Arden Moore: Welcome to Oh Behave on Pet Life Radio. I’m your host, Arden Moore. I appreciate all of you tuning in. Today we’re going to be discussing the cat. In fact, this just may be the best year to be a cat, and the reason being is very important people and groups are starting to pay even greater attention to our feline friends. Among them is a very special and talented veterinarian. She is Jane Brunt. She is the former president in fact of the American Association of Feline Practitioners. That’s like the grand pubar of all cats. So I wanted to welcome you Doctor Brunt to the show.

Dr. Jane Brunt: Well thank you Arden. It’s a pleasure to be here today.

Arden Moore: That’s great. We’re going to be talking about ways that we can actually help veterinarians and our cats get better care and so that they can live longer and healthier lives with us. We’re going to take a quick break and we’ll be right back.

Arden Moore: Welcome back to Oh Behave show on Pet Life Radio. I’m your host Arden Moore. As mentioned, we have a very special guest. She is Jane Brunt, the past president of the American Association of Feline Practitioners, and she doesn’t just live in the past. She is doing many things now and for the future to better cats. She is the spokesperson for the Know Heartworms Cat Campaign, yes cats do get heartworm, and she’s also going to be playing a key role in an upcoming conference in beautiful Palm Springs in February called the Catalyst Summit. And I wanted to ask you Doctor Brunt, thank you first for being on this show, and tell me a little bit about this summit. I mean why are we all of sudden putting the spotlight on the felines and what’s this summit hoping to attain?

Dr. Jane Brunt: Well the summit is in response to some recent alarming news that we’ve learned that cat visits to veterinarians are going down, and it’s really surprising when you think about how many cats there are in the United States, some eighty million pet cats and more cats than dogs, that they would actually go to the veterinarian less frequently than dogs do. So in response to this information, we have decided to collaborate and to join forces with many other organizations, and we’ll be convening as you said in Palm Springs, California in early February to join forces to try and identify what are some of these barriers, how can we make it easy for pet owners to bring their cats to the veterinarian to get the care that they deserve and they need.

Arden Moore: Well in addition to yourself, and your background is pretty amazing, if I was a cat I would like you to be my veterinarian, I just wouldn’t tell you that ‘cause it’s not cool, you know, cats want to, like, act cool, but in addition to you what are some of the groups that are going to be coming to the summit?

Dr. Jane Brunt: Well lots of other veterinary groups, the American Animal Hospital Association and the American Veterinary Medical Association. As far as veterinary organizations, shelter veterinarians. Also some humane and rescue organizations, the ASPCA and American Humane. Other organizations responsible for, you know, the information about cats, the veterinary technician groups and charitable organizations like the Morris Animal Foundation and the Win Feline Foundation, behavior groups, and then some initial key industry partners, corporations that have an interest in the health care of cats. Our sponsor, Pfizer Animal Health, will of course be there, and then we’re looking to some other early key players to be at the summit so that we can outline some things that we can do going forward and then reach out and embrace the support and the enthusiasm of many other organizations and individuals.

Arden Moore: Well I appreciate that. I know the Morris Animal Foundation and the Win Feline Foundation, in my role as editor of CatNip, we’ve recently done some stories on all the studies that they’re seeking to find researchers to do on cats. Is there a connection between the health of a cat and possibly the health of us?

Dr. Jane Brunt: Oh, there’s so many, there’s so much information and so much scientific data about the human/animal bond and how that improves the quality of life and even the health of people when they have an animal in their life, and you know what it’s like to stroke a cat and how that lowers your blood pressure and, you know, similarly the health considerations for having a cat, we want to make sure cats are healthy so that they can stay in peoples lives, because there are known conditions that can be shared by cats and animals, the zoonotic diseases that they can share.

