Welcome To InsPaw

Hey there, my name is Bettina and I’ve been an animal lover for several decades now. 

30 years ago people’s approach to animal welfare wasn’t what it is now and and the access to information on keeping and training pets was extremely limited.

In my parents’ small village dogs were considered more like assets than companions, bunnies were livestock, rodents were pests and hedgehogs were wild animals or cute illustrations to bedtime stories at best.

I’ve always been drawn to animals, but due to misinformation I’ve lost more pets than I would care to admit.

My first childhood dog, a german shepherd puppy was “returned to sender” because my parents had no idea how to train her.
My second, a dachshund mix was a real womanizer, thus couldn’t keep himself out of trouble which has led to countless injuries and eventually him being hooked by one of his baby mama’s owner.
My grandma kept rabbits for meat and if this wouldn’t have been bad enough, she once gave me the smallest baby bunny in the litter. She thought of this as disposing of the the one that was failing to thrive, I thought of it as finding my pot of luck.
I was cheerfully transporting my baby bunny home in a box, not telling anyone a thing.
I gave him some carrots to eat – cos that’s what you’re taught in the nursery, right? Bunnies eat carrots, kids! – and went to bed… only to find my baby bunny hard as a rock next morning. Very traumatizing experience for a 4 year old.

Later on in my life I fell in love with chipmunks, namely, Frank in particular. By then I knew that you should only buy from responsible breeders, feed them appropriate food and spend a lot of time caring about them. 

I haven’t taken the fact into consideration, that your average vet only knows about dogs and cats. So when my chipmunk developed a visible cyst on his backside I took him to the local vet. 

He said it wasn’t a big deal, he expressed my chipmunks anal glands, he should get better very soon. 

Instead of getting better he quickly got much worse so I set out to find the only specialist in the region. When he asked me what treatments my poor Frank got so far, I told him about his anal glands, only to find out, that chipmunks don’t have anal glands. As you might expect, I’ve lost him soon, after only 3 years with me, instead of the anticipated 10-15 in captivity.

Even if I don’t count the two tortoises which were run over by my mom’s car while making their way too easy escape from their pit in our front yard and the fish in the tank which had a fancy, but unsuitable shape these are way too many preventable tragedies for a soul to bear.

I was already 30 when I dared to adopt again. This time, I’ve read all available literature on dogs, food, training, health etc. before I took my rescue dog called Torpi (dwarfy in Hungarian) home. l felt so relieved and empowered as a new pet mommy by all the information the internet had to offer!

My mission is to help animal lovers keep their beloved pets safe, healthy and above all happy so that they can have a long, fun-filled life together, that is why I make sure you have the best available information on the apple of your eye in an easy to understand, fun to read form.

I hope you enjoy reading the guides and find them helpful.

If there is anything that’s bugging you about your fur baby and the internet has left you in a lurch , please drop me a message and I’ll do my best answer your questions!

Bettina