Adopt a Less Adoptable Pet Week

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It’s Adopt a Less Adoptable Pet Week.  This week (through September 25), Petfinder and others are raising awareness about the many deserving pets who may be overlooked by potential adopters.

There are many factors that can contribute to that “less adoptable”
label – including age, special needs, or breed (such as pit bulls). 
Some of the factors are less obvious – for example, did you know that black dogs are less likely to be adopted?  I know!  I don’t get it either.

BlogPaws has challenged bloggers to post about a less adoptable pet this week – and a group of sponsors have offered to donate money for each post.  Those donations will be given to Blind Cat Rescue and the Grey Muzzle Foundation.  Pretty cool, huh?

So, how do you participate?  Go to Petfinder’s list of less adoptable pets.  Choose one (you have the option to search for pets near you – see the instructions in the sidebar on that page).  Then write a post and add your post to this list.  (For bonus points, share it on Facebook and Twitter too!  For Twitter, use the hashtags #BetheChange and #ALAPW.)
 

So… now that the intro is out of the way, I’d like to introduce you to Skye the Dachshund.  This little guy is approximately 2 to 4 years old.  He was found dragging himself down a road in North Carolina and ended up in a shelter.  A shelter worker tried to find a rescue to take him – now he’s with Dachshund Rescue of  North America in Virginia.  DRNA isn’t sure what caused the injury to Skye’s back legs.  He was not a candidate for surgery by the time DRNA got involved.  However, he was quite the speed demon after he got a customized cart, and now he’s walking and running!  Maybe this speed racer will roll (or run) right into your home and heart?  For more info on Skye, please visit his Petfinder listing.  You can see more videos and photos of Skye here.

Now it’s your turn… spread the word for a less adoptable pet.  Your post may help someone find the dog they didn’t even realize they were searching for.  After all, less adoptable pets rule!

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OK Dog

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I liked OK Go after that awesome treadmill video.  After watching the video below, I love them:



(via Best Week Ever)

Most of these doggie superstars are rescues, and the message at the end of the video encourages viewers to support the ASPCA.  You can even donate to animal rescue through OK Go’s website.

Apparently OK Go is on Leno tonight… I don’t usually watch, but I may make an exception this one time…

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Head of the class

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Speed Bump
(via Speed Bump)

It’s September… which means school is back in session.  I haven’t been a student in quite some time.  Neither has Ms. Bella.  She did take one obedience course… seven years later, she does sit when asked (most of the time). 

We’ve been lucky – Bella’s a fairly low-maintenance gal who doesn’t get into much trouble.  When we eventually adopt dog number two, we’ll have to be much more diligent! 

If you haven’t already guessed, the topic of today’s No Frown Friday is… school!  Let’s hit the books:

  1. This week’s punny pet names are based on some famous names that chose the School of Life instead of a college degree: Drew Hairymore, Nose-Anne Barr, Roarin’ Beatty, and J.K. Howling.
  2. During college, I often found myself suffering from doggie withdrawal.  Earlier this week, I read that Yale Law School had recognized this epidemic, and offered a solution: if you needed a boost, you could check out Monty the pup for a 30 minute play date.  The circulation listing quoted in that post is so cute it’s out of control.  (A sample… “Subjects: Dogs in libraries; Stress reliever for law students.”)  It turns out that Monty might not have been available, but that’s okay.  A girl can dream.  I would have owed so much in overdue dog fees.
  3. Who needs obedience school? This “” has a college degree!
  4. You may (or may not) remember those great literary punny pet names I shared back in June.  In any event, there’s a second installment – quite a treat!  (Be sure to take the pun-filled quiz… I’m still giggling about Captain A. Lab.)
I’ve pulled today’s video out of the Internet archives, and dusted it off for your amusement.  I remember when I first saw this video last year. It quickly earned a place on my list of favorite things:


Reactions: (1) I would have been so much better at science if it was taught by puppies.  (2) I would like to open a school where all lessons are taught with the help of puppies.  (3)  I’ve already got a foolproof plan for the drama program.

