Animals

Win a MONTH of Coaching! (and save cats)

The pandemic is throwing a wrench, at the very least, in almost everyone’s life. Non-profit organizations, who are always strapped for resources, are especially hurting right now. Feral cats aren’t going to stop giving birth to kittens on the streets because of the coronavirus and Kitty Bungalow cannot stop saving the most at risk population of “domestic” animals. As a result, they’ve rolled out an amazing raffle to help raise funds to keep saving lives. We’ve teamed up with them to offer a training package that hasn’t been available for a long time. Find out more information by watching me talk about it HERE ON YOUTUBE.

Then, once you’re done with the video (or when you’ve heard enough). you can ENTER HERE and be a total hero for cats!

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Supporting Sweat Angels by Causely

A few months ago, I shot a commercial/promo for Best Friends Animal Society. My co-star Roxie, who is one of my all-time favorite rescues, sat with me for a long time as I recited lines to the camera. She was an angel. (She is currently in a home and so far, so good.) You don’t see a whole lot of her during the commercial, as the video features amazing footage of rescue animals. You will, however, hear my voice telling you about the partnership between Causely’s Sweat Angels and Best Friends. 

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What is an ESA? Our Experience with CertaPet

FULL DISCLOSURE. That is what this experience was all about. A few months ago, a representative from CertaPet reached out to us to partner with the blog. We receive many requests like this every day, but ignore a lot of them for many reasons. They might be supporting something we don’t or it might not be related to our mission here, which is to help you all find a happy and healthy life. I was intrigued with this one because 1) you know we’re huge animal lovers and 2) my other career is in animal welfare. I talk about Emotional Support Animals (ESAs) every single day. People call me and ask where to get ESA letters, if their landlord can charge them pet rent, what an ESA is, etc. I figured it couldn’t hurt to see if this service was legitimate, since there are so many different ones out there.

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Our Valentine – 5 Years of Noke

On February 14th, 2014, we adopted Sarah (later to become Noke) from the Humane Society of Boulder Valley, in Boulder, Colorado. On January 7th, 2014, Sarah and her sister Sandra were turned in as strays, by a citizen, to the Gallup McKinley County Humane Society in Gallup, New Mexico. They estimated her birthday to be November 8th, 2013. She was transferred from Gallup to Boulder, in order to help her find a positive outcome. One January 25th, when they moved her to the clinic to be spayed, she was lethargic and has a 103.8 degree fever. She also had a hot spot lesion on her left side that she was chewing at. Her skin scrape was negative, but her parvo test was positive. Her shelter notes were sad… she chewed through her IV over night and spilled her food and water everywhere. She had alopecia on both inner thighs and her left shoulder… it was EXTREMELY itchy. Even though the deep skin scrape came back negative for mites, the vet started treating her for sarcoptic mange. 

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Happy Birthday, Noke!

First and foremost, you’ve probably noticed a lack of content lately! You’d think that the lead up to the holiday season would be packed with important content, and that would be our intention, but we’ve been extremely busy and haven’t had the opportunity to write. Well, Fit has been writing two books, actually. She is going through her fourth revision of her first major novel, but also taking part in a November writing program (NaNoWriMo) where you write a novel within the month. Hungry is taking his fourth course in his program, on his way to his Masters degree. Both of us are working our full-time jobs as well, and taking care of the babies.

Speaking of which, Noke turned five years old on Thursday, November 8th. Originally adopted on Valentine’s Day in 2014, we’ve always celebrated her birthday based on the date of birth that the shelter estimated. We generally don’t invite a bunch of people over for a party, or bring her to play Laser Tag, but we do a little bit more than your average family. It doesn’t take much to get her excited, and you could certainly make a point that this is more about giving us a good time than her. Either way, she really enjoys it and has a major sensory overload when we celebrate. 

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Hungry Got a New Job

Hungry & Fit started as a personal blog before it transformed into a food & fitness blog. We used it to document our cross-country trip to find a new life in a place we’d never been, but we’ve actually kept you in the dark about a lot of our own personal projects. Recently, Hungry started a new job, however, working for one of the most impactful animal welfare organizations in the world.

