Welcome to Pet Tales from the Final Frontier
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April Newsletter Table of Contents
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Commander Randy Mitson Director of Petfleet & Nero
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<<First Name>>, I am excited to welcome you to the first edition of our new quarterly email newsletter. As the new Director of STARFLEET Petfleet, it has been an incredible honour to take over the reins from past directors and continue their legacy of excellence.
In the short time since I have taken on this role, I am proud to say that we have already made significant progress in developing a dedicated team of volunteers to help manage STARFLEET’S Petfleet.
Petfleet’s Command Staff:
- Director: CMDR Randy Mitson, USS Renaissance - R13
- Deputy Director: COMM James Cecil, USS Commonwealth - R1
- Operations: CAPT Mary Demiter, USS Antares - R5
- Member Services: LTJG Jessica Sommer, USS Cerberus - R10
- Newsletter Editor: CMDR Kelly Winterstein, USS Parallax - R11
In the first half of this year, we have some exciting projects that we have already started and are in the works, including creating a digital registration form to streamline the process for updating pet records, developing our Petfleet brand guide and logo, and redesigning our Member Certificate and creating a new Final Mission Certificate. We are also planning on continuing our new monthly pet photo contest and we have completed an extensive member survey to better understand what our members want out of Petfleet.
Looking further into the future, we are also exploring the possibility of developing a website and offering online merchandise for our members to purchase through the STARFLEET Quartermaster, in support of Petfleet.
I am confident that with the support of incredible members like you, we can achieve all these goals and more. I look forward to working with you all and keeping you updated on our progress through our Facebook group, Discord channel and this new quarterly newsletter.
Sincerely,
CMDR Randy Mitson, USS Renaissance - R13
Director of STARFLEET Petfleet
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Monthly Petfleet Roll Call
We are thrilled to introduce a new monthly tradition that celebrates our commitment to Petfleet: the STARFLEET Petfleet monthly Roll Call! At the beginning of each month, we invite all members to respond to our Roll Call with a picture of their furry, feathered, or scaly friends.
We are excited to see the diverse range of pets that make up our organization and to build stronger connections within our community through this fun and engaging activity. So, don't miss out on your chance to participate in our monthly Roll Call and make your pet's presence known within STARFLEET Petfleet!
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April 2023 - Total Registered Pets in Petfleet
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288 Cats
250 Dogs
26 Stuffed Animals
17 Birds
10 Cheetahs
8 Rabbits
8 Tribbles
7 Fish
6 Lizards
6 Ship's Mascot
6 Snake
5 Guinea Pigs
5 Turtles
4 Bat Eared Foxes
4 Pet Rocks
4 Robots
4 Sock Monkeys
4 Tarantulas
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2 Dolphins
2 Ferrets
2 Flying Monkeys
2 Gerbils
2 Horses
2 Iguanas
2 MeerKats
2 Mini Horses
2 Racoons
2 Rat
1 Bear
1 Bearded Dragon
1 Black Eared Jackal
1 Caracal
1 Potbelly Pig
1 Squirrel
1 Targ
Register Your Pet Here!
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Monthly Pet Walking Challenge
 We recognize that our pets can motivate us to become more active and lead healthier lifestyles. With this in mind, STARFLEET Petfleet is proud to announce our upcoming Pet Walking Challenge. This monthly contest encourages you to take your pets for walks and hikes, or even engage in active play with them.
The contest will work in a similar fashion to STARFLEET medical, where human participants will track and report their weekly walking totals. Totals will be compiled monthly and quarterly, and we may even challenge other chapters, regions, and auxiliaries to compete. You may count all of your steps but we also encourage you to include your pets, go jog with your dog, workout with your cat, hop to it with your rabbit, roll with your pet rock, run with your rat, exercise with your Targ, or bounce with your tribble.
We believe that this contest is a fantastic way to promote healthy living and bonding with your pets. Furthermore, it offers a fun and interactive way to connect with fellow STARFLEET members. ...and yes walking back and forth in front of your fish tank for 10 minutes counts too, let's get all pets active with us.
