We have spent some time getting to know Jena and Emery, the owners of Nature’s Select Kansas City, ever since they created Kibble 4 A Cause, a fundraising effort through their Nature’s Select pet food business. Their idea was to use Nature’s Select pet food to not just help pet owners feed their pets food that was good for them,...Read More
When I walk in it’s absolute chaos. It can’t be helped though. Vanessa’s house is not a big place so when Maggie and Bella – each one large enough to hog an entire loveseat alone – get moving, they cover ALL the territory very quickly. “Maggie looks like a Twinkie,” Vanessa chuckles. I’d have to agree. Bella is no slouch...Read More
Sure, sure; we know that pets do good things for us. They’re our companions, they bring joy to our lives, and share some of our darkest moments eagerly and without complaint. But there are actual tangible benefits to owning a pet. Baby Days Let’s start from an early age and move forward. It’s generally understood that experiences in the first...Read More
Sometimes, in this “business,” you just have to sit down by yourself and feel the hurt pressing down on your chest like a heavy boot. There are good days, though. More than you’d think, really. The kind that bring tears of a different kind and remind you why you do this in the first place. What happened to Moe is...Read More
In May of this year, in a small Oklahoma town, a seventeen year old young woman named Natalie was killed by a driver while sitting at a stop sign in broad daylight. This tragedy, senseless and cruel, devastated her family, especially her sister Cait. Cait and her husband Ben were preparing to move to Kansas City from Virginia so that...Read More
Pain is one of the fundamental aspects of how we interact with the world, and with our own bodies. As humans, we are generally capable of saying NO OUCH NO or something similar when we feel pain (or yelling, or crying, or tossing out a few choice curse words). When we feel internal pain, we say something about it: to...Read More
You might not think Lucky is actually that lucky. Then again, this is really more about what’s being preserved versus what’s been lost. It’s about friends, and keeping family together, saving the relationship even though things have to change — maybe even dramatically — to do it. And if those are your measures, Lucky has the perfect name. The...Read More
In terms of pets, Kansas City has come a long way in the last 20 years. The numbers alone tell the story. At one point in time, we killed more than 20,000 animals each year just for space. These days, thanks to a strong push by our animal welfare community and the supportive citizens who live here, we can claim...Read More
August 17th is National Black Cat Appreciation Day. Now, confidentially, that’s pretty much every day for us, but we like celebrating it because it’s extra important. Why is that? Well, in part it’s because cats tend to be adopted at a lower rate than dogs from shelters, so whatever we can do to bring awareness to beautiful kitties looking for...Read More
Ever since a country physician by the name of Edward Jenner administered the first documented inoculation in 1796, vaccinations have become an incredibly important, incredibly necessary part of our society. Not only did Jenner’s idea directly prevent millions of people from dying from smallpox, which had already claimed millions of human lives in the 18th century, but it changed the...Read More