It’s always hard to go back to work after a long weekend. Why not ease in with a few fantastic posts? For June’s monthly roundup, I thought I’d try a different theme…
Cue the Snoopy Come Home music…
Just kidding. Today, I’m sharing fifteen posts that made me smile last month. Get to clicking and find some post-holiday cheer! Continue reading
Yesterday, I found myself in a position I never expected. I was standing at an animal shelter surrendering a dog. How many times had I wondered how someone could do something like that? Countless. Yet… there I was.
As you may have guessed from the title of this post, our tiny herd is no longer a trio. Instead, it’s now a dynamic duo. (I will, however, still be referring to them as a tiny herd. Old habits – you know, all of two and a half weeks old – die hard.)
How did we end up here? Read on, my friend… though be warned, it’s a long one. Continue reading
I’m almost a month behind with this monthly roundup… oops! Life has been getting the better of me lately, as you can probably tell. I’ve not been able to get around to as many blogs as I’d like, so here’s hoping I can catch up soon and get the June monthly roundup to you before September.
Anyway, on to the posts! Continue reading
This brave confession over at Something Wagging has inspired me to come clean as well – I’m an awards slacker. When it comes to blogging awards, I’m deeply appreciative but supremely lazy. That ends today.
I have two awards (from three four sources) to pass along today. I decided to give myself a bit of a challenge, and imposed a rule of my own on the proceedings. If I’ve ever given you an award in the past (this includes instances in which I cheated and just turned the spotlight on those fantastic bloggers who gave me an award), I decided to deem you ineligible for this particular round of awards. I thought it would be fun to shine the spotlight on some new faces and spaces.
First up, the Kreativ Blogger award, which I received from my pals at Kol’s Notes, Bringing Up Bella and A Filly’s Best Friend. A huge thank you to allof them for passing this award along to me – they’re all absolutely fantastic and I encourage you to pay them a visit and say so. (Go. Don’t make me “encourage” you with a baseball bat to the virtual kneecap. Seriously. Don’t get on my bad side.)
Anyway, the rules of this award require me to share a few things about myself. According to Kol’s Notes, I should share 7 things, and according to Bringing Up Bella and A Filly’s Best Friend, I should share 10. (I long ago accepted that the evolution of blog awards is akin to a game of telephone.) I’m splitting the difference and will share 8.5 things about myself:
Up next, I’m going to pass on the Pawsome Blog Award, courtesy of Roxy the Traveling Dog. A huge thank you for sharing this award with me!
(Also, that earlier virtual kneecap threat applies… get on over there, buddy.)
The one seems to be light on the rules, other than to give it to blogs you love. With that in mind, I’m passing it on to these eight blogs:
There’s truly something special about each and every one of those blogs – I hope you’ll take the time to visit and discover the awesomeness.
Whew. I’m all out of awards, so I shall take my leave of you now. (Anyone else start singing “I’m all out of love… I’m so lost without you” after reading the first clause of that sentence? No? Um, neither did I.) Until tomorrow, my friends…
‘Tis the time for reminiscing about 2011…
Last year, I shared some of my favorite posts from this blog. This year, I’ve decided to stop the navel gazing (until the Pet Blogger Challenge later this month, of course) and highlight some of my favorite posts from other bloggers. (Thanks to Mel from the No Dog About It blog for the inspiration.)
It’s a tough task, actually. There is a ton of great content out there in the pet blogging community.
The posts below all have one thing in common – they make me laugh or smile (one of those really big smiles). There are many beautiful, touching, and thought-provoking posts that touched my heart this year. However, today I felt like aiming for tears of laughter or joy rather than the other kind. Hope you don’t mind.
It was a long year. I’m sure there are some others I adored that slipped my mind when writing this post. (Perhaps one of my 2012 resolutions should be to do a better job of keeping track of my favorite posts. You may notice that this list skews toward the more recent entries.) In no particular order, here are 22 posts I loved this year…
This week, I can really use some smiles… thank goodness No Frown Friday is here when I need it most! I also have an important zombie survival tip to share with you. But first, a few things to send you into the weekend with a giggle or two:
Apparently I’m all about the pugs this week. I found this video somewhat hypnotic (though not quite as hypnotic as those running geese):
(via Paw Nation)
I don’t know what you saw, but I’m pretty sure I just learned how to survive a zombie attack – always sit on a kitchen rug so that the zombies can’t quite reach you. If only someone had shared this info with the cast of The Walking Dead.
Anyway… what are you up to this weekend? I’m going to a corn maze/pumpkin patch with friends, and then we’re heading back to my house for a pumpkin carving party. For Bella, that means extra people to pet her and give her love. I don’t think she’ll mind that at all.
As for the pumpkins? She isn’t all that interested. However, some animals love to eat pumpkins – how does your pet feel about them?