At the end of each quarter, we will recognize the participants who log the most steps with a STARFLEET Petfleet award certificate of recognition. The first week starts April 3rd to April 9th.
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STARFLEET Petfleet Academy Course Awards
 We are thrilled to offer an unique opportunity for STARFLEET Petfleet members to earn recognition for their commitment to learning about pet care. Introducing our Petfleet Awards for completing STARFLEET Academy Courses!
Throughout the year, we will be announcing various pet and animal Academy course packages that you can complete. After successfully finishing and submitting your course completion to Petfleet, our human members will receive a Petfleet Certificate of Recognition.
Our very first Academy Course Package for Petfleet is focused on understanding how to take care of your beloved pets. These three courses, taught by our very own Frances Smith and Courtney Wuest, are great to start with and won't take much of your time to complete. So, join us now and begin your journey towards earning Petfleet Awards!
Go to: Institutes of Medical Arts (IOMA) then select College of Veterinary Medicine (COVM) and you will see the following courses:
- COVM 101 - Introduction to Veterinary Medicine
- COVM D101 - The Informed Dog Owner
- COVM C102 - The Informed Cat Owner
Anyone completing all three courses with 100% - Distinction in each, before July 1st, 2023 will receive a special gold certificate, after that date only standard Petfleet Academy certificates will be issued.
Once complete, please forward copies of your certificates to Petfleet using this form and you will receive your Petfleet Certificate
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Feature Article - Cheetah Outreach by Owen Swart
 I serve as a Volunteer Handler at Cheetah Outreach, an eco-tourism and educational facility just outside Cape Town, South Africa. My colleagues here (humanoid and non-humanoid alike) work to raise awareness of the plight of the cheetah in Southern Africa, and funds for our conservation mission.
As a handler, I'm involved in the care of all our non-humanoid residents and ambassadors: Animals that work with us as representatives of their respective species in interacting with the public, providing a present, tactile example of the living beings we're working to conserve. Guests to the facility are invited to learn about cheetahs in particular, and predators in general who have to share their habitat with humans in rural parts of South Africa. Guests are even invited to meet some of our individual ambassadors, and as a handler, it's my role to facilitate that interaction.
Cheetahs are our focus species because unlike most other indigenous predators here, cheetahs are in real trouble. There are less than 7000 cheetahs left on the entire planet (down from over 100,000 a century ago). Here in South Africa, there are only a few hundred remaining in free-ranging habitats, which they typically have to share with human farmers.
And that's where the conflict arises: Cheetahs are predators and are perceived by farmers as a threat to their livestock. Although other predators (such as caracals and black-backed jackals) are far more likely to prey on domestic animals, cheetahs are larger, more visible, and more active during the day, so they get the blame. Farmers typically use lethal predator control methods (guns, traps, poison etc) to protect their livestock from predation.
Our conservation mission is to convince farmers to abandon those lethal methods in favour of non-lethal alternatives. The alternative we offer is in the form of our Anatolian Shepherd Livestock Guardian Dog Program. We breed Anatolian Shepherds, an ancient Turkish variety bred specifically to protect livestock from predators like wolves and bears and place the dogs with farmers within the cheetah free-ranging habitat. We cover all expenses for the dog for the first year, on condition that the farmer agrees to stop using lethal predator control.
 The dog's job is simply to live with the herd of livestock and keep a watchful eye. Any predator coming close will sense the presence of the dog, and instead of risking injury by picking a fight, they'll wander off in search of their own natural prey. Anatolians are very large, intimidating dogs with a very protective nature. They don't even need any training!
Results from our program are encouraging. In some cases, we see as much as a 90% reduction in livestock lost to predators, and although data is difficult to collect, we're seeing early signs suggesting that the cheetah population in South Africa might be beginning to stabilize.
