ArcaMax

Much of modern dog culture revolves around training. Obedience classes, agility courses, service certifications, and working titles all reinforce the idea that a dog’s value lies in what it is taught to do. Yet in homes across the country, dogs perform quiet, consistent labor without ever being trained for it—and without being recognized as ...Read more

Aging in dogs is often framed as a slow narrowing of life: less energy, fewer adventures, quieter days. Yet many dog owners report a puzzling shift as their companions enter their later years. The once composed adult dog becomes sillier, clingier, more expressive, sometimes more anxious, sometimes more joyful. Old toys are rediscovered. Play ...Read more

Dogs look at us in ways that feel almost intrusive. They watch as we speak, track our expressions as we move, and sometimes react before we understand what we are feeling ourselves. This attentiveness is often described as intuition or loyalty, but it is rooted in something more concrete.

Dogs read human faces.

Not metaphorically, not ...Read more

They appear at your heel when you stand. They pause outside the bathroom door. They move rooms with you as if connected by an invisible thread. For many dog owners, the experience is so familiar it fades into background noise: the dog who follows everywhere.

This behavior is often described casually as “clingy,” “needy,” or “over-...Read more

Cats are often described as aloof observers of human life—present but uninvolved, affectionate on their own terms, indifferent to our daily concerns. Yet anyone who has lived closely with a cat during illness, grief, conflict, or stress knows this description falls short. Cats notice. They adjust. Sometimes, they react before we do.

Cats ...Read more

Cats have a reputation for living entirely in the present. They nap, they eat, they observe, and they move on. When something unpleasant happens—a vet visit, a loud noise, an awkward encounter with a visitor—it is often assumed that a cat simply forgets once calm returns.

This assumption is wrong.

Cats possess long, selective memories ...Read more

Anyone who lives with a cat has experienced the familiar scene. You settle into a chair or onto the couch, hoping for companionship. Your cat approaches, pauses, and then—rather than curling up in your lap—chooses a spot just out of reach. Close enough to share space, far enough to remain untouched.

To many people, this feels like rejection...Read more

Indoor cats live among us like quiet roommates. They nap in sunlit rectangles, request meals with impeccable timing, and observe human activity with a level of judgment normally reserved for Victorian aunts. Because so much of their day appears uneventful, it is easy to assume that indoor cats live small, repetitive lives—safe, yes, but dull. ...Read more

Dear Cathy,

My son adopted a nine-year-old female cat this past October, after losing his previous cat to cancer. After spending the day in the bathroom to acclimate, she indicated she was anxious to come out. At first, she jumped on everything, including a tall armoire and the refrigerator. Each time, my son helped her down and said, “No ...Read more

Pets have lived alongside humans for thousands of years, evolving not just as companions but as close observers of our habits, moods, and physical states. Long before modern medicine offered diagnostics and wearable health trackers, people noticed something quieter and harder to measure: animals often react to trouble before humans recognize it ...Read more

By any obvious measure, humans take care of pets. We provide food, shelter, medical care, and structure. We decide where they live and how they move through the world. But that accounting misses a quieter truth, one that most pet owners sense but rarely articulate clearly: pets take care of us, too. Not in dramatic or cinematic ways, but through...Read more

By the time a dog or cat reaches its senior years, caregivers often find themselves navigating changes they never anticipated when their companion was young. One of the most challenging — and emotionally fraught — is incontinence. Accidents can feel frustrating, embarrassing, or even overwhelming, but veterinarians emphasize that ...Read more

Pets are rarely silent. They bark, meow, chirp, whine, and howl in ways that humans learn to recognize and interpret. These sounds are often directed outward—requests for food, attention, or access. But there is another category of animal noise that is less obvious and far more revealing: the sounds pets make when they believe they are alone. ...Read more

Dear Cathy, One of your readers wrote to you about having trouble with an aggressive male toy poodle after many years with a King Charles spaniel. To me, this sounds like another case of people buying expensive “designer” dogs. In the foster/rescue world, we have strong feelings about the purchase of pricey purebreds, especially since poor ...Read more

In most households, rules are assumed to be written by the people who pay the rent or the mortgage. Chairs have purposes. Beds have boundaries. Doors are either open or closed. But anyone who has lived with a pet long enough knows that these rules are provisional. Quietly, persistently, animals renegotiate them.

The process is rarely ...Read more

As winter tightens its grip and daylight thins, many dog owners brace for shorter walks and reluctant paws. For some breeds, cold weather is an obstacle to be endured. For others, it is a return to form. These dogs were shaped by climates where snow was constant, wind was unforgiving, and survival depended on fur, fat, and endurance.

Cold-...Read more

Somewhere between the crinkle of a paper bag and the hum of the vacuum cleaner lives one of the great domestic mysteries: catnip. It arrives quietly, usually in a small plastic pouch or sewn into a mouse-shaped toy, and within seconds transforms a dignified predator into a rolling, drooling philosopher. The cat flops. The cat chirps. The cat ...Read more