Petfinder Blog

This weekend I went to the Celtic Fling, a great Celtic festival held at the Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire grounds on the Mount Hope Estate & Winery in Manheim, PA. 

The Mid-Atlantic Great Dane Rescue League was there with a few of their gorgeous babies. They had a really cool way of getting donations: Each dog wore a vest with a pouch on either side. The public had a chance to interact with the dogs, petting them and spending time with them, and could leave a donation with each dog. 

It turns out the vests are handmade by two MAGDRL volunteers, Jody Cohen and Terry Lanphear. The vests, as well as lots of other donation and "adopt-me" apparel, are available at ThankfulPaws.com.

Jody tells us the vests are a lot more effective than a donation jar or can. "Wearing the donation apparel lets your dog -- and you -- walk through the crowd spreading the word about your organization," she says. "Children -- and adults too -- love to put money into the clear plastic pockets. After all, who could resist a dog asking for donations?"

Before Petfinder, I was an editor at People.com, so I've got a secret interest in all things celebrity. I've also got a mental tally of celebrities who adopted their pets, and I'm always happy to add another one to the list.

So I was thrilled yesterday to read the new issue of the New York Post's Page Six magazine and learn that cover girl Gabrielle Union is the proud mama of three dogs:

Bubba, a mastiff-American bulldog mix; Pink, a pit bull-Dalmatian mix; and Bobby Hurley (named for the basketball player), a Maltese. (Read the full story here.) 

Oh, and if anyone wants live like a celebrity, it's easy to find a mastiff-American bulldog mix (like June, left, at Friends of Linden Animal Shelter in Linden, NJ), a pit-Dalmatian mix (like Chablis, center, at Pet Paws for Love in Garfield, NJ), or a Maltese (like Billie, right, at Metropolitan Maltese Rescue in NYC) on Petfinder!   

You can help spread the word about adoptable pets by posting them to your Facebook mini-feed.

When you're logged into Facebook, just do a search for Posted Items and then download that application. It will let you post any URL to your mini-feed, including Pet Notes pages.

The app also has a "Share on Facebook" button you can drag to your bookmarks bar, so that when you're looking at a cute pet, you can just click the button and it'll add him or her to your mini-feed automatically.

The New York Times today ran an article about a topic we've been hearing more and more about lately, both in the news and from our shelter members: the impact of economic hardship on pets.

(The photo at right, from the article, shows a couple from Georgia who lost their home and can't afford to keep two of their three dogs.)

The Times quotes our founder, Betsy:

"Obviously, it's a crisis for local shelters; I worry about what it means for our society," said Betsy Saul, a founder of Petfinder.com, a Web site that showcases animals for adoption at 11,000 sites in the United States.

Ms. Saul recently polled her member organizations to gauge the problem and found that half of her respondents had seen pets turned in because of home foreclosures in the last six months.

Read the rest of the article here.

This just in from a Petfinder.com reader:

We were growing increasingly concerned: Perseus, our new cat, had not been using his kitty litter box.

Then one evening we heard someone in the bathroom and found Perseus perched on the toilet doing his business.

Our three shelter dogs are amazed and love to run in and watch him.

The moral of the story? Adopted pets are full of (wonderful!) surprises.

A terrible, totally unexpected thing happened to me last year. My 17-year marriage broke up and I couldn't put it back together again despite trying everything short of brute force.

I had to leave the home that I'd hoped to have as my forever home, a five-acre sanctuary for various aging pets. When I finally I drove away, I had to leave behind my three shelter dogs, my closest, dearest companions (that's Buster, my 13-year-old Great Dane/Border Collie mix, in the photo). I went north to find an apartment, a job, a new life ...

Well, I wrote a Happy Tail about Archie after I brought him home from the Taunton Animal Shelter. I thought you might enjoy an update on his progress.

Archie had been a stray, and when I met him at the shelter, he was a timid little guy. Once I took him home, it didn't take him long to warm up to me. Because I work out of my home, I'm around all the time, and he follows me everywhere.

Here's a picture of Archie sitting in his office chair, which is right next to mine. He is the funniest little guy -- very clever. He's fun to play with. He's very good at tug of war. He's great at fetch, and he learned the meaning of "come" very quickly.

He also knows exactly what to do to get my attention. For example, as soon as the phone rings, Archie tries to get into the trash. I guess what I'm trying to say is, this shy little guy turned out to be quite a character. He's ALMOST perfect.

As the marketing manager for Petfinder, I work out of the New York office of Animal Planet, where staffers volunteer every week to read with local elementary schoolers.

To celebrate the end of the school year, some of those students came to the offices on Friday, where they were treated to a presentation about pet care by Petfinder's public relations coordinator, Cary Moran.

Next, they got to met a real live Petfinder alum, Gwin. A 2-year-old corgi/sheltie mix, Gwin was adopted by Monica Hirsch and her daughter, Nora, from the Mercer County Humane Society in Princeton, WV -- and she's more than just a perfect pet, she's a certified therapy dog!

