In some cases when you travel, such as on business or even a family trip if it is to a place that will not accept pets, it is necessary to make arrangements for the care of your sugar glider while you are away. This is really not a difficult thing to do. Most sugar glider owners will not feel comfortable leaving them at a commercial facility because there is much to worry about in the case of other animals, and even the lack of knowledge on the part of the operators of those types of places.

Luckily, the very best solution is usually the easiest as well. Other family members or trusted friends are more than likely well-acquainted with your lovely little pocket pet and will usually be delighted to help you out when you need it. Caring for a visiting sugar glider is easy as long as you take just a few minutes to be sure you give your pocket pet’s caregiver all of the necessary tools to provide a good stay for your baby.

• Have a travel cage ready for your sugar glider’s trip to his home away from home. Your sugar glider’s normal cage will probably be more cumbersome and space consuming and a travel cage is easy to carry, light, and takes up less room in your helper’s house.

• Make sure you pack your glider’s travel kit with the things they need for their stay. This way your sugar glider’s host will not feel put out by having to go shopping for meals for your glider or run out of things you might normally buy online. Pack some small baggies filled with fruit and veggies for their days spent at their host, and make sure you have enough ‘Glide-R-Chow’ available for them as well.

• A simple page of instructions will help your sugar glider’s host understand the basics of how to care for your pet. Simple things like fresh water, and what mixture you use for your sugar glider’s water that may seem elementary to you, may not be to someone who does not own a pocket pet.

Sugar gliders make sure fun and enjoyable houseguests that your family and friends will be happy to care for them. Enjoy your trip and know your sugar glider is in good hands because you prepared well.

You might want to take a blanket or towel to the toy puppy breeder’s home several days before bringing your puppy home. The goal here is to pick up the scent of the puppy, as well as his mother, littermates and breeder. When the toy puppy arrives in is new home he will have something soft to cuddle up with that smells just like his original home. This can be very comforting. It can be used in his bedding so the toy puppy has something he’s accustomed to smelling and sleeping on. One excellent choice in blankets for bedding is the soft hand made crochet blankets.

Changes in food and water can upset any dog’s digestive system. The toy puppy may be a little bit more susceptible illness with changes in food and water. If your breeder has found a complete and balanced diet that his/her dogs do well on, then by all means use the same food, at least until the toy puppy has adjusted to its new home, family and surroundings. If you must change the food, please make the change gradually.

A new owner should have a toy puppy layette ready well in advance of the day when puppy comes home. Read a couple of books about the toy breed you have selected. It helps to know a particular breed’s characteristics ahead of time. The adjustment process is easier if you know what to expect before you bring your new toy puppy home.

Toys should be purchased with safety in mind, with no loose parts that puppies can chew off. Check for eyes and other small parts that could be easily removed and swallowed. Teething toy puppies need plenty of chew toys and hard bones to help soothe the pain of teething.

When putting together your toy puppy’s layette, have several soft towels ready for bath time. Add a brush, comb, nail clipper and tearless shampoo to your shopping list along with a soft collar and leash. Consider buying the same type of food and water dishes the breeder has been using so the toy puppy will find them familiar.

Keep in mind that toy breed puppies lose body temperature very quickly in cold weather. You will need to have a coat, sweaters and cozy soft fleece t-shirts for your new toy puppy layette.

Bringing your toy puppy home should be a very happy occasion, but try to keep the excitement down so as not to frighten or upset the new puppy. Talk to the toy puppy in the car during the trip. Make sure you give him an opportunity to relieve himself before taking him inside your home, preferably in a special place for elimination you have chosen.

Take him to the room where he will be spending most of his time and let him explore the room. Be sure you have puppy-proofed the areas your toy puppy will be in before you bring him home. Electrical cords should not be exposed (he will chew on them). There should be nothing he can get into that might harm him. Keep your vet’s phone number near your telephone. Confining your new toy puppy to one room until he is housebroken is only being wise. You can allow the puppy to explore other areas once he is housebroken. Give him a toy, play with him gently, let him relieve himself and be sure he knows where his bed or crate is for nap times.

Connie Limon is a Shih Tzu breeder. Buy hand made crochet dog blankets, dog coats, sweaters and fleece t-shirts made especially for the toy breed dogs at: http://www.littleguysdogclothesshop.com

You have heard the stories when the teacher asked the child where his homework is and he answers, “the dog ate my homework”! Maybe the dog did but what about the story where the little boy states, “The dog told me to do it!”

Isn’t it interesting that we can take something, make it humorous and then make it into a movie! There has been a series of movies lately with new born infants talking, then the animals are talking in the next movie, then similar movies with other animals talking. In most of these movies, the “humans” (or adults) were unaware of the conversations or the depth of the conversations. Do you think the people that came up with these ideas knew something, perhaps?

There is a book that was out 20-30 years ago about a woman that discussed talking with animals. She stated that prior to learning how to speak, we all possess the ability to communicate non-verbally. As we begin to learn to talk, we slowly lose this ability of non-verbal communication. Reach deep into your own memories and explore those times when something just was not quite right with one of your pets. As you deeply contemplated the problem, the answer came to you out of nowhere! It probably didn’t come out of nowhere and no, you didn’t rely on your own Genius. Your pet told you what you were looking for through telepathy.

We have studied animal communication for years through their behavior patterns. Depending on the type of animal, we could reasonably understand what certain behaviors meant in a given situation. This could be studying the interspecies behaviors patterns or studying the behavior patterns of a male to the female during mating season of one species. This brings to mind the bird’s broken wing act to lure a predator away from discovering where her nest is and preying on her young. What about the displays that two males might perform to gain control of their herd between challengers?

This has been something that we have been able to study and explain so as to make it feasible for the average person to understand. People that are into training horses can learn less aggressive means to train horses rather than the old cowboy style of bucking them out until they are “saddle broke”.

If you do a search on the internet under “animal communication”, you will now be able to find the people that were able to maintain their ability to communicate with animals. It’s a very small percentage of individuals that are able to maintain their ability to continue to communicate non-verbally. For them it is a gift. For us, it is a gift when you know one of these people personally.

The study of animal behavior is fascinating and it is something that most of us can understand and work with. The Telepathy method is not so easy to understand because we do not all have this gift nor is it feasible that we can understand and work with Telepathy as well as we can work with animal behavior techniques. There are numerous stories of how these gifted people are able to communicate with an animal that a veterinarian is having difficulty diagnosing and in minutes, they have a solution for the veterinarian. Some of these people, through their special gift work with veterinarians thousands of miles away. Some of them work with people with amazing results (but this is another topic in itself).

The next time you talk to your toddler, maybe he or she is right. Maybe, “The dog told me to do it!”

Michael Russell Your Independent guide to Animals