HAPPY SPRING to all our BUDDYZ and Parentz! All of us here at PETBUDDYZ are becoming very excited thinking about the warm weather ahead and about how much fun we are going to have with all our BUDDYZ. The parks and the dog runs are going to see a lot of us in the next few months and we can't wait! But winter was fantastic too. The cold, and the snow never kept us away from the slushy, windy streets and icy, empty parks. Watching the doggies run around in the snow banks and slip sliding down hills was worth it all. Thanks to all our PETPARENTZ for providing us with dry towels so we can pat down the doggies and leave them comfortable and warm for you when you get home. Just don't forget that April showers are upon us and we'll still need to wipe off all that extra rain. Hopefully no more of that hazardous street salt will litter the streets so our paws will remain nice and healthy. Here's a tip for next year: If your dog has difficulty managing the salty streets, it's probably because his or her paw pads are already chapped and sensitive. Start moisturizing your dog's paw pads BEFORE the snowy season so that their paws are healthier when the salt does gets thrown. Vaseline works fine, but any other moisturizer will do wonders as well. We love Happy BUDDYZ!

WELCOME TO ALL OUR BRAND NEW BUDDYZ! The holiday season brought us quite a few new BUDDYZ this year, but during January and February are family grew even more! FRED is the most adorable Bruxelles Griffon puppy you will ever meet! When we met him, we fell in love instantly. Quite a character, the coolest face and a HUGE hit in his East Village neighborhood. Brooke is smitten by our tiniest Buddy and we can't wait for him to grow another pound! Watch out Jack Nicholson, we got FRED now, and he's as good as it gets! Then there's BUCKY. She is a beautiful mixed lab and wow is she great! What can we say about the girl with the bravest soul in busy Lincoln Center? A taxi hit BUCKY a while back. Physically she recovered fine, but the memory still spooks her and she makes a beeline to Central Park upon leaving her building. But once we hit the park, she's a happy camper! She loves rock climbing, wiggling in the snow and leaves and one of her favorite hobbies is chasing her glowball and catching pop flies! Sometimes we will even pick up our gorgeous Buddy CODY who lives across the street and together we will discover all the nooks and crannies of the park. They've become best friendz and watching them together is a joy and makes every day a great one! HENRY is the cutest French Bulldog puppy in Chelsea. Hands down! He is all black and is quite the looker. We have never seen a pup with so much great energy! He loves our company and is so thrilled to see PETBUDDYZ walk through the door to take care of him. We get tons of hugs and kisses from him before his walk. He and his girlfriend GRETEL ( a stunning schnauzer who is vacationing with her mom in Portland for the season) have a great time playing tug of war and grrrrrrr- ing at each other! Come back soon Gretel, Henry misses you! Think we have enough puppies? Not at all!!!…KASEY and SKYLER are sister Prince Charles Cavalier puppies! Not even a year old, these two girls RULE their midtown east neighborhood. They are slick and stunning and have so much energy to spare! And yes, they are a handful but their mom Jennifer came home with just one and immediately thought about it and went back to the breeder for another littermate! Smart move because these two are inseparable and best friendz! Steve loves every minute of his late afternoon walks near Bellevue with these two precious pups! Then there's ROCCO and JACKIE, our Italian "amici". ROCCO is an energetic Lab and JACKIE is a boisterous Jack Russell. Both are just over a year old and have tons of spunk to spare. They love their walks with us and have so much fun showing us around their Soho neighborhood streets. Watch out for them at the Washington Sq park, they take over!!!Jackie is one quarter the size, but still gets the best of her brother! An awesome pair. We can't say enough about MOLLY. She's a sleek, beautiful Collie with the most beautiful long coat of fur we've ever seen. She's so wonderful that she has Steve, Judith, AND Chris picking straws to decide who gets to play with her. And lucky PETBUDDYZ because MOLLY just happens to live down the hall from one of our all time favorite pooches, BENNY (Pet of the Month, Sep 03) Together they make quite the good-looking pair. They are a delight to watch trotting along Riverside Park and they both get so excited when we show up. Definitely a dynamic duo. We wish we saw more of our feline BUDDYZ MADISON and GOYAGNI. They are quite the charming pair of roommates. Playful and sneaky, they love the hiding places in their apartment and fiddling with their fun toys. MADISON is one special cat too! He is a 9/11 orphan, as his Dad was a fireman killed on duty. Anastasia (his new Mom) and GOYAGNI have done a great job of giving MADISON a new life, and we all thank her for adopting him and taking such good care of him. We want Anastasia to take another trip to Jamaica soon because we miss those kitties!

