Happy Furry Friday! 

Bernadette and the One Life Radio crew are sure ready for the weekend! It’s been a full week, but we are ready to spend some chill time with our furry friends! Bernadette and Renaldo talk about learning to know the difference between what you can control and what you can’t. 

Dr. RuthAnn Lobos of Castor & Pollux

Castor and Pollux representative and lead veterinarian, Dr. RuthAnn Lobos is here to discuss diet and how to help our pets lose weight! Dr. Lobos and Bernadette talk about the importance of choosing a name for your animal. It defines them for their whole life! Weight is not only a cosmetic disease, extra weight can pull on our furry friends muscles and hurt their chest. Obesity shortens their life! As pet owners, we want our animal children to live as long as they can. 50% of our animals are overweight. That is scary! Dr. RuthAnn says that most dog food contains high calorie kibble. Food is love, and we as humans feel guilty when we restrict our animals food. We also want to treat our animals because we love them! Don’t forget to take into account how many calories are in treats. Castor and Pollux treats contain as little as 8 calories a treat! Treat your cats and dogs while keeping their weight in mind. Pay attention to your animals lifestyle choices. Some dogs prefer being running companions while others enjoy being couch potatoes. With Castor & Pollux, they look at nutrients. With each recipe, Castor & Pollux pays attention to each ingredient, so they look at diversity that pets need. Responsibly sourced ingredients. You should be able to feel your dogs ribs without pressing very hard. If you can look at your dog and count their ribs, your pet is too skinny! You should be able to see a little hourglass figure on your pup or cat! As much as dogs love sausages, they shouldn’t look like one. Go to the Castor & Pollux website to try their food calculator to find out how much your furry friend needs to be eating!

Gloria Gilbert Stoga

Next up with have Gloria Gilbert Stoga, Founder of Puppies Behind Bars. Gloria Gilbert Stoga is President and Founder of Puppies Behind Bars, or PBB, a non-profit organization teaching prison inmates to raise service dogs for wounded war veterans and first responders, as well as explosive-detection canines for law enforcement. Gloria has extensive experience in the non-profit sector, serving as a member of New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s Youth Empowerment Commission, executive director of the New York Metropolitan Committee for UNICEF and founder of the Privatization Project at the Carnegie Council on Ethics and International Affairs.

Puppies Behind Bars

Gloria started puppies behind bars after hearing about the first prison guide dog program in Florida! Bernadette talks about both prisoners and puppies needing a purpose. It gives prisoners a chance to contribute to society while incarcerated. Puppies behind bars is only in the New York metro area, but they put so much focus on their programs that their difference spreads far and wide! Unfortunately they only have about 55 dogs operating in prisons right now due to covid-19, but typically they have around 90 dogs in each prison! Gloria and Puppies Behind Bars are thrilled to be able to help first responders and prisoners alike with the addition of simply a dog! Animals can help first responders with post traumatic stress. Their dogs know 92 commands with 12 of those commands being made and taught by Puppies Behind Bars. Service dogs can be pricy to train! It costs about $48,000 to train a dog over 14 days along with the person they are to be placed with. Puppies Behind Bars has been truly luck to be able to operate a program that is a win win for both animals and humans. Dog Tag is a program that pairs ours veterans with one of PBB’s dogs! Through a special application and pairing process, PBB flies the veterans in to New York to be with their new companion! To make a donation, visit puppiesbehindbars.com to help a furry friend and human friend alike!

Thank You!

A big thank you to our guests, Dr. RuthAnn Lobos and Gloria Gilbert Stoga for being with us today! To read more about Puppies Behind Bars, click here.Thank you to all of our One Life Radio listeners. We truly appreciate each and every one of you, so If you’d like to hear more from One Life Radio, please subscribe to our podcast.If you have any hot ideas or burning questions, email us at info@oneliferadio.com. Bernadette loves hearing from listeners.And, last but never least, thank you to our sponsors. We couldn’t do the show without you; Crazy Water, Sunwarrior, Enviromedica, STS Health, VEGWORLD Magazine, Castor & Pollux, Paleo Magazine, the Well Being Journal and the ISSN. Visit our sponsor page for some great offers just for One Life Radio listeners!