Something people ask me a lot is whether indoor cats need vaccinations. I'd like to be able to give a pat answer, but the answer is really "It depends." One might think the safest route is to go ahead and vaccinate across the board "just in case", but cats can actually develop cancer from vaccinations. See this article for more information.

So if cats can develop cancer from vaccinations, why bother to vaccinate at all? This is a case of needing to see if the benefits outweigh the risks. Most state and local laws require you to vaccinate your cat against rabies. Yes, even if they never go outside, even if their risk of getting rabies is slim to none. My guess is that my cats, who consider an open door to be Smell-O-Vision, and would never consider venturing outside, will never come into contact with a rabid anything.

That said, the county I live in requires all pets to be vaccinated against rabies, so I follow the law. Otherwise, I have discussed with my veterinarian whether or not to vaccinate my adult cats, and have chosen to only do the rabies shots. Depending on your area of the country and needs, you may need to vaccinate more than I do.

So, the real answer is naturally, "talk to your vet." But especially when choosing whether or not to vaccinate your pets, consider whether they'll ever, ever go outside. Some cats might be interested and might slip out, others would never even consider it. Only you know your cats well enough to make the decision.

Hey, Animal Shak-ers! We're featuring your pets! Want your pet to be featured? Email me at badbadivy@gmail.com.

My first thought the first time my cousin Steph sent me a picture of her new dog, Bolt, was "Ooh! Pretty!" Then she sent me another picture of Bolt and her- Bolt's head was bigger than my cousin's head! So my next thought was, naturally, "Oooh! Big!"

Bolt is 15 months old. He's a purebred white German Shepherd. He was yet another victim of antifreeze poisoning when he was a puppy. Luckily, some people rescued him and saved his life. The rescuers had to rehome him due to downsizing their home, and now he's living happily with Steph.

Steph says he is very well behaved and is great with other dogs. She said, "He is nothing short of amazing." Thank goodness for the rescuers of the world. So many good dogs could be living on the streets or dead, if not for all of us who go out of our way to rescue dogs. Thanks, Steph, for doing your part!

 My pal Sonia made this with Flickr Toys , and I had to chuckle. Some dogs really dig clothes- like my dog Tiny who always feels special if you put clothes on him. But many dogs really seem to hate it. I'm wondering what Kitty will think of clothes, once she's big enough for them.

One thing I plan on doing with Kitty as soon as she gets old enough is to put a bow in her hair. Yeah, I'm one of THOSE dog people. I can't help it, I think bows are seriously adorable! What kind of dog owner are you? Clothes, or no clothes?

A few people have asked me how I made the playpen for Kitty. It's really very simple and inexpensive. I simply used panels from a wire storage cube (like this). Originally, I used trash bag ties to hold it together until I could get to Home Depot to get some cable ties, but one of them came apart when I was gone, and by the time I got back my fabulous son had used duct tape to put it back together. Now I have the whole thing held together with duct tape and it works marvelously.

I put down a blanket for her to lay on and voila! Puppy playpen. What's really nice about this is that it's easily moved from room to room so she never really has to be alone.

Ya know, it's been awhile since I've talked cats. Truthfully, I like cats far more than I like dogs. The world can be split, I think, into animal lovers, and non-animal lovers. From there, you can split them once again into dog lovers, cat lovers, and small animal lovers. A cat lover can also love dogs and small animals, but I think everyone has a preference.

So, me, I'm a cat lover. I love their independence. I adore the fact that generally, you just have to show them where the litterbox is kept, and then just keep it clean for them. I love the fact that they look sneaky when they're not up to anything, and they look like innocent little angels when they're up to some mischief.

Tell me, Shak-ers, what kind of animal holds the biggest place in your heart? Why?

Kitty was a bit lonely at first, especially since my older dog didn't embrace her like I thought he should have, ha. No worries, BabyCat to the rescue!

I hate surprises. Well, I hate bad surprises anyway. Surprise me with a present or some great news? Right on. Surprise me by showing up with 4 people at my doorstep telling me they're the owners of Annabelle and her name is in actuality Rosie and they're demanding the puppies and Annabelle/Rosie right away, without giving me time to find out what my rights are or prepare the kids? No, not my kind of surprise at all.

So, yeah, that's what happened last night. 4 people showed up at my doorstep and told me they were the real owners of Annabelle. It was strange, Mr. Ivy answered the door and came in and said, "There are these people outside wanting to see if our dog belongs to them." For some unknown reason I thought he meant Tiny, so I brought him outside. No, they said, the Shih Tzu. Ohhhh. That made more sense.

Apparently, someone that reads either this blog, or my Twitter, or is one of my Flickr contacts, or something, had emailed them and told them where I live. I don't know who emailed them. I don't really care other than the fact that they obviously know me well enough to have my address- I wish they had thought of my kids and my feelings for one hot minute and had emailed me to give me the heads up. Or at least had copied me on the email they sent the owners of Annabelle. Anyway.

