DEAR READERS: Millennia before the advent of Christianity, Easter began as a pagan festival to celebrate the advent of spring in the Northern Hemisphere. Like Christmas, Easter has now been commercialized and degraded.

Millions of hatchling chicks and ducklings, along with crates of baby rabbits, are shipped around the U.S. as Easter presents for children. Those few animals who survive are often put up for adoption shortly after the holiday. Children are at risk for infections acquired from these Easter presents, especially salmonellosis, and some are hospitalized with such infections. The U.S. government should prohibit this seasonal market in animal suffering and public health risk.

A more empathy-driven Easter would help the Greening of America. It could be a time to plant more trees and to turn our chemical lawns and bug-free flower gardens into buzzing, singing sanctuaries for harmless, beneficial and increasingly displaced indigenous plants and animals.

Easter, for me, is celebrating the return of spring -- first in the wood mosses greening through the melting snow of Minnesota. We have a cottontail rabbit family living in our former front lawn -- now a rewilded plot -- and the toads will soon be singing again. It is a time for community and ecology recovery and renewal.

DEAR DR. FOX: I run a holistic cat grooming business in the U.K. I groom cats in the comfort of their own homes, as I believe this is best for their mental well-being and reduces stress during the process.

I am currently reading your book “The Healing Touch for Cats,” which I am thoroughly enjoying. I’ve believed for many years that massage can benefit our feline friends hugely. I massage my own cats: One in particular absolutely loves it, and it’s helping her recover from emotional trauma.

I’m wanting to incorporate some massage techniques into my grooming work to make the groom as enjoyable and beneficial as possible, and I would love to teach my clients some tips so that they can help their own cats. I am qualified in basic massage techniques and have a good understanding of feline anatomy.

I notice the world is full of training courses for canine massage techniques, but there is little info on feline massage work. There’s probably a lot of people out there who wouldn’t even think massage would be something a cat could enjoy.

I’d be very grateful for your thoughts on this matter. -- E.C., Skipton, Yorkshire, U.K.

DEAR E.C.: I have found over the years that some cats become addicted to receiving slow, deep massages on a daily basis, while others prefer a gentle, less invasive touch. Cats are rather like people in these varied preferences. In many instances, cats come to accept deeper muscle and abdominal massage after first getting used to more superficial massages.

It is always good to make a few strokes initially, then pause and breathe slowly in harmony with the cat. The cat may then stretch and readjust, or start to knead with the front paws -- a real sign of relaxation and reversion to kittenish self-comforting behavior -- and even roll over and allow abdominal and paw massage.

Some cats have certain body areas they do not like to be touched, often around the base of the tail or the tummy. This may change when the cat becomes more trusting of the process. Some cats, whether because of temperament, prior trauma or underlying medical conditions (such as hyperthyroidism), may never accept being stroked for more than a few seconds, if that. Massage therapy may remain out of the question for such cats.

Studies have shown that massage can improve humans’ immune systems and help in the treatment of autoimmune and inflammatory conditions. By logical extension, my massage routine for cats will help the many suffering from often-undiagnosed arthritis, poor circulation, obesity and depression.

I urge you to incorporate into your grooming business some tips from my “Healing Touch for Cats” book, which has improved the lives of countless felines and their humans over the years. Many owners should be amenable to learning by observation as you show them how much pressure to apply.

Do take extra precautions during this COVID-19 pandemic -- and even when it is over -- because cats can be infected by people with the coronavirus. It may be only a matter of time before a mutant strain from cats infects people, as has happened on mink fur farms.

(Send all mail to animaldocfox@gmail.com or to Dr. Michael Fox in care of Andrews McMeel Syndication, 1130 Walnut St., Kansas City, MO 64106. The volume of mail received prohibits personal replies, but questions and comments of general interest will be discussed in future columns.

Visit Dr. Fox’s website at DrFoxOneHealth.com.)

DEAR READERS: I feel for the many Texans and others suffering the ravaging consequences of February’s winter storms. I feel deeply for the birds, sea turtles and other wild creatures, and the many outdoor horses and farm animals, freezing and starving to death across states where they are not adapted to such conditions.

