit with Odorless Refill’s remote control has three buttons: 1) a sound button which alerts the dog it is time to cease his behavior; 2) a button providing a short burst of cold air (one second); 3) a button providing a slightly longer burst of cold air (three seconds). This training collar requires your participation. It is to redirect unwanted behavior and reward your dog when he is acting how you want him to act.

A second lucky reader will win a mini anti-bark collar for dogs under 17 pounds and over 8 months (retail value $119.95). This collar includes a microphone so that the harmless cold air spray will activate upon your dog’s bark.

A third lucky reader will win the very handy The Tic Taser™ with Piezo Electric System, “An effective and ecological method to eradicate ticks.” (Retail value $19.95.) This pen-shaped device uses no batteries. It works via the Faraday cage system of electrical charges. The ball at the end goes around the tick while it is attached to the body of its prey. Closing the “cage” around it creates a charge that destroys the tick’s neurological system. You can read more about the Tic Taser at WagAndBark.com.

Have I seen this Tic Taser in action? Thankfully, I have not as I have not yet seen a tick this year to test it on. But at such a great price, it would certainly be a wonderful gift to your entire family if you live in a wooded area and deal with ticks often.

How to enter:

1) Mandatory: Subscribe to the Go Fetch Gifts Blog via a reader or email (in the top right corner). This way you won’t miss out on all the awesome pet product giveaways coming up this year!

2) Mandatory: Leave a comment on this blog letting me know you subscribed and using which method. You also must include WHICH collar you would like to win: the remote control training collar or the mini anti-bark collar.

3) If you include in your comment that you now follow me on Twitter and “like” our Facebook page, you then get one more entry for each. Tell me your Twitter name so I can follow you back!

4) Tweet this for a bonus entry:
@LeighPeterson is giving away anti-bark & training collars at http://www.GoFetchGifts.com/blog/

Entrants must be 18 and older and items will only be shipped to addresses in the US. You may enter up to midnight Eastern time on May 27, 2010. Winners will be selected using random.org by June 1, 2010 and notified via email. Winners will have three days to claim their prize.

Good Luck! Woof!!!

Comments & entries are now closed.

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Happy Earth Day! Are your pet cleaning products Eco-Friendly and Safe?

Go Fetch Gifts — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 03:41:19 +0000

April 22nd is Earth Day! It is also the 40th anniversary of the environmental “holiday,” which was founded in 1970 following the grassroots efforts of Senator Gaylord Nelson.

In honor of Mother Earth, I’d like to introduce you to a line of eco-friendly and pet-safe cleaning products: CLEAN + Green.

CLEAN + Green is the only line of eco-friendly aerosol pet cleaning products on this beautiful planet we all share. The developers of these all-natural stain and odor removers, SeaYu (Twitter: @SeaYu), were kind enough to send us some samples so we could see and sniff the results for ourselves. We give it four paws up! The company offers a large array of products, including cleaners and odor removers for carpet and upholstery, concrete, wood and tile, autos and cages, as well as de-skunk cleaner, litter box cleaner, and furniture refresher.

I used to love using Febreze. I would “freshen” up the furniture and carpet with it and enjoy coming home to a fresh smell. But after my Persian cat developed some sort of growth on his liver, I started wondering if I might have contributed to its development. It occurred to me that my pets were constantly laying on the surfaces I had doused with chemicals, and their noses were much closer to the fabric and carpet than mine ever was. They were breathing in much more of these chemicals than I, and their bodies are smaller. I haven’t used Febreze since, and I admit, I miss it.

So, I tested Clean + Green’s Furniture Refresher and Carpet & Upholstery Cleaner.

The Furniture Refresher is a light, clean mist. Like all Clean + Green products, the ingredients are organic, biodegradable, non-toxic, non-flammable, non-carcinogenic, and contain no harsh chemicals or perfumes. You won’t enter the room to a perfumey smell with Clean + Green’s furniture refresher, but the spray smells much healthier. It smells very fresh, kind of like a mountain mist or morning dew. But that odor stays where it is sprayed, refreshing on contact. When you walk into the room, you don’t smell….well, anything. And that’s a good thing.

I tested the Carpet & Upholstery Cleaner on some very old stains and two newer stains (thanks, kitties) and couldn’t believe my eyes. I wish now that I had taken a before photo so I could show you how well this product works. I wasn’t expecting it, to be honest, because the ingredient list is so natural and seems so tame. I guess I’ve been trained to think that you need harsh chemicals to clean stains. But when I went to check on one of the spots I had sprayed, I could barely find it!