Arden Moore: Would you give me a couple of, yeah, zoonotic I guess just simply means it could be passed on to people…

Dr. Jane Brunt: Yes, yes, and in the broad sense it’s diseases that are shared by animal and man, so it can go both ways. And I’ll give you a perfect example of a zoonotic condition, and that’s the simple case of roundworms, and roundworms are a parasite of the intestine of cats and dogs and they’re a different species, but the roundworm lives in the intestine, inside the intestine of say the cat and then it lays eggs and the eggs then go out into wherever the cat defecates. It could be the litter box, if it’s an outdoor cat it could be a child’s sandbox, and then when that egg hatches into the environment, potentially that larva can then get into people and cause very serious conditions like larval migrains, they can get, they can get these little larvae that grow through the skin and get into the eye and other parts of the body, and you want to protect human health by keeping your cat healthy. If fact, my mothers cat, my mother is 84 years old…

Arden Moore: Wow.

Dr. Jane Brunt: She lives indoors, she has a…

Arden Moore: Your mother lives indoors or your mothers cat lives indoors?

Dr. Jane Brunt: Yeah, well, she lives…

Arden Moore: Well I’m glad to hear both of them live indoors, that’s good.

Dr. Jane Brunt: She lives indoors with her indoors cat and she’s had Tulip now for three years. Tulip never goes out. And just on a whim one time I said, “You know, I haven’t checked a stool sample on Tulip in a while Mom, I’ll take one in.” I took it in and I’m embarrassed to say that in this baggie sat in my briefcase for several days, but I finally kind of came across it, I said, “Oh, I’ll have it analyzed anyway.” Well, don’t you know that Tulip had a roundworm, and I was like, “My gosh. How did she ever get this?” and here my mother is at risk because she is changing a litter box and I felt horrible. So, we have…

Arden Moore: Well, don’t feel horrible. The fact that you did take the action is good, so don’t, you know, don’t berate yourself, but…

Dr. Jane Brunt: Right.

Arden Moore: you know, you brought up a very good point that, you know, we do need to practice good hygiene habits when we clean our cats litter boxes and not to be weird but you got to pay attention to their deposits, right?

Dr. Jane Brunt: Oh, exactly, and that’s one of the things that can give you a clue that there might be something wrong.

Arden Moore: What is it with cats? You know, I had, an example I had is I have a dog, a couple of dogs and a couple of cats and the dogs get almost a Oscar, Oscars when they feel the least bit, not feeling well, you know, they do the pawing, the do the whining, they look at you like, “Oh my gosh, it really hurts.” And yet, I had a cat that was slimming down, I was proud of myself ‘cause her nickname, Callie’s nickname was Calorie, and I’m thinking “Wow, I must be doing something right just through osmosis ‘cause she’s losing weight.” Well lo and behold, I went to talk to my veterinarian and it turns out she has hyperthyroidism. What is it about cats that they don’t really want to let you know when they don’t feel well, and how can we as caretakers of them do a better job of tuning into changes?

Dr. Jane Brunt: That’s a really great question Arden because cats are, I like to say they’re really clandestine about their signs. They just don’t come up and tell you that they don’t feel well. And in our circles, our feline circles, we like to say they have subtle signs of sickness. And we actually on our website for the American Association of Feline Practitioners, we list the ten subtle signs of sickness. And they’re very, very hard to recognize. Little things like…

Arden Moore: Can you run down a few? Yeah, go ahead, run down a few.

Dr. Jane Brunt: Sure, sure. Sure. Any change in activity, well you know it’s normal for a cat to sleep sixteen or eighteen hours a day, so a change in their activity or a change in their sleeping habits might be really hard to recognize. Are they sleeping a little bit more? Well, I don’t know. On the other hand, maybe with your cat Callie, with the hyperthyroidism, maybe she was sleeping less and more active and maybe that gave you a clue, but that’s hard to know. Changes in food or water consumption, either an increase or a decrease, but particularly, you know, older cats, maybe with Callie, you thought “Oh, she’s eating really well, she’s an older cat, and oh my gosh, she’s losing weight so everything must be great, right?”

Arden Moore: Yeah.

