Is this a word that you look at and shake your head and wonder if it's a typo or are you nodding and thinking it's about time that Heartland started doing such an easy fundraiser.
Go to www.shopwithscrip.com and register. This program works by having you purchase gift certificates at participating merchants (probably money you were going to spend anyway) and it will tell you how much of that purchase went to support Heartland. We'll be setting up ordering dates - the next one is if you order by July 27th, you can pick your order up at PetSmart on the 2nd of August.
We're doing a dine and donate fundraiser at Applebee's on August 27th, so if you order Applebee's scrip and take your flyer along, you can double dip your donation! Another place that you probably shop is also available - PetSmart! If you'd like to do some shopping there before the next order date, we will have some available tomorrow to purchase at adoptions. I got Payless since the kids will need back to school shoes. We're planning some home improvements, so I stocked up on Lowe's and Home Depot scrip - get the picture? I don't have to spend extra and Heartland gets some money!
They have Shop N Save, but not Schnuck's, so we've signed up for a program directly through them where you can get up to 3% of your grocery bills donated to Heartland! Just get an eScrip card at any Schnuck's or from us and register it. Then everytime you shop at Schnuck's, have them swipe your card and we'll get a donation!
I've also brought in over $25 in catnip toys! I'll be bringing more along to PetSmart tomorrow if you are interested. I keep hearing great stories from the people who already have them - one woman walked into the kitchen to find her 3 cats all had their heads inside of her purse trying to get to the toys!
We know that this economy has everyone thinking twice about spending money, so we've tried to come up with solutions that allow you to help us with money you're already spending - help your dollars go further by taking advantage of these programs!
My last few posts have been "just the facts maam", so I decided to not work on my "outside of the box" posts and just talk about how much I love fostering!
I wasn't loving fostering last night. I didn't feel good, only did the necessities, food & water, meds and a couple of litterboxes that couldn't wait. I still wasn't feeling well this morning, so I started puttering around in my office (while I was looking for something) and ended up cleaning almost the whole thing! I couldn't move around too much without feeling woozy, so I went through piles of paperwork and got a lot done (but never did find the one piece of paper that I was looking for!) By the time I was done, I had my energy back and felt great about getting something major off my to do list!
Then since I had some energy, I made zucchini bread and zucchini brownies. Both were new recipes and turned out tasty! I've been thinking about how to work in bits about what I do in my daily life to be environmentally friendly, and there's just so many things I decide to do that are "green". When I cleaned my office, I got rid of tons of clutter, but didn't even fill my small trash can up. I did put a stack of paper that was over a foot high into my recycle bin! It included envelopes that didn't have plastic windows, old newsletters and magazines, scraps of paper with all kinds of notes on them from the days that I answer the Heartland phones and a couple of cardboard boxes that I flattened. I of course recycle my aluminum soda cans, but instead of just putting them in the big bin, I crush them first. I would have room in the bin if they weren't crushed, but since they have to be transported a couple of times before they get to a recycling plant, it saves on gas if they are smaller. Making my zucchini bread was also green - it was grown in my yard. So not only is it grown organically, but by using local food you cut costs because it doesn't have to use gas to be shipped as far. And of course the scraps from the zucchini went right into my compost pile to help the veggies that we'll be growing next year.
Luckily I stil had energy after dinner when it was time to play with kitties! I kept taking breaks from scooping and feeding and really enjoyed having kittens cavorting all over. Most of them get to run free during playtime and they crack me up running circles around me. Rome stole a feather toy and just pranced around with his prize! Jackson is very needy and follows me around everywhere and loves to arm wrestle. Unfortunately he likes to do sneak attacks on my ankles as well. Mariquita and Mariposa are doing better and are back downstairs - two of Sasha's kittens are having the sleepover now. Mariquita still enjoys climbing me and sitting on my head. I'm not sure what the attraction is, but I thought it was a challenge to clean litterboxes with a kitten on my back (it seems like I always have one that likes to go for piggy-back rides) but now that I'm learning to scoop the poop with someone on my head, I welcome the piggy-back days! But she's just so darn cute that I can't help but indulge her. Sicily seems all better now, she's done with her medication and if all goes well, she could be at adoptions on Saturday. She enjoyed getting to run with her friends tonight for the first time in over a week.
