Petfinder Blog

November is Adopt-A-Senior-Pet Month, and we'll let people who've done just that explain why seasoned companions are so special.

Read on for five senior-pet Happy Tails -- and if you can't adopt your own senior pet, you can help them find homes by adding our adoptable senior pet search widget (shown here) to your Web site.

Bunny
"We drove 800 miles to get her. It was love at first site. She happily hopped in the car and headed back to Alabama with us, where she immediately made herself at home and has stolen all of our hearts. She has filled much of the void left by my old pal Bud, and filled our home with the love of a senior dog. We tell her every day that she hit the Basset Hound lottery, but actually it was us who won."
>> Read Bunny's full Happy Tail.

Don't miss tonight's premier of Animal Planet's new series, Pit Bulls and Parolees, about Petfinder member Villalobos Rescue Center. The show follows Villalobos' founder, Tia Maria Torres, and her staff of ex-cons as they rescue, rehabilitate and find new families for homeless Pit Bulls.

"[T]he 'bad boys' of society meet the so-called 'bad boys' of the canine community, and boom! Just like that -- they create magic together," Torres says on the show's Web site. "They bring out a side of each other that's sweet, warm and unbelievably touching." Tune in Fridays at 10pm E/P on Animal Planet.

This Saturday, October 24, we'll celebrate one of our favorite breeds on National Pit Bull Awareness Day. The annual event was started by Bless the Bullys in 2007 to bring positive media attention to these special, and misunderstood, dogs.

You can find events near you on the Bless the Bullys calendar and at NationalPitBullAwarenessDay.com (also check out Petfinder's own event calendar). Want to do more? Here are some ways to help Pit Bulls, adapted from a previous blog post about Pits.

Here's how you can help:

• Adopt a Pit Bull. Pit Bulls are devoted, affectionate and joy-inducing pets with as great a range in personality as any other breed. As with dogs of any breed, not every Pit is perfect for every family. Read more about things to think about if you're thinking of adopting a Pit Bull.


• Volunteer with Pit Bulls. At many city shelters, Pits and Pit mixes make up the overwhelming majority of the canine residents, and because Pits have been bred to bond closely with humans, the isolation of shelter life is particularly hard for them. You can visit the shelter to help exercise and socialize the dogs; open your home to a foster dog; photograph and write bios for local adoptable dogs' Petfinder profiles; start a bedding drive at your office to collect old blankets and towels to donate ... the possibilities are endless. For more ideas, read our article on volunteering or visit BAD RAP's How You Can Help page.


• Educate others about Pit Bulls. Once you've fallen in love with a Pit (and to know one is to love one), you'll start to notice how many offhand Pit Bull stereotypes people throw around in everyday conversation. Learn the facts about Pits and you'll be able to shoot down the myths (no, they do not have locking jaws). Some great resources include Petfinder's book The Adopted Dog Bible (you'll find an excerpt, Pit Bulls: The Myths, the Legends, the Reality, after the jump), as well as BAD RAP's Monster Myths page and Pit Bull Rescue Central's breed info page. (All three sites are excellent, and we encourage you to click around on them.)
  

With cold weather already upon us, it was no surprise to read about about a cat who survived a two-mile car ride while trapped in an engine. (Read the original story and the follow-up in the New York Daily News.)

Luckily, the cat made it through his ordeal unscathed and is now recuperating at Animal Care & Control of New York City. But every winter, many others aren't so fortunate.

When it gets cold, stray and outdoor cats keep warm however possible. According to the Massachusetts SPCA Web site, "Cats often climb under car hoods to get warm and then get caught in the radiator fan when the engine is started."

What can you do to prevent tragedy this winter? Find out after the jump.

It's that time of year again ... time for the third annual Petfinder Adoption Event! On Oct. 27, eleven D.C., Maryland and Virginia-based shelters and rescue groups will join the Petfinder team for a day of adoptable dogs and -- in an event first -- cats!

The event, which is free and open to the public, will be held at Discovery Communications World Headquarters, One Discovery Place, Silver Spring, MD, from 4 to 6 p.m. It's a great opportunity to meet some of the people behind Petfinder, not to mention your new best canine or feline friend. We'll also be offering snacks, prizes and free custom pet tags.

Here's who will be there:

Best Dawg Rescue

East Coast German Wirehaired Pointer Rescue

Lizzy's Lodge

Lucky Dog Animal Rescue

Montgomery County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals

Montgomery County Humane Society

Partnership for Animal Welfare

Roxie's Fund

Shingilana Rescued Felines

St. Seton's Orphaned Animals

Washington Animal Rescue League

October is Adopt-A-Shelter-Dog Month and, with the ongoing economic crisis, there are more dogs in need than ever. But what if you can't adopt?

Here are some easy ways you can still help:

1. Donate your Facebook status. Just paste this message into the "What's on your mind?" box at the top of your page: "October is Adopt-A-Shelter-Dog Month. Save a life: Adopt a dog! http://www.petfinder.com"


2. Tweet, retweet and repeat the following (or your own brilliant message): "October is Adopt-A-Shelter-Dog Month. Save a life: Adopt a dog! http://www.petfinder.com"

Rabies isn't really something we think about here in the U.S. -- at least not when it comes to our pets, since rabies vaccination is so standard.

But according to the Alliance for Rabies Control, it's still a major problem worldwide, killing more than 55,000 people a year, mostly in Asia and Africa.

So the organization is holding its second annual World Rabies Day on Sept. 28. Vaccinating animals against rabies in developing countries will not only prevent human suffering, it may well improve the treatment of animals -- especially stray dogs -- in those countries by raising awareness of their health needs and the relationship between animals' well-being and humans'.

To learn more, visit the World Rabies Day Web site.

It's Deaf Dog Awareness Week and we're happy to bring you an interview with Melissa McDaniel, an avid deaf-dog advocate and blogger, as well as photographer for The Photo Book Projects, a stunning series of soon-to-be-published books calling attention to deaf and rescue dogs.

(Don't miss the great giveaway at the end of this post!)

What is the purpose of The Photo Book Projects?
I wanted to do something to raise awareness and money for deaf-dog advocacy [and rescue] groups and to show these dogs for the beautiful animals that they are. In many respects, deaf dogs are just like hearing dogs. [My deaf dog] Sadie has a great life. She has no idea she's deaf and if she does, she doesn't let it hold her back. Humans could learn a lot from deaf dogs.

What inspired you to create the books?
My dog Sadie is a deaf Border Collie mix that I adopted. Her mother was deaf and she passed this trait along to the puppies. After getting Sadie, I learned all about the issues deaf dogs face, including the horrible statistic that thousands of deaf dogs are put to sleep each year simply because they are deaf.

Why do you think deaf dogs are singled out?
There are many myths circulating about deaf dogs, including that they are untrainable, dumb, stubborn and aggressive, and these just aren't true. Many of the dogs appearing in the books are better-trained than most hearing dogs I know and some are even therapy dogs and/or compete in agility.

We can tell people how great shelter dogs are until we're blue in the face, but nothing changes people's opinions like seeing it in person. That's the thinking behind The Dog Saving Network, a Chicago-based organization dedicated to "us[ing] fun, creative mediums to promote the benefits of positive reinforcement training, generate compassion and encourage shelter adoptions!"

One of the group's coolest initiatives is the Life's Ruff stage show, featured in the MSNBC clip above. The show features adopted former shelter dogs performing tricks they learned in just a few months of twice-a-week training sessions with their regular-folks owners.

What an original, entertaining way to prove to people that shelter dogs are not "damaged goods" -- and that just a little bit of positive-reinforcement-based training can turn any dog into a star!