Welcome to 2014!

Happy 2014! We all hope you had a fantastic and safe holiday season and are now recovering by calling all of your friends who live back east and telling them how tan you are.

A new year is a great time to make a new start. We promise ourselves to make broccoli a bigger part of our diet and limit ice cream for dinner to special occasions. We also promise to be better at being us.

Our pets can benefit from the new us too. Research has shown for some time that people who walk their dogs are fitter. Our pets benefit from the exercise and the ability to explore the sights and sounds of the bigger world. Dogs that go for walks benefit from the socialization as much as we do.

I run with my dogs - well, one dog. This dog:

Kate on a mountain bike ride

These two dogs

Miss Kitty

Ketchum

Stay home. They stay home for two rather inexcusable reasons. First, these two, as the pictures above illustrate, embrace dirt, and all sorts of unknown, and unknowable, sketchy whatnot. Frankly they are kind of yucky.

Second, Kitty is well behaved, but, Ketchum - not so much. Her recall is dubious, her sit is non-existent and she thinks a leash is a lethal device and will flop around like a trout if I put one on.

This is sad - after all, I know how to bathe a dog and I certainly know how to leash train a dog.

So for 2014, I promise this blog will contain more stories of these two neglected pooches having adventures with their mom - which, of course, they really really want to do.

To get that achieved, I intend to use some of the coupons we have here at Ventana Animal Hospital to help everyone fulfill their pet's new year's resolutions. We have bags of Purina OM dog food for pets who need a jump start to a slimmer waistline, and for slackers like me, we have coupons to Central Pet for grooming and training.

Not only will Ketchum and Kitty benefit from smelling slightly less offensive, but learning to walk on a leash and come when called will allow them to go running and cycling with me.

Becoming better us's sometimes means helping our pets become better them's.

We look forward to seeing your better you in 2014, and we are very happy to help you help your pets become better them's.