So that's your comfort level. I have owners that take their dogs to a professional groomer, and we have owners that do the grooming at home because their dog is stressed or at the groomer. I would also encourage you to make sure that you are comfortable doing it as well. Of course, what we don't ever want to see is somebody accidentally cutting an ear with a pair of scissors or maybe getting too short on their nail trim or things like that. And so, the best thing to do is maybe if you're not comfortable in doing it is to seek help from somebody that can help you or find those professional groomers out there.

Yes, there is such a thing as a dog that’s bathing too often. It's dependent on what kind of shampoo you're using. Some dog shampoos are safe to use on your pet and bathe them every day. Sometimes we recommend a medicated shampoo for your dog, and we may have you bathe your pet every other day for a period of time. But if you're using human shampoos or Dawn dish soap, or anything like that, many of those can be drying to their skin. And so we don't really recommend using those, but if you do use them, we definitely don't want you to use them super frequently. I would say no more than once a month, but the best thing to do is talk to your veterinarian about what product you want to use, or they can even make suggestions for you. I love this shampoo by Decora. It is safe if we had to use this one every day, but I like this for my general once-monthly bathing.

No, I would say it's not optional. It's something that we need to do for every pet that we have, whether it be a dog or a cat, or maybe you have some pocket pets or a ferret. But the wonderful thing for these guys is that I know cost is a big thing with many owners. Sometimes finances are a little tight, but everybody loves having a snuggly little kitten like this. And we love those who carry pet insurance, or we work with this pet insurance provider called Pumpkin. And the thing that I love about Pumpkin is that they have preventative care packages. So they have insurance programs that help with those annual wellness visits and that wellness blood work. And they have a lot of options that can help owners out with all of this preventative care management when it comes to the vet.

The biggest thing you can do at home is to make sure that your cat has a good diet. Your veterinarian will be the best one to give you advice on that for your cat, but good nutrition is essential, as well as good enrichment, so making sure that they have areas to play with and toys to play with. You probably want to have a cat tree or a place where they can kind of perch or look outside and watch birds out through the window. And that they've got a good cozy place to sleep and that they have plenty of litter boxes with a type of litter that they like to use where they can feel comfortable to go to the bathroom. And then the other thing that we can do at home is keeping them up on things like flea and tick prevention. And a lot of those also prevent ear mites, and we want to do some intestinal parasite prevention.

As some cats get older, I like to be proactive about their dental health. And so we carry these little dental treats here that work great for cats to work on that dental tartar and help with their fresh breath. And those are some things that you guys can do at home to help cats out.

A lot of times we like to start with exams. On Mr. Dwight here, I want to look at their eyes. I look to look at their ears. I like to open up and look in their mouths, make sure that their teeth look healthy and their gums look healthy, and we do not see any concerns. And then we work our way through the body from the tip of their nose, all the way to the tip of their tail, and just look at every single little body part—their legs, belly, all of that good stuff. And then, as cats get older, we'll recommend some wellness blood work just to make sure that we do not see things like kidney disease or liver disease, or perhaps something like an overactive thyroid or diabetes. We want to rule out those kinds of common older cat diseases.

It means that everything that you're dealing with provides your cat with a long, healthy life, and that ranges from the food that you feed your cat to housing and enrichment. Preventative care also means bringing the cat to the vet every year when they're older or this size, every couple of weeks to get their kitten boosters series. It also covers those annual checkups and following the recommendations of your veterinarian, and keeping them up to date on preventatives against fleas and ticks, ear mites, and intestinal parasites. There's a whole lot that goes into cat preventive care.