Month: June 2009

From the brilliant Dr. Pia Salk, who has extensive experience fostering pets: If you can’t adopt a pet but want to get a temporary furry cuddle fix, support the work of your local rescue groups and save lives, then fostering is for you! Fostering is one of the most compassionate and rewarding actions an animal lover can take. The availability of a foster home can make a life-saving difference for a homeless animal. While many people envision rescue groups as having large facilities and a full staff, the reality is more grass roots than that.

Many rescues groups are only able to take in as many needy animals as they have fosters for. Rescue groups work tirelessly to find homes for the animals in their care and to network the ones in municipal shelters, but all too often the time needed to find a home exceeds the time an animal has left. Foster homes provide the critical time needed to connect the dots between an animal in need and an adoptive home.

Foster homes help not only by saving lives, but in other ways too. By getting to know a pet’s personality, a foster helps the rescue group properly place that pet into a suitable home. A brief stint in a safe environment can also help provide the socialization needed to facilitate a smoother transition into a new home.

And let’s not forget the fun part! A foster parent gets to have a furry fix for a stint without the life-long commitment that may not suit their lifestyle.It’s like getting to spoil your niece and nephew when they come to visit!

Anyone interested in exploring foster should contact a few rescue groups in their area (click here to find rescues near you). The rescue can share info on their requirements and schedule a time for a home visit. Ask them to help you establish the kinds of animals you can accommodate and a time commitment that meets your lifestyle. If you’re partial to a certain breed, you can also consider fostering for a breed rescue.

You can also sign up to volunteer on Adopt-a-Pet.com’s volunteer registry, and select “Fostering” as one of your interests.

What a great way to advocate for the animals!

Happy fostering!

If you like drinking root beer and supporting pet adoption, have we got a combo for you! Margo’s Bark is an all-natural root beer from a family-owned company who donates 100% of their profits to help shelter dogs. In the Spring of 2008, it occurred to Tim and Jessica Youd while helping his son with a school science fair project, that it might be fun to buy a root beer kit to study carbonation and the process yeast undergoes when it interacts with sugar and heat.

Oscar (the son) soon developed a knack for tasting and perfecting the process of brewing root beer. After rave reviews, and a science fair award, Oscar and his family wanted to expand their new found talent and share not only the taste of the new root beer, but also the proceeds. Fittingly they named the beverage after their black lab-pit bull rescue dog named Margo.

Margo is proud that her legacy as the official spokesdog for Margo’s Bark Root Beer will be that of benefiting her four legged friends who need help finding homes.

Made from all-natural cane sugar, molasses and a hint of vanilla, Margo’s Bark is a full bodied and earthly tribute to an American classic. This root beer recipe has undertones of clove, cassia, nutmeg and wintergreen to give it a spicy kick and yucca extract finishes off the recipe to give it a thick and foamy head. Replacing corn syrup with cane sugar in Margo’s recipe allows Oscar and his pals a cleaner and healthier rendition of what is usually a very sweet and sticky carbonated beverage. Margo’s Bark is currently available in Los Angeles at Tender Greens, Larchmont Larder, Potato Chips, The Urban Pet and LA Dogworks. This summer, Margo’s Bark will be available in all Whole Foods locations throughout Southern California, Nevada, Arizona and Hawaii and all Southern California Bristol Farms locations. For updates on additional availability, please visit www.margosbark.com.

One story this week. After many years of planning for a new facility a local shelter is able to raise enough money to begin constructing a new shelter.

Stories from 6/05 – 6/19

“I have worked on it (new facility) almost 20 years,” Ms. Hollowell said. “It has been a dream for a very long time and that is what kept us going and encouraged us when we were fundraising and weren’t sure were going to hit our goal.

Petsummary.com is a website where you can keep all your pet records handy. This makes it much easier for vets to access pet information whether its a routine checkup, or emergency.

Just like Google’s new online health record service for people, PetSummary makes it easy for pet owners, vets and caregivers to access your dog’s important health data, anytime, anywhere. So it’s perfect for unexpected vet visits while your traveling or away from your pup. Even better, PetSummary makes you less dependent on your busy vet’s office to keep you up to date on vaccines, sparing you the cost of redundant tests or shots. Read more at woofreport.com

Wish you could take home every pet in every shelter, but just don’t have the space? There are lots of other ways you can help. Pet over population is a big problem, and while not everyone can adopt, you can make just as big as impact by finding other ways to help out homeless animals. Here are five ways you can help.

For more information check out our complete Ways to Help Homeless Pets Guide.

5 Ways to Help Homeless Pets Without Adopting

• Donate supplies to your local shelter or rescue group
• Use your special skills- The shelter may need help with computers, book keeping, or building a better shelter. Get creative about the ways which you can help
• The shelter can be an extremely stressful atmosphere for a dog or cat, go and keep a furry friend company for a day
• It may sound simple, but the greatest gift you can give homeless pets and those who take care of them is simply to keep your own pets for life. Don’t give up on a pet, they inevitably will end up in a shelter.
• Take responsibility for your own pet and have them spayed or neutered

One story this week. A local shelter reaches their fund raising goal and is able to build a new facility.

Stories from 5/29 – 6/05

– 85 American Eskimo puppy mill dogs available for adoption

Earlier this week Pia Salk was invited to show off some local pets on Mike and Juliet. Pia also discussed a new feature on our website we are calling Social Petworking. Find out what happened on the show, and what Social Petworking is all about.

Social Petworking is all about sharing the idea of adopting pets with your current friends on Twitter, Facebook and other social applications. Now once you find a pet in need on AdoptaPet.com simply hover over the button on the top right of the page description labeled “SHARE.” There you can send the pet page to any of your friends. This is an awesome, and kind way of creating awareness of pets in need with your family an friends.

Pia discusses more about the Social Petworking on the show.