Pet Chat July 6: Rescue Cats, Dock Diving, and Heartwarming Pet Stories

This week on Pet Chat, we promise an episode filled with heartwarming updates, groundbreaking philanthropy, and practical pet care tips. First, we kick things off with the latest on our beloved pets, including the fantastic news from Bunsen's CAT scan results, Bernoulli's adventures at puppy school, and Beaker's triumphant return to dock diving. We share our heartfelt commitment to maintaining individual activities for each pet to ensure they all feel cherished.

Next, we welcome the intriguing Lady Rocket, who shares her extraordinary journey of combining space philanthropy with animal welfare. Learn how her rescue cat, Apollo 11, played a part in a SpaceX rocket launch and discover her innovative fundraising initiatives like sending cat and dog NFTs to the moon to support animal shelters. We also address listener questions about Bernoulli's weight and feeding schedule, offering our best advice to keep our furry friends healthy and happy.

Our episode wraps up with a potpourri of engaging discussions, from strategies for avoiding wildlife encounters during country walks to funny pet stories that are sure to bring a smile to your face. We also pay tribute to Amy Beatty, celebrate Canada Day with some Canadian history trivia, and share insights on training dogs to handle loud noises like fireworks.

Tune in for a mix of humor, heartfelt moments, and practical advice that celebrates the joys and challenges of pet ownership.

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Transcript

Speaker 3: 0:09

Hello pet enthusiasts, welcome to Pet Chat. My name is Jason Zakowski. I'm the dog dad of Bunsen, beaker and Bernoulli the science dogs in social media. My co-host with the mostest is media.

Speaker 2: 0:28

My co-host with the mostest is Hi there, I'm Chris Sikowski. I am the dog mom to Bunsen and Beaker and the cat mom to Ginger and also the dog mom to Bernoulli.

Speaker 3: 0:33

All right, chris, do you want to start with your story of the week? That's one of the things that we do. We share a couple stories about Bunsen and Beaker, and then we invite the community to share their stories.

Speaker 2: 0:43

I can start with just our update about Bunsen. We have no update about Bunsen in terms of his blood work that has not come through yet, so we can't tell everybody what is causing his muscle atrophy. The fact that he is not chewing on that side is causing the muscle atrophy, but we are not sure if it's due to the autoimmune attacking his gum line or those two teeth that are problematic for him. You'll know when we know about that.

Speaker 3: 1:13

Yeah, and there were a couple of people that commented about the cancer that could have possibly be on that nerve, chris, and if you're watching, I just want to. I just want to give you like a little bit of background. So the CAT scan results were sent to an expert team in a different city to get a second set of eyes on and they confirmed what the vet in Red Deer said and that was that they the CAT scan showed no cancer on that. What's the name? Cancer on that? What's the name of that? What's the name of that nerve? Again, chris, you remember the how to say it?

Speaker 2: 1:49

it's the trigeminal nerve the trigeminal nerve.

Speaker 3: 1:52

Yeah, so I know there was a couple people that responded to our newsletter or dm'd us that your that said what's that? The cancer is kind of tricky to see on a cat scan. Maybe the vet missed it, maybe it's possible, but they a second vet team did take a look at the cat scans. They to corroborate the I guess the diagnosis from the first ones. Okay, anything else, chris, or do you want me to go?

Speaker 2: 2:16

were you going to share about puppy play?

Speaker 3: 2:18

yeah. So bernoulli had another day of puppy school and he loves puppy school. He he's's a little bit older now so he's less like distracted and he was so laser focused during puppy school I actually posted a picture of him sitting at attention and that's what he does he sits at attention and he's like ready to learn, which is really cute. But in puppy play there was another little burner named Maggie and the. The other burner was quite a bit younger than Bernoulli, probably maybe nine months or something like that. So this other little burner was also very, very shy and it reminded us of when Bunsen was so little, when he was so little and we took him to his first puppy play. He was so shy too and he sat on the side watching all of the puppies play, didn't want to take part in any of the play, and then in the last minute or two he came out of a shell and he started to play with the golden retriever puppy. So that's not the experience we had with Bernoulli. He's all in. On rough play there's this other adorable lanky dog named Arlo. I might. I think I've got a video of them playing and they play like rough together, rough and tumble. But Bernoulli was very interested in this very shy Bernice Mountain Dog puppy named Maggie. And at the very end Maggie came out of her shell and waddled over to Bernoulli and the two of them sat nose to nose and Bernoulli was so gentle, like not like nipping at her or puppy biting, he was just like just looking at her and I think he was like licking her ear. And then Maggie started to like gently paw him with her paw. And then bernoulli copied that and like gently pawed this other bernice mountain dog with his paw. And they were like doing this. I was trying to get my camera out to take a video because for the first 10 seconds everybody was watching them do this and we're like, oh my god, that is the cutest thing we ever saw. And by the time I got my phone out I clicked the wrong button and I didn't have it on video. I put it on something stupid like uh time lapse, so I missed the moment.