Dr. Jane Brunt: Well, here it is, this disease of an overactive thyroid causing her to want to eat more and be more active perhaps, and gee she’s losing weight so everything’s great, when in fact she has a very serious disease that causes other problems. Some of the other signs of sickness might be inappropriate use of the litter box or non use of the litter box, when cats urinate or defecate outside of the litter box, what does that mean? A lot of people right away think, “Oh, they’re mad at me. I did something wrong” or “Maybe the litter box wasn’t quite clean enough”, and that may be the case, but in more cases than not there’s some underlying medical problem that we need to try and address.

Arden Moore: So you’re saying that the cats, you know, they can’t hold a pen in their hand, they don’t have thumbs so writing you a hate letter isn’t going to work, but I think you draw a very good point, that this so-called boycott of the litter box could actually be a medical condition.

Dr. Jane Brunt: Oh, exactly. There are lots of, for example feline lower urinary tract diseases that are cause by things like could be crystals or stones in their bladder, it could be infection or it could be a condition we call intersticial systitis that causes straining and blood without infections or stones and make them want to not go in the litter box. So yes, there are very, very, very often there’s a medical condition that you need to get the advice and get the information from your veterinarian to help your cat.

Arden Moore: That’s very good points. You know, one thing I often hear people say is, “You know, they stay inside all the time, the cats, I mean really, why do I even need to take them to the veterinarian because my dog’s out and about, more exposed to things, and you know what, you know, cats are pretty self-sufficient. What’s the big deal? Why should we even do something called a wellness?”, and you know I’m just yanking your tail on this one, but please help the listeners understand why it really is important to get regular exams for their cats.

Dr. Jane Brunt: Oh, exactly, I mean that’s one of the big cat myths, that cats are independent so the inference is “Well they can take care of themselves and they don’t need medical care”, so it’s really easy for those problems to build and build and build and go undetected because they don’t show their signs, and when, for example in our practice we see well cats twice a year for a semi annual wellness exam, and I have been astounded since we’ve been doing this for well over two years now, at the number of conditions that we can identify early. I’m talking about things like dental disease, or maybe we might want to intervene with a special diet or homecare, things like obesity so we can prevent diabetes, and we can pick things up early in the progression of a problem, address it and then prevent other problems down the road, so the wellness exams are really, really important.

Arden Moore: You know, you’re right. I don’t see my cats Callie and Murphy walking around with stethoscopes hanging around their necks and checking each other saying, “How do you feel?”, “I feel good.”

Dr. Jane Brunt: Yeah.

Arden Moore: So, and they do seem good on the outside, so it’s sort of like you have to play kitty detective I guess. These wellness exams, some people might say, “Oh my gosh. How do I even get my cat in a carrier?” It seems like I bring the carrier out and it “See ya, wouldn’t want to be ya. I’m under the bed, and I’m always under in the middle of the bed where you can’t reach me.” I think, I think cats go to school for that, I really do, I think there’s like…

Dr. Jane Brunt: I think so, no I think its…

Arden Moore: I think…

Dr. Jane Brunt: I think that’s one of their…

Arden Moore: It’s under the bed…

Dr. Jane Brunt: Now that we have sequenced the genome we, yeah…

Arden Moore: Yeah…

Dr. Jane Brunt: We know about that, but…

Arden Moore: Can you explain, how do we outfox the feline to be able to even get them in the carrier in the first place to get them to see someone like you?

Dr. Jane Brunt: You know, it’s a whole educational process from the beginning for us to our owners, cat owners, new cat owners about making that carrier be a pleasant thing, have it out, have it be, you know, something that the cat enjoys, a little place that they can go to be by themselves, not unlike crate training, but, and I’m not suggesting that, it’s just that if it can be just part of a positive routine from the get go, from the very beginning instead of a “It’s a run around the house, close the doors, oh my gosh, I’ve got the carrier, shove the cat in the carrier.” I mad a video one time and put the video camera as if it were the cat’s eye view…

Arden Moore: Okay.

