Petfinder Blog

Everyone knows that there are adoptable cats and dogs on Petfinder -- but we list many other homeless pets in need as well. One example: ferrets.

One of the liveliest household animals, ferrets can always keep their pet parents entertained with their antics. But when households have questions about the care of ferrets or can no longer care for the pet, there are ferret-specific rescue groups with expertise that can help.

Texas Ferret Lovers Rescue is part of the Ferret Lovers Club of Texas, a group that provides expertise to the general public, pet stores and existing and potential ferret parents. This is an invaluable service that not only strengthens the bond ferret guardians feel to their pets, but can also offer the support needed to help a ferret stay in his or her current home. But when ferrets are in need of re-homing, the rescue division of the club steps in and helps.

Visit Texas Ferret Lovers Rescue on Petfinder.

There are more than a dozen Petfinder member organizations who specialize in rescuing and re-homing senior dogs.

Personally, I am grateful to any organization that handles senior pets of all kinds. Exactly four years ago, when I was looking for pictures to use in an Adopt-a-Senior-Pet Month promotion, I came across a little senior shepherd mix. I fell in love immediately, and Dexter has been one of my best friends ever since.

He was 10 years old when I adopted him -- he's now 14. He moves pretty slowly these days, but his adorable gray face always attracts attention from passersby on our walks. Below is just a sample of Petfinder members specializing in senior dogs.

St. Louis Senior Dog Project, St. Louis, MO

Senior Dog Rescue of Oregon, Philomath, OR

Libby's Haven for Senior Canines, Canterbury, NH

Senior Dog Adoptions, Cold Brook, NY

The Senior Dog House and Rescue, Columbia Fall, MT

The Sanctuary for Senior Dogs, Cleveland, OH

I have been lucky enough to have the pleasure of visiting Tabby's Place in Ringoes, NJ, in person a few times. Therefore, I can attest to the sheer beauty of it -- both in aesthetics as well as its mission. Tabby's Place opened its doors in October 2003 and is able to care for almost 100 cats.

These aren't just any felines -- they are all senior or special-needs cats. Ranging in age from 1-19 years old and having special needs from FIV to cancer, the cats get the best possible care while being housed at Tabby's Place.

According to their Web site, they provide communal living environments for cats, with plenty of horizontal and vertical space for exercise and play as well as outdoor enclosures for cats to enjoy fresh air and sunlight.

October 25 is Pit Bull Awareness Day, so in its honor, we're highlighting a group doing amazing things for Pits: BAD RAP, which stands for Bay Area Doglovers Responsible About Pitbulls.

The San Francisco-based organization provides rescue services as well as extensive educational opportunities.

BAD RAP made national news last year when it was called in to evaluate 48 dogs from the Michael Vick case. Several groups stepped forward to foster the dogs, and 10 Pits came back to the Bay Area with BAD RAP. The dogs' amazing progress is detailed in the group's Vick Dog Blog.

In addition to its hands-on rescue work, BAD RAP offers a gamut of services to the local community as well as to animal welfare professionals. Most notably, it offers weekly Pit Ed classes to help educate the parents of these special dogs. According to the BAD RAP mission, Pit Ed participants "learn basic handling skills, dealing with breed traits and responsible ownership protocol."

As a member of the outreach team, one of the best parts of my job is planning and attending our Adoption Options seminars.

Adoption Options is one of our biggest initiatives and is a traveling educational seminar that brings training and networking opportunities to our shelter and rescue members throughout the country.

We do 20 per year and try to travel to areas that don't have affordable access to training. We bring with us some of the nation's best-known speakers and discuss the hottest topics in animal welfare. Each attendee also gets breakfast, lunch and an Adoption Options T-shirt -- all for $10 per person. The program is sponsored in part by our friends at the PETCO Foundation.

I just returned from Memphis, TN, where 80 dedicated animal welfare professionals came out to network and discuss adoption policies, dog behavior, shelter medicine and how to most effectively use Petfinder.

A great story came out of this day.

All animals are special. Some are extra-special, and have needs that go beyond the scope of normal pet care. For pets in loving homes, getting these needs met can be challenging at best. When these pets end up homeless, it's often impossible.

Pets with Disabilities in Prince Frederick, MD, gives animals who have been injured through trauma or disabled by illness the time, care and attention they need -- often for the first time in their lives.

The animals in their care include cats who are FIV-positive or blind and dogs who are deaf, paralyzed or missing a leg -- and pets with just about every condition in between.

Not only does Pets with Disabilities nurture the pets in its care, it also lists adoptable special-needs pets for other shelters, rescue groups and veterinarians. The group also offers support to the families of these special pets, including advice on pet wheelchairs and an active message board.

Pets with Disabilities is more than a rescue and adoption agency -- it's a lifelong source of hope and support for the pets and their adoptive families.

Visit Pets with Disabilities on Petfinder

A captive audience can lead to amazing things. When half of that audience consists of inmates serving time and the other half are adoptable pets waiting for their new homes, it leads to remarkable changes.

SOS Pen Pals in Richmond, VA, works with six different correctional facilities in the state of Virginia. According to their Web site, they promote inmate rehabilitation and increased positive communication and interaction between correctional center staff and the rest of the inmate population.

