The weekend is upon us! So many options for fun things to do, yet somehow we just want to stay in and snuggle with our furry babies. Do you ever want to ditch the big outings in favor of a warm couch and a cuddle?
RedandHowling: Musings on Dogs, Cats & Other Bundles of Love.
Black cats are always the last to go at adoption shelters – especially around Halloween. Until now. October 29 is a new worldwide holiday: National Cat Day! a holiday to celebrate cats for their unconditional love and companionship, and to welcome those in need into our lives through animal rescue. Remember, however, that black cats need extra protection around Halloween. Here are a few simple tips to keep your kitty safe. And adoption shortfalls don’t end with black cats. More cats than dogs are euthanized every year, mostly because they usually arrive at shelters without any owner identification. The Animal Miracle Network estimates that approximately 4 million cats enter shelters every year, and 1 to 2 million of them are euthanized.
The primary goal of National Cat Day is to facilitate 10,000 incremental adoptions of shelter cats nationwide on October 29. This will be the first year that the Animal Miracle Network attempts to track the numbers for cats, but similar National Dog Day initiatives in the past have exceeded the goal by more than 12,000 dogs.
National Cat Day founder Colleen Paige explains, “We put a lot of manpower into communicating with our affiliate event promoters and shelters around the country that signed up to participate. We’ll only take credit for the numbers we directly receive from our adoption sources.”
You can still help homeless cats on National Cat Day if you’re unable to take on another pet. Visit a local animal shelter and offer to volunteer by cleaning cages or playing with the cats. You could also host your own event such as a bake sale and donate the proceeds to a shelter in honor of National Cat Day.
If you’re already a proud cat owner, take some time on National Cat Day to show your pet how much you appreciate her. Paige recommends spoiling her with treats or a new litter box, or simply showing her some love. “In this difficult economy, if all you can afford is time, spend some of it with your furry feline,” recommends Paige. “That’s more important to them then all the catnip in the world.”
If you’re looking to give a homeless cat a loving home, visit Petcentric’s Adopt-a-Pet.com-powered pet search tool to meet your new best friend. With pet adoption, you’ll find that National Cat Day will be the first of countless great ones to come.
Colleen Paige is the Editor-in-Chief of Pet Home magazine. Visit www.nationalcatday.com and www.colleenpaige.com for more information.
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What better way to celebrate Howl-o-ween than a gigantic dog costume contest in a dog park? New York City has taken the concept to a whole new level with their Halloween Howl, an annual event in Carl Schurz Park on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. Thousands of spectators cheer on as hundreds of dogs strut their stuff vying for prizes in the various cat-egories, plus there are booths you and your family (canines included!) can visit to learn all about healthy food, treats and more for your dog’s wellness. We love the 3 minute video that our friends at Petcentric posted from one of the past year’s events. Even if you can’t make it to NYC for this year’s festivities, you can get into the spirit of Halloween by watching the video online right here! Event details below…
The 2011 event is on Sunday, October 23, 2011 (Rain date October 30) from 1:00 to 3:00 p.m. — check out the park’s website event page http://www.carlschurzparknyc.org/events.html for more info!
This past weekend, at a brand-new event called the Purina Pet Project, the folks at Purina once again showed their enormous commitment to supporting not only homeless animals, but the shelters and rescue organizations that care for them. I had the pleasure (and it was!) of attending this event, along with Adopt-a-Pet.com’s director of animal shelter outreach, Jennifer Jacobsen. We were both so impressed with what we saw, and absolutely inspired.
Here’s a little background: every year, Purina employees participate in a day of volunteerism to help St. Louis-area animal shelters, taking part in a variety of projects like assembling dog and cat beds, doing shelter makeovers, and making blankets to keep shelter pets warm . These projects really make an impact on the animal welfare community in St. Louis. This year, our friend Caroline Holke at Purina had an amazing, big idea, which began with a simple question: If the employees of Purina could make such a big difference in a single day, how much more could be done if the general public were given the opportunity to volunteer as well? Caroline’s idea was embraced by her colleagues, and presto! The Purina Pet Project was born.
The event was held on Saturday, October 1st at Purina Farms. Before the doors opened to the public, we took a look around. More than 30 different projects were waiting to be completed. More than 30 rescue groups and shelters were there with adoptable pets on display. There were empty troughs waiting to be filled with donated items from a wish list Purina had provided to the public, things that shelters really needs like toys, bleach, and other supplies. An empty volunteer sign-up sheet sat at a booth dedicated to the biggest project of the year: a complete makeover of the Five Acres Animal Shelter, which was to be completed the following weekend, if enough volunteers could be recruited. So many opportunities to help…but would anybody show up?
The doors opened, and we got our answer: a resounding YES! The folks at Purina were really hoping they’d get 1,000 people to come out and help. Instead, they got about 2,800! People poured in the door, many carrying items to donate, and all ready and willing to lend a hand. It was a beautiful thing to behold. It was especially wonderful to see so many parents and children working together. Kudos to those parents for teaching their children the spirit of volunteerism (and kudos to the children who taught their parents, of course)!
The results?
