At times,  I like to think of Duke, my beloved 11-year-old Shetland Sheepdog, as the canine equivalent of the actor George Clooney. Like Clooney, Duke wears his age with distinguished finesse. His once predominantly chestnut colored muzzle is now a brown/gray salt and pepper mix that broadcasts his elder statesman status. Yet even as an older dog, Duke retains a rascal's disposition -- his dancing eyes convey a whimsical mischief mingled with curmudgeonly weariness (and yes that is Duke's way of brilliantly channeling Clooney's performance in the Academy Award winning film The Descendants).

ABC News reported on this phenomenon, dubbing it "Puppy Love Healing" in reference to a group of specially trained-golden retrievers provided to people in the communities of Boston, Massachusetts following the April 15 bombings during the Boston Marathon, to offer "cuddle comfort" for those in need (see the video here). The popularity of the "Puppy Love Healing" campaign is so great that some of the dogs associated with it even have their own Twitter accounts.

 These days, the family pet isn't just the family pet. Rather our pets are as essential to our family unit as any member of the human variety. A recent series of posts on this topic elicited a high volume of positive responses from our readers here and across social media platforms. For example, this note from Lynda Fernandez, a pet owner in the United Kingdom: 

"...Yes, of course my dogs are family. The vet appears to see them in the same light because he calls [them] in by their...family names; so my dogs are Mits Fernandez and Monty Fernandez."

One of the more peculiar casualties of the Internet age has been the changing role of veterinarians when it comes to the sale of certain pet medication.  For instance, during much of the 20th Century, veterinarians did very well selling “ethical” (exclusive to the veterinary channel, though not prescription) brands of flea/tick spot-ons such as Frontline and Advantage.

However, during the past decade, a large chunk of those sales have shifted online with the rise of websites like PetMed Express (1800PetMeds). Despite the commitments of manufacturers, sales of key ethical brands have also migrated inexorably into brick-and-mortar or wholesale pet business channels. In some cases, this has left a bad taste in the mouths of veterinarians, who feel betrayed when brands they helped put on the map “defect”  to pet specialty and mass market retailers.