DEAR DR. FOX: I am a cat owner/lover, and I read your column regularly. You give excellent advice, and I have learned many things from you. I have one problem with your advice, however: I am concerned that your descriptions of ideal cat care, especially diet, may discourage some folks from adopting a shelter cat.

The home preparation of some foods and the purchase of specialized and expensive prepared foods may be more than many people want to take on. My own cats have lived long, healthy lives with supermarket foods.

As you well know, thousands of cats are put to death in shelters because there are no homes for them. Wouldn't you choose life for a cat in a comfortable, loving home with a less-than-ideal diet rather than euthanasia?

Your advice is good, but I'd like to see you do more to encourage adoption by people like me. -- C.G., Hendersonville, N.C.

DEAR C.G.: I appreciate your comments, and I must stress that pet food manufacturers often provide free cat and dog food to shelters, which is better than nothing -- or whatever might be rounded up from local butchers, bakers and grocers, as was done in the old days. Also in the old days -- I am talking about 20 to 30 years ago -- pet food manufacturers, while having less nutritional science knowledge, often had better ingredients from U.S. family farms with minimal pesticide use and no GMOs (genetically modified foods). Today, manufacturers rely on food and beverage industry byproducts and imported ingredients, like those from China that have sickened and killed thousands of dogs and cats. Certainly, adopting a pet with a pack of free food from the shelter is good salesmanship when it comes to pet food manufacturers marketing their products.

I agree with you that cats and dogs can adapt to the kinds of diets that I do not endorse because they are not biologically appropriate -- too high in soy and cereals with poor-quality animal protein and fats. But many do not, and they develop costly chronic diseases, as documented in this column on a near-weekly basis.

I constantly beat the drum for good nutrition for humans and animals. It is not simply a matter of food costs, but of what manufacturers are putting into pet foods and prepared human foods that contribute to the obesity, diabetes and metabolic syndrome epidemics and a host of other physical and behavioral maladies plaguing the Earth.

DEAR DR. FOX: Snoopy, my brother and sister-in-law's 11-year-old beagle, is ailing. A year ago, they were told he had an inoperable tumor on his heart. But after a lot of TLC, he revived, recovered energy and became like his old self. It appeared his tumor had shrunk.

But now he is lethargic again. He hardly has the energy to go outside or walk to his pillow bed on the floor. He sleeps a lot, will eat when fed directly and occasionally drinks a small quantity of water. Family members pet him gently for long periods, and this puts him to sleep. When he wakes up, he is perkier.

I am writing to ask if there are some foods (or better still, liquids) you recommend to make him as comfortable as possible. Since his tumor shrank before, I wonder if it could shrink again. -- A.G.S.

DEAR A.G.S.: Strange things can happen with various cancers when the immune system kicks in and is supported by good genetics and good nutrition.

There is a movement gaining momentum for human and animal cancer patients that recommends going on a high-animal protein (meat, eggs, poultry, fish), high-fat (fish, flax and coconut oils) diet with lots of variously colored fruits and vegetables that are high in antioxidants, all blended together and fed raw or lightly cooked. Always transition gradually onto any new diet, therapeutic or otherwise, and provide probiotics and digestive enzymes. In addition, supplements such as canine resveratrol; vitamins A, E and C; coenzyme Q10; magnesium; and selenium may also be of benefit. Some holistic practitioners also prescribe the amino acid L-arginine and various anti-cancer mushroom formulations.

To find a holistic veterinarian in your area, a searchable list can be found at ahvma.org. Veterinarians wishing to learn more are encouraged to become members of the American Holistic Veterinary Medical Association. The winter 2013 issue of the journal Integrative Veterinary Care has an excellent article on nutrition and cancer.

(Send all mail to animaldocfox@gmail.com or to Dr. Michael Fox in care of Universal Uclick, 1130 Walnut St., Kansas City, MO 64106. The volume of mail received prohibits personal replies, but questions and comments of general interest will be discussed in future columns.

Visit Dr. Fox's website at DrFoxVet.com.)

DEAR DR. FOX: I was disturbed by a CNN reporter's statement concerning the search-and-rescue dogs working in the Moore, Okla., tornado wreckage: "The dogs, brave dogs going into these homes and buildings, some of them stepping on the nails and other dangerous debris here." What are your thoughts on this? It seems like animal abuse to me. -- W.M., Arlington, Va.

DEAR W.M.: There is no excuse for not providing these dogs with protective boots and body wraps to help prevent injuries to their undersides and flanks. Military dogs are provided with such protective gear, and animals handled by civilian services should likewise be properly attired to help minimize injury and incapacitation. In his study of injuries and illnesses in search-and-rescue dogs, published in the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association, Dr. Lon E. Gordon notes, "Federal Emergency Management Agency guidelines for training of search-and-rescue dogs stress the need for traction on rubble piles. It is plausible that searches in areas of little to no rubble, such as homes searched in response to Hurricane Katrina, could be safely conducted by dogs wearing booties."

Susannah Charleson, canine search-and-rescue team member and author of the new and inspiring book "The Possibility Dogs," sent me the following statement: "Safety for the search dogs is a serious concern for all of us who work with loved, respected K-9 partners. Operational gear for the dogs, like body wraps and boots, certainly needs to protect from puncture injuries, (while) at the same time it doesn't raise the risk of heat stroke, entanglement and serious slip/fall accidents. Debris dogs often work 'naked' to lessen the risk of hanging or binding a dog, and disaster sites often present a tough call. There's been quite a bit of research and development for this kind of gear, particularly since 9/11, and there are boots, vests, goggles and so on that some handlers swear by and others have had reason to mistrust. I think most of us would love to see protection available that really functions as it needs to, allowing the dog to do a strong, sure-footed job without compromising the ability to balance, maneuver and ventilate."

