American Humane Association’s Be Kind to Animals Week®

Click on the photo to visit the American Humane
Association website

 

Hi everyone! It’s Dakota and I am happy to tell you that it is Be Kind To Animals Week! In my opinion kindness to animals should be shown EVERY DAY but we can help spread that message this week!

There are so many ways you can be kind to animals, here are just a few:

Do NOT keep your dog in a hot car (even if the windows are cracked) Would YOU like to bake in a car?

DO NOT FEED YOUR DOG:

• CHOCOLATE
• ONIONS
• GRAPES

Just to name a few!

Feed your dog the most nutritious food that your budget can afford.

Keep up to date on vaccinations and “wellness” visits at the vet!

Exercise your dog regularly (that is something that my Mom and Dad are working on with me, because I am not overly fond of walks.)

Keep your dog well-groomed

Photo courtesy of American Humane

Donate items such as:

• newspapers
• food
• toys
• crates
• food bowls
• blankets
• towels
• money
• paper towels
• YOUR TIME!

to  local rescues!

There are so many ways that you can show kindness to animals

 

My Mom and Dad are always giving me hugs and kisses and they provide a safe environment for me. I feel secure and loved.

Kindness to animals should also include animals in the wild!

 

Provide water for the birds

help save endangered species

You know the ducks in the pond? Unless told to do so, do NOT feed them! Yep you heard me right! Many ducks and geese that live in areas that are well populated with humans are OVER FED and that can not only kill them, the food can pollute their water!

I know that all of you show kindness to animals on a  regular basis, leave me a comment and tell me what you are going to do THIS WEEK that is extra special!

Barks and licks and love,

Dakota

 

 

 

 

It’s National Pet Month in the U.S.!

National Pet Month is a celebration of the benefits that pets bring to our lives and vice versa! In the UK it is celebrated in April, in the U.S. it is celebrated in May.

National Pet Month’s aims are to:

Promote the benefits of pet ownership

Support Pet Adoption

You can do this by visiting websites such as Petfinder,  where you can find over 300,000 adoptable pets from over 13,000 adoption groups!

Make people aware of the benefits of pets for people and people for pets!

When you own a pet they can help ease depression and  lower blood pressure! To see more ways owning a pet can help you, watch the slideshow here

National Pet Month also hopes to:

Increase public awareness of services available from professionals who work with animals

Raise awareness of the role, value and contribution to society of working companion animals.

Fairfax Pets On Wheels connects pets with people living in nursing homes and assisted living facilities. (The Sheltie in the video looks like Dakota, but it isn’t him!)

More information: http://www.fpow.org/

My life would not be complete without the love of my pets

 and I am sure that you feel the same!

 

DAKOTA’S DAD UPDATE: Thank you to those who emailed and/or left comments  offering support and good wishes. Dakota’s Dad is doing well!  Thank you so much for the power of positive thinking! Dakota and I love you all!

LOW-COST VACCINATION CLINIC FOR DOGS AND CATS #MICHIGAN

 

Dog Wants a Kitty-HILARIOUS new video from Pets Add Life (PAL)

Hi everyone!

Well, if I  were living with Mom and Dad first, then I might have acted like this when they brought Cody home. But….Cody was living with them first!

Founded by the American Pet Products Association (APPA), the PAL campaign is designed to demonstrate the joys and benefits of responsible pet ownership and encourage increased animal adoption.

Visit PAL online at https://www.facebook.com/PetsAddLife or http://petsaddlife.org/.

As for me? I have a kitty brother and couldn’t be happier!! Pets DO “add life!”

Barks and licks and love, 

Dakota

#BtC4A Book Feature: How to Change the World in 30 Seconds, A Web Warrior’s Guide to Animal Advocacy Online

Today Dakota and I are proud to participate in Be the Change For Animals  annual blog hop. It is their  mission is to highlight one cause per week and provide information on how readers can help “Be the Change for Animals”. There are 4 quarterly blog hops which we always choose to be a part of, whether it be on just one of our blogs or both.

Click on the badge to visit Blog the Change for animals

This month Be the Change for Animals is spreading the message about April being National Volunteer Month “a time to celebrate ordinary people doing extraordinary things to improve communities, by  highlighting  some of the wonderful volunteers who help animal shelters, rescue groups and other animal-related charities Be the Change for Animals!”

