LIVING FEATURE   “We started to notice that she was hanging around the neighborhood.” That’s how Coeur d’Alene resident Jamie Brannock describes the first time she set eyes on Misty back in October 2011.

“We just planned to keep her as a pet,” Brannock says. But then Brannock and her husband noticed that their new family member was exhibiting some unusual traits.

Brannock is 35 and suffers from diabetes and epilepsy. (“Fun mix, eh?” she says.)

“We started noticing that if I wasn’t feeling good, Misty would really be focusing on me,” Brannock says. “If I didn’t do a whole lot better, she’d start fretting.”

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ALT MEDICINE   A 6-year-old boy, whom we’ll call Finley, rattles off his nightly demand list: “I’m thirsty. Can I have a glass of water? I’m HON-gry! Can you read me another story? Will you sleep with me?”

It’s 9:30 — an hour and a half past Finley’s bedtime. His exasperated mother retreats to the kitchen, where she smashes half a fivemilligram tablet of melatonin and stirs it into butterscotch pudding.

“Eat this,” says the mom. “It’ll help you sleep.”

Finley snarfs the treat. He’s asleep within a half-hour. Read More>>

INNOVATION   Let’s say you took a dive at your local roller rink and wound up in the hospital with a fractured vertebra. You’re in big trouble — these things don’t exactly heal themselves.

Or at least they didn’t used to. Read More>>

PARENTING   When children across the world saw what happened to Veruca Salt on Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, we felt vindicated. Any child villainous enough to demand a goose that lays a golden egg should be dumped down a chute!

But that was 1971.

Veruca Salt’s behavior no longer has shock value. Have you watched an episode of My Super Sweet Sixteen? (Or anything involving the Kardashians?) Read More>>

COOKING  For too long, the worlds of the kitchen and the clinic have been separate. Even though the link between food and health is undeniable, the culinary world is largely alien territory to physicians, at least as part of their medical training. And chefs in the past have been more interested in crafting decadent meals and rich desserts than in contemplating the effects of all those ingredients on diners’ health. Read More>>

FROM THE EDITOR   THERE’S NOTHING TO me that says summer more than the Great American Road Trip. From buying gloriously nutrition- free snacks at middle-of-nowhere convenience stores, to looking for state license plates, I love it all.

But for teen drivers, summer is a season of peril. In fact, Mothers Against Drunk Driving calls the period between Memorial Day and Labor Day the year’s “100 Deadliest Days.” Read More>>

GUEST COLUMN    Each year hundreds of individuals are injured from dog bites and dog attacks in Spokane County. Most dog bites are preventable if owners practice responsible pet ownership. The best first step is to make your pet a member of your family. Dogs are social animals and need to be part of a pack. If they spend too much time alone or tied in the back yard, dogs have a much greater chance of developing aggressive behavioral problems. The rules are that owners must keep their dogs confined to their property, while dogs off their property must be on a leash. Read More>>