The Pen Pals program gives inmates job skills to help their transition out of the corrections system. The animals chosen for the program live in the prison with the carefully chosen inmates to learn the skills they need to transition into life in a home. For the cats, this means socialization and for the dogs, training.

Two animal trainers oversee the program and focus on positive reinforcement. Through the program's efforts, more than 4,000 pets have found new homes!

Visit SOS Pen Pals on Petfinder.

New blog feature! Each week we'll highlight Petfinder rescue-group members with unusual adoption programs, fun event ideas and other things that make them distinctive.

Dogs for the Deaf in Central Point, Oregon, selects dogs from shelters and rescue groups and trains them to be Hearing Dogs.

The dogs are trained for four to six months at their facility. Once a dog has completed training, the group does several days worth of in-home training for both the dog and his or her new family to get everyone acclimated. Dogs for the Deaf stays in touch with the family for life.

One of their clients describes her Hearing Dog:

"D.J. is my electric blanket, my vacuum cleaner, my Activities Chairman, my alarm clock, my protector, my significant other." --Jane F.

Hearing Dogs are invaluable to the people who depend on them, but what happens when a dog isn't quite up to the task? They have a "Career Change"!

Dogs for the Deaf created this special program for the dogs who are determined not to be suitable as service dogs. One example is Sasha (pictured): a 4-year-old Australian cattle dog/blue heeler mix who was released from training because some sounds scare her. Sasha and other Career Change dogs still make wonderful pets, and the group works to place them into adoptive homes.

What a great way to make the rescue cycle come full circle! Check out Dogs for the Deaf on Petfinder.

Do you know a shelter or rescue group doing something creative and/or different? Let us know at outreach@petfinder.com.

Black cats are hard to find homes for. So are pairs of cats. Also, adolescent cats. What happens when all three of those are combined? You get some very long-time fosters.

Friends of Homeless Animals in Hawthorne, NJ (where I found my special-needs cat, Gretel), has been fostering best friends Teddy, a 15-month-old black male, and Duffy, an 18-month-old male tabby, for many months now.

They are handsome and affectionate, bonded to each other and great with other cats, but are passed over time and time again for younger and more stand-out cats.

What suggestions do you have to make Teddy, Duffy and other hard-to-place cats more eye-catching to potential adopters?

For all the bad press that pit bulls get, it's nice to see the media give some attention to a hero pit -- and one who happens to be a shelter dog, no less!

The Associated Press picked up the story of the aptly named Angel, a 2-year-old boxer/pit mix living at the Nevada Humane Society in Reno.

Angel was being walked by volunteer Frank Gomez and his 9-year-old stepson, Joel Fontes, when she became fixated on something in the nearby bushes. Turns out it was a box of six abandoned three-week-old kittens.

See a pic of the kittens and read more on this story after the jump.

Kudos to Dr. Lila Miller of the ASPCA, who was awarded the 2008 AVMA Animal Welfare Award. The award was given to recognize Dr. Miller's many achievements in advancing the welfare of animals via her leadership, public service, education, research and advocacy -- and I couldn't agree more with the choice!

We all know how important our relationships with our best friends' doctors are. (I'm struggling personally right now because my own trusted veterinarian has moved too far away for us to visit regularly, leaving me too frozen with anxiety and indecision to select the right new doctor to partner with in my pets' health care.) 

Petfinder's shelter members are heroes every day, but once in a while one of their heroic acts makes the papers, and boy are we proud!

On Tuesday, volunteers from Paw Placement in Scottsdale, AZ, rescued nine puppies and their mother who were stuck underneath a portable classroom in Phoenix.

Mama dog had given birth to the puppies underneath the classroom, but they weren't discovered until four weeks later, when teachers arrived to prepare for classes. Workers had to cut a hole in the floor to get the wriggling little guys out, but boy was it worth it. Watch the incredible video here, and see another too-cute-for-words photo after the jump.

One of the most important things a volunteer can do at a shelter is to photograph the pets and write their bios for Petfinder.

At high-intake shelters, a compelling bio and eye-catching photo can literally mean the difference between life and death for a homeless pet.

To that end, photographer Jamie Pflughoeft at Cowbelly Pet Photography in Seattle has posted some excellent tips on her blog. I'm including a sampling but you can read the entire post here.

(PS-This post includes Jamie's photos of Matahari, shown here, and Ebony (who is no longer listed on Petfinder), after the jump, photographed at the Seattle Animal Shelter.

1. Always photograph dogs outside if at all possible. Shoot in shade if it's bright and sunny. Allow them to explore their surroundings for several minutes before diving into your photography. Only start once they have sufficiently explored their immediate area. Keep in mind the disparity between outdoor time and kennel time for these animals. You can't blame them for wanting to explore!

This was made by one of the folks I do rescue transport with. This frame of mind is what keeps so many of us going. Have to warn you, it's a tear jerker, but I am so happy she did this.

I have a transport to do tomorrow and I couldn't be happier that I am involved. Well, I could be -- if no one needed to be pulled from these shelters. But for now, I am happy to help.

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?"

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.]

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.