Author: Roxanne Hawn

Trained as a traditional journalist and based in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, USA, I'm a full-time freelance writer for magazines, websites, and private clients. My areas of specialty include everything in the lifestyles arena, including health and home, personal finance and other consumer interests, relationships and trends, people and business profiles ... and, of course, all things pet related. I don't just love dogs. I need them in my life. Seriously.

  • A Dog of Many Names Book Review

    This book review of A Dog of Many Names by Douglas Green is so long overdue it’s comical. The book’s publicist first contacted me a year ago. The review copy arrived in March 2021 in advance of a July release date, but I didn’t get around to reading the book until Clover had minor surgery in October 2021. I took a walk on a local trail in town and then sat next to a creek to read until I got word I could pick her up. I nearly stopped reading the book several times for several reasons, but I did finish it in a single day. I tried contacting the publicist again in October with some questions / concerns, but I never heard back. Still, I think it’s worth discussion, so let’s get to it.

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    Happy Chonksgiving With Foster Puppies

    Happy Chonksgiving from all of us! I plan to write some posts soon about what it’s like to foster tiny puppies for our local animal shelter and the kinds of supplies you’ll need in bulk to survive, if you want to add a similar volunteer gig to your life. But, I’m getting ready to take an extra-long Thanksgiving break (Nov 19-28), so instead please enjoy pix and videos of our latest foster babies that we’re calling TATO (like mashed potatoes) and GRAVY. They are just 2 from a litter of 9 puppies born at our shelter. We went for sanity over heroics and offered to foster just 2 of them. #ChonkyPuppies

  • Veterinary Realities and Problems with The Starling Movie

    If you’re asking yourself, “Should I watch The Starling movie?” … Here’s my answer, some context, and a suggestion of what else to watch too. I’m a big fan of Melissa McCarthy. She deserves all credit and praise for so many incredible performances in movies, including a scene in Thunder Force where she references Jodie Foster in ways that made me laugh, laugh, laugh. So, I watched her new movie The Starling, available on Netflix with interest, even though, I knew it wasn’t going to be wildly ha-ha funny. It turns out that the incomparable Kevin Kline plays a veterinarian in The Starling, which would be great except for the context of that character at this specific time in the history of veterinary medicine.

  • Nosework Success Story, So Far

    About a year ago, I retired Clover from agility classes for both her physical and emotional health. That decision itself probably deserves a whole post at some point, but suffice it to say that the pandemic (among other things) helped me find clarity about Clover’s happiness and my own. Rather than the end of something, it marked a beginning. Clover and I started taking online nosework classes in December 2020. Each class lasted about 6 weeks. We did all our training as homework, just the 2 of us at home. We never took an in-person class. Then, this summer, we took the opportunity to test our progress at 4 events, and things went SO well. Amazing videos ahead, if I do say so myself.

  • Zen and the Art of Caring for Pets Book Review

    Donna Kelleher, DVM, is a holistic veterinarian who works in the Pacific Northwest of the United States. Her most recent book Zen and the Art of Caring for Pets chronicles her career path and challenges with the demands of the veterinary profession itself and the pressures (and annoyances) caused by clients. Over the years, she worked in emergency / critical care and even for a veterinary practice purchased by a corporation. The book addresses the high rate of suicide among veterinarians (that I talked about recently in the post about how not to get fired as a veterinary client). Kelleher offers keen insights into how she practices veterinary medicine today — from cancer cases to chronic allergies and beyond. The 2 of us agree in many things. Some things in the book, though, I disagree with, doubt, and bring a heavy dose of skepticism too. She knows that based on our private conversations via email and encouraged me to write a book review anyway. So here you go.

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    Best Advice for Dogs with Skin Issues

    I still need to publish a real post about Mr. Stix’s full backstory, but this feels more pressing. For nearly 18 months, Mr. Stix’s permanent nakey spot (from unknown injuries before he was rescued, including 15 fractures and this big patch of coat missing) has featured several inflamed, peeling areas. Initially I tried to fix it myself at home with things like aloe vera, vaseline, a veterinary ointment called animax that the shelter had give us while we fostered him most of 2019, etc. It’s sort of a combination of steroids, antibacterial, and antifungal stuff. I took him to see our main veterinarian in spring 2020, when there was a 2-month wait to get into see a board-certified veterinary dermatologist. It has been quite a journey since then, and it’s nowhere near over. Here’s my best advice for dogs with skin issues.

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    How Not to Get Fired as a Veterinary Client

    I just finished writing an article about a crisis in veterinary medicine with the mental health and overall wellbeing of veterinarians and their veterinary hospital teams, driven in part by the increased demands for veterinary services and the increased abuse they face from cranky clients. Recently, I’ve also become aware of more and more people in my circle of dog lovers — online and otherwise — getting fired by various veterinary hospitals across the country. I find it hard to believe that ALL of these folks are being major jerks, but it seemed like an urgent need to discuss what’s happening, why, and how NOT to get fired as a veterinary client. Here are my best tips + a video explaining (sometimes ranting) about what NOT to do.

  • Liver Dog Treat Recipe

    I started ordering groceries online for parking-lot pick up long before the pandemic. Most of the time, the staff shoppers at our local grocery store do a good job getting me everything on the list. Sometimes, though, I get weird substitutions and don’t realize it until I get home. It’s a 45-minute drive each way from our place to the store, so going back to correct weird or missing items is a real pain. So, I make do or try to find something to do with what I get. Guess who ended up with pounds and pounds of LIVER recently? Rather that just giving the dogs cooked liver as a treat, I made up a liver dog treat recipe. Just winged it, and they turned out pretty well. See what you think.

  • Long Nose Legacy Book Review

    As a dog book reviewer, I maintain a short list of quirks — such as NOT liking books told from the dog’s point of view. So when J.G. Eastman asked me to look at Long Nose Legacy, A Dog’s Story of Royalty and Loyalty (a middle grade chapter book for kids ages 9-12) we shared a little back and forth about if I’d be annoyed by the narration in the book. Eastman explained, “It’s told in 3rd person, but the dogs do communicate with each other, and we hear their thoughts.” So, I gave it a try. Here are my thoughts.