Certified Veterinary Acupuncturist Felicity Talbot, DVM, treats dogs and cats with acupuncture, as well as physical therapy, at Florida Veterinary Specialists (FVS) in Tampa.

“More and more of our clients request acupuncture as a first resort treatment,” says Dr. Talbot, DVM, CVA, of FVS. “Pet owners not only want the best for their pets, but have the know-how to seek out every medical option available.”

At FVS, specialty therapies such as acupuncture, hydrotherapy and even laser therapy help speed-up the healing process and assist animals in regaining mobility.

Veterinary surgeon Dr. Mark Levy, DVM, ACVS, of Florida Veterinary Specialists, says his patients show faster healing times and reduced levels of discomfort when they take advantage of acupuncture and physical therapy treatments after surgery.

Making better choices for the well-being of pets is a priority, according to the June 2008 survey, conducted on behalf of The Goodlife Recipe. For example, one out of four people said they wouldn’t cut anything from their pets’ lives.

Additionally, two-thirds of cat and dog owners don’t check the price first when selecting their pets’ food according to the results. Instead, they’re scrutinizing recipes and ingredients like they do their own.

Mr Bower claims that pets should be healthy before a pet insurance policy is taken out because when you compare insurance policies, premiums are more expensive for animals with pre-existing medical conditions.

Pet owners should insure their animals before they reach eight as most insurers will not cover pets after reach that milestone, claims Mr Bower.

Research by the People’s Dispensary for Sick Animals revealed that 30 per cent of the dogs in the UK are now overweight.

This “Nine-Minute Road Trip” mix is carefully crafted to function as a microcosm of longer road mixes: It opens and closes on a reflective note to mirror the ambivalence surrounding a trip’s beginning and end, while going full-bore for those fleeting minutes when you’ve found a patch of open road. It’s a vital soundtrack for when you want to leave your house, hurry to an on-ramp, roar down a short stretch of highway, and abruptly take the next exit to your extremely nearby destination.

While most of them were discharged as outpatients, eight of them had to be administered intravenous fluids for extreme dehydration.

Doctors said they were responding to treatment and all critical parameters, including blood pressure, pulse, heart rate and urine output, were normal. “We suspect they consumed contaminated food or water. It does not look like cholera but an acute gastroenterological disorder is possible. We have sent their blood samples for various tests,” said a duty doctor.

“But not everyone was affected. Some have been discharged after being advised to drink plenty of boiled water, fresh juices and tender coconut water. Many students came only because they were scared they would have problems as well,” he said.

“We all had problems after eating the food at the school. We experienced queasiness for sometime. We did not think it was serious until we had loose motions and began throwing up continuously,” said Siddharth, who has been admitted to the GH. His friend Anitha added: “We were scared when many of our friends had the same problem. Two parents who accompanied us decided to rush us to the hospital,” she said.

When contacted the school authorities said that the students could have eaten something at the beach or on the roadside. “We have outsourced the food. But it was prepared in a hygienic environment. We don’t think the food is the cause. The children must have had street food,” a senior teacher at the school said.

That’s what Nomar Garciaparra attempted to do after hitting into two of the Dodgers’ four double plays in a 2-1 loss to the Nationals, who have the worst record in baseball.

After the Dodgers stopped their 17-inning scoreless streak by managing a run in the fifth inning to cut the lead to one, Garciaparra came up with the bases loaded and nobody out. He smashed a line drive snared by third baseman Ryan Zimmerman, who stepped on third to double off Manny Ramirez.

Derek Lowe eventually struck out with the bases loaded later in the inning, and Manager Joe Torre didn’t consider using a pinch hitter early, figuring the Dodgers still would have chances to score later.

Instead, Lowe (10-11) pitched a complete game and took the loss.

“Derek Lowe pitched his tail off, and it was certainly a winnable game,” Torre said. “Everyone goes up there squeezing the sawdust. We have to keep going and fight the frustration.”

The Dodgers have now lost five straight, scoring all of six runs in that span. They held a brief team meeting before the game and still have scored only one run in the past 22 innings.

The Dodgers have now lost seven straight road games for the first time this season.

As the parent of an incoming Palmyra-Macedon High School senior, I figured it was my duty to work the Senior Booth during this year’s Wayne County Fair.

OK, so I really got drafted into it by my daughter, who told her favorite teacher I’d be happy to lend a few hours behind the fryer.

I figured, how tough could it be? You take the order, yell the order over your shoulder to the cooks and hand the goods to the customer. I know how to say, “You want fries with that?”

