¶ Pet Chat
Hello pet enthusiasts . Welcome to the last pet chat of 2023 . My name is Jason Zakowski . I'm the dog dad of Bunsen Beaker , the science dogs on social media . My co-host is with the Mostis is .
Hi there , my name is Krista Kowsky and I am the dog mom to both Bunsen Beaker and the cat mom to Ginger and the turtle mom to Carl and or Sagan .
If you're joining us for the first time , hello . We want to extend a warm welcome to our Instagram friends , our Instagram audience . Through some magic of technology , we have linked together Twitter , facebook and Instagram in one mega production now .
So Instagram never got to be part of pet chat and Facebook was always super buggy , but I think the system is working great . So if you're just joining us for the first time ever , here's how we roll with pet chat . There's a game we play , a Kahoot kind of wrap up game , which is kind of fun . Yeah , okay , okay .
So it's year in the review , a year in review , okay . Question one Bunsen Beaker were celebrity guests at Blank this year , so this is one of the stories we're going to talk about . Probably they were celebrity guests at the Red Deer Science Center , the 104th annual Moush show , the Calgary Science Festival or the Emmett Comic Con .
So , yes , Bunsen Beaker were special guests at one of these events . What was it ? And it was the Emmett Comic Con . Congratulations , looks like you're in first , chris Slimshady .
I'm Slimshady , yeah , so that took place in September this year . Yeah , beaker went as Beakachu , yeah , and Bunsen was Ash Betcham .
That's right . They had adorable little Comic Con costumes for Bunsen Beaker . They had photos on the red carpet with people , and boy did they do . Well , how many people Like just about 200 photos in 45 minutes or something like that .
And it was a lot of photos . And , jason , you were a Snorlax , so you looked good .
You looked good too , weren't you , evie ?
I did go as Evie .
Yeah . And then the really fun part was after , because the dogs are , they can only work for so long and they were so focused for almost an hour of posing with people who were in wild costumes or no costumes and there were kids and everybody is that the our handler ? We had a handler that day , which was very fun .
She said Sarah , natachini wants to potentially meet you , or they thought it would be cool if we met Sarah , and Sarah is the voice of Ash from Pokemon and she was there at the Comic Con . It was a whole thing .
We brought them out and Sarah loves dogs and she got down on her knees in front of her booth and was giving Bunsen Beaker pets and hugs and it was very sweet . So that's that . Anything else to add there , chris .
Before we go to the next question , nope , okay , I don't think I'm going to use the sound effects , because I do remember on Facebook we got a copyright strike for those . Okay , for Christmas , bunsen got another one of his most famous toys or favorite toys . What is Bunsen's favorite toy ?
Is it a duck stuffy , a grunting hedgehog , a pole rope or a screaming chicken ? We've talked about this toy many times . This is his favorite of toys . What is his toy ? What is his favorite of toys ? And it is the hedgehog . Yeah , the grunting hedgehog is his favorite toy . I think he doesn't wreck it .
But what did he do within a couple days after Christmas , chris ?
He wrecked it .
He wrecked it . If you're just joining us from Instagram or Facebook and you only see me talking , there's Chris talking . She is live on Twitter . We've amalgulated the different social media channels , which is kind of cool , okay . Next question . Okay , question three . What is the big thing that Adam accomplished this year ? So Adam is our son , adam Bobadam .
Did he get an internship in France , graduate high school , get a job with Netflix or got to travel to Iceland ? So what was Adam's big accomplishment this year ? Yeah , and we talked about that . There's photos cute photos , because he's a handsome guy . He graduated high school , that's right . Yeah , he is in his first year of a science degree .
What is he taking , chris ?
Biochemistry .
Biochemistry , and biochemistry was my major in my science degree as well , and I told him not to do it , but he's still going to do it .
He's doing it , he is in the thick of it and he's really enjoying it yeah .
Yes .
Guess what he did though .
No , what I don't know .
He bought a new beret , because his purple one that he bought actually when he went to France this year he can't find because he thinks you gave it to Bunsen .
Bunsen does rock that purple beret , though there's a little like five second video I shot of Bunsen rocking that beret . Yeah , he's pretty good . He looks pretty cute in it . But no , no , he didn't give it to Bunsen .
No , but Adam bought a new beret and he's going to tell people he bought it in France and it's actually a raspberry one .
Yeah , it's red . Okay . So next question we met this famous dog twice this year Chesney , kuno , canadian Penny , benson and Bowie . So we met this famous dog twice this year . Now I think it's a multi-select , so there's more than one right answer it's Kuno and Chesney . Now the most correct answer is what , chris ? It was Chesney .
The most correct answer is Chesney because , we did meet her at two dog shows , one in April and one in October . Yes , and we didn't meet Kuno specifically in April .
No , no , we met Kuno later in the year and , if you're again , if you're like , who's Chesney ? Who's Kuno ? Marla is their dog mom . She is a wheelchair user and she talks , she goes to , she does amazing things being a wheelchair user , and we just have so much respect for her .
And Kuno is her current service dog and Chesney is in training and they're both Rottweilers and they're amazing dogs . Okay , next question . Ooh , it's tight between you and a couple people , chris . Okay , question five . I know we don't have the sound effects . This adorable thing was launched by Zazakowskis in the spring .
A Norbert stuffy , a ginger stuffy , a Bunsen stuffy , a beaker stuffy . That's right . We did launch something super adorable in I think it was February or March actually and that was the ginger stuffy . Yeah , the ginger stuffy . Oh , a hundred percent of the people got that correct . Well done .
I hope they weren't too quickly , too quick on it , because I want to win . That's the name when you said people are close to me and that just is not good .
Last question this is the runner up name that Twitter picked for our beaver , not the winning name . The runner up ? Bucky Chuck E Trees . Chuck Norbert , what was the runner up name for the beaver ? This one got second , so it was Bucky . Chuck E Trees was my dark horse favorite , but it did not win . Okay , so let's go to the . Let's do the tally .