So I appeal to all concerned to get some good gear designed for these dogs to be used with greater regularity when they are at work.

DEAR DR. FOX: I am hoping you can help me understand this cat behavior: I adopted two lovely female ragamuffin cats about 2 1/2 years ago from a rescue site; they were about 8 months old. I was told they were sisters.

I noticed Leeza was the dominant one. Sissy would let Leeza eat some of her treats if Leeza finished first. Leeza did not want to be approached and was very skittish. Sissy would follow me around like a dog and was very vocal, greeting me when I came home and sitting on my lap when I watched TV. Leeza would stretch out on the floor with her legs in the air and mew quietly, but when I approached her, she would run off.

Recently, after reading an interesting a book about cat personalities, I decided that when Leeza stretched out, put her legs in the air and mewed, she probably wanted me to pet her. I crawled slowly toward her, and she allowed me to pet her and very much enjoyed it.

Now Sissy is not following me around, won't greet me at the door, acts standoffish and hides in another room. She is eating less. Leeza has become my shadow and is the vocal one, constantly stretching out on the floor and mewing for attention while Sissy is off hiding somewhere. It is almost as though there was a shift in personalities.

I feel bad for Sissy. I have petted them both when they are near one another, but it is as though Sissy is a dejected cat. Tell me what more I can do to show both of them that they are loved equally. -- B.L.C., Washington, D.C.

DEAR B.L.C.: What you describe is something very feline in terms of how cats react to attention -- you can call it jealousy, competitive social dominance or displacement. Encouraging your cats to interact playfully with a lure on a string or grooming them in turn may help bring the triangle of your two-cat family and you together. My e-book "Understanding Your Cat" may give you other helpful insights that cats have taught me over the years.

(Send all mail to animaldocfox@gmail.com or to Dr. Michael Fox in care of Universal Uclick, 1130 Walnut St., Kansas City, MO 64106. The volume of mail received prohibits personal replies, but questions and comments of general interest will be discussed in future columns.

Visit Dr. Fox's website at DrFoxVet.com.)

Imagine living in a world or time when the authorities condoned the random killing of your family members and relatives. They called it a "recreational sport" and made money selling licenses to kill. Number-crunching experts called it a "sustainable harvest" that was a "science-based decision."

Consider how you would you feel, unable to defend your family from an annual slaughter by those who know nothing about how you grieve over the loss of loved ones. Nor do they know or care that you might barely survive the hardships of shattered family and community ties when members are crippled and killed and all who survive begin to live in fear.

This is how it is for the gray wolf residents of the United States, whose annual shooting, trapping and snaring amounts to a kind of death tax for the privilege of being allowed to exist rather than being exterminated, which many people have devoutly wished and sought to accomplish for centuries. Now the U.S. government is proposing to remove all legal protection of these wolves by removing them from the endangered species list.

Those people who are not incapable of putting themselves in the wolf's place, along with those wolf biologists and other scientists who value the wolf primarily as a species playing a vital role in maintaining and restoring healthy ecosystems, sought to put an end to this extermination by having the federal government add the gray wolf to the endangered species list in 1974. But the government is now bowing to pressure from various states and vested interest groups (such as cattle ranchers and deer hunters) and is being swayed by state and federal number-crunching wolf biologists and trappers like Minnesota's David Mech, who speaks the distancing and sentience-denying language of "harvesting" sustainably managed wolf populations. These authorities contend that the gray wolf has "recovered," with an estimated population of some 6,100, and no longer needs to be protected as an endangered species.

The numbers game plays into the outmoded and unscientific federal and state wildlife management paradigm of favored species such as white-tailed deer, elk, turkey and fur-bearers such as the wolf and bobcat for recreational and commercial purposes. This is a form of wildlife farming, rather than seeking to maximize species diversity for optimal ecosystem integrity and health. Wildlife agencies contend that the best way to protect the wolf is to manage it as a trophy species with strictly enforced annual kill quotas. But there is no scientifically valid reason for not continuing to prohibit all such killing for the good of the ecosystems where wolves once flourished across much of the country and now are in dire need of CPR -- conservation, protection and restoration. From this latter perspective, the western and eastern gray wolf populations in North America have certainly not recovered, a far greater number being needed to help maximize species diversity and the restoration and recovery of ecosystem integrity and health.

Laid bare of the prejudices generated by folktales and mythology imbued with fear and ignorance, the wolf is more akin to the human species, emotionally, socially and ecologically, than the human species is to its closest genetic cousin, the chimpanzee. Some anthropologists believe that wolves helped make us human, a view shared by Native Americans through their lessons of pack loyalty, strategic cooperation in hunting, food-sharing, communal care of young, documented care of injured family members and living in balance under the constraints of natural law.

Our humanity is as endangered today as the wolf. Selective killing as a money-making and job-creating management tool, and killing wolves as a recreational "sporting challenge" must become things of the past if we are to evolve as a species and put compassion and ethics, along with sound science and governance, in place of continued harm and destruction of all that is wild and free.

There will be a 90-day comment period on the American government's intention to remove all protection for the gray wolf. Information and notices will be posted to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services website (fws.gov) this week. Make your concerns known and go through the motions regardless of the evident resistance to democratic process and environmental justice that prevails in this society today.

(Send all mail to animaldocfox@gmail.com or to Dr. Michael Fox in care of Universal Uclick, 1130 Walnut St., Kansas City, MO 64106. The volume of mail received prohibits personal replies, but questions and comments of general interest will be discussed in future columns.

Visit Dr. Fox's website at www.twobitdog.com/DrFox.)

�PAGE �