Besides, it couldn’t be worse than when I worked as a waitress at Pizza Hut in college. I amused the entire dining room during a dinner rush once when I emerged from the kitchen carrying two gallon-sized vats full of French and ranch dressing, only to slip in some soda spilled on the floor. I watched from my back as the two containers flipped into the air. Patrons gasped as intermingling ribbons of orange and white dressing cascaded down upon me. The resulting crash silenced the onlookers momentarily — until my manager came out and helped me off the floor. Everyone cheered. 

After working two shifts at the Senior Booth, I can proudly say I wasn’t the source of entertainment this time. The soon-to-be seniors were.

Seriously outnumbered by nearly a dozen teens, cheerleading coach Sheri Webber and I were at the mercy of their music, jokes, antics and constant need for sustenance.

Watching the 17- to 19-year-olds sneak over to the giant yellow slide and go down using their red aprons as burlap sacks was topped only by the guy who shoved a 6-inch, ice cream-laden waffle cone into his mouth, whole. The resulting brain freeze had everyone doubled over in laughter.

The kids were vibrant and eager to be there. Their energy reverberated off the cement walls of the 15-by-15-square-foot booth — well, maybe it was really the music shaking the building from its foundation.

Whenever I hear the Dave Matthews Band songs “Crash Into Me,” “Everyday” and “The Space Between,” I’ll remember working the booth. That’s because the teens played one of the group’s CDs over and over and over.

The fry boys manning the grill created their own percussion section by drumming cooking utensils against appliances and steel countertops in time to the music. They were actually quite good. Those who didn’t have a stove to beat on added “glad hands,” a unique sound that can be achieved only by clapping while clad in latex gloves.

The second day, Dave Matthews was replaced. The substitute? Pop music from the radio that had the teens — and adults (yes, by that point we’d crossed over to the dark side) — swaying to the beat and singing along.

Attitude is everything, and those kids had plenty of it. They were on a mission: to make money for their senior trip by filling the bellies of those who were brave enough to order a garbage plate at 10 a.m. Within a few minutes of each shift, they worked together like a well-oiled deep fryer.

To best the competition — the Marion Senior Booth inadvertently took delivery of Pal-Mac’s hot and hamburger rolls, and had the kids chanting “Marion took our buns” for a few hours one morning — the Pal-Mac seniors made up menus and passed them out to all the vendors, offering free delivery, and peddled cookies to passers-by.

Their dedication to the task at hand was impressive and customers walked away happy — amused by the spectacle, no doubt. 

With an exhausted sigh, Webber said to me at one point, “I go home tired, but I’ve had a lot of fun.”

Me too.

Tracey Curry is the editor of the Courier-Journal, a GateHouse publication.

“Before he leaves the house, I have to make sure he’s halfway decent,” said his mother, Betty Smith of Riverside, Ill. “Half the time, it’s like, ‘Why are you wearing a red polo with purple shorts?’ Matthew’s not at all concerned with color coordination, and he puts together some funky outfits.”

It’s an age-old battle between parents and kids who, during their quest for independence and in the midst of personality emergence, attempt to assert closet control. What’s a mom to do when her little princess refuses to hang up her tutu and tiara before walking into a restaurant? And how should dad respond when his tyke layers a Superman cape over a striped shirt and plaid shorts for church?

“This exertion of style preferences is part of the individuation process, but at age 3 and 4, they don’t understand social structure and societal rules — especially when it comes to matters of appearance,” said Dr. Jan Remer-Osborn, a child psychologist and behavioral specialist at Advocate Good Samaritan Hospital in Downers Grove, Ill. “So you’re going to get clashing, mismatched outfits that really miss the mark. But it’s our job to use these moments as teaching opportunities and provide structure and boundaries for them to work within.”

Parents often are torn between wanting to avoid the embarrassment of letting a child go out in public garbed like a circus clown and hesitating to stifle creativity and self-expression. But armed with a few tricks of the trade, dodging the power struggle altogether in the battle against the inappropriate and visually assaulting wardrobe becomes doable.

“It’s important to allow for the development of likes and dislikes and to permit that to translate into the selection of clothing. But it’s also your duty to instill the values of self-respect and integrity,” said Dr. Lance Reinke, a neuropsychologist and clinical psychology resident partnering with Central DuPage Hospital in Winfield, Ill. “It’s easy to assume veto power and be very authoritarian, but you should leave them some choice in the matter.”

He recommends presenting two or three ensembles for budding fashionistas to choose from, which will give them a sense of responsibility.

As the kids get a little older and are able to conceptualize the need for individual items (i.e. underwear, shirt, pants, socks, shoes, etc.), it’s OK to be more hands-off so they can exercise more control by piecing together a complete outfit on their own.