In third place we have Shatzy Mum . In second place we have the imaginary Slim Shady , and in first place we have . Chris . Chris won .
The supreme win .
Chris won . Supreme win you had a bunch of insider knowledge , so that's not really super fair though .
Jason , I have the same knowledge that everybody else does .
It's okay , all right , and we'll talk a little bit about the beaver later .
Sure .
Okay , I wasn't able to get ahold of our sponsor , but I think I'm still going to read our sponsor's ad , if that's okay 100% , we can have our own prize . We can do a thing . So Pet Chat is brought to you by one of our sponsors , barkandbeyondsupplycom .
Barkandbeyondsupplycom is a small , family-owned company that started making joint supplements for dogs , but now they have toys and treats and subscription boxes . Type the big box store and shop at Barkandbeyondsupplycom . Now , I think in their honor , as I wasn't able to get ahold of them . I mean , it's the holidays and New Year's around the block .
We can have a prize today . What do you ? You know what I was thinking . One of our prizes can be what is our new experiment book ? 21 Experiments . Yes , yes , 21 Science Experiments . You can do it home . That's right , we are going to be . It came out before Christmas . Some lucky people got it early , but this was you and I wrote this during the summer .
It's 21 Experiments . It's just a little book , very , very inexpensive , and it's all stuff you can do at home with your kids or , if you feel like you are a kid , you could do it yourself . So I'm going to do a little draw for anybody who's sticking around at the end , and somebody can win our 21 Science Experiments book .
Okay , so let's get on to the main show . Let's do our year in . Let's do our year in review for Bunsen and Beaker . Do you want to start ? Do you want to start with January ?
I do , okay , and thank you for honoring my type A personality where I have to talk in order from January to December , okay . Okay , because that's just how I roll , All right . So in January non-dog related , you and I went to Las Vegas .
We did as a couple's retreat we did , and what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas .
Right and Adam got to stay home with Bunsen and Beaker .
Yes , he was a good dog . Good dog sitter .
He was a good dog sitter . The other thing that happened in January was Bunsen and Beaker both went to your school during exam week .
Yeah , they love going to school . They love the kids , love them , they love it .
Especially Beaker just loves everybody with the force of a thousand hurricanes and the rules are relaxed a little bit because dogs generally don't get to come to school , but they were there and they definitely helped kids with their anxiety Cause in my high school and your high school . Right , you have a semester .
The semester ends in January , kids write their tests and a new semester semester starts in February . So they came in during exam break where kids were studying , and some kids were in my room and they came in and they got some pets from Bunsen and Beaker so made their studying a little bit better .
Right and the science is in about dogs in the classroom .
That's right , yeah , and pets in the classroom .
So that's something that actually we're building upon and creating professional development sessions that are going to come out in 2024 . So you and I are super excited about that .
Yeah , we're team presenting in February , right , I know Go team . Sounds like we better get on this , Chris .
Okay , okay , we will . And the last thing that happened in January and this may seem dumb , but it's amazing is we got a new printer . And you might think what ? Why is that exciting ? Well , the current printer that we have is still working , but it's what 20 years old .
That brother printer , holy man , it just , it's the . It takes a licking and keeps on ticking .
I tell you it's been amazing
¶ Bunsen and Beaker's Year in Review
. But we wanted to do some things with Bunsen and Beaker and make stickers and all these other things that our little brother workhorse it might be able to do . No , but we . Adam was working at Staples at the time before he got poached by Bell and he said , mom , this is the printer you need . And actually it's been amazing .
So , that happened in January , and then we were off to the races . We learned all about it . I learned how to make stickers and the rest is history .
That's right . That cricket thing we picked up , too , is pretty slick . In February wait a second , I think I can play this . What is love ? In February , beaker had a romantic date with her crush , benny the Golden Retriever , on from Twitter . So every year , every year , we set up a Zoom date .
Because they live in Ontario , we live in Alberta that's very far apart for people that don't live in Canada and they had a Zoom date and that was very sweet . People love the love story . It's just very , very cute , and that's what happened in February . Okay , chris , on to March .
Sure , we can go on to March , so in March this is really funny . Jason was figuring out TikTok Because we were I had actually taken some social media training with my school , with my school division , so I kind of had a lot on Instagram and Twitter and Facebook and how to post and how it's different and alike .
But TikTok is a whole new beast , a whole new animal , and Jason made a click-baity video about cats and how they hate your music . It's actually one of the pinned tweets up , or one of the pinned what do they call it ? Pinned ticks .
I don't know . Yeah , I pinned it to the top because it blew up . And people blew up On me . They were very upset with this video . They told me , no , my cat loves my music . And there was hundreds of comments of people saying my cat loves classical music , my cat loves ACDC , my cat loves all this different stuff . And it was just .
I was like , oh my God , people are so angry , but that just drove that video to the front of the algorithm . I think it got like three million views or something like that . It's the biggest thing we ever did . We've ever done with Bunsen and Beaker was that click-baity TikTok video ?
It's very funny . I encourage you to go look at it , if you have not had the opportunity .
Yeah , and then the hard copy of text from Bunsen , volume one . We got it from the printer and we shipped that out . So I know that's something that people on Twitter are very familiar with and I'm trying to post more of it to the other social media sites . And we built that book last summer not this summer , but last summer .
And then the last thing that happened in March is we thought that Bunsen had a partial ACL tear which he very well might have , but the minute he hurts himself , I say nope , two weeks of rest . And so we rested him , and then he went for a teeth cleaning and then I asked well , he was under if they could do an X-ray of his ACL . And it wasn't torn .
No , and he fully recovered . So he could have had a partial tear , or he could have just been a diva , because he sometimes acts like a diva when he's got a little sore paw or something like that , sometimes all the time . For being a brave rescue bear you know there's parts of he is very much a gentle giant , that dog .
Yeah , and we should have known when he was a puppy and we were camping and he would not lay down on the rocks , he had to push all these little pebbles out of the way before he laid down . We should have known right then and there that we had a little diva on our hands .
