ArcaMax

For many older adults, a dog can provide companionship, structure and a powerful sense of purpose. The right dog encourages daily activity, offers affection and helps reduce feelings of loneliness. But not every breed is equally suited to retirement living, fixed incomes or the realities of aging joints and changing energy levels.

The best dogs...Read more

Dear Cathy, Five years ago, we adopted a four-year-old Dachshund mix who was so afraid of everything we renamed her Skitter. She came from a hoarding situation.

What puzzles us most is that she is a “marker.” She has a set area around our house where we walk her – a few houses one way and a few the other – and that is her boundary. She ...Read more

DENVER -- When it comes to finding the right cannabidiol (CBD) product for your dog, even experts say that it’s a process of trial and error. And with the myriad tinctures and treats available, where do you even start?

Perhaps with a word-of-mouth ...Read more

SAN DIEGO — It was about 17 years ago that Hannah Shaw found a black kitten stuck in a tree in a Philadelphia park.

She didn’t know how to care for the little cat, which had one of its eyes sealed shut with an infection — but her friend advised her not to bring it to a local animal shelter, where it could be euthanized for its young age. ...Read more

Grumpy Cat never set out to become famous. She did not perform tricks, star in an animated series, or chase laser pointers with unusual enthusiasm. She simply looked as though she had grown tired of everyone’s nonsense and was prepared to say so without moving a muscle.

That expression — a permanent scowl combined with a tiny body and an ...Read more

For anyone who has attempted yoga in a home shared with cats, one truth becomes clear almost immediately: what humans call a wellness practice, cats regard as a participatory event.

Roll out a mat, sit quietly and begin to breathe, and within moments a cat will appear as if summoned by ancient ritual. It may step delicately onto the center of ...Read more

When cats take over a household, the signs are subtle at first: a favorite chair becomes permanently occupied, the kitchen schedule shifts to align with breakfast demands, and every cardboard box is immediately reclassified as feline property.

Then one day, you realize the truth. You are not the owner of several cats. You are the live-in staff ...Read more

When your dog suddenly freezes in the hallway and stares into the darkness, or your cat locks onto a blank section of wall as if witnessing the arrival of an invisible monarch, most people have the same thought: “What are they looking at?”

The recent film “Good Dog” leans hard into that deeply familiar unease. Like many animal-centered ...Read more

Dog walking may seem simple — leash, dog, out the door — but anyone who spends serious time pacing sidewalks, trails or neighborhoods with a canine companion quickly learns the small accessories matter. A good walk can become more comfortable, safer and more enjoyable with the right gear, especially for people who walk multiple times a day ...Read more

Dear Cathy,

I recently adopted a four-year-old Boston terrier named Marcie from a breeder. I chose an adult dog to avoid house training and was told she was already trained.

Since coming home, she has had very inconsistent bathroom habits. At first, she rarely went outside, even with frequent leash walks. We’ve since added a small, fenced ...Read more

The mailbox at the end of the gravel drive reads “Juniper Hill Farm,” though the woman who lives there admits she hasn’t grown anything successfully in years except cats.

“There’s always another cat,” she said, barefoot on the wide plank porch of her antique farmhouse outside Amelia, Virginia, silver rings clinking softly against ...Read more

Dogs do not announce themselves as life-changing companions. They arrive as a set of small, practical decisions — a leash, a bowl, a routine — and then quietly rearrange the emotional architecture of a household. Over time, their presence becomes less about ownership and more about partnership, a steady, wordless exchange that reveals itself...Read more

Your Singapura may be the smallest of the domestic cat breeds, but don’t mistake that for quiet compliance. If anything, the tiny, sepia-toned observer in your home has a running commentary on your habits, your priorities, and your baffling inability to live correctly. If we could translate the chirps, trills, and insistent stares into plain ...Read more

Tall, elegant and often described as “cats in dog bodies,” the Borzoi has surged in visibility thanks to social media, where its flowing coat and distinctive profile lend themselves to viral moments. But behind the aristocratic look is a breed with specific needs that can surprise first-time owners.

Originally developed in Russia for ...Read more

The first thing people notice is not the women themselves, but the pattern.

Five images, posted hours apart from different parts of the world, somehow feel synchronized. A shoreline at dawn. A desert trail under high sun. A park thick with autumn leaves. A rain-darkened city street. A snow-covered path at the edge of a quiet village. In each, a...Read more

Dear Cathy,

I recently adopted a four-year-old Boston Terrier, Marcie, from a breeder. I chose an adult dog to avoid house-training and was told she was fully house-trained, with only one prior crate accident after being left 12 hours.

I understand there’s an adjustment period. In the past 26 years, I have adopted two other adult Boston ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — Minnesota’s toughest food critic is a fluffy orange cat named Milo.

Milo sees what you’re eating and he is (urp) appalled.

Pizza slice? Chicken nugget? Potato? Milo greets them all with a suspicious sniff, a look of slowly dawning horror, followed by cartoonishly exaggerated gagging — tongue out, eyes wide, hope lost.

As...Read more