Dr. Jane Brunt: And I made it be this whole routine where, you know, you’re trying to go from one side of the bed you see to the other, and then you get shoved in the carrier, and then the carrier gets wobbled walking out the door and put in the car, and then on the car ride and then wobbled into the vet’s office, and here are these dogs barking…

Arden Moore: Oh my gosh.

Dr. Jane Brunt: and facing into the carrier, and can you imagine what that must be like for this little creature. So…

Arden Moore: I’d be looking for a litter box quick, you know…
 
Dr. Jane Brunt: Exactly.

Arden Moore: ‘cause I’d have to go.

Dr. Jane Brunt: Exactly. So, you know, it gets back to kind of the basics of how do we start, how can we make that a pleasant experience, and then reinforce the positive, and then once you get to the hospital then have it be a pleasant experience at the hospital with the right kind of handling and interaction, and it’s just a whole thing that we need to kind of, it’s not bear down on the cat and get the cat out, yank the cat out of the carrier, and of course they’re not going to want to come out.

Arden Moore: Well I, we’re speaking with Doctor Jane Brunt, and she is going to be directing a major cat summit called The Catalyst Summit in February, and we’re going to be talking to her a little bit more about ways to make the carrier feel more like a kitty condo, and I would love to see that video you did from the cat’s eye view to maybe drum home to our listeners the importance of making the carrier something of comfort and not of terror. We’re going to take a break and we’ll be right back.

Arden Moore: Welcome back. You’re listening to the Oh Behave show on Pet Life Radio. I’m your host Arden Moore. Today we are speaking with Jane Brunt. She’s a veterinarian and former, actually past president of the American Association of Feline Practitioners. She is the go-to person, the spokesperson for the Know Heartworms Campaign, and she’s going to be orchestrating a major cat powwow in Palm Springs in February called the Catalyst Summit. You can actually learn more about this summit by going to catalystsummit.org, that’s c-a-t-a-l-y-s-t s-u-m-m-i-t dot org. I get an A for spelling and/or www.goodnewsforpets.com, just run those words together, and you’re going to be learning more also in upcoming editions of Cat Nip and my friend at Cat Fancy, Susan Logan is the editor of that one, we both plan to be doing some follow-up stories on the summit. Dr. Brunt, when it comes to cats in a carrier, what I typically do is I have left the carrier out and made it a condo. I’ve hear other people that actually have garages, they sneak the carrier into their car in their garage, it’s closed, they wait a pregnant hour or so, you know, let the cat forget about that little carrier and just kind of bring the kitty in and talk to it nice and the next think you know it’s in the garage, and boom, it’s in the carrier. What do you think of these two options; the kind of making it a ho hum part of the home décor or bringing the carrier and getting it all ready for the trip before they know what’s happening?

Dr. Jane Brunt: Well first I think, I honestly think they can read the calendar and they know when their veterinary visit is…

Arden Moore: Yeah.

Dr. Jane Brunt: But I think the more comfortable and the more positive interactions that they’ve had with the carrier in making that a pleasant place to be and easy to put your cat in is another key point.

Arden Moore: Okay.

Dr. Jane Brunt: Having a carrier that for example opens on top as well as the side. Every time I see a great carrier I’m like, “Oh, where did you get that? That’s so cool.” I’ve seen ones that look like plastic picnic baskets, like the Dorothy and Toto, that the whole top opens up…

Arden Moore: Oh wow.

Dr. Jane Brunt: And it’s really easy to let cats in and out of those compared to the, those block shaped ones that have the door that’s only about half of the size of the whole carrier, so trying to get your cat encouraged to…

Arden Moore: Yeah.

Dr. Jane Brunt: to go into those carriers can be a challenge.

Arden Moore: It’s amazing how big they get, you know, when they know that they have to be squeezed through the opening, and all of a sudden they puff up like an octopus and they seem to have eight legs…

Dr. Jane Brunt: Exactly.

Arden Moore: instead of four.