Yeah , he would not . He would not lay down on the rocks , he would only lay down on the soft dirt . That's true .
It is true .
Okay , april came . April , of course , had the first , the dog show where we met Chesney Marla's up and coming service dog , and you fell in love with this dog the moment you saw her .
The moment , the moment I saw her her little face is so gushy . She's such a sweetheart . Yeah , I just wanted to pack her up and take her home .
Well , we wouldn't do that .
No , we wouldn't , but she was such a little sweetheart , she loved her and just she had rubs and she wanted pets and I just could not give her enough .
Yeah , pretty sweet , pretty sweet .
April also has Beaker's birthday .
Right Beaker turned three yeah .
Three years old .
Yeah , which is we still think of her as our little baby , but she's three years old .
I know it's hard to believe eh .
She's just little .
She's such a good girl .
Anything else happened in April , or should we talk about May ?
We can talk about May .
Well , Adam graduated in May and you might say , boy , that's early . And I will say you are correct . It's super weird .
Even though in Canada school isn't done until the end of June , many of the high schools have their grad at the end of May and it is a philosophical problem that many teachers have , but it's just because they can't book the venues for all of the different high schools for the kids to have their grads all at the same time in sometime in June .
So they have it in May and that's before they've written their government diploma tests . So , like Alberta has a grade 12 diploma test that the kids write . They're very difficult , so some kids graduate even though they don't graduate , if you get what I'm saying . But Adam definitely graduated .
The other thing that happened in May is couch wars started .
Oh yeah , couch wars .
Couch wars . So Beaker loves a coveted spot on the couch , and Ginger is an opportunist and she sees all , she knows , all she's all seeing , all knowing she is the wizard of Oz and she's like , hmm , I think this dog likes this spot , so I like this spot too . And Beaker is like , hey , excuse me , that's my spot .
And so they are fighting over the coveted area of the couch .
Yes , Couch wars was definitely a favorite . It was fun to film too . Now I have June , I wrote down nothing , Did nothing happen in June . Should we just ? Should we just go to ? Should we just go to July ?
Well , a couple of things happened for us . Personally , I ran the March and Show Band Classic with Redgear Royals as the vice president of the Redgear Community Band Society , and that was just a huge thing that went this year . Last year it got rained out , so I was really nervous that it was going to rain , but it didn't .
It was a beautiful day , it was a beautiful event , and then you also went to St Pete's Beach .
Oh , I went to Florida . Yeah , that's right .
You went to Florida .
Yeah , you were Florida man , oh yeah , you lost your luggage , they lost United lost my luggage . I had nothing .
I know , and you texted me and I was teaching . Actually I was at my desk and I got your text and you said my luggage , it's lost .
Yeah .
I lost my luggage , I have no clothes and I just my heart sunk for you .
I had to go . I got some like beachwear the first day , Didn't have a toothbrush , nope , I had to buy all that stuff . Okay , yeah , that it was . It was a good conference I went to and Florida is very at that point in June it's kind of hot in Florida . I'm not going to lie . I'm not really used to that , being from Canada .
No , you got off the plane and you got punched by the humidity .
Pretty much . I got up or cut it , I got show right , you can for you street fighter fans .
There you go . What I did , though , is a bebop boop got right onto the internet and ordered you a Mass Effect hoodie .
Yes , which I'm wearing ? I'm not wearing the new one , I'm wearing my old one right now .
I know the one that you thought that they lost .
Yes .
Yes , anyway , so that happened .
Right ? Well , let's move to July , because oh , that happened in June , right ?
Yes , we're on July now .
Yeah . So Beaker started dock diving and that was so fun . That made our whole summer just so cool , getting to do something with Beaker , who sometimes , I think , gets overshadowed by Bunsen , and it was just something that was for her , which was so sweet .
Well , and there's just so many benefits to dock diving for her . She loves to swim , yep and just building up her core strength and her endurance and she just loved doing it . Now she didn't dive , dock dive off the big .
No , she did dock kind of jumping tentatively .
Yeah , dock , belly , flop , yeah From the ramp is what she did , but you know what , we don't care . We got to swim and participate in something that she really liked to do , and she was so happy yeah .
Yeah , it was so fun .
And then she went to .
Timbitt on the way home . That's right , she , for those of the Canadians here . She got a plane Timbitt , after every dock diving event . So she just , it was just very cool . I thought it was just so neat . And the summer's too hot for Bunsen anyway , so he's content to just lounge around inside . So that's not his time to shine .
No , and then let's move on to August .
In August , Well , no , I went on the Royals tour .
Oh , right , okay .
I went to the Maritimes .
Yeah , okay , you did .
And then you gave yourself food poisoning .
That's right . I almost died . I forgot about that .
Yeah , well , I don't think , well , I don't think you almost died , jason , but you were in rough shape .
You're right .
Your phone did not move from its location . Yeah , anyway , so then that's fine . So we'll go to August . Yes , so we did some kind of things . We went to Canmore for paddle boarding , we went to the Badlands here in Alberta , drum Heller , yeah , just to do some sightseeing here in our beautiful province and the beaver activity .
The beaver . That's when we noticed the beaver .
Yeah .
That was fun .
Yeah , that was fun . And then the beaver activity really we started to document it and then really saw things happen by October , which is exciting .
Yeah , september , october . Well , that's when Norbert started to knock down all those trees . Like every day he was knocking down a new tree and it was . It was like every day was an adventure , like going on a walk . We're like what are we going to see ? What is Norbert built ? And you might be like why does Norbert have a name ?
Norbert , well , we had beaver 16 , which was a single elimination tournament of 16 , 18 beaver 18 , 18 different beaver names that were eliminated in this massive tournament and Norbert one . So Norbert is the name of the beaver that now lives in our creek .
I just can't wait till the spring . I know I can't wait .
I hope , I just hope that he , that Norbert , didn't move away and he's just like chilling under the ice right now , cause that's what beavers do ? They just chill all winter under the ice .
So , cool .
