Quick newsflash for Dog Relaxation Protocol users about some required tech updates to the FREE audio files Champion of My Heart made available eons ago and continues to maintain. What a week! Because, you know, tech glitches are so much fun. [insert beleaguered face here] I could use some help from an Apple computer / Safari browser smarty-pants. Scroll down to see my plea.
In 2022, our pet insurance through Embrace Pet Insurance was going to go up a lot. I don’t remember the exact percentage, but it was enough to shock me after several years of steady increases in monthly premiums. Our 3 pet insurance policies through them for Clover, Tori, and Mr. Stix renew again in September 2023. No surprise, I suppose. The cost is going up another 24%. To cut back last year, I doubled our annual deductible from $500 to $1,000, and I lowered our reimbursement rate from 80% to 70%. And, a year later, we’re kind of back where we were. I always ask myself if it’s worth the cost. Let’s look at the numbers, including how much the pet insurance market grew in the last year. Funny (not funny) how the % of industry growth nearly matched the % of increase in our premium costs.
Those who follow us on social media and subscribe to our site via email already know that our long-term foster dog Forest got adopted, returned a month later, and required immediate behavioral euthanasia on July 7, 2023. As a dog attack survivor in late 2021 and a lifelong dog lover, you can imagine the avalanche of emotions about his death. Let’s look at such decisions because they’re more common than you might imagine.
It turns out that sometimes the pet ownership benefits either aren’t as strong as we often believe or the drawbacks can be worse for some people. A recent (and small cohort) study in the UK looked at the “influence of animal ownership on mental health for people with severe mental illness.” The results, along with mentions of prior studies showing drawbacks, are interesting. Let’s take a look. Warning: It might challenge long-held assumptions.
I subscribe to a few veterinary news things that give me inside intel on various things. One article called “Top 5 Signs of Patient Stress & Excitement on Clinical Pathology” caught my eye. That’s fancy veterinary speak for how stressed dogs look in routine veterinary bloodwork. Note of course that excitement can cause these things too, but the idea that “chronic stress” can affect liver values means that NOT all of these end up being super-temporary changes in a stressed dog’s bloodwork.
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