Archive for the ‘Hammer’ Category

April 16, 2010 update: Here is my official Be The Change post on About.com

OK now that I have had a few days to let all of the goodness that was Blogpaws settle in, I wrote up a more formal recap on my K9Cuisine blog: The Hustle and Bustle That Was Blogpaws and have some fun photos and a challenge(!) to share here.

At the first of this year, I started blogging over at K9Cuisine – VetMed Connect. I had never met Anthony Hollaway, CEO, never even talked on the phone, but we have exchanged tweets and emails over the last year or so. Blogpaws bonus = I got to meet  Anthony and Kate Hollaway, owners of K9Cuisine. No surprise, they are just as nice in person as I know them from online. Amazing people. Lots of laughs were had. I also had the pleasure of meeting fellow K9Cuisine blogger, Roxanne Hawn of The Dog Food Dish.

Heather, DrV, Me, Amy/GoPetFriendly, Anthony and Kate Hollaway (Camera flash in Anthony's eyes ;-0) Photo credit: Brad Smith Photography

Another “finally got to meet” person that I have worked with at About.com for quite a while now, Jenna Stregowski RVT, About.com Guide to Dogs. It is so wonderful to meet someone  you only “know” from online work. We had a great time catching up on all things dogs, About.com, and Blogpaws.

iPhones are great! Photo credit: me

A friend that I know in real life, Heather, decided to attend Blogpaws at the last minute, and it was such a blast having her meet the all of the online peeps I have talked about. Exciting Blogpaws moment: Heather confided that she wants to start a blog! A blogger is born. I showed her how to search and purchase domain names. Here she is hitting the “add to cart” button using her iPhone. Throughout the day, she kept having more ideas, and I think she hit the “add to cart” 4 or 5 more times. Go Heather! →

Me and DrV of Pawcurious.com - Photo credit: Brad Smith Photography

←Finally, DrV. I introduced her to readers of this blog last summer, and we have become friends via email, Twitter and Facebook. Thanks to Blogpaws, we finally got to meet! We had lots to catch up on. And we did. Lots of laughs. Good times.

Let’s Be The Change
The “Be The Change” seminar at Blogpaws, moderated by Jane Harrell of Petfinder and including panelists DrV of Pawcurious, Dorian Wagner of Your Daily Cute, and Lynn Haigh of PawPawty.com. Was very awesome.

It wasn’t your typical sit-and-listen type of talk, though. No, thanks to DrV, they threw out a challenge to everyone in the audience, everyone at Blogpaws, and all of YOU out there reading this blog. The video featured in this post, created by Lynn Haigh (aka @FrugalDougal), pretty much sums up their session and our mission.

DrV has summed it up here: Be The Change Challenge. A quick recap: Tomorrow, Friday April 16th, please blog about how you can “be the change” for one animal, a shelter, or your community. You don’t have to raise thousands of dollars, it can be as simple as donating some used towels, cat litter or pet food to your local shelter. Help out a fellow blogger, offer to take photos of shelter animals to help get them adopted, foster an animal waiting for a home. So many possibilities! I will be blogging about this as well, but wanted to spread the word now. Activate those thinking caps!

To support our Be The Change Challenge, we are having a Paw Pawty April 21st from 7 pm – 1 am EST to benefit Pets Without Parents in Columbus, Ohio. What’s this? It is a Twitter phenomenon, started by Lynn Haigh (aka @FrugalDougal) and Caroline Golon, also known as the staff of Romeo the Cat (@RomeoTheCat). They have raised thousands of dollars for shelters all around the world. I am in awe of their work and the inspiration they have provided to so many of us. Kudos! As you can see from the widget below, change is happening – donations are coming in to help out this rescue organization!

learn more about this Paw Pawty event – I have donated some beads for prizes.

Grab your fundraising progress widget courtesy of DrV to put on YOUR blog.
NOTE: Pets Without Parents is a certified charity. All funds collected are handled by FirstGiving, the Paw Pawty organizers do not handle any of the donations.

Here it is in action:

Are you on Twitter? Join the Blogpaws Twibe!
Are you on Facebook? Join the Blogpaws fan page!

Related posts:

• Social media and being the change you want to see
• Hammer Time – Our New Greyhound Foster Dog (my version of Be The Change)
• Dog Food Action Day by Roxanne Hawn

It’s been a little over two weeks since we welcomed Hammer the Foster Dog into our home, and I thought it was time for an update. I wrote about where we are today on my blog at VetMedConnect. Barnie just had to be part of the update…

Mr. Blanca as a young roo

Oops. I am kind of behind the eight-ball here on blog posts. Lots of exciting stuff going on.

DrV is thinking chickens!
Imagine my excitement when I saw this post on DrV’s blog this morning: I want a chicken. The only problem with that title is the singular, “chicken” but we will fix that. I plan to write a post in the next day or two about how I got started with chickens. And why everyone needs them.