Yeah , and that brings us really close to now . I mean , we had Well cause September .
We already talked about the Comic Con .
In .
October . We already talked about the second dog show that we went to In October .
The gingers were out the stuffies , yeah , the gingers .
And you went to Kansas City .
I did . That was a big honor . I got to go present at the National Science Teachers Convention and I guess by all manner of stuff my sessions were a big hit , which was really cool . And then , of course , the thing that we worked so hard in the summer came out in November and that was text from Bunsen , volume two , and we worked so hard on that .
We got the ebook , the audio book and the print book all together at one time and then we got it all delivered before Christmas and was sold out in a week . The print book was sold out in like a week and a half . So that was just a great end of the year for everybody supporting us that way .
You also were interviewed on Steel and Vance , which is a Canadian show here in Canada .
Yeah , I love Steel and Vance . They're awesome . We sent them some stuffies too .
And the wine glasses .
And the wine glasses . That's right . If you were on video , you could show your tumblers designs that you made , chris , but you're not .
I'm not on video .
You'll just have to . Yeah , maybe I'll do some show and tell you next time then .
Sure , and that brings us to December
¶ Pets, Advent Calendars, and Smelt Mishaps
. December , of course , has Advent . Advent yes , so every day we do the commercialized Advent , where the dogs get a treat Actually , they really get two treats , because I buy two Advent calendars for them and Ginger gets a toy and a treat . And the funny thing is we never know if Ginger's going to like her toy .
This is true that was like . And for people on Instagram , I'm sorry we didn't post the videos to anywhere but Twitter . It was like a Twitter specific thing . So maybe next year I can get my act together and post it to the other social media sites . Because you did that every day you posted a new Advent video with the dogs and the cat .
Yeah , and so the funny thing is with Ginger . I got her a charcuterie box , which was different this year , and she really liked the chicken treats . There was the freeze dried chicken and then the leathery chicken , but she hated the smelt . Yeah , the smelt the fish and usually she likes the fish . Nope , the smelt she's like absolutely not .
And I tried twice no , she was not having any of it . And it was very similar to some of her toys where she's like no , I'm not playing with that .
Do you know who else doesn't like ? Smelt you Me .
So you can tell them what happened .
Because I was eating some pretzels today and I just about ate a smelt head . No , this isn't funny . I think you accidentally spilt the smelt into my open bag of pretzels .
So why was your bag open ? That's like blame the bad guys .
No I you should have closed your pretzel bag . The pretzels are the most glorious snack there is in the world and the smelt head was the same color as the pretzel and I was like , boy , that's a weird looking pretzel . And I was so hungry for pretzels I just about like , well , I'm gonna eat it . It's a weird looking pretzel , but whatever .
And then I realized the pretzel had eyeballs and I'm like , hold on , what the F is that ? It was a smelt head and it was in my pretzels . That's so funny . That's not funny , it's funny to you . Okay , everybody's laughing . This is the worst . But yes , I just about ate a smelt head , so- .
I apologize because if I took out the smelt head out of the little baggie that's inside the charcuterie box and she didn't eat it , I probably just returned it right to the box itself and so it would have been loose in the box , and I know that that box did get tipped over onto its side .
Yeah , and the smelt heads went into my pretzels .
Yeah , the smelt probably fell out of the box when it was tipped over and went into your pretzels . That were open . But , Jason , seriously . No what you need to put your . You need to close your bag , yeah , your pretzel bag or whatever bag .
I feel like you're blaming the victim . I am the victim of almost eating a smelt , so okay , anyways , that happened .
A mouse could get in there . A mouse like could get into the pantry .
We have a cat . There's no mice in this house .
There are no mice in the house , but you know there could be , and then- .
Probably .
If your bag is not open . If your bag is open , that's like open season .
No , I learned my lesson . I'm gonna be closing my pretzel bag from now on , because I'm not gonna be eating no more smelt heads . I'll tell you that you didn't even eat it , though you saved yourself it was like almost in my mouth when I realized it had an eyeball and it had a mouth . That's so funny . It was almost in my .
I was like the thing I'm putting in my mouth has a mouth . This is wrong . This does not make any sense .
Well , it's not the first time you've had dog treats , as you thought they were cookies , but they were dog treats , so this is not the first time that you've had a treat .
Okay , in my defense , those dog cookies looked like human cookies and I was very hungry , but they did not taste like human cookies .
No , they were decorated like sugar cookies .
Yes , they actually . It wasn't bad , but it definitely . I was like wait , this is not a cookie , this is . I'm not recommending you go and eat a dog cookie , but I mean , if you had to , it wasn't the worst thing I ate . I'm gonna tell you that right now it's definitely . I've eaten way worse things than a dog cookie .
Okay the last thing that happened in December is that we took the dogs to the school again .
Oh , yes , that was a huge hit . Yeah , we got special permission from both of our administrators to bring the dogs in on the last days before Christmas . And boy were they a big hit . I put a GoPro , I put our GoPro , on the back of beaker and she went from kid to kid , which was sweet . And then , boy , the dogs at your school were like celebrities .
Yes , and they stayed all day . Yeah , yeah , they only took the dogs home early . I was like nope , the dogs are gonna stay home , stay here all day with me . And they did .
Yeah , I had some kids that were very scared of Bunsen because he's so big , so that's why I took them home . We got some comments . Madison is saying she loves the GoPro videos Okay , so that took a bit to get through . That's our year in review for Bunsen and Beaker . At this point we'd like to invite folks to talk about their pets or ask us questions .
So what I said in the show notes kind of like for Twitter , was , if you'd like to talk about what happened with your pet this year , or maybe you have a memory of a pet that's no longer with us , now's the time . We're gonna invite some folks up Now on Twitter Spaces you can obviously talk , and if you have a comment on Instagram , you can type it .
So if you wanna type a little story about your pet , I'll read it , and I've got the comments emigrated from Facebook and Twitter Live on StreamYard , so I think we'll be able to get her to go . Okay , so we've got Sasha up there .
