OkcPets Magazine July 2023

4 OKC Pets • July / August 2023 FROM THE PUBLISHER OKC Pets Volume 10, Number 4 PUBLISHER Marilyn King 918.520.0611 mking@okcpetsmagazine.com EDITOR Rowena Mills 918.274.9251 hrmills444@yahoo.com CREATIVE DIRECTOR Amanda Bullock WEB MANAGER/AD SALES Steve Kirkpatrick 918.230.2493 steve@okcpetsmagazine.com ADVERTISING SALES Marilyn King 918.520.0611 mking@okcpetsmagazine.com Steve Kirkpatrick 405.397.2740 steve@okcpetsmagazine.com Rosalie Childs 918.630.5775 rfchilds@me.com CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Carol Mowdy Bond Heide Brandes Kaycee Chance Kim Doner Inger Giufririda Karen Holman Rowena Mills Anne Rener Kelsey Warren-Bryant 918.520.0611 www.okcpetsmagazine.com P.O. Box 14128 Tulsa, Oklahoma 74159-1128 ©2022 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced without the express written consent of the publisher. W elcome to the true dog days of summer! Quite honestly, I prefer the cooler weather so I’m already ticking down the days until fall. This dog days of summer issue has lots of good reads. Don’t miss Kim Doner’s piece on snakes. The photos are so amazing and I didn’t know snakes came in so many vibrant colors. I had my own run-in with a boa constrictor some years back. It was at the OKC Pet Expo and an exhibitor booth was showcasing their boas. Being the curious type, I approached them and asked to touch one. The handlers assured me the snake would not bite, that the snake was very docile. I touched him and then asked if I could hold him. One of the guys handed him over and the first thing I noticed was that he was very heavy. His skin felt like something that’s hard to describe. Very slick and dry. Off I went, parading around the Expo with the snake. People were actually screaming and running from me. Then things took a bit of a different turn. The snake had gone under my shirt in the front and curled around my back and came out the bot- tom of my shirt. Every time I exhaled, Mr. Snake started squeezing me. Breathe in, breathe out and then squeeze. It started to get a bit harder to breathe in. I hurried back to the booth and told the guys what was happening, and it took two of them to “uncurl” Mr. Snake from me. So much for my one and only adventure with a boa! We’ve included a special section from some of our local veterinarians extolling their profession and the pleasures this vocation brings from helping our animal friends. A big thank you to the participating vets and I hope their words spread a bit of encouragement for any younger folks thinking about entering this field. Enjoy these dog days of summer along with this issue! Marilyn King with the boa Correction In the May-June issue of OKC Pets, the article Finding a Better Way: Pig Conference Pinpoints Practices, Offers Solutions contains an error on page 15. The correct sentence should read: “The top 91 percent said that requiring farm animals to have enough room to stand up, stretch, and turn around was important.” OKC Pets regrets the error.