Page 3

My cat Midnight has always kept her shiny black coat carefully groomed, without a single hair out of place. If someone strokes her fur in the wrong direction, she immediately sets to work making each hair look perfect again. But as she has climbed into her double-digits of age, she has an increasingly difficult time

My dog Magic loved carpet. With carpet, the possibilities were endless: it provided a convenient way to scratch an itch, a doormat to wipe his feet on after running through a mud puddle, his own giant napkin after dinner time, and the ideal terrain for scooting. Despite our attempts to train Magic and separate him

On the first hot day of the year, Daisy can always be found lounging on the backyard bench. She is so reluctant to leave the toasty cushions that somebody usually has to go out there and make her come inside before she gets overheated. When she finally does come in, she is always so itchy

On a cold autumn evening in 1999, my cat Midnight was born homeless under somebody’s front porch. As black-cat superstition foretells, the odds were stacked against her from day one—Midnight was also born the tiniest in her family. Fortunately for Midnight, her early struggles gave her a spicy attitude and a scrappy will to survive.

As my dog Magic aged, he became less like the carefree spirit we had adopted and instead grew quite irritable. In his younger years he was cheerful rather than crotchety, but as his fur began to gray and his fuse shortened, he seemed more like an old man character one would see in a movie

Our newly adopted stray Mella was obviously not a member of the feral cat colony which occupied our neighborhood. The feral cats would do anything to avoid humans as much as possible, even if that meant using storm drains as a travel system and only venturing out for food late at night. But Mella purposefully

While I stood on the doorstep and fumbled with my house keys, I jumped when I saw the pair of bright blue eyes staring at me from the bushes in our flowerbed. I knelt down and found that attached to those eyes was a brown and white striped cat quietly curled up in the shade.

When the time for Midnight’s annual wellness visit rolls around, she treats the entire day like a living nightmare. Once I take the cat crate out of the closet, she immediately darts under the bed and hisses her declaration of war. After I fish her out and attempt to lower her into the crate, she

My grandparents’ dog Foxy came in contact with all sorts of strange Louisiana country bugs during her daily exploration of their enormous backyard. These strange bugs often included ticks: parasites which can live in any wooded area. When Foxy ran through the tall grass, a waiting tick could attach to her skin and feed on

Focus on the textbook I reminded myself for the hundredth time. But before I was able to delve back into my study guide, I heard it again: cling cling cling cling cling— the jingling sound Magic’s collar made while he desperately scratched an intense itch. Once he repeated this very loud and exhausting routine, I

At Ranger’s yearly wellness appointment, his veterinarian warned Sophie to watch out for any vaccine reactions. The vet explained these possible reactions can vary— some dogs experience soreness, redness, or swelling at the injection site, and others might experience lethargy, loss of appetite, or mild fever the next day. She compared it to how some

My best friend Liz and her Shepherd mix Luna have been a package deal since the day Liz found her at a local rescue. Where Liz goes, Luna enthusiastically follows. But nobody ever minds, because watching Luna hop from person to person and squeeze all one-hundred pounds of herself onto someone’s crushed lap makes every