Wishing you a safe, happy and long weekend. Please take a moment to remember those who have given their lives in service to our nation.
Photo credit: John Weiss at http://susuangels.com/pro854051.html
Filed under: dogs | Tags: animal rescue, companion animals, homeless animals, LoJack, Nikki, Tuesday Larken
We recently marked two years since we lost my dog brother, LoJack. Since then, we lost my dog sister Nikki too. Mom always remembers the exact day we lost LoJack because she made the appointment and was so hopeful it would bring him relief in his last days. It was supposed to be an oral exam, but LoJack never woke up from the sedation.
Mom was pretty sad as this grim “anniversary” passed last week but she kept it to herself…no post and no mention to friends or family about it. I was the only one she confided in. She was feeling like after all this time maybe we were the only ones that cared anymore.
Mom should know better. Everyone here misses LoJack. We have met, comforted and been comforted by a lot of our blog readers in the last 2 years too. Lots of people still care and lots of people need still help dealing with pet loss.
As if to prove this point precisely, we made a new friend today. This new friend, Tuesday Larken, has suffered a recent pet loss and when she contacted us the timing was just so perfect that we felt there might be a bigger a reason we met at this time.
Miss Larken has a blog too. She wrote about looking for help with the loss of her dog Duke online and how she found our blog and what it meant to her. If you’d like to read it, and we recommend you do, you can find her post mentioning us here.
Tuesday is going to be helping me and Mom out with our efforts for homeless animals. This is great because we could really use someone to keep us focused these days. She needs something to take her mind off Duke, so you can see the timing of this new friendship is going to be good for Mom and Tuesday. More on how that will work later. In the meantime…
Tuesday has added our Dog Eared Tales blog to her “Pet loss resource” page and she is happy to add any other resources you know of if you tell her about them. She is much more diligent with her blog than we are as she posts a weekly journal. Dealing with the loss of her dog, just as she lost her job and her youngest prepares to go off to college, is a big part of her life now.
We think you’ll like her so if you want to learn more about her and enjoy a regular weekly “read” as well, please visit her site and catch up on her journal entries here. She’ll be making the rounds on your pet blogs soon too!
TuesdayLarken.com
Filed under: dog training, dogs | Tags: animal rescue, fireworks, shady, shadytales, TGTB, this good that bad, thunder, thunder shirt, thundershirt
OK, may I get straight to the point here? What the heck is up with you people and all the FIREWORKS?! There have been almost two weeks now of seemingly non-stop booms, bangs and whistle-y noises in our neighborhood. Enough already!
Thank you to all who have been checking in on my progress during these trying times. At your suggestion, I added a Thunder Shirt to my arsenal of vet prescribed doggie relaxation pills, secret hideouts and distraction techniques to get me through this heinous season.
Me and my Thunder Shirt. Get more info at www.thundershirt.com. No, we didn't get paid to say that, either!
Overall, I give the Thunder Shirt 3 out of 4 paws up (sorry, I don’t have thumbs). It is light weight and comfortable for sure, but I am still a little edgy even with it on during fireworks. It did seem to curb my tendency to shake and chatter, but I was still plenty whiney during most of the “festivities”. For a regular old thunderstorm, when there is no time to prime me with pills, it helped for sure.
Mom says it may begin to work even better the more I use it. She also said it may work better for a dog that tends to want to be held when they are afraid. Me? I am a digger. I will tunnel through the rug, the floor, the door, the closet, looking for the lowest safest place to be. So far nothing works to kill that urge when I am afraid.
If you think this might help your dog, please give it a try. It costs 36 dollars they have a money back guarantee. I may not be cured yet, but I feel a little better with it and every little bit helps.
Hey you know what else works for dogs that are afraid of fireworks? STOP SHOOTING FIREWORKS. Leave it to the Grucci Brothers and don’t have them at your party in your own yard. Seriously. Knock it off.
Filed under: animal rescue, dogs | Tags: 8 seconds, animal rescue, attention span, homeless animals, shady, shadytales, silver pop, TGTB, this good that bad, wikipedia
HSUS estimates that a cat or dog is put down in a shelter in the U.S. every 8 seconds. Do you think it is mere coincidence that marketing experts like SilverPop and Wikipedia alike report that the average continuous attention span for literate humans is also 8 seconds?