“You can divide things into designated drawers — one for home or play wear, one for school, one for dressy occasions or fancy holidays, and so on,” Reinke said. “This will give them more leeway, and the descriptive labels will help guide their judgment calls. It’s also going to help them start to understand the method behind the madness or the why behind how adults pick clothes.”

For children, these objective fashion criteria appear more difficult to argue with than a parent’s opinion, so this can decrease bedroom squabbling, the psychologists said.

Separating clothing into summer and winter collections and moving unseasonable articles into remote storage areas will prevent children from grabbing a tank top in the middle of a blizzard or a turtleneck in 90-degree weather. Out of sight, out of mind is a good rule because it can remove the fashion argument.

But, Remer-Osborn said, it’s never a bad idea to have an age-appropriate conversation with children about expectations that will encourage them to use their powers of reasoning to figure out why something might be unsuitable.

“That’s not to say you’ll always appeal to their logic and circumvent a tantrum,” she added. “But it’ll sink in eventually when you give the explanation of why it’s not acceptable to wear a ratty, dirty T-shirt to kindergarten.”

For Smith, compromising has yielded the best results.

“I tell Matthew, ‘OK, I’ll let you wear that shirt, but you’ve got to change the shorts,’ if it’s really hideous,” she said. “And I’ve been able to convince him to put something on over his superhero shirts, which he’s obsessed with. There’s usually a lot of camouflaging going on.”

In the grand scheme of things, there are worse things in life than her son’s affinity for colorful Spiderman and Incredible Hulk images, Smith said.

“I’m not worried about those figures appearing on his clothes because I see it as a form of imaginative play,” Smith added. “There’s this transformation that takes place when he puts on one of those shirts. I think Matthew has this perception that some of their powers will transfer over to him, and he even does those little spider-web-shooting poses when he wears one.

“As a parent, you just have to let it go,” she said. “It’s got to become a non-issue.”

It’s no secret that kids love loud, visually striking colors and patterns. But how can you humor their taste without aiding and abetting the perpetuation of unsightly attire?

- On the weekends, plan out outfits for the entire week and allow your kid to pick which day they want to wear what. This will help you avoid lengthy negotiation sessions each morning and will curb your tendency to give in for the sake of time.

- Try to anchor an ensemble with one neutral-colored garment. Jeans or khakis are a good springboard. Then let your child go hog-wild — within reason — with everything else.

- To appease your son or daughter’s love of colorful patterns, don’t rule out checkered, floral or plaid fabrics. Just aim for smaller-scale prints, which can look like solid colors at a distance. Then mixing and matching almost becomes fool-proof. Or, pair a large geometric top with a tinier striped bottom. That way, the finished product won’t be such an eyesore.

- While kids’ wardrobes don’t have to be matchy-matchy, stick to one color palette. (Think warm reds, oranges and pinks versus cool blues, greens and grays.) This will tone down a busy, mishmashed outfit of polka dots and zigzags.

- Structuring an outfit around a particular theme is another fun and effective way of limiting and integrating all of your child’s wacky elements. Suggest nautical or safari.

- Instead of signing off on a Hannah Montana, Spiderman or Batman costume for an outing, try to get your son or daughter to opt for an alter-ego, such as Miley Cyrus, Peter Parker or Bruce Wayne. Maybe an undershirt or underwear reveals their “true identity,” but on the outside, their “disguise” is an average, well-dressed kid.

- If you can’t handle the thought of your little one walking out the door in a particular selected outfit, try to avoid the fashion train wreck by framing your argument in a subtler way. Think about the day’s activities, and appeal to your child’s senses on a different level. “A skirt with tights wouldn’t be much fun to play in on the monkey bars, would it?” “You don’t want to get your pretty velvet Christmas dress stained during art class, do you?”

Source: Interviews, The Children’s Place

Suburban Life Publications

Here they are, playing together in the basement of Grant and Susan Grebner’s Washburn home.

Meet Collin, a precocious, inquisitive, 4-year-old, rock-collecting NASCAR fan.

There’s Jac, short for Joseph Aristotle Carter. He celebrated his first birthday on Aug. 10.

Of course, there are the Grebners, Collin’s parents. And there’s Amanda Holland, Jac’s mother and Collin’s mother, also.

Get that?

The Grebners are Collin’s mother and father. Amanda Holland is his mother, too.

With Susan Grebner’s prompting, Collin explains.

"She’s my birth mother," he says, looking at Holland. "A birth mother means somebody who loves you very much and you got born in her stomach."

The Grebners are his adoptive parents.