Last month, I was notified by Katie from Tripbase that I had been nominated to take part in My 7 Links. (A huge and belated thanks to Kim from This One Wild Life for the nomination – sadly, it took me this long to write the post. Oops…)
The goal of My 7 Links? “To unite bloggers (from all sectors) in a joint endeavor to share
lessons learned and create a bank of long but not forgotten blog posts
that deserve to see the light of day again.” Sounds like fun, right? Here we go…
This was kind of a tough call – I think that a lot of the photos I’ve shared of Bella are quite beautiful. (I’m biased, I know.) However, I decided to go with something a bit wordier: “Lend me your eyes and I’ll write you a blog.”
2. My most popular post
According to my stats, my most popular post (based on page views) was one from my recent series recapping the BlogPaws pet blogger conference. Specifically, the post entitled “BlogPaws Episode 2: Say hello to my not so little friends,” in which I discussed listening to the guys from Rescue Ink give the keynote on the first day of the conference.
(My photo post “Leave(s) it to Bella” was a very close second in the page views category, while I received the most comments on “Take a look at me now,” a post I did as part of the Pet Blogger challenge reflecting on my blogging experience.)
3. My most controversial post
I’m not the most controversial of bloggers. (I love puppies and cupcakes and spend way too much time talking about pop culture, after all.) However, I think that the post that qualifies as most controversial is probably “Dogs in hot cars: when will it stop?” The story I shared in that post was horrifying on so many levels and did inspire some debate.
4. My most helpful post
I’m not sure I’m that helpful either. However, I was a bit torn on which post to list here – some of my recent BlogPaws posts have contained some useful information, but I wanted to go with something a bit older. I do think that “Bella: the Great Houndini” was a pretty useful post – I shared some of our methods of Bella containment and I think that the ideas there would be helpful for others dealing with their own crafty canines.
5. A post whose success surprised me
As you may know, I have a regular feature that I call No Frown Friday. These posts are kind of a hodgepodge of things depending on what I have on the brain that week. I never really know which ones will strike a chord and which ones will fly under the radar. I find it interesting that the most popular of these posts has such an unassuming title: “That’s one way to stay cool.”
(Also interesting – the most commented on Friday post was “Appreciate a squirrel today.” Guess it’s not always puppies around here.)
6. A post I feel didn’t get the attention it deserved
This one was kind of a tough call. There are many posts from the early days of the blog that never really saw much traffic. If I had to pick one, I’d probably choose “She’s cute, but…” This post is a perfect introduction to Bella.
7. The post that I am the most proud of
I knew that the post I selected for this category would be one where I was blogging the change for animals or sharing an important cause. I think I’ve settled on this one: “Blog the Change: Pets of the Homeless” (the first time I mentioned that particular cause on the blog). I think that this is a really important organization, and I’m dedicated to spreading the word about it. (I discussed it again as part of the recent Pay it Forward blog hop.)
So, those are my links. Now, for the fun part – nominating five others to participate! After checking the list of bloggers nominated so far, I think I’m not duplicating… if so, my apologies. Anyway, I’m nominating these great bloggers:
Happy Monday!
I’ve told you about my initial impressions of BlogPaws, and about some of the tough guys I encountered along the way. I wasn’t quite sure what to tackle next. When all else fails, I tend to default to chronological order. So, for argument’s sake, let’s just say that all else failed…
After listening to the Rescue Ink guys, it was time to attend my first actual session. You know, where I’d go to learn stuff. I had a hard time deciding what to attend – I ended up choosing one called “Demystifying Search Engine Optimization.” I didn’t have the foggiest idea what that was, so I figured I could use the demystification.
I’m not going to lie… at the time, I thought I had a basic grasp of SEO. Looking back at my notes a week later, I’m not so sure. I scribbled something about keywords, improving my search engine ranking – and a bunch of technical things that I need to revisit in more detail. I’m not really qualified to advise any of you on this one! Luckily, the folks over at BlogPaws recently had a great post about SEO for paw bloggers, so I’ll let them do the heavy lifting.
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| Paris & John from DogTipper.com |
During the break between sessions, I met a few more fun bloggers, including Carrie from All Things Dog Blog; Paris & John from DogTipper.com; and Missy from Dogs for the Paws.
Missy wins the prize for best business card – a slap bracelet! That thing was awesome – I wore it for the rest of the day, and it’s currently still decorating my camera bag.
Up next, I headed to a session called “Reach. Relevance. Design. Presentation.” I was excited to hear the presenter, Dino Dogan (the creator of Triberr). This one was more up my alley (and it was also the session where Tango decided his nose was cold). I really enjoyed this session. Some of the choice quotes/concepts I jotted down:
I could write a lot more about this session – I think it was the kick I needed to start thinking about my own blog in a more analytical way. I’ll be doing some self-evaluation in the coming months and you may see some changes as a result. However, first I need to find the time for all of that virtual navel gazing…
Anyway, after that session, it was time for lunch. I was in for a pleasant surprise – the speakers during lunch were from the rescue group where I adopted Bella! The group is called Homeless Animals Rescue Team (aka HART), and they operate in the Northern Virginia area.
Also a pleasant surprise? Cheesecake. I love cheesecake.
Anyway, after I inhaled that cheesecake, it was time for my next session. I chose it based on its delightfully punny name. I’ll tell you all about it my next installment…
(I told you that recapping BlogPaws would take me a while. I wasn’t kidding. When you’re as wordy as I am, these things take time. Hang in there.)