If you think like me (a child of the 80s and former big-banged hair spray addict), you might wonder how an aerosol spray can be healthy for the environment. So I asked a Clean + Green PR rep about that and it was explained to me as such: “Aerosol isn’t a chemical, it is just a ‘liquid suspended in a gas.’ So – Clean+Green uses a nitrogen-based propellant, and nitrogen is naturally occurring in 72% of earth’s atmosphere.”

Visit the Clean + Green web site for more reviews, coupons, rebate offers, and to purchase or use the store locator. Unfortunately, the locator doesn’t show that I can purchase the products near me yet, but you can purchase online and receive free shipping on orders of $25 or more.

You can also become a Clean + Green fan on Facebook.

(Psst, please become a GoFetchGifts Facebook fan too!)

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It’s Charlie’s Birthday!

Go Fetch Gifts — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 03:07:18 +0000

Happy 15th birthday to my beautiful, naughty, old, toothless, brown tabby, Charlie! AKA Char-bear, Gummy Bear, Charlie Bell, Big Boy, and Daddy Warbucks Chest.

Mom and Charlie in 1996

Mom and Charlie in 2010

14 years ago this month, I had just moved to Chicago to attend Columbia College. One day I realized I could now get a pet, as I lived in an apartment and not a dorm. I went around to a couple shelters. I saw Charlie in a glass cage, next to a beautiful, fluffy, beige kitty who was sleeping in her litter box. I left.

I went back the next day, and the beautiful girl was gone. Charlie bonked his head against the glass, hard. He wanted to head butt me. I asked to see him, but they said they didn’t take any cats out of their cages (weird??). His tag said he was 11 months old. I adopted him. He was my first kitty ever. He was a naughty, naughty boy. He still is. I love him. Sometimes, I think he loves me too.

Charlie in 1996, a skinny boy with big ears.

14 and Fabulous!

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Win a FURminator!

Go Fetch Gifts — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 02:24:26 +0000

Update: Congratulations to our winner, Jill!!!

Our first pet product giveaway is here! Win a brand new FURminator deLuxe size medium for dogs and cats. This product is available at pet retail stores, veterinarian offices, and online, and retails for $54.99.

Spring is here, which means an increase in shedding in our dogs and cats. This can mean extra cleaning time for you and hairballs for your cats.

Verdict: Does the FURminator work? Yes!! The FURminator uses patented technologies to remove the undercoat and loose hair, and reduces shedding up to 90 percent. I’ve done a video review of the FURminator with my dog in the video below. As you’ll hear in the video, I first bought a cat sized FURminator for my cat last summer, when he started having frequent hairballs. The hairballs ended immediately when I started grooming him with the FURminator. My regular brush and comb wasn’t doing the job.

I never tried the FURminator on my dog until I received the Medium sized tool today. You’ll see the results in the video! Although I only use it on my dog in the video, the medium size will work on adult cats as well. The package states “For medium dogs and cats.”

You can enter this contest in three different ways. Each method means an extra entry for you!

1 entry: Comment on this blog post.

2 entries: Follow me on Twitter and comment on this blog post to let me know your Twitter name.

3 entries: Become a fan of our Facebook page, follow me on Twitter, and comment on this blog post to let me know your Twitter name.

Bonus 4th entry! Tweet about this contest, including a link to this blog post and my Twitter name (@LeighPeterson) in your tweet so I can see you’ve tweeted.

Please note, I will only ship the FURminator to addresses within the United States. Contest ends on April 24, 2010. Random winner will be chosen and notified via email.

Thank you to FURminator Inc for sponsoring this blog post and giveaway. More pet product giveaways coming soon. Subscribe to this blog to be notified!

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Exciting Giveaways Coming Soon!

Go Fetch Gifts — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 16:44:30 +0000

I have some exciting things in the works for the Go Fetch Gifts Blog in 2010: Contests and giveaways! Subscribe to this blog now so you don’t miss out on the chance to win pet products like eco-friendly pet cleaning products, allergen reducing bedding from Bed Bath and Beyond, dog toys and treats, waste removal bags, and other fun goodies!

Win a FURminator!

Our first pet product contest is for a FURminator! Win a brand new, medium sized FURminator deLuxe deShedding Tool for dogs or cats. I got a cat sized FURminator for my asthmatic cat last summer when I noticed he was starting to have frequent hairballs. I quickly realized he was shedding more, and regular brushing didn’t seem to help. So I got a FURminator and the hairballs ended immediately.

April 30th is National Hairball Awareness Day

The FURminator we’ll be giving away is the most popular size, however, and will probably work for both dogs and cats. We’re heading into shedding season, and the FURminator is the best way to control shedding in your home.

I’ll have different methods to enter the win each pet products. Many will involve following me on Twitter or becoming a fan of our Facebook Page, so you might want to get a head start. You’ll be able to enter to win once, twice, or three times by using each method!

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