Our newest BUDDYZ are also two of our oldest doggies. RUDY is one of the cutest Wheaton Terriers we've ever seen. He lives smack in the middle of all the Columbus Circle construction and hubbub, but, boy, does he just love Central Park. As soon as we hit the park he pretends he's a puppy again and his old bones take him wherever he wants to go!! Then there's CHIP, a 12-year-old gorgeous mixed breed. We are still trying to figure out exactly what breed he has in him. But it really doesn't matter because we are falling head over heels for him. Although he's got some old bones too and doesn't have the chutzpah he used to have, he's quite a trooper and really does love the time we spend with him. We did get a bit jealous when we found out that he got to spend an afternoon with his Mom, Robin, at Bear Mountain recently, and we gotta hand it to him for doing so great! Old dogs with hearts of gold or puppies with the energy of racehorses, we love them all at PETBUDDYZ.

Our brand new PET OF THE MONTH is one of our all time favorite doggies. We have loved him from day one when he was still pint sized. He learned to climb down his 6 flights of stairs with ease. He has the most adorable face and the brightest personality. He loves all of us here at PETBUDDYZ and boy has he had his share of walkers, more than any other dog. For his patience with our scheduling conflicts and for the fact that he makes EVERYONE in Soho go "awwwww..what a cutie" when he scampers along, our new PET OF THE MONTH is none other than CLARENCE the Bulldog Puppy. Only about half a year old, he runs around his neighborhood like he owns the place. Each and every one of us has decided that we want our own version of CLARENCE now because he is so special. But, alas, he's an original and we think the world of him. CONGRATS CLARENCE, you deserve it! (And thank you Jesse for being so patient with us too).

How are we doing? Each pet is unique and your needs are always different. The more we grow, the more we need your feedback. Is there something we simply forgot to do that you wish we'd remember? Are our daily notes specific enough for you or do you need just a bit more info? Are we arriving at the right time? More or less treats? Just jot a note down for your PETBUDDYZ or email chris@petbuddyz.com and we will do our best to help.

DOGWALK AGAINST CANCER, SUNDAY, MAY 2ND 10am

PETBUDDYZ IS PROUD TO ANNOUNCE THAT WE WILL BE JOINING THE 2004 AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY DOGWALK AGAINST CANCER IN RIVERSIDE PARK THIS YEAR!!! The day promises to be fun filled, exciting and absolutely a worthwhile cause. Rain or shine, we will be joining hundreds of other pet lovers raising money to fight cancer. All monies raised go directly toward cancer research and ten percent of the proceeds go to the Donaldson-Atwood Cancer Clinic at the Animal Medical Center. Each year the clinic treats over 3,000 pets diagnosed with cancer. WOW!!
HOW CAN YOU HELP? By walking and raising awareness of course! PETBUDDYZ will be there with some of our favorite pets and we'd love for you to join us. For more info go to http://www.dogswalk.com Can't make the date? No problem! PETBUDDYZ will be delivering pledge sheets to you shortly and it will be simple to donate. We want to raise as much as we can for this worthwhile cause and your donations are vital. We'll be offering special incentives too. For instance, $50 or more gets you a free 1/2 hour PETBUDDYZ visit with your pet. $100 or more gets you the free visit, as well as a PETCO gift certificate. $250 or more gets you 2 free 1/2 hour visits, the gift certificate PLUS a yearlong subscription to DOG or CAT FANCY MAGAZINE. $500 or more gets you 5 free 1/2 hour walks , the gift certificate, the subscription, PLUS the very first issues of the brand new , exciting, beautiful (drum roll…) PETBUDDYZ T SHIRTS!!!!! And for any donations raised of more than $1,000 you get all of the above plus the chance to have YOUR pet's picture and bio as a PETBUDDYZ.COM sponsor! That's right! Your pet will be featured as our website's sponsor for 60 days! Imagine how excited they'd be to know they are famous for donating to a good cause….So, take a good look at the pledge form and help us all fight cancer!!! See you May 2nd!!!! MORE INFO SOON!

FINALLY….Here at PETBUDDYZ we are trying hard to help those of you with erratic schedules. Our motto here is that all our pet's needs come first, of course. It's helpful to remember that most of our PETBUDDYZ schedules are fully blocked between the hours of 11am and 3pm, Monday through Friday. We try to keep a small window open for those of you that need us to drop by occasionally, but please try to be a bit flexible for those "here and there" dates we have with your pets. The earlier you tell us when you need us, the better chance we have to arrive at the appropriate time. Also, if you purchase the 5 or 10 packs with us, please remember that they must be purchased in advance in order to get the small discount we provide.

That's all for this issue, folks. Enjoy the spring weather with your pooches and kitties!