If you’ve been following him on Facebook or Instagram, you’ve probably noticed a whole lot of pictures of new dogs. These are shelter dogs from the adoption center where he works. Before, he was a manager for a feral kitten rescue, but now Hungry has the opportunity to work with both dogs and cats, of all ages, breeds and conditions. We’re talking about a lot of unique personalities here.

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meditation

Meditate With Your Pets!

Animals are the joys of our lives and our constant companions. Whether they’re a cat, dog, or a snake, they’re usually by our side and present daily in our lives. However, when it comes to things like meditation, they can be a bit of a pest. Either they’re meowing in your ear, nudging your hand for pets, or jumping in your lap, pets can be darned distracting during meditation! You’re trying to find your breath and oomph there goes the cat jumping on your lap or the dog barking. Yeah, we love ’em, but pets can be annoying in situations like these. This meditation is to challenge that. The other day, I did a short meditation early in the morning before Hungry was awake. The animals were either on the couch next to me or somewhere close, hoping it was close to breakfast time. And somewhere between their pining and my peace-seeking, I found a balance and it was really great. 

I focused on companionship. The unconditional love you can get from your animals is a powerful thing. When it feels like the whole world is against you and nobody really likes you, you can still get plenty of face licks from your dog. She will sit with you forever and never get tired of you. To me, animals exhibit and teach us true love and also how to love. We can learn a lot from observing them and reflecting on them. So that’s just what I did for this meditation. Even if you don’t have your own pet, think of an animal you love–that will still work for this meditation. This can be a short meditation if you wish it to, but don’t rush it if you can. Enjoy. 

meditate

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A Closer Look into Kedi

Kedi was an absolutely beautiful movie. The soundtrack was so well-integrated with the content of the film that you barely even noticed it was there. The acting was delightful because it was all about people being genuine. What makes that so interesting is the fact that it was set in Istanbul, where many of the viewers of the film probably haven’t been. The camera work and editing highlighted the stunning visual prowess and character of the city and its inhabitants. The most important citizens of Istanbul were the human and feline populations that seem to get along so naturally.

Kedi makes you think about our relationship with what Americans would call stray cats. They probably wouldn’t identify them as feral or alley cats because it’s just not the most common terminology among the general public nowadays. There’s a very negative connotation and feeling in many parts of our country about cats being out and about in the streets, but after watching Kedi one might wonder, why?

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Don’t Text While You Walk Your Dog

We live in a very dog-friendly neighborhood. I can’t go for a walk without seeing another dog. I love this! I like dogs and I like people who like dogs. However, it really peeves me off when I am walking Noke and then I see someone stumbling along head absolutely glued downwards to their phone. I start wondering to myself why they have a dog in the first place if they don’t want to actually spend real time with it. Sure, maybe it’s an emergency and they really have to contact that person then and there. But usually–let’s face it–it isn’t. I bet your walks aren’t more than an hour long, maybe not more than 30 minutes either. You can spare that time to really be with them.

As soon as I see someone on their phone walking their dog, I immediately take Noke to the other side of the street and avoid that person. They have no sense of what their dog is doing, feeling, or intending because they are in some Facebook post. I can’t trust the human to handle their dog correctly, and thus I don’t want Noke anywhere near them. It’s not just the right thing to do, but you can also benefit from just being with your dog:

Noke after a rainy walk

Noke after a rainy walk

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Your Good Deed for the Month

Hey everyone, we know you’re all good people but in the spirit of greatness, please consider our plea. A close friend of ours has a dog that means everything to her. When your family lives on the other side of the country and you move to LA because you have a great job, you can’t take much with you. (Trust me, I know what it’s like to be far from home… many of us do.) Fortunately, for all of us pet lovers, we only need one thing (or in our case, four) to come home to at the end of the day. 

Dog breeds are sort of irrelevant. Basenjis can yodel and stand on two legs, standard poodles can swim really well, and french bulldogs can fly away with their ears, but all breeds really are sweethearts when they’re raised in a loving and caring home. Taza is a big, older, sweet rottweiler mix who needs a little help right now. See, when we’re not feeling well and can’t perform up to par at work, we know how to take care of ourselves. We go to the doctor, get an x-ray, and often can take care of what is wrong before it becomes a serious issue. The thing is, as humans, we really are at the top of the food chain, but you don’t have to look at it like that.

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