Speaker 3: 4:34

You'll have to believe me, I know chris is uh wrangling bunsen and beaker right now. She might chime in when she gets back, but that puppy play was uh pretty adorable with a little Bernice Mountain Dog puppy. Very cute, all right, and then one more, one more of my stories. Beaker has started duck diving again, which is I think we mentioned that last week. So she went twice this week and that's again something very exciting, because that's something for her.

Speaker 3: 5:00

She's a water dog, she's a summer dog. Her, she's a water dog, she's a summer dog and it's. We never want her to feel like Bernoulli is taking over the limelight and we only have eyes for him, because he's very time-consuming. It's getting easier every day, but definitely when he was a little puppy if you have a puppy, you know what I'm talking about they're very time-consuming. Um, and yeah, so dock diving is going great, even if beaker never jumps off the dock. Beakers crush benny. We still just love taking her someplace safe to swim, and that's dock diving for beaker. I seem to have lost chris. Oh, here comes bernoulli. He's huge. He's like officially heavy to pick up. Now chris has bernoulli for live. Chris, did you want to chime in on the puppy play story with the two burners? Did you hear any of that, or no?

Speaker 2: 5:53

yeah, so I do. I unplugged the headphones, so I'm sorry if there's background noise, but I've had to get up to deal with the barky dogs. And then it's very funny because now his mouth is covered in peanut butter, because I gave the other dogs a lick mat and he had peanut butter all the way on his face and he's like and it was super cute. But he's like how come I'm not outside with a lick mat?

Speaker 2: 6:21

Because, you're a good boy yeah, because you don't bark like a crazy dog. No, but I'm going outside with a lick mat. Yeah, you're a good boy. Yeah, because you don't bark like a crazy dog. No, um, but I'm gonna put him down and now he's gonna go to the door. Uh, but yeah. No, it was super cute. Like I've never seen anything like it.

Speaker 3: 6:39

They did this cute little paw at each other and all the ladies were like oh, I know, I know it was pretty cute, so I also talked about Beaker's dock diving and then anything else, chris, before we move on.

Speaker 2: 6:54

The dock diving has been going very well. She loves it.

Speaker 3: 7:00

Okay, that's short and sweet.

Speaker 2: 7:01

We've been a couple times, which allows her to shine and practice swimming other than in the beaver pond, Norbert's pond.

Speaker 3: 7:10

Yeah, yeah, and it's because we've had rain, but it's actually been hot and dry. His pond has shrunk a bit and I don't really feel comfortable letting Beaker swim through it and there's a lot of debris now. There's a lot of beaver. There's a lot of like beaver nonsense in that and I don't want her to get hung up on it or bonk into it when she's swimming, so it's a lot safer for her to swim at the dock diving place.

Speaker 2: 7:33

We can move to community sharing. Bunsen or Bernoulli is eating the top of the mic, so give me a second.

Speaker 3: 7:40

He's eating the top of the mic.

Speaker 2: 7:42

This thing fell off, and so now it's being chewed. There we go.

Speaker 3: 7:46

Okay, it's fixed.

Speaker 3: 7:48

All right, so we'll move to community sharing and then I'm sure there'll be some other stuff that pops up throughout the show At this point if you would like to ask a question or have a comment or share a story. Oh so somebody on Instagram has a good question. I think we'll get to that question first, laurie laur picks. One on instagram is asking how much bernoulli weighs, and we haven't actually weighed him in a week, but the last time we weighed him, chris weighed him. And how much did he weigh when we weighed him last?

Speaker 3: 8:23

wasn't it 23.4 yeah, he's got gotta be, I texted you with it yeah, it's 23.4.

Speaker 3: 8:28

He's gotta be 28, 27 that was a week ago. He is heavy now, like he is now like heavy for me to lift up, but he still looks like a puppy, which is crazy, like he's just an enormous puppy. So, yeah, we'll weigh him this coming week to cause it's good to know how much puppies weigh, uh, because then you can deal with their food. Okay, so again we'll move to community sharing and just a couple of ground rules. Those of you who are on.

