Boulder Dog Blog is one year old today and to commemorate the occasion I’d like to share with you Boulder Dog’s greatest hits. Now, there are a few ways we can sniff out the best posts. I could highlight the most popular posts according to the number of views they received from you, my readers. Another is to tell you which ones were nearest and dearest to my heart. Still another way is to share those that are both my favorites and yours.
Alpha dog here, alpha dog there, alpha dog everywhere. I thought, if I hear one more shout-out to showing your dog that you are the alpha leader of the pack by all manner of growling and man-handling, surely I will take Karen Pryor’s advice to not shoot the dog, and shoot myself instead. Then, I did hear one more. On second thought, I decided to write this blog post.
Tears, no, make that sobs, shattered my usual I-am-a-rational-person persona. The quesadilla I was eating momentarily stuck in my throat, caught in the crosscurrents of my trying to swallow against erupting emotion that seemed to come out of nowhere.
Several posts tied for my next favorite. But, after a tense round of tug-of-war with myself, My Dog Is Just Not That Into Me won out.
Sadie doesn't cuddle, but she does kiss!
It captures the essence of my relationship with Sadie—unrequited snuggling. And, just in case inquiring minds want to know, this post was your 5th favorite after Dismantling Cesar’s House of Dominance and Humping on Cue? Here’s the intro to My Dog is Is Just Not That Into Me:
Envy smarts when I read tweets like this one from @KellyGDunbar: Trying 2 type w/an 85lb AmBull (Dune) on my back-He’s sitting behind me on my chair w/his huge head on my shoulder as tho he’s reading-he missed me.
Or, this from @Barrie: Night all. My dogs and I are off to bed for cuddles and to watch a Nick Dodman DVD—or something to that effect.
What’s to envy you ask? It’s not that Barrie has a TV in her bedroom and I don’t.
Well, that was the year that was. Thank you all for dropping by and here’s looking forward to an even better year at Boulder Dog. And, by the way, if you have suggestions for topics, I’d love to hear them.
A week ago I could not have imagined offering ‘giveaways’ like I am today—geeze, last week I didn’t even know what a giveaway was. And, how silly is this? It never occurred to me to use my blog to raise funds for animal rescue and adoption. I mean, how much good could I, one blogger out of bazillions in the blogosphere, do all by myself. Well, now I won’t have to find out because I am not alone. And neither are you!
You see last Saturday I happened upon a quartet of pet blogerati at BlogPaws 2010, the first ever conference for pet bloggers. (The lovely photo is by dogtipper.com). During their presentation they issued a rallying cry in the spirit of Mahatma Ghandi and Margaret Mead. “Be the change you want to see” and, while you’re at it, remember this: “A small group of thoughtful people could change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”
If you’re a child of the 60’s and 70’s like I am, you’ve heard it all before. Yawn. But, this was different. The quartet, Dr. Jessica Vogelsang, DMV (Pawcurious.com), Jane Harrell (Petfinder.com), Lynn Haigh (PawPawty.com), and Dorian Wagner (YourDailyCute.com), love, LOVE I tell you, animals! And so do I. (And, probably, so do you). So all that stuff about “be the change” and “a small group of thoughtful people” began to take on refreshed meaning.
Today, Friday, April 16, 2010, is “Be the Change Blog Post Day!” (So declared at Blog Paws 2010.) As far as we know, an organized fundraising event this huge across this many blogs has never happened before for animals! Together with other pet lovers we can focus our energy as intensely as a thousand Sadies riveting their eyes on their tennis balls, to help Pets Without Parents (more about them below) find forever homes for rescued dogs and cats.
Just one thing more before we move to the fun stuff. If you aren’t quite convinced that it only takes a small group of people to ‘be the change.’ If you’ re hanging back and want a boost. Watch Lynn Haigh’s video and get juiced! (Sorry, I couldn’t resist.) (Hint: Don’t hesitate to pause it from time to time. It goes by fast. And, oh yeah, you’ll need a kleenex.)
