Yes, you’re in the right place. I know, I usually talk about my fancy showdog and other snobby purebred stuff. But today is to celebrate Petfinder’s fifteenth birthday and help them Adopt the Internet!
You’ve met Oliver the Kittyweiler here before. I don’t know if I’ve mentioned that Dan found him on Petfinder. It was a supremely successful match. So we are one of the 17 million successful Petfinder adoptions, and I truly can’t imagine life here without our Kittyweiler.
There are more than 320,000 pets waiting for homes on Petfinder.com. I can’t promise you that any of them are as strange and quirky as our Oliver, but I do know that you can make a difference by helping Petfinder Adopt the Internet today and find forever homes for as many as possible, maybe even your own home.
My Project 365 is going pretty well so far. I haven’t improved much as a photographer yet, but we’re only two weeks into it. I haven’t missed a day yet, and I’ve been making an effort to use and learn more about my DSLR. Here are the pet-related photos from the past week:
Sometimes I wish that my twentysomething self would peek her idealistic head into my fiftysomething life, and tell me that I really can change the world, that all I need is faith and hope. I am no longer sure that is true. It can be very disheartening trying to raise awareness about topics such as breed specific legislation, puppy mills, and breed rescue and then…
your neighbor hates and fears your dog just because he is a Rottweiler
your coworker buys a puppy from a pet store after you have offered to put him in touch with breed rescue and some ethical breeders
your friend buys a cross-breed “designer dog” from a so-called breeder for more than you paid for your well-bred show dog… or your first car
And there is the unfortunate truth that awareness does not necessarily equal change or even concrete support. But I can’t quite bring myself to give up. My twentysomething self would be even more disappointed in me than she probably already is. What I do to keep myself sane is to try to remember that little things count, too. I may not be able to effect great changes in the world, but I can make life better for a few animals in it.
Right now, I can’t be very actively involved in breed rescue. I can always spare a few hours on a weekend every so often to help with transports, though. These usually involve moving a dog from a high-kill shelter to a rescue or foster home, or from a foster home to a forever home. As an experienced dog owner with a minivan that’s set up for traveling to shows and trials, it’s something that is a good fit for me as a way to contribute. I may not be making a big difference in the world, but I know I am making a difference to my canine passenger.
Between work, The Total Rottweiler Magazine, and the newly forming breed club I’m involved with, I’m on the computer a lot. One little tiny thing I can do while stuck behind the keyboard is to click to help. Not just donations, although I do that, too, while going through my favorite pet blogs. When you can’t make donations, you can still click (and shop) at The Animal Rescue Site and Freekibble.com to donate food and care to shelter animals.
I’m so glad I decided to participate in the Pet Blogger Challenge this past Monday. Amy Burkert at GoPetFriendly and Edie Jarolim at Will My Dog Hate Me? did a fantastic job of hosting the Challenge, and I have really enjoyed reading everyone’s answers to the interview questions.
I am way behind those of you who have already taken the time to read through all 100+ blog posts, and really, really, way, way behind those of you who have even written summaries! I bow down to you all. I do plan to stop by the blogs of all Challengers, so if you get a comment on your Challenge post out of the blue next week or even later… it’s just the laptop-eating Rottweilers running late. As usual.
Thanks to everyone who has visited and commented here! It is wonderful to hear from you all. Whether your approach and philosophies are similar to mine or a world apart, I have something to learn from every one of you. I hope you got something from me, too. Or at least liked my cute puppy picture header graphic!
So here are my answers to the questions of the day:
1. When did you begin your blog?
This blog started in November 2008 for NaBloPoMo. I did successfully make a post every day that month, and many of the posts were about my dogs and cats. I decided to keep the blog going and attempt to focus on two of my favorite topics: Rottweilers and technology.
My original blog was focused on my pets and their health issues and was active mainly from April-December 2002.
2. What was your original purpose for starting a blog?
My original blog was started to record and share my pets’ health and training issues. This blog was started because I wanted to do NaBloPoMo in November 2008.
3. Is your current purpose the same? If not, what’s different? If so, how do you feel you’ve met your goals?
I’m struggling to find a purpose at the moment. With the dogs on hiatus from training and competition, and thankfully enjoying good health, I often find myself reaching for anything to write about. I don’t feel I have the writing or photography skills to make day-to-day life with my pets interesting to anyone but my family (and I see some of them yawning a bit when they think I’m not looking). So I definitely need some specific topics such as training or health to focus on. It would be completely against the spirit of this exercise to go back to training before we’re ready just to have something to write about!
4. Do you blog on a schedule or as the spirit moves you? If the former, how often — and what techniques do you use to stick to it? If the latter, do you worry about… well, whatever you might worry about (e.g. losing traffic, losing momentum)?
Over the last two years, I’ve often participated in NaBloPoMo, which runs all year now. In those months, I post daily. During the months I don’t participate in NaBloPoMo, I don’t have a schedule and I don’t worry about it.