In honor of April being National Volunteer Month  ”Celebrating People in Action” I would like  to  celebrate author C.A. Wulff and share the valuable resource that she has written,  called How to Change the World in 30 Seconds, A Web Warrior’s Guide to Animal Advocacy Online.

From How to Change the World in 30 Seconds: this book is dedicated to all of the individuals and groups who devote their heads, hands and hearts to improving the world for companion animals. You are all, every one of you, my heroes.

There are many of us who want to help animals but often we are overwhelmed and don’t know where to begin.  Often we think it takes a lot of time, money and other resources that we don’t think that we have. But we DO! We ALL can make a difference for even one animal and this book shows us how. It offers practical steps to get started and uses dog advocacy as the focus. It explains in just THIRTY SECONDS a DAY on the Internet we can begin to make a difference in the lives of animals and can also help to “change the world!”

Did you know?

That it was the loss of a special dog that led famed anthropologist Jane Goodall to Africa to study chimpanzees? (Neither did I! I learned this in How to Change the World in 30 Seconds). Ms. Goodall said:

“I learned everything I know about animals in general from the dog I had as a child. He taught me that animals have personalities and minds and feelings and what a true friend was. I never would have been able to go to Africa if Rusty hadn’t died, because I would never have been able to leave him.”

In this book you will  learn that JUST BY ADVOCATING ONE DOG who ends up being saved, that dog changes three things

YOU

the dog

the people who have him now

That dog could go on to become a service dog helping a handicapped person,  maybe he will become a search and rescue dog. The more dogs (and other animals we help save) the more a ripple effect is caused.

How to Change the World in 30 Seconds explains ALL of the useful resources that are at our fingertips each and every day that we can use to save animals! Just a few of the MANY resources cited in this valuable guide are:

Freekibble- a website that donates food to shelter animals just by answering a daily trivia question.

The Animal Rescue Site which offers a big purple button on their home page that says “Click here to give, it’s FREE!” and when you click on that button the site sponsors will donate food and care to animals living in shelters and sanctuaries.

Petfinder where 13,969 U.S. shelters and rescues list the animals they have available for adoption.

In this book you will learn about how you can help animals through using Twitter, Facebook, and a bevy of other resources. You will learn about various animal rescue groups, pet transport pages/sites, you will have enough resources at YOUR FINGERTIPS to help YOU  “volunteer’ FROM YOUR OWN HOME!

How to Change the World in 30 Seconds will also teach you how YOU can make a difference by heading out into the community and being one of millions of volunteers who champion various animal causes in a variety of ways.

Rescue Groups always need people to:

• answer phones
• collect donations
• place containers for pet food drives
• manning booths at adoption events
• creating signage
• showing animals at adoption events
• fostering animals
• donate newspapers, towels, food, medical supplies

the list goes on and on!

By reading How to Change the World in 30 Seconds you will learn that YOU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE in the life of an animal in ways that you never dreamed were possible!

To help YOU be a “Web Warrior” advocating for animals and to THANK YOU for purchasing this handy resource. Author C.A. Wulff is offering a 50% DISCOUNT if you use this code 66FZNQWX and order How To Change the World in 30 Seconds  by clicking right here

You can follow Wulff on the Internet at:

www.yelodoggie.com

Up on the Woof blog: thewoof.wordpress.com

Twitter: twitter.com/yelodoggie

Facebook: C.A. Wulff

 

THANK YOU C.A. WULFF for helping to be the voice of the animals, rescues and many  various organizations by writing this fabulous resource to help ALL OF US “Be The Change For Animals!”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thankful for the #ASPCA and their Campaign for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Month

From the ASPCA: “April is Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Month, and each year, the ASPCA urges supporters across the country to support our efforts and Go Orange for Animals in honor of the signing of the ASPCA’s charter in 1866″

How can YOU become involved?

Here are some suggestions from the ASPCA:

Get to know and look out for the animals in your neighborhood. By being aware, you’re more likely to notice, for example, that the dog next door who was once hefty has lost weight rapidly—a possible indicator of abuse.
Make the call. Without phone calls from concerned citizens who report cruelty in their neighborhoods, we wouldn’t know about most instances of animal abuse. It all comes from the public, it all starts with YOU—that’s why it’s so important to keep your eyes and ears open.