I recently visited my mother and her dog, Sashi, adopted from the Providence Animal Rescue League.

Sashi is now 13-1/2 and has been  taking medication for arthritis for the past several years. Last week she temporarily lost the use of her hind legs. The vet said it was due to spinal inflammation and gave her a steroid shot, which got her walking again, and she continues to improve.

Then I read Julia Szabo's NY Post column about her arthritic dog's stem cell regeneration procedure.

Maureen Jackson of Erie, PA, sent us this Happy Tail of her late, beloved dog, Brittle, adopted from the Humane Society of Northwestern Pennsylvania. Brittle won a photo contest and had his image digitally made over (NOTE: Dogs do not really scuba dive!).

We adopted Brittle as a puppy. He was the funniest-looking little pup -- he looked like an old man, and so very sad. He grew into one handsome boy and had a great life with us.

His eyes were so blue and he was such a good-natured dog -- very good with our Yorkie puppy who came into our home when Brittle was about 6 years old.

Brittle went over the rainbow bridge last August and we still miss him every day. I have MS and he just knew when I needed some help walking, so he would stand right next to me so I could steady myself on him as we went up or down stairs.

Otherwise he would just run and be his normal self. At the end he became the care-receiver and I was the caregiver to him.

He won a photo contest last year with this photo and this is what they did with it -- it is amazing ...

Day #3 and the bunnies are still there. There may be four or there may be five. When I move the grass/hair to take a peak, they start to sort of "popcorn" around -- which is awfully cute, but makes me nervous!  And I'm certainly not moving them around to count.

Also making me nervous is the fact that I'm not sure that Mom came last night. Up until now, I could tell. I put two light twigs crossed over the grass to see if they were disturbed, but they were not. It is possible, although unlikely, that she could have gotten to them without moving the twigs. Sadly, I don't think so.

So now what???? I did wake up to POURING RAIN around 4:30 a.m. Could that have dissuaded her? And will the little ones be okay until tonight?? Finally, what if she doesn't come back? Arrrgggghhhhhhh.

Ryan and Krissie Newman have long been friends of Petfinder and work tirelessly on behalf of homeless pets.

I had the pleasure of meeting them in Texas earlier this year and got to hear Krissie's stories of finding strays on the roads around their property in North Carolina. Sometimes she finds their original owners, sometimes she finds new owners and sometimes ... the Newmans get a new dog!

Their Ryan Newman Foundation raises funds for shelters and spay/neuter efforts. They serve as spokespeople for the Humane Alliance National Spay/Neuter Response Team and they've published a book of NASCAR stars and their pets to raise money for their foundation. Pit Road Pets is a great book with heartwarming stories and huge color pictures of your favorite NASCAR personalities. (I even have my own autographed copy!)

Our shelter outreach team has been busy calling our 400+ rescue-group members in areas affected by recent flooding in the Midwest.

In response, we've heard amazing stories of shelter workers helping the people and pets in their communities. Eleanor Chiquoine, Education and Outreach Coordinator at the Sauk County Humane Society in Baraboo, WI, writes:

Our shelter is fine. We don't have a basement, and we did not have flood water in the building at all because we are on a hill. A few times we all had to crowd into the pantry (during violent storms), but we did not get flooded.
  
We did have a daring pet rescue. We received a call from a woman who had left one dog and a cat in a house that was flooding, and one dog outside. We have no boat, so our animal control officer arranged for our local Department of Natural Resources to provide a boat and a warden so he could motor in to the thoroughly underwater house. This photo shows the DNR warden and our ACO returning from the flooded house with the dogs and cat.

[You can read more about the rescue in this story in this Portage (Wisc.) Daily Register.]

Yesterday my pit bull Mojo alerted me to the bunny nest in the yard. I'm still questioning mother rabbit's wisdom. Yard next door = NO PETS.  My yard = three big dogs.

I think there are five bunnies in there. And they actually do look like bunnies -- those ears are so damn cute. I was worried about them in the rain, but the way the mom has the fur and then thick dead/live grass mat over them -- and then the tall grass bent over --- they were warm and dry in there. I took my pics and tucked them all safely back in until tomorrow.

So I'm a NASCAR fan. If it's got to do with NASCAR, I'm into it. And what's really cool is there are a lot of NASCAR people who are really into pet rescue and adoption. So I'll pop in here once in a while to keep you up to date on the happenings of the NASCAR world as it relates to pet adoption -- with maybe a little race commentary tossed in here and there. ;-)

The first person I want to call out is team owner Jodi Geschickter. Along with her husband Todd, Jodi owns JTG Racing. That's the 59 car of Marcos Ambrose and the 47 car of Kelly Bires. They run in the Nationwide series and Jodi has been kind enough to put the Petfinder logo on those cars (and on a CTS truck) on more than one occasion so millions of NASCAR fans can see Petfinder running around the track. Jodi is passionate about pet rescue and volunteers with the Charlotte, NC-based Animal Adoption League.

