A full moon, so well known for its haunting eeriness, many stories have been started with a dark night, creepy trees and shadows dancing with the full moon watching over. We humans have even gone as far as blaming madness on it. Many times we have heard people say, "Blame it on the moon". Well folks, the full moon rises on our pets as well.

There have been studies on the effect of the full moon with animals. It has been noted that more pets visit the emergency room with a variety of ailments including trauma, seizures and even heart attacks. Researchers could have found this definite link between the lunar activity and animal behaviors; I will fill you in on one case study now. According to the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association 11, 940 dogs and cats were evaluated on an emergency basis during an eleven year period. Their findings, 9,407 were canine and 2,533 were feline. There is significant increase on emergencies for dogs and cats during a full moon, waxing gibbous to waning gibbous, compared to all the other days. I have written below for you the difference in waxing verses waning.

Waxing gibbous, the moon is very nearly full and illuminated generally from the right. This phase of the moon is seen to rise sometimes in the afternoon when few are looking at the sky. It goes unnoticed till dark. By this time the gibbous moon is well above the southeastern horizon.

Waning gibbous, the moon is just past full and illuminated generally from the left. This phase of the moon is seen to rise a little while after sunset. The gibbous moon rides across the sky most of the night and is still above the western horizon at sunrise. The moon in this phase is nearly a week between full and the third quarter. For a few days or more after full moon the waning gibbous moon appears nearly full and might be mistaken for a full moon. In this phase it sets just shortly after sunrise and is seen by the casual observers early in the morning.

How we look at the moon is different from the Doctors and philosophers' who study these things, we look at the full moon with stories and traditions handed down from generation to generation. Movies are made with vampires and werewolves coming out in it and even blame bad behavior on it. I won't get into long drawn out theories or lengthy documentations but I will leave you with this thought; we learn from reading and the stories told but how do we explain animal behavior during a full moon? They cannot read

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