Climatic crises like this -- and droughts, fires and floods in other regions of the world -- were predicted by myself and many others in the 1980s. We even presented evidence to Congress. Our main opponents were the multinational fossil fuel, hydroelectric, mining, agribusiness and timber industries. As an elected member of the Washington, D.C., branch of the Club of Rome, noted for its 1972 book “The Limits to Growth,” I appreciated the prescience of concerned scientists and economists about population growth and future socioeconomic security.

If these legitimate, documented climatic and population concerns had been addressed during the later decades of the 20th century, we would not have these 21st-century crises. We now find ourselves facing climate, refugee and migrant crises, along with unresolved racial, religious and political conflicts. Millions are malnourished, disenfranchised, unemployed, oppressed and desperate. With the extinction of philopatry -- the affirming love of home and native community -- come the pathologies of antipathy, apathy, despair and violence.

In Australian aboriginal lore, there is a revered natural energy force called the Rainbow Serpent, which tells the people when and where they will find water. I equate this with North America’s jet stream, the regular behavior of which makes for more predictable seasons and rains. Climatologists report that changes in the behavior of the jet stream caused by accelerated warming in the Arctic polar region are responsible for the devastating winter storms in the southern regions of the U.S.

Another climate-influencing “serpent,” the deep-sea Gulf Stream, is reported by oceanographers to be weakening due to climate change. This Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation -- a current that underpins much of the world’s weather -- is now at its weakest state in 1,000 years. The results could include storms and heat waves in Europe, and sea-level rises on the east coast of the United States.

The COVID-19 pandemic, the climate crisis and the extinction crisis are all anthropogenic. We are too many to consume as much as we do. Many of our activities and industries, from agriculture to health care, are variously driven by fear and profitability with an overarching adversarial attitude toward nature. A tenet of Australian aboriginal law was never to take more from nature than you needed to sustain your basic needs -- otherwise, you would be impoverishing the resource base and the generations to come. The more disconnected we become from the living soil and from empathy for all living beings, the greater our dystopia and dysbiosis.

The February 2021 United Nations report “Making Peace With Nature” underscores the urgency to change how we perceive, relate and treat life on planet Earth, and the interlinked environmental crises we face today.

“Without nature’s help, we will not thrive, or even survive,” said U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. This report provides the groundwork for enabling international collaboration to make the global economy sustainable and “green.” It is an urgent call to reset global government and address the interconnected crises we face today.

As Dr. George Brock Chisholm, the first director-general of the World Health Organization, once said: “To achieve world government, it is necessary to remove from the minds of men their individualism, loyalty to family tradition, national patriotism, and religious dogmas.”

CORONAVIRUS INFECTS CAT AND DOG IN SAME FAMILY

A cat and dog from the same household in Brazos County, Texas, tested positive for the B.1.1.7 variant of SARS-CoV-2 first detected in the U.K. This is the first time that this variant has been detected in a pet. The animals, both elderly, were tested in February, two days after their owner was diagnosed with COVID-19. According to veterinarian Sarah Hamer at Texas A&M’s College of Veterinary Medicine, both pets developed mild sneezing, and both have recovered. (Full story: The Eagle, Bryan, Texas, March 16)

PET FOOD RECALL: BRAVO PACKING INC.

Bravo Packing Inc. of Carneys Point, New Jersey, is recalling all Ground Beef and Performance Dog pet foods. These raw products have the potential to be contaminated with salmonella and listeria monocytogenes. More details can be found at truthaboutpetfood.com.

(Send all mail to animaldocfox@gmail.com or to Dr. Michael Fox in care of Andrews McMeel Syndication, 1130 Walnut St., Kansas City, MO 64106. The volume of mail received prohibits personal replies, but questions and comments of general interest will be discussed in future columns.

Visit Dr. Fox’s website at DrFoxOneHealth.com.)

DEAR DR. FOX: You will enjoy this article from Atlas Obscura: “Can the Mighty Bankhar Dogs of Mongolia Save the Steppe?” (atlasobscura.com/articles/mongolia-bankhar-dog) -- A.S., Santa Fe, New Mexico

DEAR A.S.: Many thanks for sharing this article. It is a rather unique story of how the Bankhar dogs of Mongolia may help restore biocultural diversity, prevent desertification of the environment from overstocking/overgrazing of livestock, and decrease the extermination of local predators, especially wolves.

