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Click here to read an Associated Press story about a cat in Iowa that has been confirmed with H1N1.

The 13-year-old feline has been treated and is recovering. Two people who lived in the house with the cat also reported flu-like symptoms.

Transmission of the disease is more likely to occur from human to pet than the other way around. Officials recommend frequent hand washing to prevent the spread of germs, including before and after feeding and handling pets.

This weekend's festival isn't all fun and games. You can learn some useful tips, too.

As part of  this weekend's DogtoberFest, the annual fundraiser held by Saint Francis Service Dogs, Banfield Pet Hospital is offering two free sessions on pet first aid.

The two, half-hour sessions will be taught by Cynthia Harre, lead veterinarian of Banfield's Roanoke location inside the PetSmart store at Valley View.   The session are at  noon and 3 p.m.

Topics Include:          

·         How to approach an injured pet

·         How to help a pet that has experienced trauma

·         How to slow and stop the flow of blood

·         How to prevent hypothermia

Dogtoberfest is from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.  at Saint Francis Training Center located at 8232 Enon Drive, Roanoke. The event will include games for kids and dogs, a parade of pooches and blessings for pets. Admission is free and all dogs must be on-leash and have proof of current vaccinations.

This probably goes without saying, but please leave kitty at home.

Hello blog readers! I missed you while I was on vacation. It was a wonderful break, but it is also good to be home. I will have lots to post this week after I sift through the mountains of e-mails, voice mails and snail mails I had waiting for me this morning.

Click here to read today's Happy Wag column, all about my adventures in cooking my own dog food. The results were mixed: The recipes were easy, the dogs loved the food, but it is expensive and time consuming and I just don't think it's a practice I can sustain. And I worried a lot about proper nutrition.

But treats? Oh yeah, I can make those, the pooches go crazy for them, and they are actually less expensive than the pre-packaged stuff.

Click here for the recipe that turns the stuff in this photo into tasty frozen treats for dogs, or can be the base of a tasty smoothie for people.

Today's Happy Wag newspaper column is about making the decision to feed your pets a raw diet.

This is not a decision that should be made lightly, and I would encourage anyone considering it to do a lot of reading and research and talk to your vet. Be prepared to get push-back from your vet because most doctors are not supportive of it, but you need to know whether there are any medical conditions that would preclude your pet from being a good candidate for this diet, and your vet needs to know what your pet eats.

The evidence supporting a raw diet is anecdotal. People who feed raw rave about it. I leave it up to you to make the most informed decision and do what you think is right. As for my pack, we are not quiet there yet, but the next Wag column will feature my adventures in cooking my own dog food. Stay tuned.

I will tell you that the frozen treat recipe I posted last week was a HUGE hit with my dogs, and I sampled it before I froze it and it was very tasty. This is much less expensive than packaged doggy ice cream and it's all natural. Win-win, folks.

It has come to my attention that, for some unknown reason, our original thread about raw feeding is no longer allowing new comments. I have only the most casual knowledge of the inner workings of the InterWebs, but everything I know to check for under the hood of this blog looks good.

But you can't stop us that easy, WordPress. Power to the raw-feeding people, I say.

Consider this brand-spanking new blog entry as yet another platform to express your views on raw feeding.

And I would hope that the home cooks out there would not be shy, either. If you are feeding your pets a non-commercially made diet, please post a comment. Let us know what led you to the decision, how it's working for you and your pets, and what you would recommend to others.

I'd be really interested in hearing from anyone who tried a raw diet and found it didn't work for them and why. So far, everyone who's gone raw seems to rave about it.

Let's keep the conversation going.

Click here to read a Discovery.com report about canine influenza, which claimed the life of one dog and closed an animal shelter in Fairfax County.

Symptoms in dogs can include fever, lethargy, loss of appetite and a respiratory infection that may last a few weeks. It is highly communicable among dogs and so it spreads quickly through shelters. According to the report, 30 states have reported cases over the past five years, but the outbreaks are "usually sporadic and then die out."

A vaccine was released just last month and is still in clinical trials. If you are concerned about you dog, talk to your vet about the vaccine.

Blog reader Claren made a great suggestion that we open up a discussion about doggy nutrition.

Next week I have a lunch interview with a woman who is starting her dog on a raw diet. She told me her vet recommended it in light of the problems in recent years with commercial dog food. This will be the topic of an upcoming Happy Wag column.

I have thought about doing this for my dogs, but the whole idea of raw meat scares me and I know I have not done enough research yet to make an informed decision.

I feel like I would also need to do a proper analysis on how to budget for feeding three dogs a homemade diet. Would the cost be prohibitive or would the additional money invested in better-grade food be offset by savings in vet bills and improved overall health?

