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Is your dog out and about chasing cars or playing Casanova with Mrs. Next Doors Champion poodle? Perhaps he's trying to prove how macho he is to the local Pitbull-Mastiff-Doberman thug?

What about Mrs. Tibbles your homebody of a cat? Has she not come home yet for dinner? Perhaps she's out stalking helpless little old ladies and stealing candy from babies. She too, could be out trying to increase the surplus population of cats or howling from a nearby rooftop.

Once again it is the full moon and our cats and dogs are being taken to the Veterinarian clinics in droves for emergency treatment. It seems that during a full moon, cats and dogs are suffering from cardiac arrest, traumas and seizures etc in increased numbers. Vets and nurses know this is happening and they don't know why.

In fact, in an issue of the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association, it was reported that during a full moon and the days immediately before and after, the number of cats being injured or falling ill, rises by 23 percent and for dogs, the number is even higher, 28 percent.

One theory is that because the full moon gives off more light, more cats and dogs are out and about and looking to find trouble.

While not scientific in any way, dog owners report that their pets are restless, barking at nothing and are feeling more "romantic" than at other times. The horse owners admit that their horses are feeling twitchy and are acting out too.

And cats? Cats are being cats times 10. In other words, cats are yowling to go out and then yowling to come back in, even MORE and louder than usual. They're sneaking extra drinks out of your tea cup when you're not looking, running around in the garden under that bright orb chasing ghosts. Some are out spraying their territory when they have never done THAT before and those cats that were born stupid? They're out trying to teach the neighborhood pitbull who's boss!

No one knows WHY this is happening, in fact, according to skeptics, it's not. They say there are no facts to substantiate the claim that more animals are hurt and become ill during this time. Quite the opposite they say. According to studies done in Australia, the numbers tend to go DOWN during a full moon.

Apparently in Australia, during a full moon, cats and dogs seem to be hanging out by the Barbie and having a few "Fosters" instead of chasing cars and beating up neighborhood louts.

My theory is that, of COURSE they would behave differently in Australia, one cannot expect normal behavior from any cat or dog who lives on the opposite ends of the earth and "Down Under". I have to wonder if it's during a New Moon that Australian pets tend to go a little berserk.

Back in Bedrock however, once a month the cats and dogs will still be pouring into the Vet's office in larger numbers than usual and the doctors and nurses will still be muttering, "Must be a full moon."

Learn more about this author, Kate McGee.
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