Author: Jennifer Vanderau

His life certainly isn’t what he thought it would be. Turns out all the beer commercials on television are just trying to sell a product to sports fans. He remembers when he was younger, the sky was the limit. He was going to graduate high school, make millions, more than keep up with the Joneses and be a big success. Like the American male is supposed to do. While he isn’t a failure by any stretch of the imagination, he’s not where he thought he would be, either. He’s got a nice house, reliable car, decent marriage and he’s not…

I will never forget a few years ago when a woman told us that she wanted to groom her dog herself because he had gotten some pretty bad mats, but she felt like the clippers she had wouldn’t do the job. So she was going to try to use an X-Acto knife. I’m going to take a bit of a breath and let that one settle in. I don’t know about you, but I cringed when I heard that. Look, I’ve seen just a plain old pair of scissors do some real damage to a dog’s skin. I cannot imagine…

I need to talk about Xanos. No, he is not some character in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, although I can see where you would think that, especially with my fangirl status for those movies. Xanos is a 2-year-old terrier mix who came into the animal shelter in March of this year after being hit by a car. Both the bones in his front leg were broken. We got him to the vet immediately and a cast was put on the leg. Because Xanos is young and energetic, he was able to kick the first cast off. When we got into…

My best friend is a cat. I’m a 9-year-old chocolate Lab named Duke and it’s difficult for the dog friends I’ve made over the years to understand it, but it’s true. Felix and I have been together for five years. I’ve got to admit, at first I wasn’t too sure about him. I’d been with Mom and Dad for two years before he came around and he was super tiny. Mom and Dad found him outside and brought him in and he was loud (for a little creature he could holler like nothing I’d ever heard before) and he got…

I was driving down the street the other day – can’t even remember where I was heading (that’s the first sign of age isn’t it?) – and I noticed a guy walking with his dog. The dude was texting while walking and paying little to no attention to the dog. I remember feeling a little bad for the pup, I have to say. Then I started thinking about how many people consider animals almost more as decorations than actual family members. Have you ever witnessed this? People who walk their dogs and text others – what happens if the dog…

I remember an email I received a while ago with an incredible message and I think it’s time to revisit it. It said: “If you can start the day without caffeine; if you can always be cheerful, ignoring aches and pains; if you can resist complaining and boring people with your troubles; if you can eat the same food every day and be grateful for it; if you can understand when your loved ones are too busy to give you any time… “If you can take criticism and blame without resentment; if you can conquer tension without medical help; if…