One of the (many) fun things about BlogPaws was the mix of human and animal attendees at the sessions. Sometimes a well-timed bark would make everyone laugh. Other times, it was just fun to look around and see a cute pup. I’ve always said that school would be so much better with puppies. I stand by it.
I love this photo of Tango (who attended BlogPaws with Laurie from Smart Dog). This photo op occurred during one of our sessions. Note the well-covered nose… it could get cold in the rooms, so I think Tango had the right idea.
Happy Wednesday!
Last week was a busy one. However, I was on top of my game on Thursday. I finished my work early so that I wouldn’t be stuck late. Although I was a tad nervous about meeting new people, this sweet post by Pamela at Something Wagging This Way Comes made me smile and gave me a shot of courage. By mid-afternoon, I was itching for the workday to end so that I could slide out the door Flintstones style and head over to BlogPaws. There were no sessions on Thursday night, just an opening cocktail reception. I’m not one to pass up cocktails and conversation…
However, as is so often the case… a work “crisis” occurred. (Please let those quotation marks convey my extreme sarcasm.) Fortunately, I managed to leave the office only slightly later than planned, but then I encountered massive traffic. It’s the norm in the D.C. area, but Thursday was even worse than usual.
In any event, I finally made it to the hotel. I parked next to a sign informing me that walking of dogs on the property was prohibited. For a moment, I wondered if I was in the right place. However, I did see some dogs (and their people) walking towards the entrance, so I headed towards the lobby. All doubts were erased when I saw these:
I’m guessing the hotel wasn’t enforcing that whole no dog walking thing this weekend. Assured of my location, I wandered through the crowd of people to the registration table. Once there, I signed in and received the largest swag bag I’d ever seen. Seriously – that thing was epic.
In addition to the swag bag, I received a raffle ticket (spoiler alert: per usual, I did not win anything all weekend) and two drink tickets. Feeling a little overwhelmed by the crowd (and the fact that I didn’t know anyone in real life, just from their blogs), I headed to the bar and redeemed my first ticket for a glass of wine. Armed with my glass of liquid courage, I headed into the main room to explore.
I won’t lie – to start with, I felt very overwhelmed and I wasn’t sure what to do. There were tons of exhibitors, so I browsed and made small talk for a while. However, I still felt a bit out of sorts – rudderless, if you will. It felt sort of like the first day at a new school.
Fortunately, my feeling of isolation didn’t last long. I met some fantastic people – Laurie from Smart Dog and Eryka from Kahuna’s K9s. These two are locals like me, and we hit it off immediately. I knew instantly I’d found some new friends – they were fun, clever, and each had an adorable dog with them. Even cooler, they are both dog trainers who use positive reinforcement. I can only hope I soaked up some of their knowledge throughout the weekend.
After making these first two connections, I loosened up a bit and the chatter seemed to come more easily. I met a few other people, including Caren from Cat Chat and Kim from This One Wild Life. I encountered the lovely Pamela from Something Wagging This Way Comes (and got to meet her husband and Honey the pup). As a bonus, I saw some absolutely adorable ferrets. However, the presence of these two confirmed my decision to leave Bella at home – I’m pretty sure she wouldn’t have been able to control her prey drive:
Laurie and Eryka eventually had to head home with their pups. I considered hitting the road as well after losing my two awesome wingwomen (wingbloggers?), but I decided to head back in for a little while longer (after dropping off that giant swag bag in my car, of course). I’m glad I did – one of the things I learned this weekend is that I need to embrace my extroverted side at this sort of thing. (Perhaps I can apply this lesson to work conferences as well, but there are never any cute animals at those.)
Anyway, I headed back inside and ended up meeting a ton of people in the lobby area. In addition to Caren, I met up with several other bloggers. Many of them were cat bloggers. (Among them? The bloggers from The Conscious Cat; The Chronicles of Zee & Zoey; Coffee, Cats ‘n Yarn; Catladyland; and Mr. R.W. Emerson. I’m sure I’m missing a few people – it was quite the gathering. Introductions and business cards were flying like Bella after a squirrel.) Some were new to me, but others were familiar, such as the lovely Teri from Curlz and Swirlz (pictured at right).
In any event, I have to thank those cat bloggers for letting a dog blogger into their midst for a while. (Perhaps they sensed that I have a soft spot for the felines.) What a fun group!
I capped my night off with some quality chat time with Caren (who better?) and Felissa from Two Little Cavaliers. I had a fantastic time talking to these two. Honestly, it felt like we’d known each other for ages.
When it was finally time to go, I reluctantly said good night and headed home. After just a few short hours, I knew I’d made the right decision to attend BlogPaws. I had met some amazing people and couldn’t wait to come back on Friday!
Stay tuned for more BlogPaws updates… I have lots to share, so I’m not sure how many posts will be in this series. If you’re not really interested in hearing about BlogPaws (which seems odd, but to each his own), never fear. I’ll be mixing some other posts in there too. I’m such a people pleaser…