That’s over 10,000 animals a day. Looking at these facts alone it would seem that as soon as one lost animal is forgotten, we immediately repeat the process and another animal pays the price for our attention deficit. Of course, we insiders know that is not the case.
Those who are in the position of euthanizing animals are most often the very people trying to save them. Although tremendous progress has been made –from around 25 percent of American dogs and cats euthanized every year in the 1970s to about 3 percent now–the current estimated rate of 4 million dogs and cats put down per year has been flat for far too long. They need help to increase their success rate.
Every 8 seconds, we lose a sale. Would this be acceptable to the average business owner?
If you are selling a product, marketers are full of tips and tricks that tell you how to best use your 8 seconds. Sales trainers and consultants are making real money dispensing this advice. There are scores of books and articles about how we can entice our audience into giving us more time and how to find new prospects.
They have formulas and suggestions like visual effects and punchy headlines or subject lines to do the trick. How can we translate that information to give these animals more time with their audience? If we are maxed out now, with too many pets and no realistic way to attract a larger pool of people willing to adopt a pet, how will we entice a new audience?
We’d love to end here with a list of out-of-the-box marketing strategies for animal shelters to improve adoption rates and reduce surrender rates. Except that we just don’t know yet.
Instead we appeal to those of you out in the field, the fields of animal rescue and marketing to be exact, to make the list for us. How do we reach outside the inner circle of animal lovers and make more people care enough to do something?
Just to be clear, “something” is not always donating, volunteering, adopting or fostering an animal. There are plenty of other ways to make a real difference; spay/neuter pets and/or educate others on how and why to do so, report known dog fighting rings, hold your municipality and its residents accountable for its euth rate, don’t support pet shops or simply don’t give up so easily on your pets or try to trade them in for newer models just to name a few.
Have you taken the time to read this post for more than 8 seconds? If so, forget the animals for a moment and think like a business owner whose business is failing. You have a surplus and you need to move inventory or else your business is going to die.
Forget the success stories, the sob stories and the typical events, none of that is going to be enough. It is time to add to that script and read the latest business books, check the blogs and attend the free sales seminars. Put on your marketing hat, ask your friends and colleagues…or imagine you’ve hired the best consultant or strategist you can find.
We are all responsible for this overstock and in 8 seconds, another one of societies’ “unsold goods” is going to be put down. They will be destroyed for no good reason or end purpose and not before taxing the system of overall resource meant for many causes. This should not be acceptable to anyone, animal lover or not.
What is the best (tried or untried) idea or advice you have to find more buyers? Leave your comments here or tell us all about it here.
Note from Shady: This is a guest post by my people Mom. Mom already has a few ideas to share on this topic. Marketing is her “day job.” She would never pose questions like these without being willing to answer them herself and she will do just that in her follow up post. Her suggested tactics include methods employed on this very post, designed to make you keep reading. No suggestion is too run of the mill or too outlandish for this excercise…please send us your opinions so we can share and learn together.
Filed under: animal rescue, dogs, Guest Posts, pet loss | Tags: dog food, dog recipes, dogs, labrador, LoJack, pet adoption, pet grief, pet loss, recipes, shadytales, steak, TGTB, this good that bad
The following is a reprint of Shady’s guest post on a friend’s cooking blog. She addresses two topics very near and dear to a dogs’ heart–food and love. Update 5/2011: Our sympathy to Linda, the cooking blog author and Mom to Duke, her beloved labrador and star “taste tester” who recently succumbed to the same cancer that took our LoJack. Please feel free to leave your remarks and support for Linda here and we will pass them on to her. Rest in Peace Duke. Please tell LoJack we miss him when you see him.
For those of you who do not know me from my own blog. Dog Eared Tales please allow me to introduce myself; I am a Shady, an 8-year-old blog dog. More specifically I am a black lab who recently lost two pack members to old age. My people-Mom and I have been blogging ever since. It started out as a way to cope with the loss of our family members but we have met so many wonderful people along the way that even though we are doing better we decided to keep it up.