Speaking of smarty pants pups, sometimes well-educated service dogs school others in the Americans with Disabilities Act.  If you want to learn more about the valedictorians of the doggie world – those amazingly smart service dogs – check out Canine Companions for Independence.  CCI spoke at Blog Paws West last weekend, and by all accounts it was amazing!

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Write a post, help a dog

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Today, I have homework for you.  Yes, you.

Whether you’re a blogger (pet or otherwise) or just a blog reader, you have a chance to earn some good karma points by sending a little puppy love out into the world.  Tell me more, you say?  Why, certainly…

If you have a blog – any blog – it’s simple.  (If you don’t, it’s just as simple.  See below.)  For each blog that publishes a post about the Pedigree Adoption Drive by Sunday, September 19, Pedigree will donate a 20 pound bag of its new Healthy Longevity Food for Dogs to shelter dogs.  (Most shelter dogs are over three years old – the perfect constituency for this new formula.)

To participate, just make sure to follow the rules below:

  1. One post per blog.
  2. To make sure that post counts: (a) Announce your post on Twitter, using the hashtag #dogsrule; (b) Use #dogsrule in your post; (c) use “#dogsrule” as a tag/label for your post; (d) Link to the Pedigree Adoption Drive fan page on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/Pedigree?ref=ts)
  3. Link your post (using the post URL, not your blog’s URL) to the blog hop hosted by the 10 lucky bloggers that Pedigree sponsored to attend the recent BlogPaws West conference.  (The blog hop will run from Thursday through Sunday – you can even link up through this blog.  Just add your post to the list after the jump.)

Easy peasy, right?

If you don’t have a blog, you can still participate.  For every person that becomes a fan of the Pedigree Adoption Drive on Facebook by December 31, Pedigree will donate a bowl of food to shelter dogs.  What are you waiting for?  (And if you do have a blog, do both!)

Write a post, help a dog.  It’s that simple.

As a rescue pup herself, Bella fully endorses the content of this post.  Bella rules.

(Click “read more” to see the blogs that are already participating and to add your own post to the list.  I really am making this too easy on you.)

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Meet Emerald the Lab

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We have a special treat for you today – a guest post!  We’re participating in a post exchange with our pal Emerald from The Blab Labs.  Go visit The Blab Labs to read our post and check out Emerald’s wonderful blog!  Take it away, furry friend…  

First, I would like to say thank you to Pup Fan for allowing me the honor of being a guest on this blog.

Second, I would like to introduce myself. My name is Emerald. I’m a–wait, if you want to know about me, you can visit my  blog, http://www.theblablabs.com/. Right now I’m here to write a guest post about my most recent concern…

My pawrents have been exhibiting strange behaviour with their toys and I’m a little worried. We have two shiny things in the house that are turning my mom into a nutcase. Every now and then both of those things start making weird noisy sounds until mom dashes across the house to grab one of them. Its like she is fetching something but once she gets there, she gets all excited and makes a big fuss about nothing. I just don’t get it.

Do you know what I’m talking about? My humans act as though they are having conversations with little people in the thing!

I try to stop her every time (I’d like to be credited as the dog that keeps my mom sane) by jumping on her, tackling her, or nudging the thing out of her hand but she insists on holding it on her head. She only pauses her crazy act to force me to lie down and stay before she ignores me and acts weird again.

It doesn’t stop there. I am a good dog and of-course I lie down quietly for a while. I look at her intently, because although she has this crazy-person-blank-stare, I’m hoping she’ll let me get up soon. I know for sure she is going insane because when she finally says, “OK” to me and I get up to knock the thing out of her hand again (I SWEAR she said “OK”), she acts super annoyed and makes me sit again! Its like she can’t make up her mind whether she needs help or not.

“Sit. stay, Emerald.”… “OK.”

“No! Sit stay, Emerald.”… “OK.”

Eventually she puts the thing down and acts as though nothing even happened. Its so random. This weird habit has been repeating itself more and more frequently. The only thing that has changed is that she is giving me less “OK’s” to help her out.