Pets Without Parents
Pets Without Parents was selected to be the recipient of this fund drive at the “Be the
Take me home, pleezz
Change” panel at BlogPaws 2010. It’s “a no-kill, nonprofit shelter for dogs and cats located in the Clintonville area of Columbus, Ohio. Pets Without Parents receives no tax funding and exists solely on the generosity of the community.”
Pets without Parents aims to “…to place every pet that enters our shelter into a loving, permanent home; and to motivate our local community to support our shelter, its no-kill mission, and spay-neuter efforts through donation, volunteer, and adoption opportunities…until every pet goes home.”
If you would like to donate, doing so through firstgiving (below) is simple, fast, and totally secure. It is also the most efficient way to support our fundraising efforts.
The Giveaway! Boulder Dog Food Company Treats from PC’s Pantry
We have two giveaways: #1 Chicken Bits & Bison Biscotti and #2 Bison Party Mix.
Giveaway 1: Bison Biscotti & Chicken Bits
These goodies were donated by Mary Lee, the owner of PC’s Pantry. They are all natural and the bison and chicken were raised in the USA without antibiotics or added hormones.
Giveaway 2: Bison Party Mix
My dogs and I have been shopping at PC’s since Mary Lee opened the store more than ten years ago. I wrote about PC’s in “What Makes Your Dog Really Happy?” because going into PC’s sends Sadie into her rapturous wiggle-butt dance. Sadie told me to tell you that even though PC’s is always busy, Colleen, Sadie’s favorite sales person since puppyhood, finds time to give her fresh-baked treats. Personally, I like the graham cracker cookies. Yum.
And, Mary Lee knows about rescuing animals! That what she does. She can’t help it. There was Lyle the cat who was 18 years old when Mary Lee took him off the streets of Denver. He lived to be 22. Then there was Maggie the Golden Retriever. A man asked Mary Lee to doggie sit for Maggie for 2 weeks. He never came back for her. Same with Whiskers, the cat. Poor Ralphie, a St. Bernard Neopolitan Mastiff mix, was found running loose with a rope around his neck. Mary Lee took him in–huge medical problems and all. Ralphie isn’t with us anymore, but he is immortalized in Amanda Jones‘ book of photographs, A Breed Apart.
Then, of course, there was PC for whom the shop is named. PC had a deformed kidney and Mary Lee gave him subcutaneous fluids twice a day for the last 6 months of his
Forrest greets customers
life. Most recently Forest has joined the long line of Mary Lee’s rescues. He’s had serious disabilities from the start. In fact, he went in for major surgery on his leg on Wednesday. I hope he’s doing well.
How to Get the Giveaway Goodies
It’s easy. Just reply to this post saying “I want the goodies!” Each reply will receive a number (1,2,3…) in the order in which it’s received. A random number generator will determine the order of the numbered replies. The top two will receive one of the two giveaways, either the Bison Party Mix or the Bison Liver Biscotti and Chicken Bits. I’ll email you to inform you that you have won. You have 24 hours to reply telling me that you accept the giveaway. If you do not reply saying that you accept the giveaway, the goodies will go to the next number on the randomly generated list. The giveaway closes at midnight (MDT), Saturday, April 17. Don’t be late!
The two winners, after they have accepted the giveaway, will be announced in a post on my blog.
BONUS: If you want to give your favorite rescues an online boost by helping them to be more easily seen by Google and other search engines, include their web URL in your reply. Search engines love links from one website to another about as much as Sadie loves her liver biscotti. By including the URL (http://…..) in your reply you can increase your favorite rescue(s) online visibility.
Have you ever poured so much water into a glass that it overflowed? Well, that glass is me. It’s how I’ve been feeling since Blog Paws 2010 ended–filled to overflowing with great information, good vibes, and new friends.
Trying to capture all that happened is simply impossible. This is due, in very small part, to the fact that I couldn’t be everywhere all of the time. (I hate that). More to the point, I don’t remember the last time I experienced such an amazing ‘contact high’ just from being in the presense of people who time after time called to my better angels.
There’s no question that I, like many others, were anxious to learn alchemical secrets for transmuting our blogs into gold, or maybe a book. And, many informative presentations dealt with exactly this. (You can visit Dogtipper.com for a collections of blog posts about the the conference.)