Linda is one of those people and one of my favorite things about her is that she loves food just like me. Another thing I really like about her is that she lists her own dogs Bubba and Duke as part of her “support staff”. I am guessing this means they get to do a lot of taste testing and I think a lot of people could learn from that example.
When Linda invited me to guest post here I was flattered. Although my blog is about pet loss and animal rescue, food is one of my favorite topics! Mom used to be pretty stingy with the people food. She used to claim it is wasted on me, that I would eat a lint ball with the same zeal I would attack a steak. I’ll concede it may look that way from the outside, but I assure you my palate is refined as any human. Mom knows that now too, but it was not an easy lesson and that is part of what I want to tell you about.
You see, last year my golden retriever brother LoJack developed tumors in his mouth. They were small and undetectable at first but he stopped eating because he could not work his tongue correctly. The whole pack knew with all our doggy senses what was happening but we had no way to tell anyone (this was before I had a laptop). Mom could see he was trying to eat and was still hungry, so she started helping him. She began to make burgers and cakes and out of his prescription dog food to make it easier for him. She cut them into chunks and literally tossed them in his mouth to the back, where he was still tumor free and could swallow on his own. This worked for a while, but his condition worsened and he started to lose interest in eating.
Mom was really stressed out about it because LoJack had a liver problem and he needed this special dog food. It had changed his life and saved him from grave illness four years earlier. He also needed about 6 pills a day for his liver and he would not put anything in his mouth. Mom tried everything she could think of to get a proper balanced meal into him but it took hours at a time and still he lost weight.
Then one day the vet laid it out for my Mom in simple terms. She sort of knew but needed it hear it out loud. He told us LoJack’s liver dysfunction was nothing compared to what he was battling now. Since he remained a happy boy in every way except at mealtimes and at this point his pain was minimal all Mom had to do was keep him from starving. The vet made it clear to us; it did not matter what he ate anymore—just that he ate something and maybe had a painkiller now and then. “Let him eat steak.” he said and this became our new strategy.
A diet of the finest people food was prepared and hand fed to him daily. I am not sure how much he could taste anymore but the idea was the smell is what held his interest. My older dog sister Nikki and I were given tastes here and there but for the most part we kept our distance and let Mom and LoJack dine alone. Steak, seasoned and grilled, and spicy venison sausage were his favorites.
The pills he needed now were hidden inside grape tomatoes and bits of garlic bread. He even got vanilla ice cream and yogurt pops on the hottest summer nights. For a while, he seemed to enjoy eating again-or maybe it was just all the one on one Mommy time? Whatever it was, he regained his spark during this time and the whole family was glad to have him back to his old ways for at least a short time. All the food smelled delicious but Nikki and I knew the trade off and so we happily kept to our regular diets. Let him eat steak…
You probably know how the story ends; LoJack was gone before summer was over. The food was not enough to battle the illness and it made his eventual turn for the worse feel very sudden to us. Soon Mom had hours of time on her hands that she did not know what to do with. She could not remember what she used to do in the mornings before she started spending 45 minutes feeding LoJack, or at night before she spent hours precooking his meals.
That is kind of how the blog was born, and how Mom started to meet people like Linda. Everyone who came upon Mom’s blog posts about rescuing, loving and losing your dog took the time to leave comments and they were very kind to us. We could not have gotten through it without them.
Though it took her some time to get back to it after that, Mom does really enjoy cooking. I am an only dog now, and I am afforded a lot more slack than I ever was before when it comes to food. I usually get a few bites of any meal that is leftover (if there is nothing in it that is dangerous for me) and so I have a vested interest in getting Mom to try new stuff. This week she is going to try Linda’s recipe for “Potato and Egg Bake” and she promises to share. It isn’t exactly “eat steak” treatment, but I also get some homemade treats just for dogs made for just for me.