Should I be worried? Do your humans have similar issues or are mine just crazy?

Barked up by Emerald
If you’d like to participate in Mention Monday with Emerald, find out more info here.

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Remembering

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I wanted to share this great video with you from The Dog Files.  (Have your tissues handy.)  No wordy intro from me today… this video speaks for itself:

If you’d like to read more, The Thundering Herd has also posted some info about heroic 9/11 dogs.  You can also read an account from 2001 about some of the dogs working at the Pentagon.

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Are you ready for some football?

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If I had to guess, I’d say that Bella is not a football fan (jersey photos notwithstanding).  Although she loves rope bones and plush toys, balls have never been her thing.  Seeing Bella playing with a tennis ball is kind of like finding a four-leaf clover.  It’s an extremely rare occurrence.

Anyway, football season is here!  It’s my first year participating in the confusing world of fantasy football – I may not know what I’m doing, but I do think my team name is pretty awesome.  (Go Rush Puppies!)  Accordingly, today’s No Frown Friday takes us to the gridiron…

  1. Your punny pet names for the week are inspired by some Hall of Famers: Terry Bradspaw, Vince Pombardi (for your Pomeranian football fan), and Howly Long.
  2. Check out this cool football gear for your dog over at Phetched.
  3. Speaking of dogs playing sports, even the Canine in Chief enjoys a game of football every now and then.
  4. Got some time to kill before the games start this weekend?  You can watch full episodes of The Charlie Brown and Snoopy Show – including this episode about Snoopy’s football career. 

In my quest to find the perfect video for today’s post, I came across the very talented dog below.   He’s not playing football in the American sense of the word… but he’s cute so we can overlook that, right?


He makes me smile.

In other dog news, next week you can help dogs simply by writing a post on your blog. For every blogger that posts about the Pedigree Adoption Drive between now and September 19, Pedigree will donate a bag of dog food to shelter dogs.  Cosmo Havanese over at To Dog With Love has all the details.  Go check it out!  We’ll be doing a dedicated post on the subject next week – hope you will too.

More of a blog reader than a blog writer?  That’s okay – for every new person that likes the Pedigree Adoption Drive on Facebook, Pedigree will donate a bowl of food to shelter dogs.  It doesn’t get any easier than that!

Happy weekend!

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What would Bella do?

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I have a feeling that most dog owners can relate to today’s Dog eat Doug – this comic illustrates perfectly what Bella would do if given the chance to go off leash:

(Apologies for the small print – you can see the full-size version here.)

To any new readers who found us through Make a New Friend Tuesdays at the Two Little Cavaliers blog: welcome!  Hope you’ll stick around and check us out.  (And if you haven’t met Felissa and her pups Davinia and Indiana, head on over and say hi!)

If you’d like to meet the dog behind this blog, check out some of our past Bella posts.   Happy Tuesday!

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Dr. Strangedog, I presume?

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Our humble blog was honored by two of our furry friends with an award.  The reason?  Being strange.  Well… guess I can’t argue with that one…

First, a big thanks to the Road Dogs and the Blab Labs for this award!  As the Road Dogs pointed out, we do have a strange obsession with space around here. (It does rate its own category of posts, after all.)  The Blab Labs noted the mysterious workings of Bella’s mind, and decided she (and we) were pretty strange creatures.  Given some of her antics, they have a point. 

Anyway, now it’s time to share the award with some of our blogging buddies.  The rules, after the jump:

  1. Add the logo of the award to your post.
  2. Include a link to the person (or dog) who gave the award to you.  Better safe than sorry, so here they are again: Road Dog Tales (who recently posted about searching for a ghost town to keep up their strange street cred) and The Blab Labs (my pun obsession means I giggle each time I see the word “dogumentary” on that page).
  3. Nominate seven blogs that are also strange, and explain why the recipient deserves the award.  (Note to all honorees… from me, strange is most definitely a compliment!)  Here we go:

Finally, make sure to notify the recipients that you think they are just as strange as you are.  Happy Sunday to all of my readers, both strange and non-strange… though I have a feeling the latter group is much smaller.

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