You would not believe the number of people who confuse the terms “non-toxic” and “natural.” I’m here to tell you, they are not the same thing. There are lots of natural substances that are deadly poison. Take a look at arsenic, hemlock or nightshade. All are natural, but none are non-toxic. It is the same thing in the natural flea control.
Archer is an Insect Growth Regulator that stops the eggs and larvae from developing. It doesn’t even kill fleas! But it does break the life cycle and is totally non-toxic. Now, that is a good thing. The world is so inundated with more and more chemicals that removing toxins wherever we find them is the best way to live.

But what happens if you find that you still have adult fleas to deal with and don’t want to wait the 30 to 45 days that it would take to let them die off of old age? Well, there are still ways to stay relatively low toxic and still get the job done. Conquer is like a fourth generation pyrethrum which is an insecticide made from the chrysanthemum flower in Africa. It is tightly targeted to kill fleas and to be relatively non-reactive with mammals. In addition, it breaks down rapidly in our environment. That was the problem with the old insecticides – they never broke down. They had a half-life longer than you and me!

The final step is to put Frontline on the dogs and cats. Frontline kills fleas that get on the pets, but it does not go into the pet’s bloodstream. It stays on the outside by bonding with the oil layer of the skin.

So, use an IGR always, use an insecticide only if you have to, and keep Frontline on your pets throughout the year. You won’t have fleas, guaranteed.

Injury Claims

Have you noticed how successful companies can be in getting you to make a purchase after being tempted by free stuff online? Of course getting you to buy is one of the reasons for offering freebies stuff so liberally. So the free chocolate samples are great, but the hope is that you’ll buy a couple pounds of peanut brittle after you taste it.

The offers for free money making kits are likely to follow up with additional services and products. The free screensaver may come with a little advertisement, or in downloading the screensaver you must wade through a bunch of ads. The companies would not do so much of this type of promotion if it did not pay off a good return.

A similar case would be where you fill out a couple pages in a form and obtain immediate free insurance quotes. These are legitimate companies that apparently have the ability to analyze your situation and give you a quote—sometimes from several competing companies—in a matter of minutes.

Computer software products are another category where some things are free. It is often the case where the free software is useful, but not as good as the full paid version. So the better paid is made available if you realize that the free version is not as good as you thought. If you need to export various file types to pdf format, you’ll need to buy the popular Adobe Acrobat software. That will cost you.

However the Reader package by Adobe is free, and allows you do save, send and read pdf files; you can’t write them or change them. There are a lot more examples where offers of free stuff lead to purchases.

People often ask about good companions for West Highland Terriers. Can a Westie Terrier get along with Guinea Pigs for instance.

Well, I don’t know anything about how a Westie would get along with an Iquana or a Guinea Pig, but I have a wealth of knowledge about Westies and cats..

When Willow came to us last summer one of the things that she had to adjust to was a household already inhabited by three tomcats ranging in age from four years to in excess of ten. The cats definitely rule the roost here and the new little Westie just needed to find her place. She’s done that now. There can be occasional spats to decide who is top dog/cat on any given day, but that’s normal and the cats jockey backwards and forwards amongst themselves whether the dog is there or not.

We weren’t just dropping a dog in to the midst of a number of cats who had never seen a dog before. Our Norwegian Elkhound, Saladdin was a key part of our family structure for years and actually helped raise two of our cats from kittenhood. He’s gone now and the cats haven’t had to cope with a dog for some time, however the  old thoughts were still there. They weren’t overjoyed to have any kind of dog to contend with, especially an energetic pup, nonetheless it wasn’t the end of the world for them either.

One of the things that Marilyn and I insisted on in the beginning was that a new dog was required to submit to the cats. This runs specifically true when dealing with terrier dogs including the West Highland Terrier. It doesn’t matter how lovable and cute they may be, deep down within their heart and soul they are hunters. They need to get in and duke it out with game animals, and basically anything that runs from them qualifies as game. That doesn’t mean they aren’t great dogs, but there’s no way around it: the terrier breeds from Pit Bulls all the way right down to Yorkies are scrappers. So our job as owners of terriers should be to define the things they can chase and fight with and what they can’t.

This is exactly why I was so strict about making Willow submit to the cats from the very beginning. It wasn’t hard to do. If she got too frisky we had to lay her down until she settled and calmed, but mostly a sharp word plus a tug on the leash was enough to do the trick. It certainly helped our cats weren’t particularly in awe of dogs and don’t mind demonstrating the use of their claws if she gets too feisty.

Things have settled into place now and we’ve been able to relax some of the boundaries we laid down initially.  We have chases in the house now, up the stairs, around and down. Its quite as likely for Willow to be chased by a cat as it is for her to chase one. Actually it appears to be more of a game of tag than anything, and nobody gets hurt. When they aren’t chasing one another around the house its not unusual to find Willow curled up with one of the cats, or maybe hanging out on the windowseat with one. And, one can never tell which two animals are likely to bond. Our oldest cat, Whiskey, was the very first to really chase Willow (I think she pissed him off, to tell you the truth) which set the stage for the others to follow.

Your situation might be quite different from ours, because our cats were already accustomed to having a dog around. If your cats have never had anything to do with dogs, you should probably follow a rather different course. In a case like that I would recommend keeping the new Westie on umbilical for a couple of days while the critters get accustomed to each other. Umbilical training, where you have your dog on a long leash and keep the leash tied around your waist, is a very good training method under any circumstance. It offers you control of the situation without having to hold the leash, or even pay much attention to the dog. Keep with the umbilical work for around one week and keep the dog in its crate when it’s not on the leash. The cat will quickly settle down once it realizes that the dog is not a threat to it.

Precisely the same things apply if you wish to introduce a cat into the house. I’d recommend a kitten if possible, as they’re more malleable and that can make the relationship more managable. Make sure that the dog and cat get to sniff each others butts so that you have the nose engaged, then keep the dog on umbilical for a time.

Cats can definitely coexist with Westie Terriers. They might not become buds in the same manner our animals did, but peaceful respect for each other should be possible. Use the umbilical, make the dog submit from the beginning and all will be well.