Speaker 2: 8:56

Jason remember the last time I weighed him on air oh, that's right, that was yeah, because I weighed myself on the scale. And then I weighed myself holding bernoulli and I did the math.

Speaker 2: 9:12

But I was like, uh, when I saw the weight of myself first on the scale, I guess it's reality oh but I was like, oh, that was a little sad for me, and then I had to be all fine for the rest of the show. So the next time I did it I had Bunsen, or I had Adam Way himself, and then him holding Bernoulli. And so then we did the math. That was better for me.

Speaker 3: 9:34

That's smart. That's smarter. I was just laying down the ground rules For those of you on audio. Please request if you'd like to talk or ask a question. And again, if you're an unknown account, a very new account or an account that we don't know, chances are you're not gonna get up to the mic and then just be patient. If you have something pressing, you can put your hand up on audio and those of you watching live you can drop a comment and we'll do our best to go through all of the different comments. Okay, so we'll go to audio first and we'll do our best to go through all of the different comments. Okay, so we'll go to audio first and we'll go in this order Lady Rocket, paula, sasha and then Robert.

Speaker 5: 10:16

Thank you so much. What a lovely surprise to find you on Saturday afternoon with such an incredible subject, and I just recently started to listen to you, so I understand that there is Benson and Beaker as the heroes of the story, so I want to say hello and truly acknowledge that you are bringing to the subject to discuss on X-Space, something that is cute, wonderful and significantly important. Very quickly, I am coming to you as a participant in the space industry, space philanthropist, but also someone who is harnessing capabilities of my own my company, including SpaceX to blend love for animals cats and dogs and rhinos with creative use of incredible wealth that is gathered in the hands of a lot of companies, including mine. Very quickly, about the animal in my life my cat, apollo 11. Recently participated in SpaceX Rocket Launch. About the animal in my life my cat, apollo 11. Recently participated in SpaceX rocket launch. What? Yes, yes, I thought you would have fun and I have a picture to prove.

Speaker 5: 11:36

So if you look at my Twitter and scroll, maybe like 20, you will see me in my Lady Rocket space outfit holding Apollo 11. You cannot see SpaceX because it was a foggy day, but you see next to me someone that I want to recognize in the front of your community, charlie, who leads CatCoin, which is probably the only crypto that is donating a lot of money to animal shelters the only crypto that is donating a lot of money to animal shelters. And the message I am sharing is that I feel that we who build space economy my company is going to the moon and is taking cat and dogs NFTs to fundraise we have an opportunity, obligation, responsibility to see how we can use the technology, including X-Space, because Elon Musk is a passionate lover of cats and dogs and you will probably see, if you care to look for it, some of the pictures of his with cats next to me. So, anyway, the bottom line is that I celebrated this event with Apollo 11, who is a rescue cat. I live in Los Angeles and I found him right around the corner from where used to be Apollo 11 Saturn V factory here. So this is why the name and what I want to share is introduce myself, because I have a philanthropy, I have resources and, together with Copernic Space and its CEO, we are sponsoring actually sending cat coins and moon cat NFTs physically to the moon as digital files to fundraise for the animal shelters, and because cryptocurrency shouldn't be just used and it's not designed to be used for pure speculation. It is designed like a Dogecoin, speaking of dogs. Its mission is do only good every day. Its mission is do only good every day, and I am putting my money where my mouth is to create innovative philanthropy that brings Web3, space cryptocurrency together. And those of you who are so inclined, go and get some CatCoin. You can be a billionaire very easily for probably $50, because everything went down significantly and I also I am sponsoring for the dogs Dogecoin wallet that is going to the moon, that is accepting donations from the Dogecoin community, also for the animals.

Speaker 5: 14:23

I'm having fun. Apollo 11 is having fun. Apollo 11 is having fun and cats and I love dogs, of course, too but I happen to have a cat. This is why I bring him along to my events, including 4th of July. So thank you for your beautiful space and all the best to your beautiful dogs. And follow me, because I have fantastic events, including in real life in Los Angeles, like the one that is coming up is Fly Me to the Moon, a new film about going to the moon for the first time, but cat is playing also a main part, so there's many ways to embrace our animals, who are still mistreated, who need our help. And we cannot go to the moon and mars unless we treat our animals better on earth. So thank you for letting me share oh, that's wonderful.

Speaker 3: 15:16

And yeah, if people are intrigued by what lady rocket, I guess your name is eva, is that correct?

