Author: David

Taking your new pet (whether dog, cat, hamster, or any other living thing) to the veterinarian should be your first priority. This is especially true if you have other pets. It’s a good idea to make sure your new pet is healthy and doesn’t have any diseases or viruses he or she could transmit to other animals in the house.

Your first veterinarian visit should be an enjoyable experience. You’ll learn all kinds of things about your new companion! Plus, you’ll want your veterinarian to get to know your pet during times of health so he or she will easily be able to recognize abnormal behavior if your pet ever becomes ill.

Here are three essential questions for your new vet, for detailed information check our What to Ask The Veterinarian Guide.

3 Essential Questions For The Vet

• How often does my pet need a checkup?
• Does my pet need to go to the dentist like I do?
• What kinds of preventative treatments might my pet need?

Struggling to name your newly adopted pet? If you’re curious, here are the top ten names for Dogs and Cats.

Dog Names

1. Buddy
2. Max
3. Daisy
4. Molly
5. Charlie
6. Lucy
7. Bear
8. Lady
9. Lucky
10. Maggie

Cat Names

1. Kitty
2. Tigger
3. Tiger
4. Princess
5. Smokey
6. Angel
7. Max
8. Lucy
9. Molly
10. Baby

If you didn’t catch the Dog Show on Martha Stewart, Adopt-A-Pet.com’s Pia Salk spoke about pet adoption with Martha joined by a well behaved pet in need named Benjamin. Pia discussed with Martha the reality of pet over population, mentioned a few tips about adoption, and showed viewers how to use adopt-a-pet.com. The entire clip can be found over at Martha Stewart’s website. You’ll also find a number of other videos from the Dog show, along with several fun do-it-yourself pet projects.

What better way to really connect with your furry companion than to vacation together, and you don’t even have to pack an extra bathing suit for your pet. Of course, sometimes we travel with a pet because we must, like during a cross-country move. Whatever the reason, everybody (including your pet) needs to get to where they are going safe and sound. Here are a few tips from our traveling guide.

5 Tips When Traveling With Pets

• Make sure the pet has proper identification.
• Label your pet’s carrier prominently with your name, address, and
  phone number.
• Consider your flight schedule and any time your pet might be outside being moved in and out of the plane.
• Book a direct flight with no layovers.
• Never sedate your pet before a flight without consulting your veterinarian first.

These are just a few of the many tips you can read in our complete Traveling With Pets Guide.

A pet is sometimes just like a toddler, and left alone they will explore every inch of the house. In light of that fact, if you are planning to adopt and especially if you have not had a pet in the household before take note of these common household items that can harm your new pet.

• Chocolate
• Coffee/coffee grounds
• Raisins and grapes
• Cooked bones can splinter and cause internal injuries
• Avocado
• Onions and onion powder
• Macadamia nuts
• Alcoholic beverages
• Prescription drugs, Always keep well out of reach
• Fabric softener sheets dogs and cats love to play with these, but they’re toxic
• Fertilizer and plant food
• Antifreeze smells sweet, so pets love to lick it out of a puddle on
  the street, too

When in doubt, assume something is poisonous for your pet. Better safe than
sorry!

This is a very exciting time for us–thanks to the trailblazing Pia Salk, our spokesperson and psychologist extraordinaire who specializes in the human-animal bond, Shepard Fairey has created this amazing image to promote pet adoption!  This is huge–Shepard Fairey was recently named Icon-Maker of the Year by Time Magazine. His “Obey” clothing line is the biggest thing out there right now, second only to his Obama “Hope” images you see everywhere.  He also designed the official inauguration poster–pretty prestigious stuff for a street artist!

Check out MuttsLikeMe.com.  We’ll be selling 400 limited-edition signed/numbered prints, t-shirts, stickers, and more…items will be going very fast (Fairey print runs usually sell out in a matter of minutes), so make sure you sign up to be alerted by email when the sale begins.  You can also download the image in all kinds of sizes and formats.  Please post it everywhere you can–it’s time to get the message out that adoption is not only the most responsible option, but it’s cool, too!

A 10-year-old dog abandoned by her owner at the pound…a pit bull confiscated by police after his homeless owner is arrested for beating him…38 unsocialized corgi mixes removed from the home of a mentally ill man…an elderly chow mix rescued after spending over a week on the side of a Los Angeles freeway…what hope do dogs like these have? The answer: Pooch Heaven, a non-profit rescue, where there is no such thing as a lost cause.

Located on an 800-acre ranch in Southern California, Pooch Heaven is home to 50-70 adoptable dogs at any given time, as well as eleven “sponsored” pets (those who are not adoptable due to serious health or behavioral problems). One look at Pooch Heaven’s pet list will tell you all you need to know about this organization: they believe that all pets deserve a chance at a happy life, no matter their age, breed, or background. Many of Pooch Heaven’s pets have special needs due to physical disabilities or medical conditions, or are difficult to place because they are older. Once Pooch Heaven takes in an orphan, the lucky dog is set for life—literally. Pets who don’t find homes live out the remainder of their lives at Pooch Heaven, and adopters must agree to return their pet to Pooch Heaven if they ever become unable to care for him or her, no matter how many years have passed since the adoption. “Once we rescue a dog, we consider ourselves responsible for that dog for the rest of his life, and we wouldn’t have it any other way,” says Jamie Lee, Pooch Heaven’s administrator.

