Apartment living with a reactive dog is not for the weak.
Life updates and the best things I've seen about dogs + cats lately.
I’m writing to you, sleepy and caffeinated, from Caltrain during my evening commute home from work. I’m back to corporate life, working Monday through Friday at a law firm while spending weekends at a retail job1 as I prepare for my next chapter: law school.
Now that my days bring me to the heart of SF’s Financial District, the AI revolution is all the more present: Every billboard is an incomprehensible (and, let’s be honest, ugly2) mess, promising onlookers that this software won’t SOC-block your top engineers, or this company is an AI tool that will help your AI be better than every other company’s AI. I’m overhearing engineers on the train talk about blowing through thousands of dollars of tokens running agents, as if that’s somehow the best metric to prove efficacy. My brother, with good intentions, sends me Reels and X posts about how there will be fewer jobs for associates at law firms as their work gets replaced by LLMs that can draft contracts and review paperwork at a fraction of the cost. I proceed to text my lawyers friends for reassurance that I’m making the right decision.
I’m also, as I write this, mentally preparing to clock in for my next shift as the mom of a reactive dog in an apartment complex with residents who, unfortunately, love to complain—especially when they see a Doberman wearing a basket muzzle.
What that looks like: navigating through hallways and elevator banks in the early mornings and late nights, praying that I won’t encounter anybody; repeating out loud to myself and to Pippa, “We got this, we got this,” like I’m psyching myself up for a match; scanning left, right, forward, and backward to catch triggers before my dog can.
Apartment living with a reactive dog is not for the weak. But it’s a life experience forcing my growth as much as it is my dog’s: We have to be confident in life; we have to be accepting of the unexpected; we can learn to recover from the things outside of our control. We will have our good days and our bad days, and we must be accepting of both.
I’m still wrestling with my relationship to control: When is it the right to let go? When should we stay the course? With journalism, I’ve accepted that it’s time to move on. With Pippa, I don’t want to—no matter how many times I’ve been told otherwise. That doesn’t mean clinging to the same techniques or ignoring reality, but it does mean holding onto the conviction that the best is yet to come.
And for that, I’m grateful we have each other on this journey.
If you’re a returning subscriber or have just stumbled upon this newsletter, you probably have an animal companion you feel just as strongly about. You know the real work that goes into caring for a creature who, in all their quirks, provides immeasurable value to your life. I’m glad we’re in this community together.
Now, let’s get into it.
The internet’s favorite pet food brand has merch. Open Farm is selling a limited-run batch of “Call Me Crazy” gray hoodies for cat parents. The dog mom/dad version can’t be far behind.
Can there only be one Dogue? Vogue is suing Dogue, the dog fashion magazine, for trademark infringement. It’s not a coincidence that Vogue published its own digital cover under the same name in 2024 for a feature on celebrity dogs. The project was spearheaded by Chloe Malle, who is basically the new Anna Wintour at the legacy fashion mag, and returned the following summer to enlist reader submissions.
Going after Dogue feels like small potatoes: The magazine is only sold at one stand in Beverly Hills and is entirely free online. But litigation costs, even if Dogue creator Olga Portnaya prevails in court, could put an end to the magazine.
Meanwhile, there are plenty of dog toys out there that riff on existing brands and are sold at major retailers like Chewy and Target. One of the most popular manufacturers, Haute Diggity Dog, is behind Puptron, Johnnie Dogwalker, the Barkin Bag, Chewy Vuiton, etc. Louis Vuitton actually sued the company for trademark and copyright infringement back in 2007 but ultimately lost, with the court ruling that the toys were parodies and not likely to create confusion with the actual Louis Vuitton brand.
Not so fast, though: Jack Daniel’s mostly prevailed in its own case against a parody dog toy manufacturer, with a federal judge ruling last year that the toy tarnished the Jack Daniel’s brand, even if it didn’t rise to trademark infringement.
Romania has a beauty contest for cats. More than 200 cats gathered over the weekend in Bucharest for this year’s Academy Awards–themed SofistiCat expo.
Tired: Talking to your dog on the Furbo. Wired: Receiving a phone call from your dog. One of the stranger products I’ve seen this month is the PetPhone, a device that lets your dog or cat call (??) you by jumping at least three times within six seconds (which is just ~existing~, if your pup is anything like my Pippa). PetPhone is another entry, albeit gimmicky, in the growing pet tech space. The device is probably more useful as a health tracker, but it’s hard to see how it beats out competitors like Fi and Tractive.
W Magazine released their Best Performances issue last month with a photoshoot featuring the animal actors who stole the show at the box office. That includes Jake, the majestic rattlesnake from Sinners; Indy, the nepo baby pup who starred in his dad’s horror flick Good Boy; Bing, the Great Dane from The Friend; and—of course—Tonic, the cat from Caught Stealing. Bonus: They’re all decked out in Chanel, Bottega, and Hermès.
RIP Hanna, an incredible search and rescue dog in Ukraine who located more than 170 bodies and saved one person who had been missing for more than seven days. Hanna—a brown Doberman—was diagnosed with a terminal illness last year and given only two to three months to live, according to the Antares Search and Rescue Canine Unit. She lived for another year, working to the very end to rescue humans lost in Russia’s war against Ukraine.
Global Pet Expo, one of the pet industry’s biggest trade shows, begins this week in Orlando. I’ll be keeping an eye on all the new product launches.
The latest blow for designer “doodle” dogs: Poodle crossbreeds are everywhere, thanks in part to their looks and a widespread belief that these dogs are better family pets. But researchers at the Royal Veterinary College say there’s little to no evidence to support that assumption. In a recent survey of cockapoos, labradoodles, and cavapoos, the researchers found that these designer crossbreeds exhibit “more undesirable behaviours” compared to their purebred counterparts (cocker spaniels, Labrador retrievers, Cavalier King Charles Spaniels, and poodles). Cockapoos in particular “displayed the most undesirable behaviours of the three designer crossbreeds.”
The takeaway: Having a designer crossbreed doesn’t mean that dog is predisposed to behave better or require less training than any other breed.
We have updated numbers on the major animal hoarding case in LA. Approximately 250 dogs and 66 cats were retrieved from an LA County property last Friday in what may be one of the largest animal hoarding cases in the country. Officials had initially estimated there to be upwards of 700 animals on the property in Lake Hughes, a region in northern LA County between Lancaster and Santa Clarita.
Christine De Anda, who runs the Rock N Pawz animal rescue on the property, told KTLA that she plans to fight the seizure in court and maintains the animals were not neglected or mistreated.
The influx of animals will place major strain on the county’s shelters, which are already operating at capacity. De Anda has not been charged with any crimes as investigators continue to gather evidence, but the dogs and cats seized from the property must remain in holding and cannot be adopted out, as they may be evidence in a potential animal cruelty case.
If you’re local to LA, this would be a great time to foster. It goes a long way toward clearing space and alleviating the strain on rescues and shelters.
Thanks for reading and supporting my work. If there’s anything you think I should cover, reach out at clara@readtailmail.com.
Hit me up if you need glasses.
All that AI and you can’t design a better billboard??