I would like to share the recipe for one of my favorites with you here—maybe you can whip up a batch for your own pets, or a friend’s, or maybe even drop by your local shelter with some treats and share the love. Spend some time walking the dogs there and getting to know them. I bet you’ll like it so much that you’ll be back again and again and I promise you will be welcomed with open paws even if you arrive empty handed.
Dogs appreciate food without question, but we appreciate the love that is behind it much more and it does not matter one bit how you choose to show it.
CTOTD blog author Linda is just one of the many friends my Mom met online a little over a year ago as she mourned for our LoJack and started her This Good. That Bad. fundraising company for animal causes. Linda is a dog lover herself and her own dog Duke was recently found to have tumors in his mouth too. She has kindly dedicated a post to the pooches in honor of October’s “Adopt A Shelter Dog” month. You can find all kinds of recipes and cooking reference materials at her site every day.
Kibble again? Let him eat steak!
Like this:
Filed under: dogs | Tags: animal rescue, dogs, homeless animals, labrador, puppy, shady, shadytales, spiderman, superheroes, TGTB, this good that bad
September 25, 2010.
(Cue ominous, haunting music) The following story is true, though some names and immaterial facts have been changed to protect the innocent. Despite the shocking details, Shady, Melissa and TGTB opted to share this story as warning to dogs and families everywhere. Don’t let those cute puppy faces out there fool you…they are not what they seem… (end ominous music, cut to peaceful house in suburbia on a sunny fall day)
Mom: Ah what a lovely day! It’s a perfect day for a play date don’t you think, Shady?
Shady: What? What the heck is a “play date”?
Mom: It is when you play with another dog, but the parents plan it ahead of time.
Shady: What do you mean “another dog”? I am an only dog…
Mom: Well, you know that little puppy I told you about? The one my friend brings to our office?
Shady: (backing away, glancing nervously to find her precious bone to chew and hide from this potential intruder) Ummmmm, yeaaa?
Mom: (turning away, mumbling in the other direction and forgetting that dogs have really good hearing) I think that, maybe, his Dad will be dropping him off here soon and uuuh, kinda, sorta, leavinghimhereafewhourstostaywithus.
Shady: GASP! Spiderman is coming HERE?! All day without his parents?!
Repeat ominous music, fade to black. End Scene 1.
Ok, well you might think that is a little dramatic but I swear it is true. We had a 4 month old puppy in this house on Saturday. For the WHOLE NIGHT. You have all heard me say that it is getting a little lonely now, being an only dog but let’s just say I am reconsidering that. Having time alone with one’s thoughts is underrated, it is really quite lovely to have quiet and privacy and the whole bed to yourself whenever you want it.
Spiderman is a black lab puppy that was recently adopted by Mom’s co-worker and his fiancée. He came to NJ from a high kill shelter out-of-state and was the last of his litter of superhero-named puppies to be adopted. He gets to come into work at their office every day. I tried that a few times but it was not quite my thing. Apparently if you go there, you are supposed to behave like you do at home. They expect you to lay around and sleep, maybe talk a walk at lunchtime and generally be quiet and behave. You know, like a piece of furniture. When I leave the house, I prefer to pace, pant, whine and bark incessantly so we all agreed I would just stay home. Forever. If Spiderman is making the office-dog thing work, I figured he must be a total suck up.
Spiderman, at the office. Can you blame Mom for letting him come over?
Now that I have met him, I don’t think that anymore. I do think the bar at the office must be set a little lower for puppies! This guy was all over the place! There is no way I could get away with that, at home or in the office. He was all “oooh what’s this?” and “can I chew on that?” and most annoyingly “why are you laying down? I am here to play!”
“No, no Spiderman” I corrected him. “You are here because you are little and your Mom and Dad desperately need a break had somewhere to go and would not in a million years did not want to leave you all alone. As it is, my Mom has you confined to the yard and kitchen and has removed all area rugs and pretty much anything that you can reach from the room. Let’s just make the best of things shall we? I still remember how to play. Just remember I am bigger, older and this is MY house. ” After that, most of the evening was a blur. I will let my Mom finish the story…
Hey, I saw it first. Give it baccckkk...Mooommmmm!!!