At the educational facility, I work more closely with some of our ambassadors than with others. The beings I'm most intimately involved with are Scoop the meerkat, Grace the caracal, Liberty the serval, Janet the bat-eared fox and Kitu the cheetah. It's a real privilege to be able to serve with these remarkable individuals. I spend every day with them getting to know them better, and building bonds of friendship that transcend the species barrier.
Learn more about the Cheetah Outreach in Cape Town, South Africa.
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Cheetah Outreach CC Mission 2021
Cheetah Outreach is a South African organization promoting the survival of the free-ranging cheetah and other species under threat. Cheetah Outreach CC’s ambassador animals and volunteers are vital to public education and fundraising for in-situ conservation initiatives including Cheetah Outreach Trust’s non-profit conservation delivery.
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From the Vet’s Desk - by Frances Hayman Smith
Puppy Socialization and Early Training
 Puppies can bring joy to our lives, but they also bring much responsibility. Things such as good quality food, vaccinations, parasite treatment and prevention, comfy beds, and a myriad of toys are very important. However, behavioural development is not often considered beyond house training and basic commands. There is so much more that should be done in order to help that cuddly baby become a well-behaved family member.
The socialization period for puppies lasts from birth to 12-14 weeks of age. Yes, you read that right. It is a very small window of time when they are relatively fearless. Experiences, good and bad, during this period, lay the foundations of behaviour for life. Good foundations don’t just happen, they require careful planning and execution.
One other major concern during this period is the puppy’s susceptibility to diseases such as distemper, parvovirus, and parasites like hookworms and roundworms. Owners must be very careful not to unnecessarily expose the puppy to disease and parasites but should still carefully plan outings to meet many different people and healthy animals. Make sure your puppy has had the first couple of vaccinations in the puppy series and has appropriate parasite control. Steer clear of dog parks and other high-traffic pet areas. Outings to places such as restaurants with outdoor seating or visits to friends’ homes can provide safer alternatives.
 Happy experiences with children of various ages are great, but they must be closely supervised. Pleasant meetings with people of different races, those wearing hats, carrying umbrellas or mobility aids, wearing coats, and so on, can help your puppy to form good associations with them. However, kids and adults can get very excited about puppies so you will need to make sure the pup isn’t overwhelmed and keep the encounters fairly short, to begin with.
There are many things that you can do at home to expose puppies to different sounds, textures, and surfaces. Simple things like large pool noodles can present obstacles the puppy has to think about how to get over or around. Recordings of various noises can help acclimate them to different sounds. You can use interactive food toys so that the puppy has to figure out how to move the toy around to get the food out. This slows down rapid eaters and works little their brains at the same time.
“Formal” training for basic commands and tricks should also begin soon after a puppy is brought to its new home. Positive reinforcement and behaviour shaping are good ways to train. Steer clear of methods based on “dominance theory” as they are no longer recommended. Our understanding of how dogs think and learn, as well as how they differ from wolves and other wild canids, has grown and changed over the years leading to different training methods. The American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior has a comprehensive position statement on humane dog training, as well as other behaviour topics at https://avsab.org/resources/position-statements/
The most basic definition of positive reinforcement is rewarding the behaviour you want. Many people use clickers to quickly mark desired behaviours so that the dog understands that what it just did was what you wanted and that a reward is coming. There are many books, websites, and training classes that can help you learn to clicker train. It may sound complicated, but it really isn’t. Most people learn the timing of what is needed quickly.
The next question is how do you get the behaviour you want? You can often lure a puppy into a new behaviour, such as holding a treat right in front of the nose and slowly bringing it up so that the pup’s nose goes up to follow. As long as you don’t allow him to back up, if the nose goes up, the rear end goes down, resulting in a “sit”. Be sure to hold the treat very close so that he doesn’t try to jump. Once he repeats the behaviour several times, then say a cue word like “sit”. You need to teach the behaviour before saying anything so that your pup connects the word with the action. If you just say “sit” over and over but you haven’t shown him what you expect, it would be like a Klingon demanding something of you in Klingonese. If you don’t have your universal translator handy or don’t speak Klingon, the sounds mean nothing to you until the Klingon shows you what they want you to do.
