community
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PETS & THEIR PEOPLE
Photo submitted by KATHRYN HORNER
14
July 08, 2011
neighborsgo | Frisco | Little Elm
Dakota, a 6-year-old Siberian husky, sunbathes on a boat with the Horner family.
Keep your pets safe, healthy during summer fun
L
ast weekend, our family celebrated Fourth of July at the lake. And since our pets are a part of our family, they came too (and almost outnumbered us). It’s amusing watching Dakota, a 6year-old Siberian husky, sunbathe on a floating tube with my brother Thomas Horner or to see Rusty, my cousin Justin Horner’s 2-year-old yellow lab, jump from the dock after a stick or to see Bandit, my sister McKenzie Welch’s 14-year-old border collie, run after a ball. To us, the dogs are a big part of what it means to go to the lake, but with 100-degree weather, it’s important for us to keep our pets safe and healthy while having fun. Here are a few tips. • Water and Shade: Because we’ll be outside most of the day, we make sure there are buckets of iced water. Ice helps keep the water cool longer in several shady locations so the dogs stay mostly out of the sun. • Swimming: Our dogs never go swimming without us. Some dogs, like Pebbles, don’t enjoy the water and that’s OK — they’re usually the ones getting extra rubdowns from the sunbathers on the dock. Dakota loves boat rides, but never without his life vest and doggles. • Identification: Since we’re not at home and our dogs don’t know the neighborhood, they each have collars with ID tags with our cellphone numbers. My dogs, Pebbles and Abbi, have special tags with the lake-house information on them as an extra precaution.
KATHRYN HORNER Contributor
• Other animals: It never fails; we pull up the driveway and send a raccoon that enjoyed living on our porch scurrying. Before letting dogs out, we have to make sure it’s outside the fence. We also take precautions when a neighbors’ golden retriever smells hamburgers on the grill and comes over for dinner. Staying in control of situations and knowing your own pet’s comfort level with new animals keeps everyone safe and having fun. • Pest-free: When getting our pets ready for a weekend adventure, we make sure to treat them with a flea and tick preventative. Summer heat brings out the mosquitoes, so in addition to packing repellant, make sure your pet is on heartworm prevention, because it only takes one bite from an infected mosquito for your dog to contract heartworms. This is a great time of year and can be a time for your family to enjoy quality time with your pets. With a few precautions and planning, it will be a great summer. Kathryn Horner contributes to neighborsgo on behalf of the Frisco Humane Society.