By Andrea Crowley-Hughes To say that I have always loved cats is an understatement. As a teen growing up long before the days of Jackson Galaxy, I pored over a book about cat behavior. Relatives would get me cat calendars every year. My even younger self had a cadre of plush cats I carried with me from room to room. Before I turned seven, a friend and I carried away a cat who was having sticks pelted at her from…
By: The Refresh Editors If you’ve ever gotten one of our email newsletters or glimpsed our Twitter feed, you’ll have gathered that we at The Refresh are animal lovers. Lauren has written with love about her cat, Jelli, and Andrea’s starting the journey to fur-parent-dom with visits to animal shelters and cat cafes. We purr with delight whenever a pitch about pets hits our inbox. (By the way, if you’ve got one, sent it to rfrshmail (at) gmail (dot) com. Although this list is…
by: Natalie Parletta Dogs are loyal, devoted companions. Yet even with training, so many problematic dog behaviors puzzle and frustrate their owners, often resulting in abandonment and neglect. A new breed of dog trainers and scientists say it doesn’t have to be like this—we can educate ourselves to better understand our canine buddies. I should have known when she yanked me off of my feet, face first into the mud as we walked to the car. I was leaving a…
by: Ashleigh Papp You’re ready to take your obsession with furry creatures to the next level. Between their ability to go from playful to chill in a second and that oh-so-comforting purr they produce when content, you know a cat is just what you’re looking for. Instead of heading to your local shelter and choosing blindly, you pull out your phone, open an app and start swiping. For now, the idea of using a cat’s personality to fuel an app-based…
By: Cynthia Sillitoe I have to admit, at first I walked past my new cat. My mom and I were at the Phoenix Humane Society. In my early twenties, I was homebound due to chronic illness. I was still grieving the loss of my childhood cat who had been my constant companion. Life without her was unbearable. Finding a new feline was a strange experience. Cats had always found us. They showed up on our porch and couldn’t understand why…