A little preoccupied
Part of the reason I have been lame at updates is because… I learned to knit.  WHOA – the yarns! The colors! The projects! Hold me back. I started crocheting when I was about 10, but  never thought I could figure out knitting. (Heck it is only two stitches, anyone can knit!) Now I am immersed. So far I have made a couple scarves, a couple hats, and a Greyhound sweater. I am spending way too much time on knitting and yarn sites. More on that later.

New Contributing Writer at About.com
I am loving working with my ‘old’ pal, Lianne McLeod DVM again. She was the Guide to Exotic Pets at About.com for 11 years before taking some time off to pursue an advanced degree. I was sad to see her go and missed working with her. She missed us too, and is now back as a Contributing Writer for About.com Veterinary Medicine. Yes! She has written several articles now, and I need to create an index of her work.

Thrilled to be working with these vets, too
I started working with Ahna Brutlag DVM and Justine A. Lee DVM DACVEC (bio coming soon!) of Pet Poison Helpline at the end of last year. They are amazing – writing for esteemed veterinary  journals and textbooks and somehow finding time to contribute very interesting veterinary toxicology and emergency case reports for my site. Check them out!

Blogging Bonanza – two new blogs

VetMed Connect
In other news, I sort of forgot to formally introduce my latest blogging space, VetMed Connect over at K9Cuisine.com. Company CEO Anthony Holloway has assembled a great team of writers to work with.  I blog each Wednesday on this site. (Or maybe Thursday if the week is crazy. You know how it goes sometimes.)

Here is the rundown of writers at K9Cuisine:

• Dog Food Dish – Roxanne Hawn
• The Positively Well-Behaved Dog – Susan McCollough
• Rescue Me: Tails of Pet Rescue – Kerri Fivecoat-Campbell
• Parenting Kids and Pets – Sharon Ann Waldrop
• Pet Tips and Tails – Allie Johnson
• And last but not least…
• CEO Blog – Anthony  Holloway

DogTime
DogTime contacted me about blogging there, and they are a great group, so here I am. My first post was about saving money on pet care.

Now I need to get over to K9Cuisine and post an update on my foster dog, Hammer the Greyhound!

Hammer and friends met for an “adoption booth” at Petco last Saturday. He loved the attention from everyone, especially kids. I had to go slow with him when around other male dogs, though. He is not neutered yet. I shared some photos and  wrote about Hammer last week – he has a condition called thrombocytopenia, his surgery was put on hold for a while to make sure his platelet count is up. He had a very fun time and came home one tired dog.

3-16-10 update: Hammer will be re-tested and hopefully neutered, microchipped, teeth cleaned, etc. tomorrow! He is on the hunt for his forever home. He is such a sweetie!

Who will come through those doors next?

Ready to meet and greet and roo and stretch and get some loves with Rosie and Baccarat.

The night that Hammer the Foster Dog came into our house, Argos seemed, for lack of a better description, a little put out. I can’t help anthropomorphizing here. Sophie handled the new guy as if nothing was different (oh sweet Sophie!). Argos had this worried look in his eyes – was he being replaced? Poor guy.

There are those who say animals do not have feelings, I disagree. Consider this. Argos has slept on the same dog bed, in the same place in the bedroom, since we first adopted him. He always sleeps the same way on it; curled up, back to the wall. The night Hammer arrived? I had to laugh – there was Argos, on his bed as usual, all curled up but – facing the wall. His back toward us!

We have an odd assortment of bedraggled dog beds here. Sophie has never really cared about being on a bed, she seems to prefer the floor. Knowing that we were headed in the direction of fostering a Greyhound, I ordered another bed. I didn’t have anyone special in mind when I did this, just that it would be good to have another dog bed. On the way home, I decided that is should be deemed Argos’ special bed. I put it in the place of his old one, and he took right to it. He loved it so much that I am now dragging it to the bedroom and around the house for him.

Oh, and he isn’t sleeping with his back to us anymore.

I recently wrote about social media and being the change you want to see on the VetMed Connect blog at K9Cuisine. I have been thinking about this topic a lot. I formerly couldn’t trust myself to go to a shelter or work directly with rescues for fear of adopting everyone. Fostering? No way. Out of the question!

But things have changed for me, thankfully. I wrote more about this fostering experience on VetMed Connect right after posting these photos, but for now, here is a peek at our new guy. His name is Hammer, and he is 2 years old.

First order of business - a nice bath. Ahhhh!

Argos demonstrates his typical work day for Hammer.

Sophie demonstrates her typical work day for Hammer.

Hammer thinks about it.

Hammer wonders what the deal is with all of the photos. Look at those EARS! So cute.

Barnie, feeling a little put out that the new guy isn't very interested in his dog-teasing antics.

Continued:

Hammer Time – Our New Greyhound Foster Dog – in Words