Fraidy Cats, Panicked Pups & a Giveaway

The sample we were given

Last night, in many neighborhoods across the United States, the sky was ablaze with fireworks as people everywhere celebrated the 4th of July.

And while holidays like this never seem to phase our mellow Maxwell (probably because he can't hear!), Faraday chose to enjoy the festivities from a safe vantage under the bed.

We'd imagine a lot of family pets have trouble with loud and frightening noise-makers like that. (Is it any wonder that this time of year shows a marked increase in lost animals?)

So when The Honest Kitchen offered us a sample of their calming tea for dogs & cats, we were interested.

It's called Quiet Tea, and it's formulated for use in stressful situations like thunderstorms and noisy neighborhood fireworks.

And although Faraday most definitely qualifies as a fraidy cat, we happen to have a few friends whose pets suffer some serious anxiety issues. So we asked if they would mind test-driving this tea for us to see how it worked.

First up is Sushi, a Shiba Inu owned by blogger Tails & Wails. Sushi has a horrible time with fearfulness, and this spring's stormy weather has been a rough one.

Harvey's woofie brother, Yaz

Next, meet Yaz. This adorable mutt is new to Harvey & Evelyn's home this year, and you can follow his exploits over at Sebastian the Sensitive Soul.

Yaz and Sushi both have thundershirts that they wear to help calm them during stressful times, but that alone doesn't always do the trick.  Yaz has been known to go into a frenzy during a storm, tearing into fences as well as the occasional doorway in his panicked state.

Speaking of which, did any of you see the photo of that doorway in question that Amy posted after one recent thunderstorm? Poor Yaz - that was one frightened pup, for sure!

Thunderstorm Aftermath!

These two dogs are perfect candidates to try out Quiet Tea and so we dropped some off for both families earlier this week so they could test it out on both Sushi and Yaz during the 4th of July - and the forecasted thunderstorms later this week.

Initial results are promising: Sushi's mom emailed yesterday to say, "Sushi likes it, which is a bonus!" She told us that one of their neighbors was shooting off fireworks, and that she & her husband thought Sushi did seem to be more relaxed. The true test will be during a storm, though! As there are a few predicted in our area in the next week, we'll share their opinion on how it worked next Friday.

Quiet Tea is prepared much like a regular drinking tea. Its ingredients include many familiar herbs used as calming agents for humans as well: Oatstraw, chamomile, passionflower, skullcap and valerian root.

It comes as a loose-leaf jar with guidelines on how much loose tea to steep in hot water based on your pet's weight.  After steeping for 5-10 minutes, you strain it and mix it in with food twice a day. It's only intended for supplemental use as needed, not every day.

Giveaway time!

If this sounds like something that might be helpful to your pet, here's some great news:
The Honest Kitchen is giving away one canister of Quiet Tea to one of our readers.

All you need to do is comment below, telling us you'd like to be included in the drawing (along with your email address so we can contact you if your name is chosen). Then next Friday we'll use random.org to select the winner!

Everyone in the U.S. is eligible, except for New Mexico, Texas or South Dakota due to state regulations.
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Many thanks to The Honest Kitchen for graciously offering readers this opportunity. We were not compensated in any way for this post, other than the free sample we were given.