About those monkeys in The White Lotus
Also: Would you pay $300 for a dog toy?
Had a busy, busy day today filled with dog walks, so please enjoy this evening edition of Tail Mail before you head to sleep. (If you’d like to keep up with my dog walking adventures and see some photos of extremely cute dogs, follow me over on Instagram @claraandthedogs!)
The White Lotus 🤝 Tail Mail
The White Lotus season finale is this weekend, and while you all spend time theorizing who’s going to get killed, I finally got an answer to something that’s triggered a debate among my friends—and on Reddit—since the season premiere.
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All those monkeys in the show? Real! None of them were edited or added in via CGI, a representative for the show confirmed to me. Sorry to all those (including my boyfriend) who were convinced some of those expressive monkeys were fake.
The White Lotus creator Mike White has said they didn’t use any trained monkeys, either, and just went out with a second-unit camera crew to capture the wildlife. “They really showed up. Put a camera on them, and they were ready to have their moments,” he said at a press conference.
There you have it folks!
In other news…
A man whose cat was euthanized after eating bird flu–infected raw pet food is suing the company, Wild Coast Raw, for $7,952 to recuperate vet bills, according to a copy of the complaint I obtained. (Wild Coast Raw did not respond to a request for comment.) The complaint alleges that Wild Coast Raw did not disclose it had sourced its meat from California and Washington or warn that the food had a “high risk of exposure” to bird flu.
ICYMI: Over the weekend, I published a deep dive into bird flu and how it’s impacting household cats. The piece includes a closer look at the pet food manufacturing and regulation process. “For a period of about six weeks, every cat that came in, we stopped the owner and said, ‘Have you fed any raw milk or raw food products?’ Even if the cat was just there for vaccines or whatever and was totally fine, we were treating that patient as potentially infectious,” one veterinarian told me.
Global Pet Expo, a trade show for pet products, handed out its top innovation award to a Shark Tank–approved dog lure toy. The cheapest version of the toy will set you back about $300.
Thrive Pet Healthcare, which has more than 360 vet hospitals, secured more than $350 million in another fundraising round to keep growing and delay its debt repayments. Have any of you gone to a Thrive pet hospital? Would love to hear more about your experience: clara@readtailmail.com.
A study from Texas A&M’s veterinary college found that more than 99% of dogs in the U.S. have some kind of behavior problem. Separation and attachment issues appeared to be the most prevalent behavior issue, followed by fear and anxiety and aggression, according to responses collected from dog owners enrolled in a project analyzing aging in dogs. (Thank you to Tail Mail reader Pamela Chelin for flagging this study.)
Product recommendations
Do you have a pet product you simply can’t live without? Please share with the class! Email me at clara@readtailmail.com to be included in another edition of this newsletter.