 You can also shape behaviours by carefully watching the puppy and rewarding the behaviour when it happens naturally. For example, if you would like your puppy to lay quietly, keep treats and the clicker handy and when he lays down and is calm, click and give him a treat. If he already knows that the click means he did something good, he will begin to pay attention to what it was that got him a reward, and then he will offer the behaviour to you more often. Shaping desired behaviour is much better than trying to correct undesirable behaviour.
Training classes can be very helpful but understand that the classes are more for the humans than the puppies. The pups or dogs are present so that the trainer can provide guidance and evaluate your work together then make suggestions for fine-tuning training methods. The actual training takes place at home between classes.
House training can present many challenges but patience and consistency will guide the puppy to success in time. Make sure to take your puppy to its toilet area frequently, especially right after he wakes and 10-30 minutes after eating, and wait with him to make sure he finishes his business. Watch for the signs that he needs to eliminate such as sniffing or circling. If he eliminates in a different area, let him finish, clean the area well with cleaners made for urine and stool, and promise him you’ll pay better attention next time. Don’t shout at him to stop as this will only teach him to eliminate outside of your presence. (You don’t really want poo behind the sofa, do you?) Remember that most puppies are not very reliable until they are at least 5 months old and that most housebreaking “mistakes” are ours.
Puppies are constantly learning new things. This learning happens every day, whether we are “training” them or not. Careful work in those first few weeks can help provide the foundations for a lifetime of happiness for you and your puppy.
For more information, consult your pet’s veterinarian and other trusted pet care professionals. There are many, many books and websites with training information. Here are a few I recommend:
Puppy Culture shoppuppyculture.com and madcapuniversity.com
Video course: “With Open Arms and a Level Head, How to Bring a Puppy into Your Life”
DVD or video on demand: “Attention is the Mother of All Behaviors”
Book: When Pigs Fly by Jane Killion
Sophia Yin, veterinary behaviourist cattledogpublishing.com
Books: Perfect Puppy in 7 Days: How to Start Your Puppy Off Right, How to Behave So Your Dog Behaves
Karen Pryor clickertraining.com
Select “Dog Training” on the main page to lead to many articles, videos, blogs, books, and training tools.
Books: Don’t Shoot the Dog and Reaching the Animal Mind
Other Books
Calming Signals: On Talking Terms with Dogs by Turid Rugaas
Control Unleashed: The Puppy Program by Leslie McDevitt
The Culture Clash by Jean Donaldson
Dogwise.com is a great source of books and videos on many dog-related subjects.
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Petfleet AI Fiction
The following story was generated by the ship's computer (AKA ChatGPT).
 In a parallel universe, the USS Enterprise was a ship crewed entirely by pets. The ship's captain was a majestic Persian cat named Captain Meowington, who was known for her fearless leadership and sharp claws.
First Officer Fido, a loyal and intelligent German Shepherd, served as Captain Meowington's right-hand pet. Fido was responsible for the ship's security and often led away missions to strange new worlds.
Science Officer Fluffy, a curious and playful rabbit, was in charge of analyzing new discoveries and keeping the ship's systems running smoothly. Fluffy's keen sense of smell helped the crew detect anomalies that other pets might have missed.
Chief Medical Officer Dr. Whiskers, a wise and gentle Siamese cat, was responsible for the health and well-being of the crew. Dr. Whiskers had a soothing purr that helped calm down even the most anxious of pets.
The USS Enterprise's crew also included Lieutenant Paws, a mischievous tabby cat who served as the ship's navigator, and Ensign Wagly, an energetic golden retriever who was in charge of communications.
The ship's adventures were just as exciting as those of their human counterparts in the Star Trek universe. They explored strange new worlds, encountered alien races, and boldly went where no pet had gone before.
