Introducing My Pet Street

Since my very first post in March '07, today's blog entry is one I've been looking forward to writing. It introduces My Pet Street, an environment that provides support, resources, and services for busy people, like you and me, with pets.

My Pet Street started as an idea when I was working as a Vice President for a Fortune 500 company. With a busy travel schedule, I often wondered how I would get everything done before rushing off and catching yet another plane. Would there be time to walk the dog? Who would make sure the cats got their medications?

I knew there were services in my neighborhood that could help me, but there was never enough time to be out-and-about talking with other pet owners to glean this important information -- trusted information -- which is still largely communicated by word-of-mouth.

I dreamed about a solution of putting a business together that could provide community-based, quality, trusted information. Busy people with pets know that this reliable information is essential when addressing the needs of these special members of the family.

Today, the launch of My Pet Street is the realization of that initial dream.

Some key features of My Pet Street include:

• Pet News -- selected news, pictures, and videos that are the “best of the best” available on the Web.
• My Pet Needs -- local and locally-rated service providers. Take some time to rate your favorite providers. If they are not listed, let us know and we can add them.
• Pets 411 -- quickly accessed and efficiently organized expert opinions, pet owner insights, and question/answer forums giving you the best information available for your pet. Don't be shy about sharing your insights on your favorite pet!
• PetALERTZ -- a tag that reunites lost pets with their people by matching pet identity to an on-line, community-based database. This program saves lost pets from trauma at unfamiliar facilities where microchip information can be read. It takes only a minute to register for PetALERTZ, and the tag is cool! (Chocolate is modeling it here.)

It is my sincere wish that you find tremendous value at My Pet Street. I invite you to visit the site, become a community member, and share your experiences and ideas. As a community, we will build the best overall portal for our furred, feathered, and scaled family members.

My blog will continue at My Pet Street. I'm looking forward to seeing you in the neighborhood...

Connie

Make me a match

When it comes to adding a cat to our family, we've always followed the strategy of letting them find us - whether it's via a friend, neighbor, or local shelter. In a group of cats or kittens, there will be one that stands out by being too cute, very ugly, loudly vocal, or just irresistible, and by doing so, becomes a part of our family.

But now there's a more sophisticated way to ensure the kitty you bring home integrates within your family.

The Central California Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals has joined other shelters in the United States in putting together a personality test for cats. Called "Meet Your Match: Feline-ality", the test determines whether a cat is an outgoing "party animal" or a shyer "private investigator" type. The shelter then queries the prospective adopter for the type of cat they'd like to have in their home (lap cat, hunter) and makes the match accordingly. The good news is that with this upfront work, the return and euthanasia rates have decreased as much as 40 percent. Making it much closer to a match made in heaven...

Check out the full description of the Feline-ality program at the ASPCA.

Play it again, Nora....

Usually, we who live in the San Francisco Bay Area enjoy fairly even and temperate weather. Not so today. It's payback time... so while the winds gale and the rains drench, enjoy this CBS Morning Show piece on Nora, the piano-playing cat. I've seen her clips on YouTube, but this report gives a wider story of how one cat's 15 minutes of fame keeps playing on... enjoy...

Don't we all?

Help with those resolutions

I love reading statistics about us pet lovers as a group, and the latest Pet Age magazine has a couple worth sharing, especially as we start implementing our resolutions to lose weight, be more active, stay mentally aware, take better care of ourselves, etc., etc.

• Almost half (45 percent) of all pet owners feel they are more active after adopting a pet. This is a benefit that pays off both physically (exercise) and mentally (staving off depression).
  
• A bit more than a quarter of women (26 percent) reported losing weight once a pet was part of their family.
• As we get older (whether or not we're in denial), a pet can help improve memory, enhance quality of life, and enable better health through lower cholesterol and lower blood pressure. Almost 70 percent of those surveyed said they look forward to each new day because they have a pet in their lives.
  

One additional resolution I have is when I look to add another pet to our family, it will be through a rescue group. There's one for every breed and species, as well as the services provided by the local Humane Society. A book that I'll read beforehand is Your Adopted Dog: Everything You Need to Know About Rescuing and Caring for a Best Friend in Need, which will help ensure the new guy or gal settles in successfully.

Looking forward a fun and rewarding New Year...

Happy New Year

I hope you take this day as one more to enjoy life's party. There's time to get down to business tomorrow and deal with those resolutions and other big things we have in store for ourselves in 2008. May your New Year be very productive and prosperous.

