It's hard to be taken seriously at work when you have fur all over your outfit. Don't let your four-legged friend bring your professionalism down, and keep you and your home fur-free. To celebrate National Pet Day, let's all strive to keep fur-hassle at a minimum. Here are some tips:

• Know when to bathe. Depending on your pet, it may be good to bath them at least once a month to help get rid of loose hair. For cats, bathing might stress them out, which can then in turn cause more shedding, so it's up to you to use your discretion on the appropriate number of times to bathe them.
• Brush daily. Brush daily or at least three to four times a week to help your pet rid itself of loose hair before it starts falling all over your home and your clothes.
• Use FURminator. There is a really great deshedding tool called the FURminator ($20, originally $63), which claims to reduce shedding up to 90 percent for a month to six weeks. The sharp stainless steel edges work to remove the loose undercoat without damaging the topcoat. I've actually started using it with my cat, and it seems to be working. It's quite possibly the best method, in my opinion, to reduce shedding.
• Keep lint rollers around. I have a lint roller in my home, office, and stash a mini roller ($4 for a set of two) in my bag, so I can remove fur wherever I am and keep myself fur-free.

Read on for more.

Seems like cats are all the rage these days (Boo, who?), what with Grumpy Cat memes going viral and cat videos popping up all over the Internet. But cats aren't just a source for endless entertainment; they also have a lot to teach us about the daily grind. Here are a couple of them to start with:

• Don't be an eager beaver. Cats generally aren't people pleasers. They don't hang onto your every word and constantly want affirmation via pets from you. They take the affection they want, then walk away when they're satisfied. At work, trying to please everyone will let others easily take advantage of you. It also hurts your relationships because you can't please everyone, and someone will likely end up getting hurt. And if you're always trying to get affirmation, you may constantly be fishing for compliments from your colleagues, which can get on people's nerves. Be assertive and confident about your abilities and the work that you do.
• Groom yourself. Look your best, and you will feel your best. Cats groom themselves well and are pretty clean animals. Having good hygiene and looking polished will definitely help your image in your company.
• Teach yourself and take initiative. Don't always wait for someone to teach you something before making an attempt. Cats are rare creatures in that they take to toilet training like a pro. Use the litter box approach in your career — take the initiative to perform tasks and learn skills on your own.
• Learn from your mistakes. Cats get frightened easily, and because they have a good memory, they tend to remember the scary incidents and try to avoid them. Once a mistake is made at work, we should work to rectify and learn from it, then try our best not to make the same mistake again.
• Notice cues. It's amazing how alert cats are with certain cues, such as the sound of opening a can of food or when you take out the root of all evil aka shampoo. It's a good skill to have when interacting professionally. Picking up on body language cues is especially important when you aren't familiar with the person, such as when you're interviewing.
• Get enough sleep. Seems like you can learn a thing or two in snoozing from cats — felines sleep about 16 hours a day. Many of us say that sleep gets in the way of work, but getting enough sleep will help us be more efficient with our time and get more done in less time.

Happy National Puppy Day, everyone! Today's the day to celebrate all that is furry, wriggly, and cute. To make this holiday an extra-special one, our favorite Pomeranian Boo shares his adorable puppy picture with his Facebook friends.

Travel season is here, and it's not just humans that will be flying, pets will be roaming the skies, too! To find out which airline will best suit your pet travel budget, read on for a short list below that states the airline, and the fee for cabin and checked pets. Read on to see how the prices compare.

It's important to keep a healthy work-life balance, and if you can't take a walk in the park, you should take a page from Yale Law School and spend some time with a four-legged friend. The school is testing out the idea of therapy dogs, and will have a dog named Monty that can be rented out to stressed students for 30-minute intervals starting Monday, reports the New York Times.

The dog will be placed in a private area of the library, but students might have to rush to sign up for slots as the trial will only last for three days. “It is well documented that visits from therapy dogs have resulted in increased happiness, calmness and overall emotional well-being,” librarian Blair Kauffman said in an email.

This type of arrangement might not be good for Monty's mental health, but I think the idea of having animals to relieve stress is definitely a good one. Instead of "renting" out animals, offer to pet sit for your friend or neighbor and you can also choose to volunteer at a local pet shelter.

Your little furry friends may just be the clincher if you're trying to sell your place of residence. Contrary to popular opinion, pets can help make a place seem more inviting and will leave a lasting impression in the minds of potential buyers, according to The New York Times. But not all animals will pass muster — pets that have winning personalities will be more appealing than unfriendly or ill-behaved ones.

Tamasin Ramsay, a prospective buyer, fell in love with Elbow the friendly black Affenpinscher that greeted interested apartment hunters at a two-bedroom co-op in New York. Tamasin, who ended up purchasing the apartment, says the dog's "presence created a sense of love and family, a sense of belonging. The apartment was beautiful, but what got my attention was the very cute dog that was always bounding around."

So if you're doggone tired of trying to sell your apartment, your four-legged pal may be the answer to all your frustrations. I'm sure your broker's charms can't match up to Fluffy's!

All of us have a dream job we're secretly harboring. Readers recently shared their dream jobs, which inspired this Savvy series: In Her Shoes.

Many of us have soft spots for animals, but Dr. Patty Khuly actually turned that love into a profession. She's a superhero for animals — a veterinarian in Miami by day, and pet health blogger at Fully Vetted by night. Patty received her veterinary and business degree at University of Pennsylvania.

SavvySugar: Why is your job a dream job?

Patty Khuly: I love the immediacy of being able to fix certain conditions. The dog that showed up today, who had started seizuring severely from biting a toad, you know, I can fix that. I mean, it’s going to take all night, but I can fix it. That dog will live and he won’t live unless I do something about it and I know how to do that and that kind of pleasure is really difficult to match and it’s very immediate. Then there’s the other kind of pleasure — a general satisfaction that your work for animals in your community actually makes a difference, not only to help the wider health of animals in your community, but it also makes people happy.

Patty almost became a professional chef! Read on to find out more.