I've also been visiting Mango at PetSmart. She got to start staying up there after Seven got adopted on Saturday. She started getting pretty matted, so I brought my Furminator brush up there and have been getting out a lot of extra hair. She is eating up the attention and I think she's happy getting rid of some extra hair. I'm hoping that she gets adopted quickly. She did fine here, but hated kitten playtime, much too much chaos for her. I also don't think she'll do well long-term at PetSmart, but since she's youngish, beautiful and declawed, I'm crossing my fingers that she could go home in a week. We did have one family interested in her, but it wasn't the right fit. She doesn't do well with younger kids, what do you expect from a cat who knows she's beautiful?
Although we typically post on Team Vox to let you know about things that are going on with Vox (to, uh, state the obvious), once in a while, we like to let you know about other cool things that are happening around the blogosphere. And we think the idea of four hilarious mommy bloggers traveling across the U.S. on their way to the BlogHer '08 conference - all the while blogging and video blogging the journey - is one trip you will not want to miss.
Four adventurous bloggers from the Silicon Valley Moms Group were selected to participate in the Summer Road Trip '08 and blog about their travels, hotel stays, media appearances, time away from their families, and life on the road. Six Apart helped them partner up with General Motors, who provided the blogging mommies with a Chevy Tahoe Hybrid SUV to help make their journey comfy, safe, and a little more green.
In case you're not familiar with them, SV Moms is a group of over 200 bloggers who showcase the ups, downs, outrages, struggles, victories, and everyday humor of motherhood. There are currently nine regional and demographically tailored sites that give mothers from D.C., New Jersey, the Deep South, Rocky Mountains, L.A., and Silicon Valley a powerful voice and sense of camaraderie across the country. Whether you're a mother, a child, or just a person who enjoys a good blog, you'll really love reading the words of these amazing women.
The moms buckled into their Chevy Tahoe Hybrid SUV on July 11th and even got an encouraging message from Katie Couric to kick things off! They are currently somewhere in the middle of America making their way to San Francisco where they'll attend an SV Moms Group Party, as well as BlogHer '08.
You do not want to miss these entertaining and irreverent bloggers -- or their spontaneous contest giveaways! -- as they blog from the road. Experience the journey at MomRoadTrip.com.
And let us know about your summer road trip - or plane/boat/bus trip - in the comments! (I like to live vicariously.)
Did you know that more people own cats than dogs in this country, but that dogs are more often taken to the vet? If you love your kitty, please take them to the vet every year, more often if there's a problem! Here's an interesting article for people who think that the internet is a better solution than getting medications through your local veterinarian.
http://www.fda. gov/consumer/ updates/petdrugs online121407. pdf
Purchasing Pet Drugs Online: Buyer Beware
Printer-friendly PDF(337 KB)
Cover page of PDF version of this article, including a
photo of a computer mouse and paw prints left by a dog or
cat crossing the page.
On this page:
* Red Flags
* NSAIDS and Heartworm Preventives
* Tips for Buying Pet Drugs Online
"Discount pet drugs—no prescription required" may appeal to
pet owners surfing the Web, but FDA experts say it can be
risky to buy drugs online from sites that tout this message
and others like it.
Some of the Internet sites that sell pet drugs represent
legitimate, reputable pharmacies, says Martine Hartogensis,
D.V.M., Promotion and Advertising Liaison for FDA's Center
for Veterinary Medicine (CVM). But others are fronts for
unscrupulous businesses operating against the law.
FDA has found companies that sell unapproved pet drugs and
counterfeit pet products, make fraudulent claims, dispense
prescription drugs without requiring a prescription, and
sell expired drugs.
Pet owners who purchase drugs from these companies may
think they are saving money, says Hartogensis, but in
reality, they may be short-changing their pet's health and
putting its life at risk.
CVM regulates the manufacture and distribution of animal
drugs, while individual state pharmacy boards regulate the
dispensing of prescription veterinary products.
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Red Flags
Some foreign Internet pharmacies advertise that veterinary
prescription drugs are available to U.S. citizens without a
prescription. But, says Hartogensis, "There is a risk of
the drugs not being FDA-approved. "
A foreign or domestic pharmacy may claim that one of its
veterinarians on staff will "evaluate" the pet after
looking over a form filled out by the pet owner, and then
prescribe the drug. "A veterinarian should physically
examine an animal prior to making a diagnosis to determine
the appropriate therapy," says Hartogensis.
CVM is especially concerned that pet owners are going
online to buy two types of commonly used prescription
veterinary drugs—nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs
(NSAIDs) and heartworm preventives.