Saying our thanks

This was in my mail this morning, cute and sad at the same time...




Dear Lord, Thank you for bringing me to Timmy's house and not to Michael Vick's -- AMEN!

Barney leads the way

As this calendar year winds down, Barney is an inspiration in how we might look at the upcoming year to live our lives anew.

An 8-year-old lab mix, Barney was a shelter dog who had little chance of being adopted - he was blind and deaf. Amy Shever, founder and director of the all-volunteer 2nd Chance 4 Pets in Los Gatos, California, received the call for help. Once Barney arrived in her home, he was home, as he instantly became part of the family.

After some time for rehabilitation, touch was used to train Barney. Today, if his rear is tapped, he'll sit. If his front paws are stroked, he will lie down, although "it helps to have some food" while they are doing this. When they go for walks, if there is a step up, Amy will lift up lightly on Barney's leash and he steps up just fine.

Amy said Barney "isn't afraid of anything, [he] always has a smile on his face and uses his heart to see the world around him. His biggest pleasures include long walks, nightly wrestling matches with humans, playing hide-and-seek with dog buddies and extra kibble whenever he can get it.

"You see this dog, and you're just happy."

It's amazing to me how adaptable our pets are regardless of the challenges life gives them, whether they be physical, emotional or both. While many people might think a dog with this level of disability couldn't possibly live a full life, the article puts to rest any concern of that. May we all use Barney as our example of how to look past our limitations and embrace the wholeness of our lives.

Rent a life?

Last Summer, I read an article about Flex Pet, a rent-a-dog service for busy professionals. At the time, I was conflicted about whether this was a good idea or not.

On the one hand, it gives a second chance to shelter animals that might not have a life otherwise. It could give a person, who had not had a dog as a part of their lives before, an idea of what life would be like with a dog. A lot of people adopt dogs, thinking they can be cared for easily, and when they find out otherwise, they land up at the shelter. The owner of the business comes across as a dedicated pet lover, and has several safeguards in place for her charges.

On the other hand, dogs are not commodities, and do best when they have a life of predictability and routine. They also bond to their "alpha" and strive to be with them as a member of the pack. For the renter, they get only restricted view of life with a dog, which can cause significant misunderstanding, maybe even worse than not having had a dog at all.

I can imagine "renting" my Yorkie, Chocolate, for the weekend, and being captivated with his energy, joy, and cuteness. It would take more than a weekend to realize that living with him has other aspects too, and not nearly as endearing as any short visit would reveal. But that's life with a dog (or at least my dog). I love him for everything he brings to my life, but it is a responsibility, one that pays off immeasurably as we share our lives together with the balance of the good, and sometimes, the not so good.

Now Boston.com is revisiting the subject, as Flex Petz plans to move into the Boston area this coming Spring. It covers all the good and bad listed above, but the best quote is also the best solution:

"Why would you need to rent a dog when you could walk a dog in a shelter in your community?" said Gary Patronek, director of animal welfare and protection at the Animal Rescue League of Boston, where dogs that go out on walks with volunteers wear red vests that read, "Available for adoption."

"If you are feeling a little lonely, we are here," Patronek said.

This is the right way to "rent" a pet if that's what you need to do...

Tragedy all around

Today's lead news from San Francisco is the death of one and the mauling of two zoo visitors Christmas evening, just before closing time. The attack was made by a Siberian Tiger, Tatiana, who was killed by police officers as she approached them when they were trying to reach one of the victims. The zoo is closed today as investigators look for possible additional victims, and try to determine how Tatiana escaped her enclosure, which was fortified after she attacked one of the zookeepers almost a year ago.

This story resonates with me for two reasons.

One is that I know the zookeeper who was mauled last year. She is a tremendous woman who has extraordinary talent working with zoo animals. This story brings up the terrifying memories from then and the sadness today that it's not only happened again, but with a fatality. The road to recovery from such an attack is long and arduous. My heart goes out to the families who are enduring the loss and pain from yesterday's attack.

The second reason I keep thinking about this story is that we, as folks who relate to animals, can sometimes make the mistake that all animals are capable of co-existing with us. That is simply not true. An article from the UK outlines the risks of attempting to live with crocodiles, scorpions, poisonous snakes and spiders, etc, etc, that become the reason we visit the emergency room more often than we might otherwise. I'd like to think that such an episode makes people reevaluate the structure of their lives, and if they are endangering themselves and their wild animals, they can make changes now. That allows everyone, two- and four-footed, to live their lives fully and safely.