So we got Annabelle, brought her outside, and she knew them alright. I guess they expected me to pack Annabelle and her puppies right up and hand them all over right away. I didn't think so. I said something like "Let me get this all sorted out in my mind and I'll call you tomorrow." No, they wanted her and all the puppies right away. The cops ended up being called. I called them, I had nothing to hide.

When the cops showed up, that's when things started to go badly. The people, who were perfectly nice, if a bit demanding, started insinuating to the police officer that I had stolen Annabelle. Let me make one thing perfectly clear- I would NEVER, EVER steal a dog, or anything else for that matter. My moral code has plenty of room for shades of grey, but one thing that is crystal-clear, black and white for me is- stealing is wrong. So the insinuation of that made me irate.

I think when the cop started to not like me was in the middle of all that. One of the things the woman said was, "I had flyers EVERYWHERE. I had them at Food Lion, who doesn't shop at FOOD LION?" Well, I don't shop at Food Lion, and I said so. Loudly. That's when things really started to not go my way.

I explained about my kids and all of us truly loving Annabelle and her puppies. I understand, you lose your dog, you miss them, you want them back. Okay. But, the problem is, we had all been there since minute one of their birth, and we had grown really attached to them. And then there's the question of the vet bills. I had spent over $300 on Annabelle at the vet. The cop shot me down immediately on that one, telling me that was MY problem that I had spent that much money and if I couldn't afford it, I shouldn't have rescued Annabelle.

It's a lucky thing that Mr. Ivy was there. He was completely calm and reasonable and finally worked out a deal with the owners that we could keep one puppy. I wanted to keep Annabelle and the puppies at my house until she was finished weaning them, then I would give them all back other than Kitty, the one we would keep. The owners flatly refused. Finally, I said okay, they could take them home. I just wanted a signed statement with the agreement. They were okay about that, but then absolutely refused to give me their address. Why? They had mine, and my phone number, yet they wouldn't give me their address?

Again, the cop started giving me crap. "There are ACTUAL emergencies out there and you're quibbling over a DOG," he said. I just didn't want to get COMPLETELY screwed over. We had come to a total impasse and I couldn't think of anything else. I told them we'd keep Kitty and they could take the other two puppies and Annabelle home. We'd hand feed Kitty. Mr. Ivy said at 4 weeks, it wasn't ideal, but Kitty would be okay.

We wrote up another contract, absolving the owners of any rights to Kitty, they signed, we signed, made a copy, and gave it to them. I'm hoping this is the end of it forever. One of the women called last night and I told her where they could find vet records for Annabelle/Rosie and she told me some strange story about how there are worms in the tissues of every puppy's intestines and they would get fat and die if not dewormed. Err, okay. I'm going to trust my vet's word on that, that she doesn't need to be dewormed. I'll be taking her in to my vet as soon as I can get an appointment to have her checked over and make sure everything's okay.

Hopefully, this is over. I'm glad Annabelle found her real owners. They were fairly nice between all the insinuations and bizarre stories. Annabelle wasn't housetrained to poop outside (she'd pee outside, no problem. Poop? No way) so I'm glad I won't be cleaning up piles of dog poo all the time.

My 8 year old was completely hysterical last night. She cried and I held her and cried with her. There will be grieving. But the good news is, this morning things seem to be better. I'm bleary eyed from hand feeding our wonderful puppy Kitty every four hours. Kitty seemed somewhat sad last night, but I can tell you she does enjoy me being "mama" for her. Not as much, I'm sure, as she enjoyed her real mama, but she likes me quite well.

I really do think this has worked out for the best. God was certainly taking care of us last night by this happening when Mr. Ivy was home. Like I said at the beginning of this, I don't handle surprises well. That's why I so desperately wish I had had a heads up from the emailer. I could have prepared my kids AND myself for what was about to happen. But thankfully, Mr. Ivy who does handle surprises and everything else calmly and reasonably was there. That's a blessing.

I think the real lesson to be learned in this is to make sure your dogs are collared and leashed, or at least supervised when they are outside. And spay and neuter your pets. All of this could have been avoided had Annabelle's owners done any of this.

UPDATE: The person who emailed the owners sent me an email explaining what happened. It was basically a matter of them seeing the ad, getting excited at the thought of being able to help reunite Annabelle with her owners and emailing them. This person did NOT give them my address, as they don't even have my address. Which means, I guess, that these people have stalked me from my Flickr account, which is kind of disturbing and I'm going to ramp up security on that. But at any rate, the person who did the emailing was very cool about admitting the mistake by not letting me know first, and things like that happen. The emailer and I are cool, I am not mad. Just wanted to update on that.