(Shady’s Mom here) …and so it went, the ground rules were set. Don’t ask me what those rules were, though. I have no idea what those two figured out while barking, rolling and running. Shady kept up with him alright, and even instigated a few vigorous sessions on her own when I think little Spiderman would have preferred to nap.
Dude, seriously, what is going on with your ears?
Between the two of them, there was no rest and everyone was pretty exhausted. Finally, after about 5 hours of rolling around the house and yard, they settled together on the same dog bed. Thirty seconds later and before I could get my camera out the doorbell rang. It was time for Spiderman to go home! Shady settled in for the night after that and did not move for 12 hours. If she didn’t snore so much I’d have been checking her pulse.
So, maybe our household is not ready for a new puppy of our own. I must have called Shady “Nikki” a dozen times, I guess because I am used to two black labs and Nikki was always the big girl. Now it was Shady being the big girl. It didn’t make me sad, exactly, but it put an edge on the hurt we feel knowing that Shady and I will never have our best friends Nikki or LoJack back again.
Spiderman is welcome in our house anytime. Having him around at work is a lot of fun too. As for another dog in our family right now, we are both in agreement that we are just not ready yet. The puppy experience is pretty interesting from this angle and we were thrilled to hear that my co-worker adopted instead of going the pet store route. He and his fiancee are the “real” superheroes! They actually set out for an adult dog but a smart shelter worker routed him to Spiderman when the first few did not work out for him…she arranged it so Spiderman never spent even one day alone after his last sibling (Batman, who else?) was adopted. Hey, they all need homes so that works for us. We can’t wait to watch him grow up!
You know what else works for us? Telling these stories, fundraising for animal groups and hearing all of you tell us about your pets and rescue stories . For now, this is our best approach to helping the animals that still need their forever homes. Please visit our website, www.thisgoodthatbad.com for more information on how we got started and what we might be able to do for you, your rescue, shelter or group. Don’t hesitate to leave a comment here or on or Facebook page either, we’d love to meet you.
Filed under: animal rescue, Blog Hops, dogs, events | Tags: adopt a less adoptable pet, Adopt A Less Adoptable Pet Week, animal rescue, BlogPaws, dogs, homeless animals, LoJack, Petfinder, shady, shadytales, special needs pets, TGTB, this good that bad
I have been a busy blogdog this week. Petfinder’s “Adopt a Less Adoptable Pet Week” is dwindling down and this will probably be my last post about it. So far we have met a “less adoptable” cat, discussed “adoptable” in the animal world as a term akin to “supermodel” in the people world and even explored what a Petfinder listing for yours truly might read like. Tonight we’d like to get back to the point…making a case for opening your homes and hearts to my “less adoptable” friends. You may call them whatever you like; special needs, seniors, shy, shelter shocked, it doesn’t matter. Just don’t paint them with such a narrow brush that you don’t allow their true colors to come through. Visit as many pets as you can when looking to adopt, and look for a connection instead of a breed standard or particular size or age. The dog that you don’t think you want is usually the one that needs you the most.
I have been an only dog for a while now and some same species company might be nice around here. I am not picky—a girlfriend to gab with, a nice strong boy dog to protect me, or maybe even a sweet senior who will make me look like a pup again. Maybe I’ll just browse a little on Petfinder right now. There are a lot of new friends for me here…uh-oh…hold on just a minute. Whoa Puppy!!! Who is THIS handsome hunk of a sporting breed????
My man Case, looking for love in sunny California.
Now this is the exactly kind of “case” I had in mind! His name is Case! Can I keep him Mom? This 6-year-old German short-haired pointer, despite his rugged good looks and soft eyes, would also fall into the “less adoptable” category. I may be part cougar, but at my age of 9 I think his age of 6 sounds perfect! Even so, his age, size and mild manners make him statistically “less adoptable”. Just listen to his personal ad…er, umm I mean “Petfinder listing.”
Case is a 6-year-old neutered male whose world got turned upside down when he was left at the shelter, and he needs some time to adjust to what has happened. He’s a little uncertain right now, afraid of some noises, and a bit clingy. We’re recommending that any children in the home be 13 or older. Case is a handsome fellow who likes to go for rides in the car – in fact, he’ll hang around the car looking hopeful! He’s house-trained, behaves nicely in the house, and enjoys running around outside with the two female dogs in his foster home.