Similar dogs have been bred for thousands of years by livestock keepers around the world, especially in mountainous regions. Some of the more common breeds are the Great Pyrenees, the komondor, the akbash dog, the Anatolian shepherd and the maremma. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has an excellent handbook on such dogs: Visit pubs.nal.usda.gov and search “livestock guarding dogs.”

If sheep and cattle ranchers in the U.S. used more of these dogs, perhaps there would be less shooting, trapping, snaring and poisoning of wolves, mountain lions, coyotes and other predators. But these dogs must be managed responsibly. A literature review in BioOne found these dogs can take a toll on wildlife. A majority of the animals chased or killed by guard dogs are not predators, and some are already endangered or threatened; conversely, guard dogs may also protect species like ground-nesting birds and limit the transmission of disease between wildlife and livestock. (Full story: The Conversation, Feb. 23)

These large and powerful, but generally calm and patient, dogs also make wonderful in-home family members. One friend of mine has one of these kinds of dog, from the Sharr mountains in Macedonia, who is a central presence in his family.

It is notable that these indigenous peoples of Mongolia treat their dogs as family members and feel some connection with spiritual reincarnation. I equate this with the love that can come when the senses, emotions, hearts and minds of two individuals enjoy a harmonic resonance. Feeling alike, they ultimately think alike, cooperate, work and play together -- and, indeed, co-evolve!

DEAR DR. FOX: My 15-year-old cat was recently diagnosed with a kidney disease. I had noticed him urinating more and losing weight during the pandemic.

I am having problems getting him to eat the prescribed prescription food (Science Diet k/d). He does not like the dry or canned kinds. He’s accepting Purina Pro Plan NF for now, but doesn’t eat enough.

I am thinking of letting him eat good canned cat food, as he cannot stand to lose any more weight. Is there one you recommend? Pure protein, grain-free, maybe -- or is too much protein the problem?

He was brought up on Science Diet’s dry “inside cat” formulas -- their dry food in the morning and then a different brand of canned food in the evening. (I have always had a problem with him drinking water after his meals and then later throwing up.) I have even tried taking the water bowl away for a while in order for him to try and digest his food. -- M.R., Tulsa, Oklahoma

DEAR M.R.: Kidney failure is common in older cats, and so many of them just don’t like the special prescription diets that most conventional veterinarians are dispensing. That only makes the problem of weight loss and other complications more serious.

Try my home-prepared diet, along with meaty Gerber-type baby foods, The Honest Kitchen’s freeze-dried cat food and Fancy Feast canned food.

If your cat is dehydrated (and he probably is) and the veterinarian did not suggest giving subcutaneous fluids --which is cheap and effective quasi-dialysis -- discuss this or find another vet!

DEAR DR. FOX: I sent an email to the editor of my local paper, asking them to post a PSA every day during the recent frigid weather about keeping pets indoors. I never received a reply. I wonder if you might have better luck.

Many people think that an ordinary doghouse is adequate protection for a dog in any weather. My parents did. And those who let their cats outdoors have no idea how hard that is on them. -- J.W., Red Bank, New Jersey

DEAR J.W.: Local TV stations usually do the job of reminding pet owners to keep their animals indoors during extreme cold, often right before or after the weather forecast. The same should be said when there is extreme heat and humidity. Dogs and children alike are at risk if left in vehicles, and dogs from walking on hot sidewalks.

Many animals are terrified of thunderstorms, hurricanes and festive fireworks (which I deplore), and if outdoors, could panic and get lost.

Spring will soon be here, but with climate change, we are going to see more extreme weather conditions and patterns -- from floods and tornados to droughts and forest fires. All must be prepared accordingly, and that includes having collars and ID tags on dogs and cats, and ideally microchip IDs and holding crates, too.

(Send all mail to animaldocfox@gmail.com or to Dr. Michael Fox in care of Andrews McMeel Syndication, 1130 Walnut St., Kansas City, MO 64106. The volume of mail received prohibits personal replies, but questions and comments of general interest will be discussed in future columns.

Visit Dr. Fox’s website at DrFoxOneHealth.com.)