What To Do With Pets When Traveling?

This was never an issue for us until a few years ago. But in the past six years, we have acquired six pets: three cats, a dog, and a bird. Cats and birds are actually quite easy to care for, but dogs require a lot of attention. What can you do with your pets when you are traveling? It’s an issue that has come to the forefronts of our minds recently, particularly as we plan an extended vacation in the near future.

• Take your pets with you on vacation. Not exactly a great idea; I could do without the dog, the bird, and two of the cats… but I would hate to leave my youngest kitten alone, and I think she would suffer from severe loneliness.
• Get a willing accomplice friend or relative to come visit your pets and care for them while you are gone. We have done this a few times for only brief vacations.
• Send your pets to a pet-sitting business. I haven’t tried this, but I have heard of success with it.

What would you choose?

Adversely, pet-sitting could become something a small business for you, if you have a knack for it. Some people just love having animals around… temporarily! And others are just so amazing with animals– they are like pet-whisperers!– that I would trust them implicitly with my critters. Hey, it could be a very lucrative business! There’s a very cute website called CampBowWow and they have a terrific article on starting up a franchise Pet Sitting Business. CampBowWow has been in the pet-sitting business for eons, and they have lots of connections with their experience. You should check them out if you think this is something you’d want to do. And if you are in the Upstate New York area, definitely send me a note, because I would LOVE to travel without having to take all these animals with me!

Photo Hunters: Lazy

This was probably the most difficult topic I have ever encountered at Photo Hunters. It left me stumped! I finally decidied to go with a few photos, but with the majority of them, you might think the topic was “cats” or something! I have a lot of photos of cats sleeping and lazing around!

Here’s a photo we took of the lions at the Rosamond-Gifford Zoo in Syracuse. I was hoping to see them pacing and prowling and growling, but all they did was LAY THERE. What boring lions! You can read more about our visit to the zoo here.

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ZooToo for Pet Owners

We’ve been to a number of zoos in our travel adventures. I’ll be posting about a visit to the zoo in Syracuse soon. But I am beginning to wonder if WE won’t have our very own personal zoo, soon! We have two cats now, a Beagle, and a cockatiel. And I am soooo tempted to get a little Maltese dog. I’ve seen some pups recently and oh-my-gosh I want one I want one!

Sometimes having pets can be tough for us, especially when one of them gets sick. I’ve finally learned and gotten brave enough to remove ticks from the cats (ICK) but I confess I know next to nothing about birds or dogs. I often turn to the Internet for help, but I can’t say that I have found anything reliable. Until now. There’s a wonderful social networking site for pet owners, called ZooToo.com. I am really wowed by the site. If you own pets you should check it out. There’s a ton of stuff there– pet news, help and advice, pet videos (always a fun pastime!), information about free pet products samples, more. It’s a real social network– I can correspond with pet owners near me, and even read reviews of local services, pet vets, and more.

Got pets? You’ll like this website. It’s a good resource for pet owners, and a nice place to hang out and brag about your pets.