I remember LoJack being described a lot like this fellow. They called it shelter shock for him because after a lifetime with a family he didn’t understand where he was anymore. LoJack was clingy too but Mom loved that about him and the shyness melted away into what Mom termed “polite gregariousness” very soon after he settled in here. Mom loved a lot about LoJack, remember how he inspired the whole “This Good That Bad” fundraising thing? LoJack loved her a lot too and people would beat a path to Case’s door if they knew what was like to be loved like that. He just needs someone to bring him out of his shell and make him feel at home, because he WILL be home. See Mom? He sounds perfect!!!!!! I know it does not say it verbatim but I can read between the lines, he is clearly looking for a worldly and mature black Labrador to love him. Trust me, I speak dog.
Oh darn, Case is in California. Mom said “no, too far.” That’s what she said but I know he really is too much like LoJack and she is not ready yet. Hhhmph. Fine, I’ll stop with the Petfinder ads and maybe take out a personal ad of my own, then. “Single black female seeks a male dog of any color. Size really doesn’t matter….”
Still, I can’t believe that none of those west coast girl dogs, oops I mean “families” out there have not snapped up this fellow. Just look at this centerfold, oh yea I mean “avatar”. Whatever. There was never a better case for “less adoptable” than my man Case. Doesn’t make him any less of a dog and it doesn’t mean he has any less love to give.
That is why we say, Adoptable, Schmadoptable! Click on Case’s photo to view his complete information, or contact his rescue angels, who so want him to find his forever home, at:
NorCal German Shorthaired Pointer Rescue, Menlo Park, CA|
408-402-2092
Email NorCal German Shorthaired Pointer Rescue
See more pets from NorCal German Shorthaired Pointer Rescue |
For more information, visit NorCal German Shorthaired Pointer Rescue’s Web site.
This is a Blog Hop! 186 entries so far… you’re next!
Filed under: Blog Hops, dogs, events | Tags: adopt a less adoptable pet, Adopt A Less Adoptable Pet Challenge, Adopt A Less Adoptable Pet Week, adoptable, animal rescue, be the change, BlogPaws, cancer schmancer, dogs, Fran Drescher, homeless animals, Less adoptable, pet adoption, Petfinder, schmadoptable, shady, shadytales, TGTB, this good that bad
First of all, I would like to thank everyone for reading and sharing our post about “less adoptable” pets earlier this week. It was part of Petfinder’s “Adopt a Less Adoptable Pet” Challenge. We don’t have any new information yet on the gorgeous orange and white DSH cat we featured, Woody, but we hope he gets a new home as a result…and soon! He has done more than his share of “time” in that adoption center cage in NJ. If you missed it, you might want to go back and take a peek, especially at the third paragraph where we explain a little more about what the terms “adoptable” and “less adoptable” mean to the world and to us. At the end of the day, those terms are nothing more than labels and “adoptable” is truly in the eye of the beholder.
After that post, we heard from a lot of families who were grateful for the opportunity to have all kinds of special dogs and cats in their lives. Many of them never even gave the “special needs” or challenges these animals had a second thought. Their eyes, and ultimately their hearts, went straight to the good in them.
All of this got me thinking….what if I wasn’t in this family? What if I wasn’t Mom’s pet? My family found me in a fancy mall pet store. Had the shopkeepers there taken the time to get to know me (like shelter workers , rescuers and fosters do) and been concerned about finding the right match for me, they would have told Mom more about what she was getting into. I think the little sign on my cage, or perhaps my Petfinder listing if I ended up lost or on the street any time during my life, might have read like this if someone else wrote it:
It's true, I'm a little shy...
Ah, yes! Mom found the secret, it's in the BONES...
