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.

  • Book Review of The Hill by Leif Lathrop

    Needed to do something different for about 1,000 reasons this week, so here’s an entirely off topic book review of The Hill by Leif Lathrop. It truly is an uplifting (and sometimes heart-pounding) story about the 6-man high school football team he coaches. It’s truly cinematic in scope and a fun read for anyone who already loves or wants to learn about life, community, and football in a small town. Lathrop is an accomplished artist (as seen recently on a 3-minute segment aired on CBS Evening News), fellow Colorado author, and a former semi-pro football coach. He also happens to be a high school classmate of mine and the leading man in another friend and classmate’s life.

  • Dog Urinalysis

    Especially as dogs get older, I’ve always been in the camp that says, “Why not run routine tests, just to see?” Asking for a dog urinalysis is a good example. Why not check? Way better to catch anything early. Yet, with veterinary costs rising and other financial challenges for many people, including me, I (unfortunately) now take a harder look at my budget than I did earlier. I dug around in my dog files to remind myself how much a canine urinalysis test costs now versus then. Spoiler alert, the cost has nearly doubled. Honestly, it’s tempting to scale back, and I still might, but let’s look at some of the things we might miss if we skip doing urinalysis on a dog, of any age.

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    Terrible Advice About Affording Veterinary Care

    Petsmart Charities released results of a new survey recently that shows a majority of people (52%) struggle with affording veterinary care. Everyone is talking about it, as you’ve likely seen. I will probably write about it in more detail soon, but I wanted to share my thoughts (rant) about some terrible advice I saw from an e-newsletter and website for veterinary professionals. I won’t name it here, but I will say that I, myself, would not respond well or feel good about their ideas of how veterinary teams should pre-ask about paying for veterinary care or handle times when people feel worried about paying for recommended veterinary care. It’s cringe-worthy, IMHO.

  • Fun Dog Book for Kids

    Author Jeff Pawlecki contacted me a while back, asking me to review his fun book for kids called The Three Terrier Tales on the Farm – Barking Up a New Adventure. He lives on a farm in Ohio, with family that includes people and several species of animals. The book is cute and pretty funny. If you know young readers who like terriers, it’s perfect for their bookshelves!

  • AI Helps Find Lost Pets

    I learned about how AI helps find lost pets while working on what turned out to be my last-ever article for one of my longtime, national pet magazine clients. Yes, I know about many of the ethical (and environmental) issues around AI. Still, this actually seems like a useful application of it. I included a couple of action items for you.