Well , Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you guys .
Merry Christmas to you too , Holly . Sorry , not Sasha , my bad .
Oh , I don't mind , I go by my dog's name all the time anyway , so it doesn't matter . But anyway , yeah , so Sasha's year in review and even my year in review , excuse me . I honestly think the highlight of my year this year really was going to Ottawa and meeting all the Twitter dogs there Just such an amazing group of people and pets , and it was just .
It was so incredible to put faces to people who I've conversed with as my dog for multiple years now , and they're really phenomenal folks , so that was wonderful . And guys , I think you forgot one more December thing that happened with Beaker .
Yes , I was just . I was like oh , before you were gonna go .
I'm like , oh , we forgot . So , chris , why don't you tell it ?
It's like the biggest event of the year actually .
Sorry , I didn't have it written down . You're right , but go ahead , Chris .
No , if you wanted to talk about a Holly , go ahead .
No , it's your dog , not mine . I just got to sit here and witness it and just be overjoyed with puppy love .
Yeah , so Benny is a golden retriever and he is in Ottawa we already talked about him a little bit and Lisa is his dog . Mum and Benny asked for Beaker's paw in marriage . I guess is how we would say this , so they're engaged .
It's very sweet and very silly , but it definitely brought tons of smiles to everybody who's been following their fake dating back and forth .
It's really adorable . And this is not without precedence , because if you follow Penny Lang pup , she is air quotes , married to Marlon so and they even , you know , photoshopped a little wedding thing a couple of years ago . It was really adorable .
So , yes , and our other highlight every Boxing Week we go and rent a cabin on Gabriola Island which yeah , and the property that we stay at is off leash and Sasha gets to spend multiple days . we call her free range Sasha because she never has a leash on . She just gets to run around and be a dog , and it's really .
We've been going to this place for years now , and at least as long as Sasha's been alive , and actually longer than that , and it really is her happy place . And I just I get so much joy seeing her be so happy there . So , yes , thank you , guys , for another fantastic year of content and texts from Bunsen .
¶ Pets, Gaming, and Traveling
And thank you again , Jason , for the tip on resting . Oh , my husband was like ready to throw the controller at the TV last night . He's like I've played D&D . I know I should be able to rest . I can't figure it out . It was driving him up the wall , oh , but he did .
He figured it out Well he apparently just figured it out right before you responded .
Oh good , and so he's like yes , please , thank Jason for responding for me . He's you know he games as much as you do , and he just felt so silly that he couldn't find the camp and like to be able to go rest . So I've been really enjoying that game .
I could . That would be a whole another space , not related to pets , where I could talk Absolutely I could talk about Baldur's . Gate 3 . Yes , oh yeah , absolutely .
Anyway , I'm looking forward to another great 2024 and thank you much .
Thanks , Holly . Okay , love it . Okay , so that was Holly from Twitter . For the people that are tuning in from Facebook and Instagram , We'll go to Benny . Hello Benny , Hello everyone .
Hey , it's good to be here and it's great to hear your wrap up of the story and , following you , I'm a fellow educator . Well , I was a fellow educator as well . I was a year and a half ago , english teacher . But now I'm kind of and I have a question at the end for you where I would be interested in . It's related to cats .
Like the last year and a half , I quit my job and I now I'm traveling around doing house and pet sitting . So I don't have any like pets myself because it's difficult with my lifestyle , but I do this . Next second best thing to watch the places when people leave on a holiday and I can watch their pets .
So I've watched like a couple of golden retrieves in Costa Rica and now I'm in Buenos Aires watching two kittens on which the question would go , and I like your advice as well .
But I think it's a great way to kind of travel and to spend time with a lot of I've seen so many great animals and unfortunately now and I don't know what your situation is , but now , with the new years coming up and all the the fireworks last year was in Mexico at like 6pm in the room with two dogs and unfortunately , one was in a crate wrapped in the
blanket and the other one was terrified . So I just didn't go out at new years because I was there with them . So it was a fun , packed year with a lot of great pets .
But yeah , and I know you're doing a wrap up , but I wanted to kind of you know like , because these cats are like kittens , like eight and eight months , something like this , but they're kind of scratching everything , how would you deal with that Like ?
If they're like kind of scratching the furniture and all that stuff , is that kind of like a normal thing for them to do ?
Well , first off , benny , what a wonderful way to travel the world , getting to see new places but also being , you know , caring for animals . That's so amazing . I didn't even know that was a thing , so thank you for telling everybody about that . Chris , I'm going to defer to you . With cats , I do .
We have talked to vets about this question , but you are more of the cat expert than me , so go ahead .
So there are things that you can spray on the furniture that is a pheromone deterrent , or you can get it looks like plastic wrap and then stick it to the furniture so that they don't get their claws in there .
We unfortunately have cat posts that Ginger does not use , because typically you would also give the cat a safe place to be able to reach up and stretch . But Ginger does like one side of our couch , which is unfortunate . So that's what we have for her , just the cat posts .
I've sprayed them with this honeysuckle that I thought she would be interested in , but Ginger is not interested in any kind of catnip or honeysuckle spray . She's just not . She just likes the furniture . So these are some things that we've tried . Other people might have some more suggestions .
Yeah , and just to follow up on that real quick if you are extremely diligent and you see the cat scratching and you have enough time , you can scoop the cat up and move them over to their scratching post . Or scoop the cat up and move them and then distract them with a toy , so they are doing something else rather than scratching .
So that's also what one of the vets has said , or the cat behaviorists we've asked that question to .
Okay , good , yeah , I do that as much as I can , but obviously it's when you travel . I have like five weeks with these cats and sometimes it's like a few weeks with the animal , which is great , right .
So it takes about three to four days before , especially with dogs really get used to a new person , and then it's just like you know , to feel part of the pack . And if other people want to do this , there are like an app that I use for where people can post if they go on a holiday , and I've met a couple of new people .
It's like , oh , we have done it for the first time , like I'm going to Chile after this , like an Ecuador . So there's like trusted house sitters as an app which you can use if you are traveling with pets and you can have reviews and people are vetted there .
So if you , if you are traveling and you want to find someone to take care of your house , to know that there's ways to do it and I love it . You know it's , as you said , it's a great way to travel . So I just wanted to kind of highlight that as well .
That's very cool and , yeah , maybe , as some as more speakers come up till we wrap up , they might have some advice for you as well . Thanks , Benny . Okay , chris , do we have Paula next ? Great Paula , hello .
Oh sorry , I was waiting for you to say go ahead . No , go ahead . Okay , Happy New Year everybody and almost almost happy New Year . So you know , as everybody knows , I didn't have the greatest 2023 . We lost Olive in March and Rose in December , but we got Trixie and so she's kind of filling in , helping us move forward .
It's been a kind of crazy year , but I just wanted to say thank you to everybody for being part of this cool community and Jason and Chris for all the fun stuff you post , and congratulations on Bunsen Text 1 and 2 . You guys are amazing and I can't say enough about it .
So I'm looking forward to 2024 and all the neat things that'll come up and , like I said you know , happy and love to everybody and I wish you all the best .
Thanks , paula , and thank you for being such an amazing part of the dog community here on Twitter . You're just a joy to have in all of our spaces and we love your comments and your wins . And when things are sad , too , we're here to support you there as well .
Thank you very much and you know , like I said , it's been a tough year , but we , like I said , you got to try to see the good size of things and this community has really helped me get through it . So thank you to everybody and , like I said , it's been a really tough year .
¶ Cats, Birthdays, and Thank You's
I can't say anymore because it's like I don't want to start crying , so but I just uh , I just wanted to say thank you and good luck to you guys . I can't wait to see what new adventures you're coming up with next year because , uh , uh , every time my turnaround , something new happens .
So I'm looking for if you already got like kind of a video on on a on a tv show , but we want to get you on a big tv show , maybe Jim Fallon or the Today Show . I'm still plugging for you . So I'm hoping that something's going to turn around . So we'll see . We'll see it's going to get there , I know . Okay , good , have a good weekend everybody .
Thanks Paula , and thank you Paula . She um , for those that don't know , she is an integral part of our circle community um as part of a moderator or an administrator of the things that we do over there . So , we thank you for doing that , paula , and then thank you as well . Um , paula sent some amazing Christmas treats and gifts to us here in Canada .
One of those is , uh , that really it's a golden retriever . It's on a mat and it's beautiful , and both beaker and ginger . It's turning into coach wars because ginger wants to be on it and then beaker also wants to be on it . So , um , it's now the rug wars .
That is true , um and Paula . Thank you so much for all of the Tootsie rolls . I do believe I ate the last one today .
Um , oh , my god you ate that whole bag ?
I don't want to talk about it , but yes .
Uh , yes , jason did , because I don't eat Tootsie rolls um .
That's how much I love Tootsie rolls .
Oh man , well , did you get the snowball Tootsie rolls too , because those were like round Tootsie bowls that looked like snowballs .
I had a few our um , our niece was over and she had . She ate all of them , when , when her parents weren't looking . Yeah , ellie ate them all . She just ate like 30 of those little Tootsie ball things , so yeah , it was very good .
Well , you're most welcome , guys . I just I couldn't resist . I saw that rug , I saw beaker . I was like holy Toledo , because it's you know little door mat for the holidays . But I was like it was just totally beaker . And when you sat her next to that mat it was like my husband was dying laughing . He goes it's beaker on that rug . It was .
It was really great . Well , you're most welcome , yeah thank you .
I have a picture of the mat and beaker up in the nest for folks on um Twitter . Okay , I was gonna read , uh , some comments . Um , I see Donna came up . We'll get to Donna . I think Baden was first , though , or Rich . So , donna , I think you either have a story or something to add about cats , uh , but we'll go to Rich first .
Hey everybody , hello , happy new year , hello , hello , all the all the festivity stuff . I uh kind of joined late because there was a birthday party I really couldn't get out of , so , uh , it just sort of wrapped up and here I am , the gentleman with the cats . Um , I was listening to what Chris was saying but for some reason I lost part of her feed .
Um , scratching posts uh can help . Um , what we found that eases on the destruction um is keeping the cats nails uh trimmed so they're not sharp and that way they can't dig into um , dig into furniture as much , or people for that matter .
Um , and the other thing that our vet recommends but I've never tried , but I've heard lots of people like it is um , um , you can get these little caps to go over the nails . They're plastic and they last four weeks or so , but they uh , they do prevent the cats from scratching .
And , uh , as I said , we've we have three cats uh , we have sacrificial furniture for them and we have good furniture Uh , and we also have two or three cat scratching posts .
Um , our cats go absolutely crazy for cat nips , so putting a little bit of cat nip around the scratching posts does tend to to help to attract them and encourages their use , and plus , one's got a really cute place for one of the cats to hide and sleep . But anyway , so that's sort of the uh , the advice , uh , today , or that I can give on cats .
And , as I said , um , best wishes to everybody . For good lord , it's 2024 . Where did the year go ? Yeah , I went by fast . Yeah , this time last year I was only 60 . The birthday I couldn't get out of was mine , by the way , and I'm just gonna pat myself in the back for surviving another year and making 61 .
It's your birthday today .
Rich yes sir . Happy birthday .
Well , happy birthday .
Thank you . And there's an even more important birthday tomorrow .
Uh , your wife's .
No , my granddaughter turns one . Oh , oh , that's cute , sorry yeah yeah , she , uh , they were by today and she's , uh , oh , she's crawling a mile a minute and , uh , bayden absolutely adores her because food magically appears . Yep yes um , one of our cats . He just goes and hides . He says nope , I'm not putting up with this .
Another one sits there and just bats at everybody going by and our big old , fat ginger time he just lies there and goes . Okay , if you want to pat me , I will let you pat me . Please be gentle , and every so often you'll give me that look of please get me out of here .