Pooch Heaven is always full to capacity, and adoptions are sometimes very slow. “The puppies and young small dogs we rescue are very easy to find homes for,” says Lee, “but when we take in an older dog or a maligned breed like a pit bull or a rottweiler, we know that it may take months, even years, before that dog is adopted. We never give up hope, though, no matter how long a dog has been with us. Every one of these wonderful dogs deserves to live in a real home with a person or a family who loves them. We believe there’s a family out there for each of them.”

If you live in Southern California and you’re looking for a pet to adopt, check out the pets at Pooch Heaven! You can be the home that one of these pooches has been waiting for!

This story comes to us from Robyn R. of Los Angeles:

HappyBeginnings! I googled “rescue dogs” and got a plethora of photos from Adoptapet.com. I was overwhelmed by the amount of animals in need of a home. One of the first pictures I got was of a Cocker named Dakota. I knew this dog was for me and my two boys. We raced over to Friends of Animals shelter and a woman was just about to walk a dog and I just knew that it was Dakota!! I said, “Dakota!” and he looked up at me, and the volunteer looked at me incredulously and said, “Oh, you know Dakota?” Even though the photo I’d seen was just of his face and very small, I felt such a connection to this dog I knew it must be Dakota. I adopted him immediately! He is approximately 7 years old and doesn’t let a tennis ball leave his mouth! He has brought such joy into my life and my family’s. I kept receiving Search Saver e-mails about other available dogs and couldn’t resist getting him a buddy. We went back to the same rescue foundation and adopted Max, a very spirited 1-year-old Cocker. He is the clown of the family and keeps us laughing and moving! I get stopped on the street daily to tell me what beautiful dogs they are!

Thank you for enriching my life with these wonderful animals. Not only did I save their lives but they are saving mine by giving me unconditional love and happiness.

This month, we’d like to introduce you to Southern California’s Bichon Furkids Rescue, a very special organization dedicated to saving the lives of a very special breed: the Bichon Frise (they also work with Bichon mixes and Maltese Bichons). They do a great job of it, too—although they’ve been in operation for less than a year, they have rescued and re-homed an incredible 80 dogs! Why adopt a Bichon? Explains Marti Colwell, co-founder of Bichon Furkids, “Bichons are wonderful dogs; they have an independent spirit and are intelligent, affectionate and lively. They are, by nature, happy and loving, and they respond well to training…and who can resist those adorable little faces with those huge black eyes and noses?” Marti and co-founder Mena Thiers are dedicated to making sure each Bichon goes to a wonderful home where their needs are met: “Bichons are naturally sociable,” says Marti, “and they’re happiest when they are part of a family that interacts with them a lot.”

Bichon Furkids is currently trying to find a forever home for a wonderful pair of pooches with a sad story. Casey and Bitsy (pictured) came from a home where they were neglected, never taken to a vet, never groomed, and never cared for. They slept together in a small, hard plastic crate with only each other for comfort. By the time they were lucky enough to be taken in by Bichon Furkids, both of them were suffering from terrible ear infections. Despite everything, they are affectionate, happy, playful as can be, and READY FOR A NEW HOME! They are a bonded pair, and must be adopted together. If you’re interested in being the hero who provides the happy ending to Casey and Bitsy’s story, contact Bichon Furkids!

Meet Animal Lifeline, our Heroes of the Month! The folks at Animal Lifeline, based in Pennsylvania, do so many different things for animals that it was difficult to decide which aspect of their work to feature. They see themselves as a “rescue to the rescuers” and, through various fundraising activities, they are able to supply many private and municipal animal rescues and shelters with food, transportation, spay and neuter assistance, grant and medication procurement, kennel equipment, and just about anything else you can think of. They operate on the principle that people working together can accomplish great change, and they and their legion of volunteers are proving the truth in that statement.

In addition to their outreach, fundraising, and an extremely innovative spay/neuter program, Animal Lifeline has spent the past year building an animal shelter in the very poor community of Clay County, West Virginia. After hearing about terrible conditions at the existing shelter, they jumped right in, getting land donated and renovating a rustic shelter from the ground up. Volunteers from the Philadelphia area supplied most of the manpower. “Our volunteers do everything they can for the community,” says Animal Lifeline founder Denise Bash, “There have been friendships made that I dare say should last a lifetime. People from home send supplies to needy families, food for volunteers, and shelter and animal care supplies. It really is amazing how much more vested people are when they know where everything is going.”

Continues Bash, “There are plenty of ‘Clay Counties’ in the United States. Places where a ‘dawg’ lives on a line, cats are in even worse shape, there is no vet in the county, people are poor, and animals are destitute. Do you leave? Do you pretend it’s not happening? We have chosen to stay. There are many people in Clay who care deeply for animals. By investing in this community and teaching them, giving them the tools they need, Internet, shelter, feed, adoption outlets, grant procurement, we are saving countless more animals then we could on our own.”