As much as I love my pets, I get a lot of happiness from some OTHER animals -- the wildlife in Brooklyn's Prospect Park, right near my apartment.

We have a bonded swan pair who raised six cygnets last summer, so my husband and I were filled with suspense when Momma Swan built another nest this summer. After what seemed like an interminable wait, she finally debuted her three new additions last week.

Of course, I don't have a "bond" with these wild animals -- in the photo here, Momma's giving me a "no more pictures" look -- but watching them (and the turtles, double-crested cormorants, and snowy egrets that also call the lake home) makes city life feel a little more natural.

TIME magazine has named Petfinder one of its 50 best Web sites of 2008! This is huge news for us. This type of media exposure has a direct impact on our traffic -- which means, quite literally, that pets' lives will be saved. Thank you, TIME!! Now, we could use YOUR help -- go on TIME.com and rate Petfinder on a scale from 1 to 100. We're currently ranked #4 by readers among all the sites on the list -- show the world you think pet adoption is #1!

I don't even know what to say about this story, in which an Arkansas mayor last week released local shelter dogs to fend for themselves in a forest. (Helena Daily World)

According to a report on Sunday, volunteers spent the day searching for the 10 abandoned dogs, without any luck. The saddest part of this story may be the fact that there was an alternative: "Volunteers with the Humane Society of the Delta say they offered to take the dogs from the animal shelter and foster them, but the dogs were set loose by the time they arrived." (ArkansasMatters.com)

Today, the Marines made public the punishment to be meted out to two Marines in Iraq who had become YouTube stars for casually and cruelly hurling a weeks-old puppy over a cliff while joking and filming their "prank."

The idiot who did the throwing was taken out of Iraq and will be dismissed from the Marines. The cineast who filmed the 17-second atrocity will face some sort of secret Marine wrist-slapping. Whoop-de-doo. The thrower is probably overjoyed at escaping the war zone early. Killing young animals might now become the ticket to coming home faster -- and never having to be redeployed.

According to a new study by British researchers, animals have "individual differences."

I'm sure it's hard for anyone who works with animals -- or, for that matter, has ever lived with one -- to believe that this is news, but what I found interesting was that the study was done on horses, which are still being slaughtered for food in North America.

I love this post, from the MySpace.com blog of Petfinder member Bowling Green Warren County Humane Society in Kentucky (adoptable shelter resident Lightnin' is pictured; doesn't his expression suit the below perfectly?):

The 10 Commandments, From a Dog's Perspective

1. My life is likely to last 10 to 15 years. Any separation from you will be very painful.

2. Give me time to understand what you want of me.

3. Place your trust in me--it's crucial to my well-being.

4. Don't be angry with me for long, and don't lock me up as punishment. You have your work, your friends, your entertainment. I have only you.

5. Talk to me. Even if I don't understand your words, I understand your voice.

I've worked as a designer for Petfinder for about a year now. I've enjoyed reading many Happy Tails, and now I'm thrilled to have the opportunity to share my own adoption story.

After my dog Bandit died, I knew I would need to find a new dog, but I didn't rush it. I was looking for a new job at the time, and planning to move. I wanted to make sure I was organized before getting a new pet. Nevertheless, I missed having a four-legged companion. I would check out dogs on Petfinder and think, "He's cute" or, "She's the right size," but that's as far as I would go. Once I started working for Petfinder, my search escalated -- it couldn't help but do so. There were stories about homeless pets that passed my desk all the time. But I still didn't take the next step, contacting the shelter.

Then last week, as I was browsing the site, I saw Archie's picture. I knew immediately he was for me. Something in his face told me I would love him, and that he would want to live with me. I took the next step. I contacted the Taunton Animal Shelter and made an appointment to meet him.

The shelter staff told me Archie had been a stray, that he was very nervous around most people He would need a lot of TLC. The shelter workers had spent a lot of time with him -- you could see that they loved him and wanted to see him find a nice home. They said that others had come to see him but he hadn't reacted very well.

For Adopt-a-Shelter-Cat Month, Petfinder and Cat Fancy asked readers to create an ad for our feline friends. The winning entry, from Cleveland's Randy DeMuesy, lists the many reasons to adopt a cat, and sums them up with, "Have a low-maintenance love affair." (See all the finalists here.)

DeMuesy, 43, serves as creative director, copywriter and producer at his own ad agency, DeMeusy Creative. His wife told him about the contest after seeing it in USA Today.

"I'm actually a dog person," he says, "but last summer a cat started hanging around our house. We'd leave food out for her, and she wouldn't let me touch her, but then one day she jumped up on the patio" and became a part of the family. "She's like a dog, what can I say?" Randy says of the cat, Lamont, who now keeps him company while he works. "She'll beg at the table; she's very vocal." But unlike a dog, Lamont doesn't require a lot of walks. "She sleeps all the time!" Randy laughs.