The Rocky Mountain News was Denver Colorado’s newspaper from 1859 to 2009.  In the 1990s through the early 2000s, we were regular columnists for “The Rocky” as it was affectionately called.  We wrote all of the following short articles for our weekly Saturday column for the paper during that time.

The content of the majority of these articles is “evergreen”, meaning it is just as relevant today as it was then. Not only do we share insights about the “whys” of pet behavior and how to modify it, we use examples from our own pet family at the time. You’ll read stories about:

  • Buffett, our big male orange tabby cat we acquired as a kitten from Denver Dumb Friends League (where Suzanne worked at the time), and had been returned because he was “too friendly”.
  • Tipper, our diminutive orange tabby girl with only three legs as the result of a traumatic injury which was the reason she came to us
  • Ashley, our problem child female Dalmatian who was likely purposefully abandoned on the streets in Gunnison CO, and who we acquired from a friend there who found her.
  • Mocha, our sweet tri-color Dalmatian boy, who we first agreed to foster (and of course adopted!) as his broken leg healed

Even though these articles are classics and later scientific research has revealed more about pet behavior than we knew then, you’ll find every one of these articles will reveal something you didn’t know about pet behavior!  Or at the least, you’ll have fun reading them!

We’ve grouped the articles by topics so click on a subject that interests you and you’ll find links to the relevant articles on those pages.

Normal Behavior and Animal Communication
Cat Behavior Problems
Dog Behavior Problems
Human Animal Bond, Pet Loss, and Grief
Behavior Health, Problem Prevention and Meeting Pets’ Behavioral Needs
Fears and Phobias
General Dog Training
Medication for Behavior Problems