Merry Christmas

Today, I'm feeling enormous gratitude for the whole host of wonderful people and animals that are my friends and family. One friend, Mike Harding, has the absolutely wackiest animated Santa I've ever seen - check it out at MontaraVentures.

And I hope you have a joyous and blessed Christmas.

Home for the holidays

Today's opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange was rung in by a group of 7 friendly dogs to highlight the advantages of pet adoption during this holiday season. Home 4 the Holidays, sponsored by Iams, is in its 9th year of operation, and claims to be the world's largest pet adoption drive. Their goal is to find homes for almost 500,000 pets before January 3, 2008. Adoption has the added benefit of significantly reducing the number of euthanasias, making a Merry Christmas for all.

Jingle Bell Dog

Since it's only 38 seconds, and Joshua does some cute things as he "sings", it's worth the watch... enjoy...

Slow pet news week...

...so we're reduced to watching youtube, what a job!

Visiting Santa

Doesn't get much better than this.... happy Wednesday...

My Christmas wish

If I could have any wish today, it would be to have enough funding to buy and revamp Michael Vick's Surry, Virginia, estate into an animal refuge. I could see dogs running free on the available 15 acres, and cats lounging in the outbuildings that had been used for the pure evil of dogfighting. I'd have an area for horses, there would be a large aviary, and small animals of all kinds would have a place to live their lives fully. Where fear, cruelty, and inhumanity abounded, the property would be transformed into a safe, loving, protective harbor where all pets without homes would be welcome. This would be their home, as long as they needed it, until a new one became available.

The large house could be used for training, classes, and education. There would be programs available that would attract people from all over to visit, help, share, and learn in all areas of pet welfare and care. I could see a camp for at-risk kids, who could learn first hand that caring for a pet is a positive step forward to a healthier life. There could be seminars and workshops on various careers within the pet industry, and maybe even a museum that would become a must-see vacation spot.

While there are many of us who respect and care for our pets, there are still many others who continue to abuse them in the most barbaric ways. The house's legacy would be a reminder of this sad fact, however the goal would be to measure over time how a former torture chamber for innocent dogs is transformed into a worldwide humanitarian effort that makes a better world for all the animals we share our lives with.

That is my Christmas wish.

Countdown to Christmas

Something to think about this holiday season. If a new pet is in your plans, consider adopting a rescue pooch like this great guy... Otis is spreading some extra Christmas cheer in his work as an ambassador for the group G.R.I.N. (Golden Retrievers in Need) located in Ohio. G.R.I.N. specializes in rescuing Goldens and finding great homes for them.

Great Britain honors their war heros

Britain took time to honor (or is it honour?) its animal war heroes at the newly restored Ilford Animal Cemetery in Essex, England, earlier this week.

This cemetery is the resting place of a dozen recipients of the Dickin Medal, which is the animal equivalent of the Victoria Cross, Great Britain's highest military honor.

An example of an honoree is a cat, Simon, who despite being wounded during his tour of duty, continued to protect his ship's food from rat infestation and buoyed the spirits of the crew on the HMS Amethyst in 1949.

The ceremony also honored current heroes, such as Sadie, a black lab who is trained as an explosives search dog. She saved numerous lives by tirelessly sniffing out bombs in Afghanistan, and posed for pictures with a medal inscribed with, "they also served."

In addition, the full story highlights 32 pigeons who received this honor, which is more than any other species. Derek Partridge, of the Pigeon Racing Association provided the following quote:

These birds achieved so much and saved so many lives. It is worth remembering what they did for us, because we might not be here without all of these animals.

This is a wonderful way to acknowledge all who make a positive difference during wartime.

Walking night light

Researchers at Gyeongsang National University in Korea have taken the cloned cat, a technology that's been around for five years now, and created a florescent cloned kitty.

The research can be utilized in working with certain genetic diseases in animals and humans. They also believe it can help reproduce rare animals, such as tigers and wildcats, which are on the verge of extinction.

Copycat was the first cloned cat, born in 2002 at Texas A&M University. Kong Il-keun, the professor leading the Korean research team, cloned the first cat in Korea in 2004. His work has continued with the goal to clone animals for therapeutic research.

In the meantime, we have a whole new way to use a lampshade...

Fun break

If you haven't visited icanhascheezburger, it's a great way to spend (some might call it "waste") a considerable amount of time looking at pictures with funny captions. Here are some of my favs: