Meet the pet-lovers behind the bylines:
Dr. Marty Becker | Gina Spadafori | Christie
Keith | Mikkel Becker Shannon |
Susan and Dr. Rolan Tripp | Dr. Narda Robinson
Liz Palika | | Kim Campbell Thornton | Phyllis DeGioia | Keith Turner
The Pet Connection syndicated feature team
The weekly Pet Connection page feature is distributed to newspapers internationally by the Universal Press Syndicate. Here are the primary contributors:
Dr. Marty Becker
Dr. Marty Becker is "America's Veterinarian." Dr. Becker is the popular veterinary contributor to ABC-TV's "Good Morning America" and is the host of "The Pet Doctor With Marty Becker" on PBS. He has appeared on Animal Planet, and is a frequent guest on national network and cable television, and radio shows. He has also been interviewed for countless magazine and newspaper articles, and has served as a consultant to or veterinary spokesman for top animal health companies.
Dr. Becker is an adjunct professor at both his alma mater, the Washington State University College of Veterinary Medicine, and at the Colorado State University College of Veterinary Medicine. Additionally, he has lectured at every veterinary school in the United States, and been named Companion Animal Veterinarian of the Year by the Delta Society and the American Veterinary Medical Association.
Dr. Becker is co-author of the fastest-selling pet book in history, "Chicken Soup for the Pet Lover's Soul," and is either sole author or co-author of other top-selling books, including other animal books in the Chicken Soup line, "The Healing Power of Pets: Harnessing the Amazing Ability of Pets To Make and Keep People Happy and Healthy," and "Fitness Unleashed: A Dog and Owner's Guide to Losing Weight and Gaining Health Together!" With Gina Spadafori, he is co-author of the New York Times best-seller, "Why Do Dogs Drink Out of the Toilet?" as well as several other books.
The two produce the Pet Connection feature for the Universal Press Syndicate. The feature appears in newspapers throughout the United States and Canada, as well as on many Web sites.
Dr. Becker devotes his life to his family, which includes his beloved wife, Teresa, his daughter Mikkel and son-in-law Pat, and son, Lex, along with all the furry family members on the Beckers' Almost Heaven Ranch in Northern Idaho.
Gina Spadafori
Gina Spadafori is the executive editor of the Pet Connection, and as such coordinates all editorial content for the Pet Connection newspaper feature, for the PetConnection.com Web site (where she is the lead blogger) and for the books co-authored with her writing partner, Dr. Marty Becker.
Gina has served on the boards of directors of both the Cat Writers Association and the Dog Writers Association of America. She has won the DWAA's Maxwell Medallion for the best newspaper column, and her column has also been honored with a certificate of excellence by the CWA. The first edition of her top-selling book "Dogs For Dummies" was given the President's Award for the best writing on dogs and the Maxwell Medallion for the best general reference work, both by the DWAA.
Along with co-author Dr. Paul D. Pion, a top veterinary cardiologist, she was given the CWA's awards for the best work on feline nutrition, best work on feline behavior, and best work on responsible cat care for the top-selling" Cats For Dummies." The book was also named one of the 100 best feline moments in the 20th century by Cat Fancy magazine. With internationally recognized avian specialist Dr. Brian L. Speer, Gina has also written "Birds For Dummies," one of the best-selling books on pet birds ever written. Her books have been translated into many languages, including French, Serbian, Danish, Japanese and Russian.
Gina has also headed one of the first and largest online pet care sites, the Pet Care Forum, America Online's founding source of pet-care information.
She lives in Sacramento with dogs, cats, a parrot and a flock of friendly, egg-laying chickens, and spends as much time as she can training and competing with her retrievers.
Christie Keith
Christie Keith is an experienced journalist
with a primary interest in animal health issues. In addition to her
work as a contributing editor of the Pet Connection syndicated
feature and Web log, she oversees editorial and community content
and policy for the PetHobbyist.com group of pet Web sites. More
recently, she has become the online pet-care columnist for the San
Francisco Chronicle's Web site, writing the Your Whole Pet column twice monthly.
She is the past director and editor of America Online's Pet Care Forum, past director and editor of America Online's HIV/AIDS Forum, past director and editor of the Veterinary Information Network's pet owner website, and the founding editor of VeterinaryPartner.com. She has also been a contributing editor to The Bark magazine and is a consultant to Maddie's Fund..
Christie has bred and shown Scottish Deerhounds under the Caber Feidh kennel name, and is a past member of the Board of Directors of the Scottish Deerhound Club of America, and past President of the Northern California Deerhound Club. She has bred group and best in field winning hounds.
She lives in San Francisco with Kyrie, a Borzoi, and Rebel, a Scottish Deerhound. For more information, visit Caber Feidh.
Mikkel Becker Shannon
Mikkel Becker Shannon is a certified dog trainer and an accomplished young writer. She is a graduate of the rigorous and prestigious Academy for Dog Trainers at the San Francisco SPCA. She enjoys volunteer work with her therapy pug, Willy, as a Delta Society Pet Partner. The National Disaster Search Dog Foundation has Mikkel as their canine evaluator for Washington State, where she tours shelters looking for homeless dogs to turn into lifesaving search dogs.She is also involved with training shelter dogs and with serving as the education coordinator for the Whitman County Humane Society.
Mikkel has been a contributing author to Knight Ridder newspapers, House and Home, Cat Fancy Magazine and her work has appeared in Chicken Soup for the Horse Lover's Soul II. She coauthored the three books in the Ultimate Pet Lover series with part of the Pet Connection team,.
She has a degree in intercultural communications from Washington State University.She has also been active in the Quarter Horse show circuit, and she is a three-time Canadian National Champion in Western Pleasure and Hunter Under Saddle.
Mikkel and her husband, Pat, live in eastern Washington with their two beloved pugs, Willy and Bruce, and bearded dragon, Frankie.
Susan and Dr. Rolan Tripp
Rolan Tripp, DVM, and Susan Tripp, MS, are the animal-behavior experts for the Pet Connection syndicated newspaper feature.
They have followed their hearts into a career of helping people develop better relationships with their pets. Their pioneering Web site, AnimalBehavior.Net, focuses on this increasingly important aspect of veterinary care.
Dr. Tripp lectures on how to offer kinder, gentler veterinary care and how to add behavior medicine with support education and services to the general practice. He has presented on animal behavior around the world, and he is an affiliate professor of Applied Animal Behavior at both Colorado State University and the University of Wisconsin. He is a regular guest on Harrison Forbes' Pet Talk Radio and can be seen on the Animal Planet shows "Good Dog U" and "Petsburgh, USA."
With a background in teaching, writing and speaking, Susan Tripp shares her husband’s passion for improving relationships between people and pets and preventing pet emotional and physical pain associated with veterinary care. Susan started the non-profit Positive Pet Parenting Saves Lives® to help prevent pet neglect, abuse and surrender by providing free pet parenting ECourses® nationwide through shelters and rescue groups.
The Tripps began offering puppy socialization classes and pet behavior consultations in 1985 in five Northern California counties by referral from veterinarians. For 10 years of veterinary practice ownership, the Tripps offered a pet-centered veterinary practice with free community seminars on pet behavior training, a volunteer program, puppy kindergarten classes and day care, deluxe boarding and gentle grooming. They sold their La Mirada (Calif.) Animal Hospital in 1999 to VCA to start the Animal Behavior Network.
Dr. Narda Robinson
Dr. Narda Robinson, a veterinarian, medical acupuncturist and osteopathic physician, has taught at Colorado State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences since 1997, and is an assistant professor in the Department of Clinical Sciences with a joint appointment in Biomedical Sciences. She directs the CSU Center for Comparative and Integrative Pain Medicine where she leads research projects in acupuncture anatomy, herbal medicine and patient simulator development for acupuncture education. She holds a master’s degree in Biomedical Sciences in acupuncture anatomy and education.
She teaches medical acupuncture to veterinarians from around the globe as well as fourth-year veterinary students via the only scientifically based veterinary acupuncture program, “Medical Acupuncture for Veterinarians”. She now offers another course called “Medical Massage for Animals, open to veterinarians and veterinary technicians, integrating philosophies and approaches from the fields of osteopathy, massage, and structural integration. Dr. Robinson writes a monthly column on complementary medicine for Veterinary Practice News, and has written on natural cat care in Cat Fancy.
On the human side, Dr. Robinson serves on the American Board of Medical Acupuncture, the group that oversees board certification testing for physician acupuncturists. This summer, Dr. Robinson plans to complete a human acupuncture point atlas that emphasizes the neuroanatomic basis of acupuncture point anatomy that will likely be published in 2010.
Dr. Robinson lives in Fort Collins, Colo., with several cats and a rabbit. Her long-term partner, Dave, teaches Chinese martial arts. Her parents moved to Fort Collins in 2001, which brings Dr. Robinson great joy and comfort.
The Pet Connection bloggers
Gina Spadafori and Christie Keith are the lead bloggers for the Pet Connection Web log. Their work during the 2007 pet-food recall scandal was lauded by thousands of pet-lovers and featured in many media outlets, including appearances on CNN and articles in the Los Angeles Times and USA Today. Other members of the PetConnection syndicated team also blog on an occasional basis.
The Pet Connection Web log follows pet-related news and offers expert commentary on issues regarding animals and our society. Christie and Gina are joined by top pet-care writers Phyllis DeGioia, Liz Palika and Kim Campbell Thornton. Keith Turner, editor of the PetConnection's DogCars.com Web site, blogs occasionally on the newest trends in pet-friendly transportation.
Phyllis DeGioia
Phyllis DeGioia is the editor of the PetConnection's free library of pet-care articles , which is powered by a grant from Pfizer Animal Health. She has been writing about dogs and veterinary medicine since 2000. She is editor of Veterinary Partner , the client education Web site for the Veterinary Information Network (VIN). She regularly writes product comparison articles for Tufts' Your Dog newsletter, and writes now and then for other pet Web sites and publications, such as DogTime.com.
For the past decade, Phyllis has been active in the dog therapy program Pet Pals, which was created by the University of Wisconsin School of Veterinary Medicine for the American Family Childrens Hospital. She also writes pet articles and business marketing material through her company Woofing Dog Editorial LLC.
Phyllis lives in Madison, Wisc, where she caters to the whims of two rescued dogs, Ginger and Dodger, and a totally mellow rescued cat, Dickens.
Liz Palika
Liz Palika has written more than 65 books and more than 1,000 magazine articles and columns. Her books include "The Howell Book of Dogs," which won a Maxwell Award from the Dog Writers Association of America, "The Ultimate Dog Treat Cookbook," "Dogs At Work" and "Save That Dog," which won best General Reference Book from Dog Writers and the ASPCA Pet Overpopulation Answers Award.
Liz is also a Certified Pet Dog Trainer and a Certified Animal Behavioral Consultant. She is the owner of Kindred Spirits Dog Training in Vista, Calif., where she teaches family pet obedience, trick training, carting, noncompetitive agility and therapy dog classes. Liz’s goal through Kindred Spirits is to keep dogs in the families and out of shelters by improving communication between dogs and owners. In addition, Liz believes in having fun with dogs, hence, Kindred Spirits emphasizes fun and games with the dogs, too.
Liz and her husband Paul share their home with three Australian Shepherds, Riker, Bashir and Archer, and three cats, Xena, Squash and Pumpkin. In the backyard there is a variety of turtles and tortoises, including Onyx, a 100 plus year old Gulf Coast Box Turtle and Pearl, a twenty year old Leopard Tortoise.
For more information, visit LizPalika.com or KindredSpiritsK9.com.
Kim Campbell Thornton
Kim has been writing about dogs and cats for more than 20
years. Her work appears monthly on MSNBC.com, and she writes frequently for
Catnip, Dog World, Popular Dogs and other pet publications. She
is enslaved by two Cavalier King Charles Spaniels, Bella and Twyla,
and caters to Larry Bird, an African ringneck parakeet who meows.
She and her husband, Jerry, founded the Darcy Fund to raise awareness and funds for
research into chronic valve disease -- a tribute to their much
missed dog, Darcy.
Kim lives in Orange County, Calif.
Keith Turner
Keith Turner is editor of the Pet
Connection's DogCars.com Web site and adds his "Car
Guy" perspective to each vehicle review. He is a veteran
journalist who has been writing his self-syndicated auto review
column “The Family Car” since 1994 for parenting
publications nationwide. Keith worked as a reporter and editor for
newspapers in Michigan, California and Alaska. In 1989, Keith was
a member of the Anchorage Daily Newsstaff that was awarded the
Pultizer Prize for Meritorious Public Service for its “A
People In Peril” series of articles.
Keith, his teenaged children and the family's two cats live in Northern California.
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