Lis's Pet Sitting Service

01/16/2026

Stop Feeding Your Turtle "Crunchy Water."

You think you are being a good pet owner. You buy the fresh bag of salad. You feed him every day.

But his shell is getting soft. And he isn't moving much.

You are accidentally starving him to death.

🐢 1. The Iceberg Trap: Iceberg lettuce is 96% water. It has almost zero calcium. To a turtle, this isn't food. It’s a placebo. He eats it, feels full, and then his body begins to starve for minerals.

💀 2. The "Vampire" Effect: A turtle’s shell is living bone—it’s his ribs and spine. To keep his heart beating, he needs calcium. If you don't feed him calcium (or meat/pellets for aquatic species), his body creates a hormone that dissolves his own shell to harvest the calcium from his bones. He is literally eating his own skeleton to stay alive. This is called Metabolic Bone Disease (MBD).

☀️ 3. The Sun Rule: Even if you feed him calcium, he can't use it without UVB Light. Window glass blocks UV rays. Without a special reptile bulb, he cannot make Vitamin D3. No D3 = No Calcium absorption = Soft Shell.

The Fix: Throw away the iceberg. Buy Dark Leafy Greens (Collards, Dandelion greens), Calcium powder, and a real UVB bulb.

Don't let his bones melt.

Awareness

01/16/2026

Get a tank big enough for a full sized goldfish.

HE DIDN'T "GROW TO THE SIZE OF THE BOWL."

We’ve all heard it: "It's okay to put a goldfish in a bowl. They only grow as big as their environment!" That sounds like magic. In reality, it is torture.

It’s called Stunting. And it is a painful way to die.

🧪 1. The Chemical Prison Goldfish excrete hormones (GIH) into the water. In a bowl, they are swimming in a concentrated soup of their own growth-inhibiting chemicals. These chemicals signal the Skeleton to stop growing.

🫀 2. The Organ Crush Here is the horror movie twist: The hormones stop the bones. They do not stop the organs. The brain, the liver, and the kidneys continue to develop. Result: The fish's body becomes a cage that is too small for its own insides. The organs are crushed against each other. The spine bends (Kyphosis) to make room. The swim bladder fails.

💀 3. The "2-Year" Myth A healthy Goldfish lives 15 to 20 years. If yours died after 2 years, it didn't die of old age. It died of organ failure due to internal compaction and nitrate poisoning.

The Rule: Goldfish are carp. They need 20+ gallons. If you want a fish in a bowl... get a robotic one.

01/16/2026

01/14/2026

🐾 Help the Community Kitties! 🐾

Our volunteers can’t trap every kitty in Mecklenburg County, NC — but you can make a huge difference by helping in your own neighborhood!

TNVR (Trap, Neuter, Vaccinate, Return) is a lifesaving process for stray/feral community cats, and we’re here to guide and mentor you every step of the way.

💉 Low-cost or no-cost vet resources? ✅
🐱 Step-by-step TNVR support? ✅
😻 Making a real difference in your neighborhood? Absolutely!

Join the movement and learn more here: www.friendsofferalfelines.org

01/01/2026

🎄🐾 Holiday Parties Are Over… But Your Bottles & Cans Can Still Do Something Magical! 🐾🎄
This season, as you clean up from the festivities, we’re asking our amazing community to turn those returnable bottles and cans into life‑saving warmth for our rescue kitties. ♻️💛
✨ Donate your returnables to Cozy Cats Café and help us raise funds for a much‑needed generator — so our cats stay safe, warm, and cozy all winter long.
Every bag, every bottle, every can truly makes a difference.
Our kitties can’t say it themselves… but if they could, they’d be meowing a HUGE thank you. 🐱💖
🔥 Warm hearts = warm cats.
Let’s come together and make this winter a little brighter for the ones who need us most.
📍 Drop-offs accepted anytime during open hours!
Thank you for being the community that always shows up. 💕♻️🐾

01/01/2026

Let’s have a quick chat about liability when you own a guardian breed—because some of y’all look genuinely baffled that your Rottweiler… guards.

This is a dog bred for centuries to protect property, livestock, families, and occasionally your emotional stability when life is messy. This is not a doodle who picked up a side gig. This is a dog whose entire genetic résumé reads: “Head of Security.”

So when your Rottie stations herself at the window like a federal agent waiting for a plot twist, that’s not reactivity. That’s her shift starting. She’s checking the perimeter, assessing threats, and mentally categorizing the landscapers as “possible leaf criminals.”

And here’s the part some folks don’t want to hear:
If you don’t train or supervise that kind of instinctive power?
The liability is 100% on you.

Your dog doesn’t care that you live in a serene cul-de-sac where the wildest thing that happens is someone putting their recycling out late. Guardian breeds don’t read HOA newsletters—they read body language, tension, energy, and intent. They clock the vibe of a room before you even turn the doorknob.

Training? Not optional.
Management? Not optional.
Understanding what your dog was bred for? Also not optional—unless you enjoy filling out incident reports at midnight.

If your Rottweiler growls, alerts, blocks, patrols, shadow-walks you, or gives someone that “I’ve noticed your existence” stare?
That’s not misbehavior.
That’s ancestry clocking in.

Your dog isn’t broken. She is literally doing her job.

So be proactive.
Teach her what real threats look like.
Reinforce neutrality.
Give her structured work that doesn’t involve terrifying the Amazon driver.
Advocate for her. Train consistently.

And stop acting shocked when a working-bred dog shows up ready to, you know… work.

Because if you don’t give structure to a guardian breed, they’ll start freelancing.
And trust me—
you do not want a freelance Rottweiler making executive decisions.

Author unknown, but the accuracy? Immaculate.

12/31/2025

From Home and Garden Tips

If you’re skipping fireworks tonight, share this.
It might keep someone’s pet from becoming another lost face on a neighborhood post tomorrow.
Every New Year’s Eve, thousands of pets go missing — not because they’re disobedient, but because they’re terrified.

Fireworks trigger a panic response so intense that dogs and cats will:
• break through screens and windows
• slip collars and fences
• run blindly into streets and traffic
• keep running for miles

Many are never found.

This is one of the highest pet-loss nights of the year.
Not accidental.
Not rare.

Loud explosions don’t register as “celebration” to animals.
They register as danger — immediate and life-threatening.

What helps tonight:
• Keep pets indoors, away from windows
• Close curtains and doors
• Use TV, music, or white noise
• Stay home with them if possible
• Make sure ID tags and microchips are updated

A few minutes of fireworks can undo years of trust.by

12/30/2025

YES!! 👍👍👍

12/28/2025

The Usdan Institute for Animal Health Education at the Schwarzman Animal Medical Center (AMC) is the leading provider of pet health information. Our mission is to educate and empower pet owners and to promote the human-animal bond.