Shady is a loveable petite Labrador puppy who mostly just wants to follow, love and be loved. She will trust you and any pets you have to protect her from harm and in return will be by your side her entire life, ready to snuggle and smooch on a moment’s notice. She learns quickly from other dogs in the household and will do whatever they do without question. Despite rough beginnings in a puppy mill crate, she will remain freakishly resistant to any virus or infection that plagues the other dogs or fosters on the house, thus cutting your medical costs by at least one-third. Shady can be a little nervous at times, but she thrives on routine and having a nice clean bone at the ready will go a long way to calm her when there is a disruption in the schedule. She is a bit of a homebody and thinks the whole world is this house and yard and that is just fine with her. Shady adores all adults, children and dogs she meets. She greets them gently and makes them feel welcome by cozying right up wherever they settle. She will be an ideal host to any foster or newly adopted pet that moves through here for any length of time. She will also be an ideal companion as your other dogs’ age, keeping them company in the toughest of times and looking out for them to the end. She will miss them when they are gone, but make comforting you after their loss her top priority.
(Hey! Mom, you left out the part “Shady will eventually evolve into a celebrity blogger!” That’s OK, I guess, I think that evolution is still in progress. Hee hee) You see? Now all of a sudden I am ready to be someone’s best friend and totally “adoptable!” Hey! Mom, you left out the part “Shady will eventually evolve into a celebrity blogger”. As one Fran Drescher might say “Adoptable, Schmadoptable!” Well, I guess the point is, you have to be honest when describing what a dog or cat needs when they are looking for a new family. All animals might not be ”adoptable” to everyone but we are all adoptable to someone. We are probably just what that someone needs, we just need the chance to find them. People need to know what they are getting into for sure and the pet needs to be protected from a mismatch. How can you possibly describe what they will get in return? That is much harder to convey in any tiny listing or sign. Just tell them to keep reading around here, or any of the 100 plus blogs on the Blog Hop and they’ll learn soon enough. So, what if your dog or cat wasn’t your own? If you were fostering them, what would you tell prospective adopters about them?
Shady’s Mom, Melissa, is the director of marketing for a firm in NJ by day, and a blogger an entrepreneur by night. She still has good days and bad days since losing two of her dogs last year. She knows they would be proud of her efforts to help animal rescue through her “This good. That bad.” products. Please come back and visit us soon and if you are in animal rescue, contact us to learn more about how we can help you fundraise.
This is a Blog Hop! 186 entries so far… you’re next!
Filed under: Blog Hops, dogs | Tags: animal rescue, Blog Hop, dogs, Pedigree, Pedigree Adoption Drive, Pedigree Blog Hop, pet food drive, Write a Post Help a Dog
We are taking part in Pedigree’s Blog Hop this week! What is that? Well I am not completely sure, so join us as we learn, won’t you? I do know that if you read on you will find out how Pedigree helps homeless animals and get a chance to make a difference yourself–just fan their Facebook page and they will donate food to a shelter. You will also get to meet new people and discover a lot of cool new blogs you should be reading. If you have a blog of your own, you can join anytime between 9/16 and 9/19/2010. So read on and get the facts right along with us.
If you were referred here from a blog hop link already, you might want to check out this post instead to see the kinds of things you can expect to see on this blog regularly. This was one of my most visited posts, ever. If you like what you read, please use the link on the left to subscribe. Now back to the “hop”.
The Facts:
Each year, more than 4 million dogs end up in shelters and breed rescue organizations. Pedigree created The PEDIGREE Adoption Drive to help shine a spotlight on the plight of these homeless dogs.
This year the PEDIGREE Adoption Drive is raising awareness for homeless dogs by donating a bowl of food to shelter dogs for everyone who becomes a “Fan” or “Likes” The PEDIGREE Adoption Drive on Facebook. So far more than 1 million bowls have been donated the goal is for Pedigree to be able to give a bowl of food to each and everyone of the 4 million dogs in shelters and rescues by the end of the year.
How the Pedigree BlogPaws Bloggers are stepping it up to Be the Change:
Thanks for blog hopping with us! Note to our fellow bloggers: WordPress does not support the java needed to update this list auto-magically” so we will do so manually once a day.
