More forced spay-neuter: Delusional thinking ad naseum
Problem: Unowned cats are “out of control” in Las Vegas. Not a Solution: Mandatory spay-neuter of owned pets, four months of age or older. Wha? Too bad no one was paying attention when the No Kill folks were in Vegas recently offering actual, you know, solutions. Instead, we get the same old batch of “We have no proof mandatory spay-neuter helps, nothing but proof that it kills more pets,  but we gotta punish us some people we hate, so …  we’re good with that!” From the Las Vegas Re

Newest member of the PetConnection team
Reagan Avelle Shannon Born last night!  Weight:  7 lbs., 11 oz.  9:29 pm PT. It may be a while before she starts blogging, though. Congratulations to her parents, Mikkel Becker Shannon and her husband, Patrick Shannon. And more congrats to the grandparents, especially our own Dr. Marty Becker. Wow! The Becker-Shannon pugs, Bruce and Willy, are said to be delighted. They hear that babies drop food … a lot!

The Diva dances: I love Zenyatta
Yes, you know I am a racing fan.  It has been my privilege and honor to have seen Zenyatta win in person three times. Alas, yesterday was not one of those times: I had to watch a taped replay after, from 500 miles away. There has never been one like her, and I will never see one like her again. This, I know. I do not care what you think about racing. I do not care what *I* think about racing. I know there are problems, many, and for this one day I do not care. Today … I salute Zenyatta, the charismatic Queen of Racing.

Why Karen Pryor was a game-changer, and not just for dog-trainers
I became a fan of Karen Pryor when I read her first two books “Don’t Shoot the Dog” and “Lads Before the Wind” many years ago. “Reaching the Animal Mind” Clicker Training and What It Teaches Us About All Animals” is her newest book,  and in it she revisits the paths she covered in earlier w

Have you looked at the moon this week?
. When I was living in rural northern Florida almost a decade ago, there was nothing to see except the night sky. Electronic media was pretty iffy, and although that took some getting used to, I eventually stopped noticing when the cable was up or down and just left the TV off. My entertainment was the sound of the surf and the sight of the night sky — and a good book, usually. With almost no light pollution — t