Dr. Jane Brunt: Mm hmm.

Arden Moore: Well that’s good. Now, you know, one of the things that you are going across the country helping people better understand is something that I bet people don’t even, aren’t even aware of and that’s that “Gosh, cats can get heartworms too”, and I remember talking to you about this earlier, and you know, I give my dogs their heartworm pills every month as a preventative. What’s up with cats?

Dr. Jane Brunt: Well, cats get heartworms too, you’re exactly right Arden, and the challenge has been, well there’ve been a number of challenges, and one is that cats, its not heart disease. You know, they’re called heartworms so we think “Oh my gosh. I’ve been to the veterinarian, I see this big jar that they have of a dog heart and this big plate of spaghetti coming out of the dog heart.” Well, yes that’s heartworm in dogs, it’s spread by mosquitoes, but guess what, the same mosquitoes that will bite the dog to get infected can then transmit it to cats, and even indoors cats, ‘cause mosquitoes get inside, now….

Arden Moore: Right.

Dr. Jane Brunt: You know? And the thing that’s different in most cases of cat heartworm infection is that the larvae as it, as it travels through and develops after the cat has been bitten by a mosquito, the larvae die at the lungs and they don’t grow up into the big spaghetti like larvae in the heart that you see in the dog, and it causes lung disease…

Arden Moore: Okay.

Dr. Jane Brunt: not heart disease…

Arden Moore: Wow.

Dr. Jane Brunt: and it’s really hard to diagnose, so for many years we occasionally see a heartworm in an adult, heartworm in a cats heart, but as a post mortem exam as almost as a “gee whiz”, and we really missed for many years understanding that it’s lung disease, not heart disease.

Arden Moore: So by having a preventative medication that’s one, and maybe these wellness exams too, is there ways that you can sort of keep tabs on the tabby?

Dr. Jane Brunt: Exactly, exactly, it’s so easy to prevent heartworm infection in cats with a, with a monthly preventative, there are various ones that are available from your veterinarian because they are a prescription, but you know, the topical, I really like Revolution because it’s topical and it covers so many other, it gets roundworm, and that’s what I have Tulip on now so that once a month she gets these drops on her shoulders so that she doesn’t  transmit any roundworms or get heartworms again, and, you know, we can prevent it, but we can’t treat it. Once the cat is infected with a heartworm, you can’t treat it, and it very often can cause death, sudden death, and that’s another thing is they don’t show their signs of heartworm.

Arden Moore: Well, you can also learn more about heartworming cats by visiting the website, which is www.knowheartworms.org and know is spelt k-n-o-w, because you don’t want’ n-o heartworms.org, but it’s knowheartworms, k-n-o-w heartworms dot org, and Dr. Brunt is on that site and she definitely can guide you through. You actually have a couple of kitties yourself I understand, Paddy and Freddy?

Dr. Jane Brunt: I do, I do, there the….

Arden Moore: Tell me a little bit about them.

Dr. Jane Brunt: Paddy’s one of those challenge boys who has an eating disorder, and I work very hard at trying to prevent him from eating too much and trying to keep him, we do this thing called Body Condition Scoring and on a scale of nine he should be a five, that’s ideal, and Paddy’s about a seven, so we’re working through some challenges, but…

Arden Moore: And that’s Patti, that’s Patti as a Irish form, p-a-d-d-y.

Dr. Jane Brunt: It is, p-a-d-d-y. He’s a gray tabby and just, personality plus, nothing fazes him. And on the other hand Freddy, this little, little spindly black short hair just races all through the house and it’s kind of funny come feeding time, it’s like on your mark, get set, go, and they duna duna duna dun, down the hallway, to where their feeding area is, so they really make me laugh.

Arden Moore: Do they get along well?

Dr. Jane Brunt: They do. They’re really, really big buds and I have a dog also, and it’s funny to watch them interact because the wild one Freddy likes to, to interact with the dog Charley, with an e-y, and, and Paddy kind of looks over and make sure that Charley doesn’t step over his bounds there.