I love it . Well , happy birthday .
Thank you .
We got some people in the comments wishing you a happy birthday , rich . Ah , thank you . Best wishes for 2024 .
You guys too , I'd say stay out of trouble . But a Bunsen and Beaker wouldn't be nearly as much fun if they stayed out of trouble .
Yeah , we are content . We would have no content , uh at all .
Ginger got herself into trouble today .
Yes .
Jason really wanted this candle , um , and so , uh , it showed up in his stalking and he said , oh , this candle smells as good as that , I could eat it . And we've been burning it .
And Ginger's little fluffy tail went over top of it today , um , and she singed her tail , um , so she set herself on fire , but not really just a little bit , and so that was shocking to us because , you know , the dogs have never done anything like that , but Ginger goes wherever Ginger goes , and so , just as a PSA for people burning candles , your cat
potentially could singe themselves Ginger's . Fine , nobody was hurt , um , I just was like oh no , ginger , um , and she smells a little bad because of her curves .
Yeah , it smells like . Smells like my sounds , smells like me after a chemistry demo .
Yeah , um , baden did something similar , uh , with the campfire . Uh , the very tip of his it was in a , uh , old truck rim . We were camping and his tail was right by the hot truck rim and he sings . Just the tip of his tail didn't seem to bother him in the least , like his one brain cell didn't clue in and he didn't start running around and around .
But we all felt , oh so bad .
I'm glad that's all that happened to him .
Oh yeah .
All right .
Actually , if I may , he had a wonderful day today . We went into um the local Cabela's Bass Pro Shops and of course I took him in there and there was so many people that he got to meet and so many of the staff had treats and he got so many pats and so many treats . It's amazing he could crawl back into the truck .
¶ Discussions on Dogs and Personal Matters
My , my brother , and like his , my brother has two little kids they are looking for to get a dog . They had a German Shepherd for a while , that you know . The dogs unfortunately don't live as long as people , um , and now they're looking at a dog and and the lab is top of their list .
So I think they are going to make a good choice because labs are so good with kids .
Oh , um , I , they're . They're absolutely fantastic .
I could , um , uh , you , obviously you have to socialize the lab to the kids , but , um , there's , so they seem to adopt kids right off the bat as being part of their pack , and while the other thing is , I don't know how old your brother's kids are , um , if it's the one who ate all the Tootsie rolls , okay , I can understand .
He's a little older , um , but Baden , uh , with our grandkids , has just fallen right in love with them and and , uh , he's so good with them and he just , um , he likes the rough house with the older one and the younger one . He just likes to sit where she's eating .
Oh , that's super sweet . Okay , well , give them a report about , uh , about Baden Love it . Okay , best wishes in 2024 .
Thank you , you too .
All righty over to Donna . Hello Donna .
Hey y'all , How's it going ?
Good , happy , almost New Year .
Yeah , Thank God right . Every time you make a revolution around the sun , you're winning . It's like that old Irish expression we're looking at day season , not dirt . So life is good , regardless of the triumphs and travesties . That knows you're living and breathing every day . Rich , happy birthday . I love interacting with you on the site .
We have some funny interactions . Sometimes you're a funny dude , so happy birthday . I bet you thought all the fireworks all the years was just for you . To respond to Benny's question about the kitty cats , One thing I have found I've had cats my whole life , dogs . I grew up on a ranch so I've oh , I'm sorry , Dallas Cowboy game .
Anyways , one thing that I was always done is reinforce the no , Because cats understand no , Just as I mean they are a cat , they think they're a god . So you still have to deal with that . But if you reinforce the no , usually they're pretty good about it . And then I know Rich bought up those little pink or different colored nail things for the kitties .
I personally can't do it . I tried to put them on the cat once and almost got murdered . So I'm not down for that . But cardboard helps . Cats tend to go to cardboard , so they like boxes . If I fit I sits , or they like to scratch up boxes , so I give them another option to scratch instead of the actual furniture .
But that's kind of the price you pay when you get a cat . If you're not there reinforcing , they have a nighttime where they're awake at night while you're asleep and that's when trouble happens . So I'll just say that , as Paula mentioned , the beginning of the year started off rough for her . I personally want to thank everyone that helped donate in that GoFundMe .
That's the first GoFundMe I ever started for someone and we raised a lot of funds . So you know I want to thank the dog Twitter community for helping Paula through a really rough time . You know there's been a lot of loss of dogs this year .
The we Rate Dogs at the end of the year video gets me every single time and I really liked your video because I was laughing a lot because of the stories that are told on Saturday . So we see the videos of the weekly pup dates , Excuse me .
And then we watch your recap and I'm laughing , remembering the explosion or the marching band , or you know that's not your leg , Whatever it is , it's totally wholesome . So you know it's happy tears , not crying tears .
Same with that we Rate Dogs video that poor dog that fell off the bed after having a little brown chicken , brown cow time with the pillow and I didn't know if that dog had dislocated a tip . But great video . I just want to end .
Like you know , everybody knows that a rep year last year and everybody who reached out to me with the loss of my mom and supported me on my trip to Norway , and I really appreciate the love and compassion that this group has . It makes a difference when you're having the worst day ever .
I've seen people post like I'm having a tough time and it's the dogs of Twitter people who show up in those comments and it's awesome . And the last thing I want to say is I want to say a prayer for all the dogs that are about to be murdered in England tomorrow .
It's a travesty , it's terrible , just because of a breed that you don't understand , that they're going to murder hundreds of thousands of dogs . So my heart is breaking for those families and for those dogs that don't deserve that . So happy New Year everybody . I hope everyone has a prosperous and healthy New Year .
Thanks , donna . I've been trying to educate myself about what's going on in England .
It wasn't on my radar , I missed that , so I think everybody me too , until the end of the year , which is unfortunate and don't eat cantaloupe still . It's still trying to kill you , yeah we've taken .
We've not taken , we've what's the right word , chris ? We've took , taken . Yeah , we've took your advice to heart . We're staying away from cantaloupe , like you would not believe .