Speaker 5: 15:22

yes, my formal, my formal name, yes, but my cat calls me Lady Rocket, so there's a lot of kids in Hollywood.

Speaker 3: 15:30

If people are intrigued by what Lady Rocket or Eva has said, do give her a follow. Check out her profile if that's something you're interested in, and thank you for talking to us.

Speaker 2: 15:39

And I put.

Speaker 3: 15:39

Oh, go ahead, Chris.

Speaker 2: 15:42

And I put your two tweets up in the nest for people to have a look for your philanthropist cause, which is awesome, thank you, thank you. So they're there if people are interested in having a look, and Apollo 11 is super cute. Thank you so much.

Speaker 5: 15:57

And yes, and Kerry, I'm talking also to people like Purina, because I think their injection and contributions, which are done in a very, very traditional way, should cross over also to our web3 reality. And so, thank you, I I just wanted to share with you the, the philanthropy of space for cats and dogs. Thanks, awesome.

Speaker 3: 16:20

Thank you okay. Uh, we're gonna go to a question on instagram and then a question on live video and then we'll go to our next speaker on audio. Melon melon dark on instagram is asking do you worry about the pups at norbert's pond, with the mama and baby moose in the neighborhood? And the answer to that is yes. It's something that I'm that's always in the back of my mind now because our trail camera has caught them multiple times hanging around. It's a fresh source of water. Moose love that swampy vegetation so it's a perfect place for them to live. Actually, I've checked the timestamp on all of the videos so we're not going down there when they're there. Timestamp on all of the video, so I we're not going down there when they're there, based on the timestamp from the the camera, and we also make a lot of noise when we head down to the creek. So it probably is enough.

Speaker 3: 17:15

I've started like having a full-on loud conversation with beaker because a couple the last couple times it's just been her and I that's been on the walk, so I ask her like mundane questions extremely loudly and I think that's enough to probably spook out or scare away the moose if they're down there. I guess if they're down there, it's just part of living in the country. Many things could be down there, like porcupine or stuff like that. It is a risk, but there's other things out there too that are just as risky. And again, so far the time stamp has shown that they're there very early in the morning and that's not when we're down in the creek. That's a great question. And then tk asked a good question, and it's a funny one. Jason, yeah, what, what?

Speaker 2: 17:59

the time stamp isn't correct. Yeah, but the time stamp is because the times are incorrect.

Speaker 3: 18:04

Yeah, but I've I figured out what time the timestamp incorrectly is.

Speaker 2: 18:13

How about we just set the cameras to the right?

Speaker 3: 18:15

Yeah, I brought the one back that has the weird timestamp. So, yeah, we need to fix that. But I had to figure out what the cause when the battery dies. It goes back to zero, zero, and then I was able to cut. I was able to figure out what the cause when the battery dies it goes back to zero, zero, and then I was able to cut. I was able to figure out what that time was and it's six o'clock in the morning. That's when the moose are down there, roughly five to six o'clock in the morning, and it makes sense based on where the sun is too.

Speaker 2: 18:39

Anyways, tk has a good question and maybe Chris can answer this Do you guys use pounds or kilograms when you weigh yourself and this is a fun Canadian trivia thing what do we use, chris? So I think it's because of our age that when we weigh ourselves we use. I use pounds because the crossover kind of, I guess, was more happening when we were little and so lots of our family members used the imperial system to describe weights and measurement, and so I use pounds. And so when we get to the vet and do paws up on the scale, the measurement is in kilograms and then I always convert that into pounds.

Speaker 3: 19:22

Yeah, so it's a weird Canadian thing that is a holdover, that many of us use pounds for weight, not kilograms, but we use kilograms and many other types of weight, which is odd. So it's a weird thing and that's a great question, tk. Okay, we'll go to Paula. Thanks for waiting. Paula Sasha, then Robert, paula, hello.

Speaker 1: 19:45

Hey, how's everybody doing tonight?

Speaker 3: 19:47

We're good, good to hear you.

Speaker 1: 19:49

Yeah, good to hear you too. I had to ask a couple of questions quick, but somebody asked a way question about Bernoulli. But does Bernoulli, have you tried anything else that might be like a lemon to him? Have you tried to see if there's any weird smell that he will just go ballistic for? Yeah, smell that he will just go ballistic for? Yeah, because is he okay with coffee? Or I'm trying to think of some others that our dogs went crazy for, but I didn't know if he had that, and then I have a funny Trixie story, so I'll let you answer that first.