But, the thing that is lingering longer and deeper for me is the contagious good will, generosity, and okay, I’ll say it, the LOVE, that infused the conference. To me, all that joy is best expressed in the video, “Be the Change,” by Lynn Haigh, aka @frugaldougal, of pawpawty.com. Most of you have probably watched it over and over. I have. (I tear up every time.) But, just in case you haven’t seen it or want to listen again to the terrific sound track by Glee, click here.
Okay, let’s come back to what else I took away from Blog Paws. Here are the first five things—themes, mostly—that came to mind without looking at my notes when Sadie asked me, “Mom, what did you learn at Blog Paws?”
1. Bloggers can be the change!
Dr. V (Jessica Vogelsang, DVM) aka @pawcurious, set the bar extremely high when she accepted an challenge from Caroline Golon (RomeotheCat.com) to blog for 24 hours straight to raise money for animal shelters. Then Anthony of k9cuisine.com challenged her to taste-test dog food and she did! Read about it here. Apparently she passed on the unagi and seaweed. Can you blame her? (Dr. V’s achievement is highlighted in the “Be the Change” video.)
I don’t know about you, but I’m not up to big-league 24-hour blogathons just yet. But, I am going to participate with other bloggers on Friday, April 16, in the “Be the Change” blog pawty to raise funds for Pets without Parents in Columbus, Ohio. You can read all about it in Friday’s post. To find out what other anipals are doing search #bethechange on Twitter.
Of course, there are lots of other ways to use your blog to do good. You can simply write informative posts. You can highlight a hard-to-place dog or cat at one of your local shelters once a month, or week, or day. The list goes on. You get the idea.
2. Blog post titles should be no longer than 65 characters.
Okay. This isn’t a theme. I heard it said only once and that was during the “Tips, Tricks & Habits for Successful Search Engine Optimization” panel. (I’m sorry. I forget who said it 🙁 ) But, I think it’s important. Less is more.
3. Tell stories.
Blogging at its best is storytelling. Every critter, every person, dog, and cat has a story. Tell it. And, as Dr. Larry McDaniel said in his keynote talk Saturday afternoon, don’t just write about the dry details of, say, a medical procedure, or dog training, or a new cat food. So, for example, don’t just tell us about the mechanics of clicker training. Tell us about Sandy, the pit bull mix, and how his foster mom used a clicker and positive reinforcement to undo his fear of people and transform him into an exemplary therapy dog at the local hospital. Be sure to include a picture of Sandy working his magic with Sam, the bedridden cancer patient.
4. Meta tags don’t matter.
You’re right. This isn’t a theme either. But, this little gem, also revealed during the “Tips, Tricks & Habits for Successful Search Engine Optimization” by Stephen Spencer of Covario, caught my ear. Why? Because I almost paid a web consultant lots of money to make my blog more noticeable to Google and other search engines by, among other things, identifying meta-tags! I never could wrap my paws around the concept of meta-tags and now I don’t have to bother. Apparently search engines seek out meta-tags about as much as Sadie sniffs out never-been-used tupperware. Tags and categories? You gotta have those. Meta-tags? Not so much.
5. Blog with integrity.
Be honest and transparent. Don’t be a shill for products or sponsors. Ever. Go ahead and review products, run contests, and blog for charities. Just put all your cards on the table and tell your truth. What a breath of fresh air. And, just about every speaker made this point. Makes me proud to be a blogger.
So in the spirit of tranparency, once again, my trip to BlogPaws 2010 was generously sponsored by Pedigree Adoption Drive for Dogs. The Pedigree Adoption Drive also has a huge Facebook fan page. For every new fan, Pedigree will donate a bowl of food to a shelter dog. If you want to become a fan click on this:
Welcome to Boulder Dog! Meet Sadie, the muse, and Deborah, the blogger. We hope you enjoy our blog and visit often. Oh, yes. Please leave a comment. Sadie loves comments.
according to the number of views they received from you, my readers. Another is to tell you which ones were nearest and dearest to my heart. Still another way is to share those that are both my favorites and yours.
first ever conference for pet bloggers. (The lovely photo is by 
feeling since 