Arden Moore: What kind of dog is Charley?

Dr. Jane Brunt: He’s a standard Poodle.

Arden Moore: Okay, and, so he’s got the brains enough to know that cats are gods right?

Dr. Jane Brunt: Well, he defers to them, and that’s the good, that’s a good thing.

Arden Moore: That’s good, that’s good. Yeah, my household my two dogs know that my cats are gods and they know the best way to get good treats is by being well behaved around the cats ‘cause the cats are almost like the door opening to the best, that best treats. When they’re good around the cats, they get the better treats. That’s how I got them to be introduced. I mean how did you, I mean you’ve been a veterinarian for a number of years and you’ve been quite a talented one, and yet you did found or create the cat hospital at Tousen in Baltimore, which I love that city, Baltimore is great, and you were pretty much of a pioneer ‘cause I understand that was the first feline only vet hospital in the state of Maryland at the time you started it and because you just want to squeeze more time in a day, you opened up a second practice in Ordova Maryland…

Dr. Jane Brunt: Right.

Arden Moore: And both of them are, got the seal of approval by the American Animal Hospital Association. Tell me what made you kind of steer your practice toward cats and how in the heck do you do all this and be able to be a spokesperson for so many noble causes.

Dr. Jane Brunt: Well, you know I think it’s having the same people around you that have the same passion for cats, and they’re really such, such special creatures and they deserve to have something of their own without the stress of, you know, dogs in a veterinary hospital, and I learned that after just a few years and after I graduated from veterinary school that, you know, I really like dogs and of course I’ve had dogs almost always and, but cats are, you know, cats are special and cat people are special. There’s just something special about the bond and the interaction and how you handle them, and I just really like them, and to have people, to come to work everyday and to have people around you that have that same ilk, it really makes it pretty easy, so that’s why I do what I do.

Arden Moore: Well I applaud you for that. Now speaking of cats, do you think maybe 2008, even though I think it in China year of the frog, do you think this could be the year of the cat, a turning point, if place, groups like yourselves are able to let people know what’s happening with cats and, I mean what’s your thoughts about 2008 being the year of the cat?

Dr. Jane Brunt: Oh, yeah, yes, yes, it is such a great opportunity and just to see how many people and organizations really see the benefits to owning a cat and how we can keep them healthy and how we can decrease their numbers in shelters by making sure they’re spayed and neutered, and it’s just so great to see the opportunities that we have to collaborate with these great organizations going forward so that we can, so we have different focuses and different interests and maybe, maybe there are different philosophies in some things. But if we can all agree that we can elevate with a, we can enhance the stature of the cat and make people aware of opportunities to be a responsible pet owner and how do we do that and improve their health care so that people stay healthy and we can continue the cycle of love.

Arden Moore: Well that’s very well put. I know that people with think, “Oh my gosh, you know, it’s going to cost me more to have my cat if I do these wellness exams twice a year, but actually, it may be actually saving money in the long run, right, if you do that and maybe pay more attention to what’s on the food label…

Dr. Jane Brunt: Oh yeah.

Arden Moore: and give quality food?

Dr. Jane Brunt: Oh yes, you are a wonderful advocate for nutrition and proper nutrition and you have a lot of resources on your website, Arden, but that’s one of the things that at wellness that we talk about how to control obesity, we know that obesity then can lead to arthritis and that’s an under diagnosed problem in cats as well. We see a lot of arthritis in cats and they’re painful so they sleep more and they’re inactive so they gain more weight, so they get more arthritis…

Arden Moore: Yes.

Dr. Jane Brunt: And if we can prevent that from happening and make people aware of how to prevent it, it just, it benefits everybody.