Holland lives nearby, in Oglesby. The Grebner family sees her and her family regularly. They met several times before Collin was born; they even discussed names for him. The Grebners took Collin to Jac’s birthday party. In a pinch, Holland’s mother will baby-sit Collin for the Grebners. Merely by playing together, along with Holland’s son, they illustrate a radical shift in the way infant adoptions happen in the country.

There was a time when Holland was not supposed to know the Grebners, and Collin was not supposed to know his birth mother. In fact, his birth certificate would not have mentioned Holland’s name.

"Adoption agencies felt everyone would be better off if we pretended the birth mother didn’t exist," says Jeanne Howard, co-director of the Center for Adoption Studies at Illinois State University.

"Looking back, it’s very peculiar, but we went along with a history of secrecy, a secrecy based on shame."

Though precise figures are hard to come by, the era of closed adoptions, as they are known, is all but over in adoption placement agencies. Open adoptions are far more prevalent than closed, Howard says. All of the major national adoption agencies, except the National Council for Adoption, endorse some level of contact between birth parents, adoptive parents and the child.

The trend toward open adoptions is spreading to international adoptions and adoptions of children in foster care. But it began in the 1970s with domestic infant adoptions, among the least common of all agency adoptions. In one sense, Howard suggests market forces were at work, particularly the market for healthy white infants.

As the stigma of unwed pregnancy declined, more women opted to keep their children. Meanwhile, children who had gone through traditional closed adoptions, along with birth parents of those children, were searching for one another, giving rise to an emotional movement to unseal adoption records. And private adoptions, arranged by attorneys, were flourishing. Such adoptions allowed more leeway for birth mothers and prospective adoptive parents to negotiate the terms of the adoption.

"Part of it is, women who surrender their children now have more say-so, quite frankly, given supply and demand issues," Howard says.

But the growth of the search movement forced all parties to look beyond market forces to what was best for the child.

"What we’re seeing now is a movement toward understanding how those connections can be good for kids."

Degrees — and definitions — of open adoptions vary, one of the reasons it’s difficult to track not only just how common but also how open most open adoptions are.

"Open adoption means communication and an ongoing relationship between birth and adoptive families," says Mary Kay Collins, adoption supervisor for Catholic Charities, who was also the caseworker for the Grebners’ adoption. "The relationship is largely defined by the families themselves."

Relationships may range from both sets of parents exchanging photos and gifts several times a year to, as in Susan Grebner’s case, a road trip with Collin, his adoptive grandmother and his birth grandmother to visit Holland while she was living in North Carolina.

Grebner admits she was skeptical and a bit fearful when she learned Catholic Charities requires open adoptions for domestic infant adoptions. She and her husband didn’t know what it meant; she envisioned scary scenarios and controversial custody battles. They would have to submit an adoption profile, something like an audition scrapbook and video of themselves as a couple and prospective parents.

But as she and Grant went through adoption counseling, learning more about open adoption and sorting out their feelings about parenting, Susan came to realize, "She’s giving us her baby; can’t we give her our address?"

Grant says meeting Holland and her family and learning the values they shared made him see her as a person, not just an anonymous birth mother. "I felt comfortable Collin would be in a good place no matter what she decided."

Holland’s initial reaction was different.

"I thought this was great," she recalls. "It offered me some kind of control. I could pick the people I wanted and meet them." Still, she worried about the potential for awkward situations. Her mother didn’t tell her at the time that she doubted Holland would ever get to see the baby once the adoption was finalized.

Though some states do, Illinois does not have laws to enforce open adoption arrangements. Legally, adoptive parents could cut off contact at any time.

"It’s more of an ethical decision families make, a moral decision," says Collins, the adoption supervisor at Catholic Charities.

The Grebners say the relationship is working out in all the ways they had hoped. "And then some," Holland adds.

When the Grebners decided to adopt a second child, Holland wrote a letter for their adoption profile.

"Dear Birthmother," she wrote, "I know if you are reading this you are in a hard position right now. I was once there myself and do not envy anyone who has to go through it."

She went on to say how the Grebners did not pressure her, how they respected her and her family’s feelings.

Little Sophia Grace, born in June, is in the basement also, fast asleep while Collin and Jac play. Coincidentally, her birth mother’s first name is Amanda, also.

"Now," Susan Grebner says, "I think I would’ve been disappointed if Sophia’s mother hadn’t wanted an open adoption."

Pam Adams can be reached at (309) 686-3245 or padams@pjstar.com.

This week, Jeremy Biernat discusses ways to strengthen your lower back to prevent lower-back pain during workouts.