5. Are you generating income from your blog? If so, how (e.g. sponsor ads, affiliate relationships, spokesperson opportunities)? If not currently, do you hope to in the future — and how?
No, and I’m not actively seeking to monetize. It’s not why I blog. If an opportunity that makes sense were to present itself, I hope I will be smart enough to recognize it.
6. What do you like most about blogging in general and your blog in particular (bragging is good!)?
I like having a place of my own to say what I want. I like that sometimes one small blogger can make a huge difference just by getting something started for a big cause, an educational effort, or just to help one dog live a better life.
7. What do you like least?
At its worst, the blogosphere (hate that word) is just as cliquish as high school was, and ten times as nasty. No thanks to the internet, it can take less than a day to falsely ruin someone’s name. Maybe I would feel differently about both high school and the blogosphere if I were one of the “cool kids.” Nah, I don’t think so.
8. How do you see your blog changing/growing in 2011?
I’m still deciding whether I will keep blogging at all. As I mentioned in my answer to question 3, I’m still struggling with redefining my purpose.
So there you go. Thank you to Amy Burkert and Edie Jarolim for making the Pet Blogger Challenge happen! There’s a linky list, too. Go and check out what everyone else has to say, and let’s hear from you, too! Continue reading
I mentioned earlier this week that I’m doing a Project 365 (photo-a-day) this year. Since not all of the photos will be about Rottweilers, computers, or even world domination, I’ve started a separate photoblog as well as a Flickr set for the project.
So far, I’ve been using my familiar point-and-shoot Nikon S51 and the camera on my BlackBerry Curve 8330 for the daily shots. But one of my goals for Project 365 is to learn to use my Canon Rebel XS DSLR to best advantage, so that camera will be added to the rotation starting next week.
I cross-posted my first Rottweiler-related photo earlier in the week. Here are the other pet-related project photos:
Yes, I’m late with this since we’re almost a week into 2011 at this point. But I still wanted to take a look back at 2010. I won’t call this a “top 10″ list as many other pet bloggers are. I’ll just ask you to revisit some of 2010′s moments with me:
The best achievements of 2010 went to the dogs.
New champion!! Axel’s AKC championship was one of the highlights of my year. A week after this, he would earn his CGC (Canine Good Citizen) and the following week his RN (Rally Novice) title, making January 2010 a hugely successful month for him. I was more of a happy cheerleader than anything else. The credit goes to his handler Julia Foster and his breeder Denise Pluta.
Just a few more Freya title thoughts Later in the year we would have some training setbacks and I’m still not sure whether Freya is retired or just on hiatus from rally obedience training and competition. But in March 2010, we kept things together long enough for her to earn her UKC Rally Obedience Level 2 title. This is an off-leash title and given that I am the worst handler in the world, a huge accomplishment for both of us.
If I were a real pet blogger, I’d have more posts like these.
Freya: class notes 1/16/10: I have a few other “class notes” posts where I take some raw video from a training session, class, or practice session, and break it down into what went right and what still needs work. It was helpful to me to review Freya’s progress and decide what to work on. I hope it was interesting to at least a few of you as well.
Some Freya video and my iMovie learning curve: I used one of the “class notes” videos to learn how to use iMovie ’09 and also create an “intro to Rally Obedience” type video. It did not end up being that effective as an overview, but I learned a lot about iMovie while creating it. Thanks to our obedience trainer Allan Ross for all of the class videos.
Total recall: We experimented with taking an online class as well, with some surprisingly good results. I don’t think online dog training can ever totally replace working one-on-one or in a small group with a good trainer, but I found this recall class to be an effective supplement to our training. Susan Garrett’s blog is a great read even if you are not doing one of her online classes and even if you have very little interest in agility.
Review: Pet Botanics Healthy Omega Treats: If I were a real pet blogger, I’d probably get more opportunities like this one to review pet products. I was happy to give these treats a good review. The dogs loved them and the healthy ingredients and low calorie count were a bonus.
These very disturbing news stories accounted for quite a bit of last year’s traffic, sad to say.
Update: Mary Wild sentencing: Dog handler Mary Wild got off with an unbelievably light sentence for the actions that caused the heat-related deaths of seven show dogs due to her negligence. She was convicted on eight counts of animal abuse and the light sentence was a horrible letdown considering what the penalties could have been.
Update: Lora Hunt sentencing: Lora Hunt was painting her fingernails as she drove, and rear-ended motorcyclist Anita Zaffke, killing her. For this, Ms. Hunt got only 18 months in jail. Another unbelievably light sentence and a big letdown for all of us who really do want to believe that justice can be served.
I’ve gone off-topic to non-Rottweiler, non-technology items quite often in the past. I’m trying not to do that going forward, but sometimes it’s hard not to write about food and entertainment!
Snack break: teriyaki meatballs: If 2009 was the year of kal bi, 2010 was the year of these retro teriyaki meatballs, taken from a ’60s cookbook put together by my aunt’s service club in Honolulu.