Provide as much as information as possible when reporting animal cruelty. The details that you provide can go a long way toward assisting an investigating officer. It helps to write down the type of cruelty you witnessed, who was involved, the date of the incident and where it took place.

Support your local shelter or animal rescue organization. It’s a great way to make a difference. Some of our ASPCA volunteers foster animals who have been abused in their former homes, giving these dogs and cats the chance they deserve to have a good life. You can find a list of shelters and rescue groups in your area in our National Shelter Directory.

Start a Neighborhood Watch Program. Get to know the animals in your neighborhood and invite your friends and neighbors to do the same. Together you can keep an eye out for any suspicious behaviors—abuse and neglect of companion animals, the mistreatment of local wildlife, dogs left in hot cars and other signs of abuse.

For more ways that YOU can help stop cruelty to animals, read  the rest of the post here

My Human Was Nearly Killed Trying to Save my Life- So I Decided to Do Something About It–A Guest Blog Post

Well hello everybody!

My name’s Naraku and my tail is wagging with excitement about doing a guest post for Dakota’s Den.

Thanks Dakota and  Caren!

I’m writing this blog today to let you guys know we need your help!

Let me tell you why.

A few years ago my dad Trevor was hit by a car on an early morning walk with me.

It was still dark outside and the car couldn’t see us.  In America, on average, a pedestrian is hit every 8 minutes.

This is a major problem that needs to be addressed.  We have declared war on this issue and made it our mission to spread the word and raise awareness.

You rarely see a human riding a bike at night without some sort of blinking light.  Why is that the standard for bike riders and not for dogs and dog walkers?  It needs to be the standard!

 

Our mission is to have a light up product on every dog that walks their human companion at night or early morning. We want to bring awareness to this issue and provide solutions. We hope no one else has to risk their life for their best friend.

To combat this problem we designed a two tier approach:

1.                  Create a hilarious and amazing video that people will want to share that will raise awareness of this problem.  We use humor to soften a serious issue.
2.                  Design a solution that people will be happy to put on their dogs and will tell their friends about.

We saw that LED dog products already existed but we couldn’t find companies that were pushing the message.  We don’t want to sell products first and then push the message to sell more products.  We think that is backwards, we want to push the message first and provide a solution to the problem.

 

We knew we had to make a good-looking product that people would want to show off so I could get my dog buddies excited to put them on.  When dogs and people are excited about a product, they tell their friends.  These products are not like anything else out there.

We designed a series of high quality LED dog leashes and collars.

These Leashes and collars are stylish, durable, easy to clean and replacing the batteries is simple even without an opposable thumb.

We really need your help to get this off the ground!!  We have 2 weeks left to reach our funding goal!

Please check out this short video we made explaining our product and our mission in more detail.

We ship internationally and anyone can order or even just donate to help us out!  If you don’t want a collar or leash, we have some really cool rewards for donations.

Click below to see what all the buzz is about.

PUP PROTECTOR

See you soon!

-Naraku and the Pup Protector team

Click the link  to help spread the word:  http://bit.ly/PupProtector 

and share this blog post!

 

From Dakota’s Den: It was our pleasure to feature Naraku and the Pup Protector Team. When we heard about this product we felt that it could help save lives and we would love to see it receive the funding it needs to get off the ground! Dakota and I were not compensated for this guest post. We just felt the need to help spread the word!

Plus,  Naraku is awfully darned cute, isn’t he?

World Spay Day 2013: Top Ten Reasons to Spay/Neuter Your Pet: by Kim Thomas

From Dakota’s Den: While reading blogs on February 18, 2013 I came across this post from my friend, Kim Thomas  who writes the  wonderful blog CindyLu’s Muse and loved it!

Meet CindyLu!

 

Kim is one of the first people I met when I began blogging in 2009, and I greatly admire her. I contacted Kim and asked if I could “re-post” this blog post on World Spay Day and she graciously gave her permission. I am a strong believer in the importance of spaying/neutering and loved this concise and straight forward blog post. Thank you Kim!