Shady’s Mom, Melissa, is the director of marketing for a firm in NJ by day, and a blogger an entrepreneur by night. She still has good days and bad days since losing two of her dogs last year. She knows they would be proud of her efforts to help animal rescue through her “This good. That bad.” products. If she cannot adopt them all she wants to at least increase their chances any way she can. Please come back and visit us soon and if you are in animal rescue, contact us to learn more about how we can help you fundraise.
Filed under: dogs | Tags: animal rescue, contest, golden retriever, homeless animals, shadytales, TGTB, TGTB Writing Challenge, this good that bad
Guess what you did? Yes, YOU. Not just me and Mom, not just This Good That Bad (TGTB) but everyone we know from Facebook and Twitter and our website and the blog all together…we have raised $500 for animal rescues and causes this summer! Oh sure, we had fun along the way, too. We gave away car magnets and T-shirts to the caption contest winners and we got to know each other a little better as well. Still there was time for some serious business; the kind of business TGTB set out to do from its inception—help homeless animals directly.
The way it works is, you guys buy stuff at our TGTB site and Mom donates the money we make. If a sale is not part of a fundraiser for a specific group then we wait till we have a bunch of individual sales and come up with a way to give you a chance to win sp,e of the proceeds for their favorite cause. Sometimes we just pick somebody to give it to on our own but our contests accounted for most of the donations this summer. That means you guys did all the work—from shopping to participating– and you chose the beneficiaries. So sit back, grab a big cup of that coffee you people seem to love so much (all I ever get is water, you know) and use the links to take a stroll down memory lane and relive the highlights of TGTB’s summer 2010 as you read the recap of where it all went.
Chaucer, our writing contest winner's companion.
$100 Southern California Golden Retriever Rescue
for Nicole and Chaucer (May 2010)
Winner of the TGTB Writing Challenge
$100 Forever Home Beagle Rescue
for Rebecca (June 2010)
Winner of the TGTB Pet Food Giveaway
$ 75 AZ R.E.S.C.U.E.
for Alana (August 2010)
Winner of “The Love of Dog is Universal” Contest
$ 25 Humane Society of Knox County
for Morganne, photographer (August 2010)
“The Love of a Dog is Universal “ Contest
(This is also the shelter that helped Chihuahua Ricardo out of a “Little Black Mess” and into a new forever home)
Now of course, doing what we do means we meet a lot of people each day-online and in person – who are doing good things for animals. We wish we could help every one of them and maybe someday when our slogans and T-shirts become “household names” we will. For now, we chose a few other worthy causes to support without any kind of contest. Knowing what we know about the people who shop at TGTB we are pretty sure you would approve, but please use the links to read more about them if you’d like:
To sponsor a senior pet, Cocoa, and his medical care
2 donations, $25/per (May and August 2010)
$ 25 Country Haven Kennel
To support Buddy, an animal abuse victim released to the kennel’s care by NJ courts
and Hannah, a special needs foster in the kennel’s care. (July 2010)
$ 25 Operation Fuzzy Mice
Outreach program in CA, provides essential pet supplies to low-income families (July 2010)
$ 25 Shelby’s Auction
TEAM Shelby, Anipal auction to raise money for an abused pit bull’s medical care
(August 2010)
$ 75 Miscellaneous cash and product donations to our favorite groups such as the Burlington County Animal Alliance (the rescue that saved our LoJack) and Mariah’s Promise, a no-kill sanctuary in Colorado that our friend Mayzie told us about. (June-May 2010)
Ricardo
It has been a privilege to meet and work with you. From the bottom of my spoiled little pet store puppy heart, I want to thank you for making these donations possible. The numbers from TGTB alone will probably never be high enough to save them all, but it is nice to know that if we keep at it and keep working together we can continue to make a difference for homeless dogs and cats. Please continue to visit us and fundraise with us. We have enjoyed this pause for reflection but we both know there is still so much more that these animals need. No one person or pet can do it alone.
This Good That Bad is looking ahead to a fall/winter promotion that is yet to be determined, but as always the real winner will be an animal cause or group. Please visit us often and if you have any suggestions for products or promotions or if you are interested in fundraising for your own group with our products, do not hesitate to contact us.
