Page 11 2025 Animal Stories Lincoln Daily News February 2025 bit calmer, think about getting an animal with a personality that will fit in. If you have more of a busy household, getting a pet with a big personality might work better for you. The website for Countryside Veterinary Hospital has a list of seven tips to help you introduce a new pet into your home, several of them shared with the ones previously mentioned by the Animal Humane Society. One additional suggestion they make is allowing your pets to meet each other in “neutral” territory. While they acknowledge that this can be tricky for cats, the suggestion they make for dogs is “a local park or open field.” They go on to suggest using positive reinforcement for all your pets. If you train your pets next to each other, they will learn to behave near one another, increasing the chance that they will get along. Patience is also a very important part of this process. Having a routine is another suggestion the Countryside Veterinary Hospital makes. “Cats stressed because of household changes can develop urinary issues, while dogs may exhibit destructive behavior,” their website states. They recommend “walking, feeding, and interacting with your pets at the same time every day” to help maintain a schedule. This can help your pets feel safe and comfortable in their environment, even if there is a big change, such as a new pet. One thing all the three sources referenced so far have in common is that their advice is geared mainly toward either cats or dogs. What if you have a different kind of animal and are looking to get another? According to Pet MD, after cats and dogs, the next three most popular pets in 2023 were freshwater fish, small animals (such as rabbits), and birds. According to The Spruce Pets, acclimating a new fish to your aquarium can be a lengthy process. Doing this will require you to put some of the water from your main tank into a smaller separate tank. This is where your new fish will live for two weeks. During that time, you are going to be looking for signs of illness that could be passed from your new fish to your old fish. You also need to consider things such as water quality and the Ph levels of your water. What about small animals such as rabbits? According to the United Kingdom’s Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA), the first thing you must do is neuter/spay both rabbits, especially if they Continued --
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