Guest blogs from (Red Cross) dogs

By Sanford Carlos
About me
Likes-peanut butter treats, short walks (prefer to be inside sitting on a warm lap)
Dislikes-having my teeth brushed

So we love each other alot, right? Would you help me if I needed you? Do you know how?

April is Pet First Aid month and the perfect time to talk about my somewhat sorted past. I’ve had a torn ACL that required surgery, eaten a rubber ball that blocked my digestive system and more. All pretty common stuff in the life of a 5-year old dog but still scary for my owners/parents/humans, take your pick on what you’d like to call them but they take care of me. I’m just glad they knew what to do when I was sick because they took an American Red Cross pet CPR/first aid class and could recognize when I was hurting.

Here’s a recent video about the classes (it shows the really cute pet manikins used for the training). The classes teaches how to recognize when your pet is in distress, how a two-liter bottle can save your pet’s life (hint: it makes the whole mouth to snout thing easier), how to do a simple splint, help a dog who is choking and more.

Here’s the page www.chicagoredcross.org/petsafety on all things pet safety (including a pet safety disaster checklist)Oh and this study from the LA Times shows most pet owners would perform CPR on their pet.

So would you take the course? Have you ever been in a situation when you wished you had? Comments from people and pets accepted.

Sanford Carlos’ human companion works at the American Red Cross of Greater Chicago.