Arden Moore: Well, that’s right. I know that I’m working with Murphy, my cat who probably is a seven on that rictor scale of, I call her Morphey, and I’ve learned, I’ve had my family visit and they brought their three dogs and what I decided to do is have Murphy spend a little bit more time, you know, I didn’t do the free feeding anymore and I’m having her sort of hunt for her food. I mean I keep track of the Kibble and everything, and I’ve noticed that her energy level is up and she’s more engaging, she’s like, “You know, just pouring it into a bowl is kind of boring. Let me earn it a little bit”, you know, and so we’ve been working on that and it’s amazing how cats, just like dogs, want to be active, they want to be mentally and physically, you know, stimulated.

Dr. Jane Brunt: Right, environment enrichment. I had a nice visit to the Maryland SPCA a couple of weeks ago and we were looking at their big, they had this great big huge kennel of toys that people had donated and, and we were talking about cat toys with the director at Alien Gaby there, and we picked up this small, you know those petite water bottles…

Arden Moore: Yes.

Dr. Jane Brunt: that are the kids size ones?

Arden Moore: Yes.

Dr. Jane Brunt: And we thought, “Wow!” I said, “What about putting cat food in there and just making holes just barely big enough for the food to be able to come out when they play with them?” So now she’s on a mission to save all these mini water bottles.

Arden Moore: See, now that’s a great idea. You’re kind of like the Martha Stewart of feline tips, see? You can end up having your own talk show, you can be doing this, I’m telling you. Just remember us, us humbling people here at Pet Life Radio when you become a rock star of the feline world. You know, don’t forget about us little, little people, okay?

Dr. Jane Brunt: Oh, oh, truly not, and I’d be remised to mention to that at the Catalyst Summit, you’re going to be there, as well as Susan Logan as you mentioned for the cat media people….

Arden Moore: Yeah.

Dr. Jane Brunt: And obviously then some veterinary, some veterinary media, ‘cause I need to get the word out.

Arden Moore: Well we plan to be catty, but in a good sense…

Dr. Jane Brunt: Yes.

Arden Moore: because we want to catty to get out good information. I really want to thank you again Dr. Brunt for being available to our listeners. You are one of the good champions and crusaders for all cats and people who happen to love cats. You are the past president of the American Association of Feline Practitioners, which I’ve mentioned is a pretty, being a top cat, you know, in this area. You operate a couple of veterinary practices. You’re spokesperson for the Know Heartworms Campaign, and you’re going to be playing a key role with this Catalyst Summit in a lovely spot on the map, Palm Springs. I do thank you very much for being here. Is there anything you’d like to add before we bid ado?

Dr. Jane Brunt: It’s been a pleasure. Thank you Arden. I would just like to make sure your listeners know about the American Association of Feline Practitioners and our wonderful beautiful new website is very easy to access. It’s catvets.com, and…

Arden Moore: catvet or plural or singular on catvet?

Dr. Jane Brunt: Plural…

Arden Moore: Okay.

Dr. Jane Brunt: c-a-t-v-e-t-s dot com…

Arden Moore: Okay.

Dr. Jane Brunt: and on that site there is easy access to a lot of feline health topics that give people resources for information about diseases and, you know, various conditions and wellness. Of course you mentioned knowheartworms.org and I really thank you for spreading the word about, about healthcare for cats.

Arden Moore: Well you’re welcome, and I just want you to know as we’re wrapping this up my cat Callie has now come close to my microphone, I think you have feline magnetism ‘cause she’s giving you a big paws up and thanking you for helping her and other cats out there, and you know what, next year we’ll be, we’ll maybe we’ll be touting some of the advances in feline care and wellness will just become a routine.

Dr. Jane Brunt: That would be great.

Arden Moore: Alright. Thank you again Dr. Brunt. You are listening to Oh Behave on Pet Life Radio. If you’d like more information about today’s show or transcripts on this show or any others, just go to the website, www.petliferadio.com and click on the Oh Behave show. I also want to take this time to thank my very cool producer, he knows how to get this technology done. And if you have any questions or comments or ideas for a show, please email me at arden@petliferadio.com. So until next time this is your flea free host Arden Moore delivering just two words for all you two, three and four leggers out there, Oh Behave!