Yeah , it's . It's pretty scary right now and I know there's . You know , here comes the lettuce again and right now it's sprouts , bean sprouts . Sprouts are always dangerous , but it's bean sprouts and not alpha sprouts right now . So y'all be careful .
Thanks , food safety Donna Craig .
We got , I got a light . It's like a safety light that when Bunsen is safety Bunsen , we're just going to do some maybe food safety with you , donna , and then Bunsen can have the light going .
I'm down , you know I'm down anytime . My my travel schedule is slowed down , so much for next year so I can make the time to get to Red Deer too . So I'm going to stock y'all at some point . Same with you know .
We haven't mentioned the golden ratio yet , so we got to keep the thing going Feta coming in and looking at think , being happy again and not feeling so crappy . I'm hoping the cancer goes away but love that family too .
I , I loved . They must have got a similar GoPro harness that we have , because they put it on Feta and then she went swimming in the ocean and that is like on Glock when he jumped . Oh , it was on Glock , oh , ok .
So it started on Glock and you see his ears just go flapping and flying in the wind as he jumps off the dock and then you see Feta coming out of the peripheral vision of that camera like a shark coming right at Glock . So it was . I think it would be funny as she go probe them all up . I would die .
That would be . That would be serious . That would be seriously cool . I was just going to say I knew I had a good reason for not eating fruits and vegetables . So cantaloupe and sprouts are not good for the health . Is what you're saying , Donna ?
Hey Jason , if I can just hop in here again . Donna had mentioned the issue with the bully breeds in England . I actually did quite a bit of reading up on it earlier . The Guardian has really good coverage and it's not that they're going to instantly euthanize all these bully breeds .
It's that they're basically telling people if you have one of these dogs and you're approached by a police officer or essentially the dog catcher , in order to keep the dog , you have to go through this incredibly onerous and expensive process to have your dog evaluated Apparently . You have to go in front of a judge to ask for an exemption .
Your dog can't be out in public , like even in the car , without a muzzle . And if you get an exemption and you violate any of these rules or you get stopped and you don't want to go through this process . That's when the dogs get euthanized and it's absolutely horrific . But yeah , if you want to read more , go check on the Guardian's website .
They've got some really good information .
Yeah , Holly , you're absolutely right . But they're also saying that any that are in the pounds already are going to be euthanized . Yes they won't be adopted out .
Yes , this was talking about the ones that are in homes , and I know there's some owners that are really , really scared Because you know , I'm going to say , I'm just going to say every Pit Bull type dog I've ever met in my life has just been a big love muffin . And you know it's .
A lot of people say it's not the dogs , it's the people that breathe them and it's the owners .
So under percent .
Brent on Twitter . He is on watching live stream and he has a URL there . I've there's this really cool feature that you guys don't know .
If you're listening audio only , I just click the comment and I can throw the comment up on the video screen so folks who are watching video can see Brent's comment , and it's a link to the bully band Probably similar story to what you're talking about there , holly . Yeah , it's good , good for us all to educate ourselves about this .
For sure , this has been a big success , chris . So , between the numbers here and then also between Instagram , twitter live and Facebook , it's been the biggest show outside of when we've had like the Golden ratio . As a guest , like , there's probably been close to , you know , 100 people if I was to add it all up together .
So it's been really cool to bring in like people who are watching on live stream on Twitter and on Facebook . We've got five people watching on Facebook and normally it's until we get into a rhythm . I didn't even announce we were doing this , so this is just so very , very cool . And then Instagram is all over the place . It's like people .
There's like thousands of people have joined in and then dropped out . So there , if you've been listening on Instagram . Hello , thank you for sticking it out , but we'll just have to be more consistent there . Okay , but that's that's it for the show . Chris , do you have any closing thoughts ?
Before we kind of wrap up , I always have closing thoughts yeah , go for it .
Yeah , thank you everybody for being part of our community and sharing your stories with us and our triumphs and our challenges . We've grown a lot this year and we've shared a lot with you and we really appreciate everybody coming and listening and joining us as we've journeyed through this past year .
Yes we really appreciate all of you and supporting our content and just being part of it . It's been a real joy to create content for you and it's been a lot of fun .
I love making content and the fact that people like looking at it and interacting with it and that we're growing on Instagram and even on TikTok . That's also very exciting . I think , like our Instagram is almost doubled in the last four or five months . So to everybody listening on Instagram and hello .
¶ Science Podcast Update & Feedback Request
Thank you , and the other thing that Jason does very well is the science podcast .
Oh right , my podcast . I haven't even like tried to get people to listen to it . Please listen to the science podcast .
Please listen to the science podcast . But so what we do is Jason interviews a scientist every week and releases a podcast on Thursday or Friday where it has latest science news and then pet science and an interesting and engaging guest that talks about science or the STEM field .
And then it has the family section , which is Adam's part , so you get to hear about Bunsen and Beaker from Adam's lens and the family shenanigans that we , that we do , and it's the science podcast P , a , w , d , cast , c , a , s T . So that's been a labor of love for our family as well . So if you could listen to that , that would be amazing .
Now Jason is taking a little bit of a break to refill his creative batteries , but look for that and look for science chat side chat that we run on Tuesdays coming up in the near future . We've just taken a break from that too .
Yeah , side chat and the science podcast take a break every January and then we're back in February , but pet chat is something that is we love to do . So pet chat will continue every Tuesday , every Saturday , so every Saturday , yeah , every Saturday . So with that , we will see you next week . We will see everybody next Saturday for a pet chat .
A couple other things just to mention . A couple other things just to mention . I would love some feedback . If you want to see , like more , what kind of content you'd like to see from us so I'll have a little post next week for the folks on Twitter is a little bit more interactive what kind of content you'd like .
I've been trying a whole bunch of different stuff lately . If you want to see more drone footage , more GoPro stuff , if you just like our goofy , the goofy stuff where I get Bunsen and Beaker to talk , or maybe it's like everything .