 On one mission, the Enterprise encountered a planet where the inhabitants had the ability to shapeshift into any animal they desired. Captain Meowington and her crew were amazed by this ability and quickly made friends with the planet's inhabitants.
However, their mission was cut short when the ship was attacked by a hostile alien race. The Enterprise was badly damaged, and many of the pets were injured.
But with the help of Dr. Whiskers and her team, the crew pulled through and managed to defeat the hostile aliens. The Enterprise limped back to Federation space, where it was hailed as heroes for their bravery and ingenuity.
As the pets received medals and commendations for their heroic actions, Captain Meowington looked around at her crew and felt a sense of pride and gratitude. She knew that they may have been just pets, but they had accomplished something truly extraordinary.
[Stay tuned for Part 2]
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Calling all Petfleet Cadets
CLICK ON THE IMAGE AND THEN THE DOWNLOAD BUTTON IN THE UPPER RIGHT.
Hey there, all you Petfleet Cadets and young adventurers at heart! Are you ready to embark on an exciting mission with Lieutenant Commander Spock and a colourful parrot on the bridge of the legendary USS Enterprise? Well, get ready to unleash your creativity and colouring skills, because we have a challenge for you!
Grab your favourite colouring pencils, markers, or crayons and let your imagination run wild as you bring this awesome picture to life. And when you're done, don't keep your masterpiece to yourself! Share your amazing creation with us and your fellow space explorers by posting it on our Facebook or Discord pages.
So come on, kids and parents alike, let's join forces and show the galaxy what we're made of! Get your colouring supplies ready and let's blast off into an interstellar adventure with Lieutenant Commander Spock and our feathered friend!
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Petfleet Newsletter Submission Form
Attention STARFLEET Petfleet members! Share your companion's stories and adventures with the world through the “Pet Tales from the Final Frontier'' newsletter. We welcome original submissions like articles, creative writing, opinions, suggestions, photographs and artwork. Let's keep written submissions to 2,000 words or fewer, but if you have more to say, reach out to our Starfleet PetFleet News Editor. Join the fun and submit your original content today!
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How to Join Petfleet?
We extend an invitation to all pet lovers to become part of our vibrant Petfleet community. The process of joining is simple - simply make your way to Petfleet's Facebook Group or visit our Discord channel located on the Starfleet Discord server. Upon arrival, we encourage you to register your beloved pets using the Petfleet Registration Form. We look forward to welcoming you and your furry friends to our community.
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- Petfleet’s new online registration form allows you to update your pet information and report your pet’s Final Mission over the Rainbow Bridge.
- The Petfleet Facebook group has over 500 members, STARFLEET Marines have 2,500 members, and STARFLEET Medical has 340 Members.
- STARFLEET Petfleet has over 1,000 registered pets.
- More cats (288) are registered with Petfleet than dogs (250). The next most popular pet registered is stuffed animals (26), and then birds (17), followed by 10 cheetahs!
- Petfleet exotic pets include a bear, targ, tarantula, snakes, flying monkeys, tribbles, lizards, raccoons, ferrets, miniature horses, a squirrel, two dolphins, a potbelly pig, meerkats, bat-eared foxes, freshwater and saltwater fish, imaginary pets, mascots, pet rocks and even four robots!
- Region One has the most registered pets (164, 22.6%), followed by Region 4 (87, 12%) then Region 2 (67, 9.2%) and Region 13 (64, 8.8%).
- The USS Dauntless (28) has the most registered pets, followed by the USS Dark Phoenix (25) and the USS Merlin (25).
- Since January 1st, 2023 members have registered an additional 130 pets
- Spock had a pet Sehlat, which died during his childhood (in 2237, or 8877 on the Vulcan calendar) after sustaining mortal injuries from the poisonous bite of a mountain lion-like desert predator known as a le-matya.
- Petfleet is working on a National Pet Day calendar. If you have special days to add let us know.
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Step back in time through the Guardian of Forever.
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