15 dog houses were beautifully decorated
200 Kuranda dog beds were assembled
40 Kuranda cat towers were assembled
220 pet blankets were made
600 pet bowls and 550 bandanas were decorated
$2,000 raised from games and raffle tickets –the winner of the 50/50 raffle donated the cash back to the animal shelters
Approximately 20 pets were adopted and MANY other leads were made (most organizations reported receiving at least 4 applications)
12 troughs were heaping with donated items
27 volunteers signed up at the to help with the Five Acres Animal Shelter makeover
Fabulous, in other words. Thank you, Purina, for caring so much about homeless animals (and the people who take care of them)!
And here are some photos of the event:
We usually cover very serious topics here on our blog, important stuff about helping homeless pets, rescuing dogs, cats and other creatures, ways volunteers and shelters are working hard to save lives… and then… there’s doggie-mail and kittie-mail. Step into the petcentric online gallery here: http://www.petcentric.com/Fun-Games/Doggie-Mail.aspx and you’ll see what we mean! It’s some very silly talking pets that invite you to customize your online message by either choosing one of the three dogs or three cats, or making it even more silly fun, uploading your dog or cat from your computer or Facebook. Then you choose a painting from the gallery… well, I don’t want to give all the fun away! If you’re looking for a little diversion in your day, or a unique and creative way to add your voice to your pet’s photos and send out a birthday or other greeting to your friends or post a very important message on your Facebook page!
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This is just one of the many reasons why Adopt-a-Pet.com is so extremely proud to work with Purina. They are doing amazing things for the pets affected by Hurricane Sandy. Today they posted a photo of destroyed homes on their Purina ONE Facebook page along with this caption: “Hurricane Sandy has taken a huge toll on the East Coast. Reports of deaths, extensive power outages and widespread damage are very distressing to hear. Many pets were also displaced as a result of the devastation. At Nestlé Purina, where pets are our passion, we want to do our part to help the four-legged victims of this disaster. As part of this effort, we’ve coordinated several donations of pet food, litter, and Purina Veterinary Diets FortiFlora® to animal welfare organizations, veterinary clinics, and hospitals in the affected areas. Our company is also making a donation of $20,000 to North Shore Animal League America, whose Emergency Response Team was on round-the-clock call throughout the storm with their Mobile Rescue Units to safely evacuate and care for animals in distress. They have organized an Emergency Pet Shelter in New York and are currently caring for more than 150 pets whose owners were directly affected by the devastation of Hurricane Sandy. We will also be making a contribution of $15,000 to PetSmart Charities, which has set up a temporary distribution center to hand out food, litter and supplies to animal welfare organizations across the entire northeastern United States. Many have been voicing their support and sympathy for the victims of this disaster. We appreciate your compassion and caring, and we will keep you posted on all Nestlé Purina PetCare efforts.”
From February 10th through February 14th, Adopt-a-Pet.com is holding the “Great American Pooch Smooch & Kitty Kiss” kiss-a-pawlooza! Spread the love of your pets to homeless pets by sharing your purr-fect and paw-some pet-kissing photos on the Adopt-a-Pet.com Facebook page here. For each pooch smooch or kitty kiss photo posted from February 10th through February 14th, 25¢ will be donated to Adopt-a-Pet.com’s Veterinary Care Fund grant program, originally funded with a donation from Purina Veterinary Diets®. The maximum donation is $5,000! Despite the name of the event, photos of all kinds of pets are welcome! Don’t have a pet of your own, or just want to give some extra kisses this Valentine’s Day? Consider visiting your an animal shelter or rescue (find your local shelters and rescues here) to give a smooch or two to some adoptable pets waiting for permanent homes. Or, better yet, make the relationship permanent and adopt!
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Aside from adorable pet videos, sometimes I think the internet was really invented for silly cat photos! Our friends over at Petcentric came up with the idea to post seven photos of cats sleeping and they are each cuter than the next, and that inspired us to go through the archives of our foster cat and kitten photos to find all the cute cat sleeping photos we’ve taken over the years too! Vallo, pictured at right, is one prime example. He would sleep like that with his belly up and a big kitty smile on his face all the time! There’s not much cuter than a happy sleeping kitten or cat, and they can get into some pretty silly positions when they sleep too! Petcentric adds, “On average, cats sleep 13–14 hours a day. Lucky for us, that gives us tons of time to observe their funny and unique sleeping habits. Here, we’ve uncovered seven sleepy cats. Look through quietly — we wouldn’t want to wake them!” Here’s the link to see Petcentric’s seven sleepy cats, and click the “more” link at the end of this paragraph to see the photos we picked to share with you here too. If you have a cute photo of your adopted cat or kitten sleeping, you can share it on our Facebook page here! You can share our photos with your friends easily too by clicking one of the icons below.
Amelia’s adopters sent me this photo of her sleeping snuggled up with their dog.
Maggie Mae would sleep with her paw stretched across me in a kitty hug.
Valentino loved to sleep in sinks!
George was sleeping so soundly, he couldn’t be bothered to move when Alfred sat on him!
A shelter kitty curled up sleeping in a donut bed.
Kate’s adopters sent me this adorable photo of her sleeping!
Silly foster kitten sleeping in my camera bag!
Huckleberry another of my belly-up foster sleepers!
Victoria would sleep snuggled up with as many people or other kitties as possible.