 

Top Ten Reasons to Spay/Neuter Your Pet

February is National Spay/Neuter Month – a reminder that there’s no better time than the present to ensure your pet is taken care of in the best way you can!

• Collectively, with more spay/neuters, a community will have less stray pets, less disturbance and damage caused by them, and lower tax expenditures for the shelter of homeless pets.
• You won’t add to the millions of homeless pets that are euthanized every year.
•  Eliminate your risk! The average number of litters a fertile cat produces is one to two a year; the average number of kittens is four to six per litter.*
•  Eliminate your risk! The average number of litters a fertile dog produces is one a year; the average number of puppies is four to six.*
•  It’s cheaper! Spay/Neuter costs less than raising puppies or kittens.
•  Reduces/eliminates spraying and marking, in cats.
•  Reduces/eliminates desire to roam, territorial fighting and resulting injury and disease, in cats.
•  Reduces aggressive behavior, including associated dog bites.
•  Reduces/eliminates mammary gland/ovarian/uterine and testicular cancers and prostate disease.
•  Encourages longer, healthier life for your pet.

Spread the word – spay/neuter saves lives!

Browse through more posts about Spay/Neuter -
read, share, Help Promote World Spay Day!

*Source: ASPCA
Additional information from SpayUSA

Michigan Humane Society’s Valentine’s Telethon, Presented by Purina, Airs Thursday, February 14th, As a bitterly cold winter drives need!

MHS asks community to

Say “I Do” to Saving Animal Lives

 

Photo Courtesy of Michigan Humane

Love is in the air, and there’s nobody who loves you quite like a furry friend. Show them you care by supporting the Michigan Humane Society’s 2013 Valentine’s Telethon, presented by Purina. WXYZ-TV Channel 7 Action News Anchor Alicia Smith will host the event, airing Thursday, Feb. 14, between 6 a.m. and 11 p.m.

Alicia Smith and doggies, photo courtesy of Michigan Humane

 

“There are so many animals out there who need the Michigan Humane Society, and sadly, this need has never been greater,” said Cal Morgan, MHS President and CEO. “We rely on the support of pet lovers across Michigan to help us care for animals who are homeless, hungry, neglected and abused. On Thursday, Feb. 14, please say ‘I do’ to saving animal lives.”

 

The 17th annual MHS Valentine’s Telethon will feature adoptable pets and stories that show how your support can make a lifesaving difference for animals in need.  As a private, nonprofit agency, MHS receives no government funding and is not affiliated with any national humane organizations, relying instead on the generosity of its supporters to help save animal lives.

 

MHS Valentine’s Telethon donations can be made online at www.michiganhumane.org on or before Thursday, Feb. 14, or by calling 855-MHS-GIVE (647-4483), 24 hours a day.

 

In addition to Purina, sponsors of this year’s Valentine’s Telethon include Jim Riehl’s Friendly Automotive Group, US-Mattress.com, Center for Computer Resources, Meijer, Grid4 Communications, Strategic Staffing Solutions and Petco.

 

The Michigan Humane Society (MHS) is a private, nonprofit organization which cares for more than 100,000 animals each year, while working to end companion animal homelessness, provide the highest quality service and compassion to the animals entrusted to our care, and to be a leader in promoting humane values.

 

Share the Love Valentine’s Day Fundraiser from Pawsitively Pets and the Winner of the Puppy Parcel from Five Wags!!

Wouldn’t you like a special photo of your pet(s) like this, created just for you?

I knew you would say yes!

Well check out

this super adorable and fun

fundraiser being sponsored by

Pawsitively Pets

Click on the Badge to learn more!!!

 

Now…on to the winner of the Puppy Parcel from Five Wags!!! This lucky winner is going to get a TWO MONTH SUBSCRIPTION to the Puppy Parcel!! Thanks to all who entered! Hint: there is ANOTHER give-away coming up on Friday…be sure to visit us!

The lucky winner(s) as chosen by www.random.org are:

Click on their blog name to visit their blog!

 

CONGRATULATIONS!!!

Donna: please email my Mom your complete mailing address to: cgittleman at mi dot rr dot com

Enjoy your Puppy Parcels!!

Barks and licks and love, Dakota