Speaker 3: 20:17

So far, bernoulli is living up to his nickname of Bernoulli the Brave. He is unfazed by anything. Nothing scares him for very long, aside from maybe startled. If something falls and clatters to the ground, he's oh, what's that? Yeah, no, nothing has made him act like Bunsen and Beaker did to the lemon. He's pretty non-pulsed by storms, lightning, thunder, loud sirens, marching bands, everythingas tubas, yeah that was great.

Speaker 1: 20:49

I love, by the way, the last red deer band doing the hey baby with adam holding bernoulli. That was really cute and your canada day stuff cracked me up too. But funny story this week we've had such a hot week. This week in connecticut we've had over a lot of almost 100 degree weather and very hot humidity. You just go outside and you just sweat letting the dog out, and thankfully Trixie's leg were newly unfazed by thunder and lightning, which we're like. So that was good.

Speaker 1: 21:18

But this week we were just sitting on the deck and all of a sudden Trixie starts running around the patio furniture in a circle like a racetrack it was. I caught it on film. It was the funniest thing I've ever seen her do. It was like she was all revved up and Annie was just sitting there going and looking at her going by like a car, a race car. It was quite cute. That was my crazy Trixie story.

Speaker 1: 21:41

But we're still going to puppy school. But we missed a couple weeks because I was sick and then she was not feeling too good another night. So we were hoping to go this week. But she's like bernoulli, she's very attentive, but we're trying to see where she might go with all this craziness, because the vet says she's always one step ahead of us, so we have to keep her entertained all the time. You guys have a great week and good luck everybody. And happy fourth birthday to Benny. His birthday's today, so a shout out to him and a shout out to Marla and Kuno. I hope she continues to feel better, so take care everybody.

Speaker 3: 22:18

Yeah, we do too. Yeah, yeah, I need to do a better job of wishing Benny a happy birthday. So yeah, I've been busy today doing podcast interviews. Actually, amazing guests coming up next month on the science podcast. Thanks, paula, we'll go to Sasha then. Oh, chris, did you want to say something?

Speaker 2: 22:37

Yeah, before we go to Sasha, paula, I put the patio. Zoomies into the nest for you, if our listeners would like to have a look.

Speaker 3: 22:47

zoomies into the nest for you, If our listeners would like to have a look. It's super cute. Trixie's very cute. Go ahead, Sasha, but it's actually not.

Speaker 4: 22:56

Sasha, it's Holly. I love you guys. I was just gonna say, paula, that I thought the best part of the Trixie video was Annie's reaction. She just had me cracking up.

Speaker 4: 23:05

I loved it. Beginning back to Canada Day, I had to take a citizenship test a few years ago and, if I'm remembering right, the reason it's July 1st is that was when the British North America Agreement came into effect, which was for those of you down in the US. That's when Great Britain kicked Canada out of the empire because they were just tired of us, which is basically the story.

Speaker 3: 23:34

Early Canada was pretty annoying.

Speaker 4: 23:37

Yes, it's just the complete opposite of the US. If the US had just waited around a while longer, great Britain would have just kicked them out too. Probably there you go. But it has just waited around a while longer, great Britain would have just kicked them out too. Probably there you go. But it has been absolutely beautiful here in Victoria, except we're getting up to 30 degrees this weekend, which that's 80 Fahrenheit, and we all think we're going to die because we're such wimps here. I called my mom today and she lives in Florida and she's you're complaining because it's 80.

Speaker 3: 24:07

And I'm like it's so hot, that is so hot, for yeah, if you're not used to it, it is so hot.

Speaker 4: 24:14

My dog story this week, so I actually got an extra long weekend. Company gave us July 2nd off and my husband had to work, so I snagged Sasha and we went to a nearby park called Thetis Lake Regional Park, and one of the things that's awesome in Greater Victoria is we have so many dog-friendly hiking trails where dogs are allowed to hike off leash.

Speaker 2: 24:39

Oh cool.

Speaker 4: 24:40

And so Sasha and I did the loop of the lake, which for a fit person like you, jason, you could do in an hour. It took us about an hour and a half because I'm not in the best of shape, but it was just wonderful and she was so good. There were tons of dogs out and she was just on her best behavior the whole time. She was listening to me and I have she. We got to one point on the lake where we crossed over a little bridge and you could actually see the people out who were out kayaking and paddleboarding on the lake, and sasha just got fascinated watching them. I wound up stopping and taking a break on a bench and there's a picture in there that you just put into the nest, where she's actually like just looking at the kayaker and the paddle boarder, like it's the most amazing thing she's ever seen in her life.

Speaker 4: 25:33

But it was just so nice just for her and I just to do something on our own together, because usually my husband's along and I love him dearly, but sometimes we need a little mom and doggo bonding, I think yeah. So that was my awesome Canada Day weekend and once again Sasha slept through the fireworks.

Speaker 6: 25:53

Oh, that's good, I don't know.

Speaker 4: 25:54

I do not know how she does it because we live very close to Victoria Harbor, so like I can see the city fireworks from my bedroom window and she, literally every year, just sleeps through it and I would like to thank her breeder. I don't know what she did with early desensitization, but it worked.

Speaker 3: 26:15

It could be. There's some breeds that are more resilient to stuff like that, and one of them is the Bernice mountain dog in Darwin's oh, what is it? Darwin's arc? Is the bernice mountain dog in darwin's oh, what is it? Darwin's ark? That massive, huge study that looked at 25 000 dogs. What came up over and over again for bernice mountain dogs were and this is not all bernice mountain dogs, but it came up over and over again that they were non-pulsed to loud sounds like storms and fireworks it's true.

Speaker 4: 26:44

the other thing thing that Sasha's breeder does with all her puppies that I love is I'm forgetting the name of the program but she just exposes them to all kinds of crazy loud noises and weird surfaces so that things just don't bother them. And I've definitely found that to be true with Sasha, that she's just nothing. She's nothing bugs her really, except a rude dog, but that's a whole other story.

Speaker 3: 27:12

Yeah, that type of training is very important and we're so fortunate Waggles does that with the puppies this last yesterday. What was it, chris? That was really cute.

Speaker 2: 27:23

It was like snow time. It was winter, it was 27 degrees outside. We had a good laugh and put like reflective shiny material on the ground, so that's similar to what snow would be. And then we had cold packs that we put on the dog's feet because they're little puppies and there isn't winter right now but there could be tomorrow, because this, this is Alberta, but let's not say that. And then I put the ice packs underneath the shiny material and Bernoulli walked over that he doesn't care.

Speaker 2: 27:54

Just to get that sensation of, oh, the floor is going to be cold. But he was so cute and then she had like onesies hanging up, because once you're a human and you look like a marshmallow in a onesie, then that could freak out your dog. She also talked about putting on your boots. Put them on even though it's 27 degrees outside. Put on your big boots and a toque, especially the big coat, just to get your dog desensitized to those things when they're a puppy, rather than in six months when they're a full-grown dog.

Speaker 4: 28:30

Yeah, and thank you for just putting Penny Lane's Lawn Potato fundraiser into the nest. She always raises money for such great charities. And the other thing I know a bunch of us are aware of that I've tweeted about as well. So for anybody who remembers, a Twitter account called Cat Food Bread, the woman behind the account recently passed away from cancer. Oh no, her name is Amy Beatty, and one of the big things this account did is she was constantly raising money for the Humane Society of Chittenden County, vermont, which is where Cat Food Breath was adopted from. So folks who were adjacent to the account, every year there's a thing called the Tour de Couch that runs during when the Tour de France cycling race is on and it's all posting pictures of your cats napping on couches.

Speaker 4: 29:22

And this year they're working on getting enough donations and this year they're working on getting enough donations to the humane society so they can get a tile there in honor of amy and cat food breath and for folks who are interested, I've posted a quite a bit about it in my own profile and just wanted to pass that on because she was just a remarkable lady and cat. Twitter is just not the same without her. I will say that this year's Tour de Couch is open to all species. A lot of dogs have been doing their best couch napping this year as well. Look at hashtag Tour de Couch for a lot of cute and funny pictures and some really great commentary.

Speaker 3: 30:03

That's awesome. Thanks for talking about that, and people can check out your profile and Chris might be putting something up there in relation to that. I unfortunately I didn't know about cat food breath and the lady behind the account. I'll do my own research and kind of get up to speed on that. So that's. It's always tragic when somebody on social media passes away who's bring such light and joy to everyone. So that's. It's always tragic when somebody on social media passes away who's bring such light and joy to everyone. So thanks for highlighting that creator or that that person behind the account.

Speaker 4: 30:32

Absolutely, and thank you guys for letting me ramble on and enjoy the rest of your weekend and give that chonky boy of yours a big pet from his auntie Holly.

Speaker 3: 30:43

Sounds good. Pet from his auntie holly sounds good. We have a quick question from live diane mccomb. Mccomb says do you play with bernoulli a lot, or does beaker help too? Now, inside the house, beaker doesn't play with bernoulli that much, if at all. She tolerates him. That's probably the best way to explain it. But outside the house there is all manner of shenanigans starting where, together or because of beaker, bernoulli has found out that digging or being in dirt is the greatest thing since sliced bread or the greatest thing since watermelon. So that's where they really have started to bond is outside, and it's adorable and messy, but a lot of fun. And I snapped a couple of photos of how messy Bernoulli got this week. Yeah, he got pretty muddy. So hopefully that answers your question, diane. All right, we'll go to Robert. Robert, thanks for waiting. Go ahead, robert, over on audio.

Speaker 6: 31:45

Yep, thank you very much. I've been enjoying watching Bernoulli grow up.

Speaker 6: 31:49

he's just, he's the cutest things we're very lucky yes, and you were talking about doing special things that are in Beaker's line of interest, that may not be in a burner's line of interest. So he continues to feel special and I think there's another thing that you could do that he would probably adore, and that is something that Goldens do and Labs do, and they are incredible at something called blind retrieves. Okay, tell us about it All right. So normally you throw the tennis ball and the dog watches where the tennis ball goes, runs to it and brings it back right. So that's the basic retrieve. A blind retrieve is where the dog can't see where the ball is, has to find it with his or her nose.

Speaker 3: 32:43

Oh, so you sent it up to start with to get them okay start with to get them okay.

Speaker 6: 32:52

So I would start with a scented ball and throw it where he can see it and then and then from there you make it sequentially harder, so you throw it into the tall grass, but he can't see exactly where it landed. Then he has to sniff his way to it. And you, my, my black lab is 10 and it's still still. If she's bored, that's the best thing Other than swimming. I can take her out and we'll do some blind retrieves and she's the happiest dog ever Because she can use her nose and use her brain and I can throw the ball an unbelievable distance in the middle of nowhere and she will just take her time and sniff and sniff. And I'm willing to bet that beaker has an awesome nose and that's one of the things that the burners probably can't do. That beaker can't yeah.

Speaker 3: 33:43

So beaker is very good at retrieving um and and what we found is that on land maybe not as great off leash, she gets distracted by things, but retrieving stuff in the water she is a hundred percent on to almost dangerous detriment where, if we were not a great pet parent, we huck something in a fast-moving river, she would go after to try to get it.

Speaker 6: 34:07

So yeah, my labs do.

Speaker 3: 34:10

The first time she got to wash downstream she actually out to to swim to the bank and then run back yeah, yeah, and that's why we, that's why we have beaker and uh pfd when we go out on the water, just in case, because a very good swimming dog. If you don't, if you don't, if she doesn't have the stamina, we're just worried about that, but that's a great idea to try with her. Robert, I love that. Thanks for sharing. That's so fun.

Speaker 6: 34:36

You can start by taking the tennis ball and start with the not blind retrieves, the direct retrieves. Then she'll get an idea that oh, the ball smells like something and then throw it just where she can see where it went but can't see where it landed. That's the best intermediate step and when she gets really good, you just fling it in any direction and she'll find it.

Speaker 3: 35:01

I love it. Thanks, robert, really appreciate that share. We have a comment on Instagram, I believe in reference to the 80 degree Fahrenheit weather. Texas would love 80 degree weather right now. Yeah, so it's all relative, as our great good friend, donna Craig, who lives currently in Texas, says, in the summer, what is it the seventh circle of hell how hot it is. What does she always say?

Speaker 2: 35:28

Yeah, but she's moved to California. Yeah, but she's moved to California. Yes.

Speaker 3: 35:31

Moving or is moved to California. Yeah, we'll have to catch up with her. Yeah, all right. So I have, I'm going to do a product flog right now. I we don't normally do this, but we're going to do that right now. So if you're watching live, you'll get to see it live. Boom, little Chiron. So I've made a coupon code on our website. So fluffy, all capital, so fluffy, and if you use that coupon code, you'll save 15% on any of our adorable stuffed animals.

Speaker 3: 36:04

So this is the Beaker Stuffy. So it's got safety glasses and a lab coat. It comes with a science experiment. Sorry, a little product placement here. And for folks who are on audio, I think one of our we actually tweeted about the Beaker stuffy today. Oh, chris has the Bunsen stuffy, yeah, so the Bunsen stuffy is quite a bit bigger because Bunsen is bigger. It's a little bit more money because it's so much bigger. So here are the two of them together. Yeah and yeah, they're very high quality stuffies. These are toy grade, so they are. They passed all of the different laws in canada for safety for of all ages, so any kid can have fun with the toys.

Speaker 3: 36:45

So that's the bunsen stuffy plus three oh three plus sorry three and up three and up, safe for three and up.

Speaker 3: 36:51

And and then we have the little ginger stuffy and it's freaking adorable. It looks just like her as little glasses and a safety and the boy did. We work hard on nailing what the little ginger stuffy looks like anyways. So if you use the code SOFLUFFY, you can save 15% and you can get them one by one. There's a deal for all three of them and the good thing is they're inflation proof because we got them all done before things went crazy with inflation. So they are frozen in time, meaning that their prices aren't going to go up with inflation. So they're a smoking deal right now and they always will be.

Speaker 3: 37:32

If you need to pick up a stuffed animal, they make great gifts for yourself, friends or family, so there's a little product placement. So fluffy say, 15% on our stuffies at our website and I know a lot of people have picked up some of our stuffies and thank you so much for supporting us. It's one of the ways that we we can keep all of the things that we do free, like Pet Chat and the podcast, all of that stuff. Oh, tracy's here, so we'll let we'll bring Tracy up and then we'll I think we'll move towards wrap up. Hello Tracy, go ahead, hi guys, hi.

Speaker 1: 38:05

Not much going on here. Ricky is still eating away, so no big updates, but I just wanted to check in. Still, his super snuggly self.

Speaker 3: 38:21

Oh, yay, that's great. Thank you for the update, tracy. Okay, chris, anything else on your end before we go towards wrap up?

Speaker 2: 38:28

Were you going to share the story about Ginger today in her catio?

Speaker 3: 38:32

No, I forgot about that. You're the one that saw it, so you can go ahead. I was talking to some pretty amazing scientists for the podcast.

Speaker 2: 38:43

So I was sitting on the deck and I had Bunsen Beaker Bee out on the deck with me and I put Ginger in the catio, because she loves it in there, and all of a sudden I heard this thump sound. I'm like what is going on? And I went and looked and Ginger was rolling around in her catio and I I'm like what are you doing? And then I saw it she got a mouse, and she with her murder mittens. So, spoiler alert, there was a mouse harmed in this, in this story. The most didn't make it, and so she was like rolling around with it and having fun with it, throwing it up in the air. And then I went to retrieve it and it was gone. So either she flung it out of the catio when she was in her boisterous activity or she ate it.

Speaker 3: 39:34

I can't find it so not good and we keep ginger in the catio because she's like a murder machine. But I have no sympathy for animals that come into her catio. Like you have the entire farm property where you can live and you decide to go into the cage with the apex predator Like that's on you mouse. I'm sorry that's on you and that's just Darwinian evolution happening before our eyes. Holly, go ahead.

Speaker 4: 40:07

I was just going to say. Many years ago I lived in Seattle in an old 1920s house with an unfinished basement and we had a cat named Sandy who was just this quiet demure, lived in the house her whole life, hated outside, but let's just say, occasionally a rodent would get into the basement and Sandy got a good meal out of it that was the end of that rodent yeah, and we, like there was barely any carcass left, she, I, the whole and the way.

Speaker 4: 40:39

I'm glad there wasn't much left. On the other hand, I'm like, oh my god, you're a little murder machine. Yeah. So that was just my little story yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 3: 40:53

we had a. We have this thread that gets pumped out every I don't know two and a half months about cats, why you should keep cats inside, and it's always controversial because some folks don't like it, and that's okay, you're entitled to your opinion. But it just goes to show that cats are so good at catching and killing things if they want. They are very good little predators. And, to be fair to early uses of cats on ships, they were incredibly important to keep the rodent population at bay. When early sailors were going around, like, if you got too many rats on your ship, that could be the end of your food supply. You could starve to death. So the ship cats were amazing for early sailors and there's lots of literature about how important ship cats were and how they were treasured companions to early sailors. So we can't knock their hunting prowess too much in certain circumstances.

Speaker 3: 41:46

All right, thanks for coming to Pet Chat this week, everybody. Next week we're going to do Pet Chat again, so we'll see you then. And also, if you haven't listened to our podcast, give the Science Podcast a listen. We've had a couple really fun news items the last week and really interesting interviews with people from Wimba. That's that company that 3D prints supports for dogs like braces. Another amazing podcaster who talks about outrage, the psychology of being outraged. And then Dr Jonathan Stia was the guest on this week's podcast. He's a clinical psychologist and he is a debunker of all of the different mental health myths that are out there. Okay, take care everybody, and we'll see you next week.