Zoe

Guess what? The August Pet of the Month contest will be open for two whole weeks of voting! That’s right! Two weeks! The lucky winner will receive a beautiful high-tech tag from our friends at BlanketID, plus a free three-year membership! How exciting! Keep reading to see this month’s finalists and complete voting details!

Leo and Meko

Coco

Okta

To vote, simply pop on over to the Pawsh Facebook page, write the name of your favourite furball on the wall and tell your friends to vote for their favourite too! The winner will be announced on August 30th!

And don’t forget to enter our September contest! Just email your pet photos to [email protected] — all pets welcome!

This is Maggie. A gorgeous girl who is waiting patiently at Hopeful Hearts for her new forever family. She has quite the story to tell, so keep reading to learn more!

STORY: Maggie came to Hopeful Hearts when her family could not take care of her anymore due to a new family member’s allergies. She weighs 68 lbs and is very fluffy, with long black fur. She enjoys car rides and is well behaved in the car and great with children.

FAVE SNACK: Anything. Maggie will eat anything, but loves liver snacks best.

FAVE GAME: Maggie loves to play catch me if you can. She will run around and teases everyone to chase after her.

BIGGEST FEAR: No big fears, just nervous around new people and dogs.

FUNNIEST QUIRK: Maggie flops on the floor very hard when she lies down, with a big bang. She is also uncomfortable with eye contact, so she turns her back to you, so she doesn’t have to look at you while your scratch her back…which she loves.

CATCH PHRASE: I am a little nervous at first but, take me for a walk and I will love you forever. I love exploring everything, rolling around in leaves and I get super excited when you come home from a day out.

If you would like to learn more about Maggie or any of the Hopeful Hearts angels, please email [email protected].

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Who was your childhood pet? Apart from parents and siblings, the childhood pet is perhaps the most significant bond a little one will make in their young life. A pet of some sort — be it a dog, cat, hamster, horse or rabbit — teaches so many lessons to a child without even trying. They teach patience, forgiveness, the importance of putting others first and above all, I believe, empathy — a quality that is often times rare. My childhood dog was…

Trilby — yes, named after the hat. She is a beautiful golden retriever/collie mix who kept me company, went on wild adventures and was always there to listen. She was adopted into my family when she was six-months-old after her former owner abandoned her. She is now 16-years-old and lives with my parents (it’s not fair to uproot an old dog from the home she’s known all her life once the child is ready for university in a new city).

Saying goodbye to her when I did move out was heart-wrenching, but I am always thrilled to see her when I visit and am always surprised how easily we fall into our old routines as though I was eight-years-old again and she just a pup (I still save her a little bit of my supper as an extra treat at the end of the day, as if I was a little girl trying to pass off my veggies to her under the table).

In so many ways I believe Trilby shaped the person I grew up to be and I cannot imagine what my life would be or what I would be like had she not been such a significant part of those early years. Of course I feel incredibly lucky to still have her in my life and to feel her presence in my grown-up years too.

Won’t you be nostalgic with me today? Who were/are your childhood pets? What did that bond teach you? How did it influence your life? I would love to hear your stories!

It’s important for our pups to keep their pearly whites clean and sparkling, but which chew do we choose to help maintain doggy dental health? When it comes to chews there are two main kinds; rawhide and nylon.

Rawhides are typically made from the inner layer of cow hides and satisfy your pet’s natural instinct to chow down. They are usually so appealing and tasty that dogs will happily chew on these for 30 minutes to an hour without interruption (the more compressed a rawhide chew is, the longer it takes a dog to get through). However, the rawhide can cause some digestive irritation in sensitive dogs, tend to be high in calories, and can sometimes also cause other allergic reactions due to chemical treatments. They also don’t last much longer than a day and are prone to messiness. Ever picked up a partially chewed rawhide before? It’s not the greatest feeling in the world.

Nylon bones on the other hand are designed to last for months (or longer!) They come in a wide assortment of shapes and sizes, are infused with flavour to entice chewing sessions and have zero calories (perfect for the pooch who is on a diet). However, they don’t have any nutritional value and unfortunately many dogs fail to take an interest in them or routinely engage.

Of course, every dog has different tastes and will inevitably have their own preference when it comes to which type of chew they will react to. Rory has two of Nylabone‘s nylon bones and never tires of playing with them; although she does also enjoy the occasional rawhide from time to time too.

If you had to pick between these two types of chew, which would you treat your dog to?