Sandy Robins is known to the dogs in her neighborhood – and to some of the cats.
The Turtle Rock resident is a pet lifestyle writer and expert, she regularly tests new treats on the neighborhood hounds. Robins is writing a health and beauty book for cats, which she said is planned for publication early next year.
Robins herself has two cats, Fudge and Cali. Her son, Evan, has a brown bear hamster named Tazzi. All three are pampered pets.
“You can’t grow up in this household without loving pets,” Robins says. Her daughter, Cherri, has a tabby cat named Isabella.
The 17-year-old Cali even got a Jeep Wrangler carriage for her birthday, which Robins and her husband, Mike Sandler, use to push Cali around town like a baby. The carriage, she says, allows Cali to enjoy the outdoors. Fudge, who’s 9, prefers to eat her dinner on the kitchen counter and is a close friend of Cali, sitting quietly with her when she gets shots for her kidney problems.
Robins says the lifestyle book she’s writing makes sense because cats are mostly indoors and can get bored, lazy and suffer separation anxiety when their owners are often gone. The book will talk about how the pet industry mimics the beauty industry, with products like a blueberry facial mask for cats, pet massages, exercise, shampoo and other beauty products.
She even talks about the merits of cosmetic surgery – not to change an animal’s appearance, but to reduce problems that can occur; for example, when a bulldog has too many wrinkles on its face. Heavy wrinkles can cause eye problems and infections, and a doggy eyelift can solve the problem, Robins says.
She got the idea when a previous cat, Muffin, received a birthday invitation for a beauty treatment from her vet.
“When people like Paul Mitchell produce pet products, it’s where the industry is going,” Robins says.
The ideas for her articles come from her life. When her daughter was married she was inspired to write about the dos and don’ts for including dogs in weddings.
When she was young, Robins wanted to be a veterinarian. But the school she wanted to attend taught in Afrikaans, which was her second language and one she didn’t feel comfortable enough to use as a veterinarian. Instead, she became a journalist, writing about animals in South Africa, and later in California, when she moved here with her family eight years ago.
Robins writes about pet travel and lifestyle for MSNBC.com, and has written articles for Dog Fancy, Cat Fancy and Modern Dog magazines. She also does a yearly series on the Westminster Dog Show in New York. Robins has plans to resume a pet talk radio show in Los Angeles.
In November she won an award from the Humane Society of the United States for an article on Project Bay Cat, an officially managed cat colony in Foster City.
Contact the writer: 949-553-2911 or ejames@ocregister.com