We feed our dogs a mix Science Diet Sensitive Stomach and Small Bites kibble and little "noms" of table food, including cooked white meat poultry and fish, cooked and raw veggies and raw berries. We try to keep bread scraps to a minimum - although they love bread as much as I do.

Dexter is currently taking an antibiotic that we hide in his kibble or immerse in peanut butter that he licks off our fingers. In the winter I bake them cookies from a doggy recipe book, and they are very fond of Mother Hubbard and Paul Newman organic treats.

Probably not exactly a healthy diet, now that I see it in writing. If it sounds like my pack eats all day, they do not. We feed them one bowl of food a day, and snacks are bite sized and spaced out throughout the day. I call Stormy my sous chef because he hangs out with me in the kitchen while I cook dinner waiting for tidbits to get tossed his way. He likes the raw berries and veggies way more than the greyhounds do.

All three are in perfect weight range for their breeds and heights. They get lots of exercise and have no known food allergies.

I must admit that I wonder what commercial dog food has really done to the digestive systems of dogs over the years. It seems like when I was growing up, way back in the 1970s, you could toss almost anything even remotely edible to the dog and she'd happily scarf it down and never get sick. Now just changing to a different formula of kibble made by the same manufacturer can cause a dog to get violently ill.

What do you feed your dogs and how did you arrive at those choices? What has your vet advised, and how much do you pay attention to news about dog food and dog nutrition? If you have rants or raves about commercial dog food, raw diets or homemade dog food, please share.

Nutro Products of Franklin, Tenn., announced a voluntary recall of select varieties of Nutro Natural Choice  Complete Care Dry Cat Foods and Nutro Max Cat Dry Foods with “Best If Used By Dates” between May 12, 2010 and August 22, 2010.

In a statment on the FDA Web site, the company said the cat food is being voluntarily recalled due to incorrect levels of zinc and potassium caused by a production error by a US-based supplier.

Some of the food contained excessive levels of zinc and not enough potassium. Another was under-supplemented in potassium.  Both zinc and potassium are essential nutrients for cats and are added as nutritional supplements to this brand of dry cat food, the company said.

According to the statement, this recall does not affect any Nutro dog food products, wet dog or cat food, or dog and cat treats. 

The dry cat food was sold to retail customers in all 50 states, as well as in Canada, Mexico, Japan, Korea, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, New Zealand, and Israel.  The company said it is working with all of its distributors and retail customers to ensure that the recalled products are removed from store shelves. 

Consumers who have purchased this cat food should stop feeding it to their cats and switch to another product.  While the company said that it has not received consumer complaints, cat owners should monitor their cat for symptoms, including a reduction in appetite or refusal of food, weight loss, vomiting or diarrhea. 

If your cat is experiencing health issues or is pregnant, the company advises that you contact your veterinarian. You may also want to call your vet if your kitty was eating this particular type of food specifically for a deficiency in either zinc or potassium.

You should return the food to the retailer for a full refund or exchange.  Cat owners who have questions about the recall should call 1-800-833-5330 from 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. CST, or visit www.nutroproducts.com.

Click here for the list of UPC codes that are affected by the recall.

I got an e-mail from a co-worker who said her veterinarian suggested she take her dachshund swimming as relief for arthritis. She wanted to know if either dog park had a pool.

Alas, they do not, I had to answer. And other than in Montgomery County, on the day before they drain it for the season, I am fairly certain dogs are not permitted in the public pools.

I confessed that I did not know enough about public swimming at the lake to offer any advice there, either. My husband's cousin has a rescued dachshund, a former puppy mill breeder, that enjoys a good swim in the lakes in her home state of Minnesota and at the family's summer house in Indiana, but I don't know if dogs are allowed on the lakefront here.

I can personally attest to the healing powers of water for creaky joints; I have severe arthritis in my knees so all my aerobic exercise happens in the pool.  It does wonders for strengthening muscles and you can get a vigorous workout with minimal impact.  

So where can a dog take a swim around here, folks?  Post a comment and let us know.

This news brief from the New River Valley made me happy:

The Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine's Veterinary Teaching Hospital will offer a new outpatient advanced imaging service for small animals starting in June.

The new service will provide weekly outpatient appointments for MRIs, CT scans and ultrasounds. If veterinarians think their patients need the advanced testing, they can make an appointment with the teaching hospital.

When we had a dog being treated at Virginia Tech two years ago, they had to take her to the people hospital in Montgomery County to have an MRI. Good to know small critters will have their own imaging equipment now.