"Both drugs can be dangerous if there is no professional
involvement, " says Hartogensis. "It's not a concern if the
owner uses a legitimate online pharmacy and mails in a
prescription from their veterinarian, who is monitoring the
animal. But if there is no veterinarian– client–patient
relationship, it's a dangerous practice."
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NSAIDS and Heartworm Preventives
Veterinarians often prescribe NSAIDs to relieve pain in
dogs. NSAIDs should not be purchased on the Internet
without a veterinarian' s involvement because
* dogs should undergo blood testing and a thorough
physical examination before starting NSAIDs
* dogs should be monitored by a veterinarian while they
are taking NSAIDs
* veterinarians should discuss possible side effects of
NSAIDs with the owner
* the prescription should be accompanied by a Client
Information Sheet that explains important safety
information to the owner
Heartworm disease is a potentially fatal condition
transmitted by the bite of a mosquito that is carrying
infected larvae of the heartworm parasite. Dogs, cats, and
ferrets can get heartworm. Heartworm preventives, given
daily or monthly depending on the product, kill the larvae
before they become adult worms.
The American Heartworm Society recommends
* using heartworm medication for dogs year-round, no
matter where you live in the United States
* getting dogs tested yearly to make sure they're not
infected with heartworm
"Testing is important even in dogs regularly treated with
heartworm preventive products due to the occasional reports
of product ineffectiveness, " says Hartogensis. An Internet
pharmacy veterinarian cannot draw blood from the animal to
perform the test. If the test isn't done, a pet owner could
be giving heartworm preventives to a dog that has
heartworms, potentially leading to severe reactions.
I'm so excited that I have a bunch of adoptions to add to the great day we had yesterday!
Dogs: Snickers
Cats: Lauren, Liberty, Zirconia & Kit
Snickers: cute little beagle/lab mix found dumped along side a rural road
Samantha: I forgot to talk about her yesterday! Such a sweet pup/shepard-rottie mix, several of the volunteers' children were begging their moms for this wonderful pup, but luckily she found a forever home and so we can stop saying no!
Lauren: a very sweet girl with a bad UTI, her foster mom got her all cleared up and now she has a new home!
Liberty: very cute tortie kitten with long hair, so beautiful that it's a shock that the black kittens got adopted ahead of her
Zirconia: gorgeous classic tabby with very intricate marbling patterns, should grow up to be a beauty!
Kit: a black and white kitten
It was nice having a flurry of adoptions again! The day started off so slowly, luckily things picked up and several pets are in new homes tonight.
Dogs: Dolly, Ivy, Cassidy, PeeWee, Samantha
Cats: Elsberry, Portage, Zucchini, Pepper, Radish, Cucumber, Star, Rainbow, Pepito, Eris & Seven
Dolly: cute little mama dog beagle/fox terrier mix. Her puppies all looked different, no idea who daddy was! Glad to see the mamas finding homes even while we still have puppies available
Ivy: basset hound
Cassidy: an older border collie
Pee Wee: mini beagle, just as cute as a button!
Elsberry: calico flood kitten rescued from St. Charles City animal control
Portage: tabby and white flood kitten rescued from St. Charles City animal control
Zucchini & Pepper: two kittens from the "vegetable" litter, a black and a tabby got to go home together. The family came in to maybe adopt one and went home with two, very nice people!
Cucumber: sibling of the veggies, tabby with white, very sweet and laid back boy, got to go home with another kitten from a different litter
Radish: little black kitten, very cute and sweet - yeah for two black kittens going home with lots of pretty ones around, sometimes it's so hard to predict who will go first!
Star: went home on Monday, one of our adult cats who spent a long time at PetSmart, but being black and an adult during a slow kitten season made her stay at PetSmart a bit longer
Rainbow: torbie kitten
Pepito: buff kitten (I think he went home with Cucumber)
Eris: beautiful calico kitten
Seven: a one year old returned girl got exactly what she wanted - a forever home as an only pet with a family of experienced pet owners who assured us that she would have a happily ever after. She was found on 7-7-07 and her new mom said that stands for perfection and so it was meant to be.
It's a dirty little word that no one likes to think about. We'd rather clean a thousand litter boxes than ask people for money, but the fact is that this economy is tough and we need help.
We are having a TJ's Pizza fundraiser and orders are due tomorrow, so if you're interested, please stop by PetSmart.
I know of another fundraiser that is really easy for people to do at work. You can do a change drive but in a fun way.
The concept is fun and simple by setting it up as a penny war. You can either do it on your own desk by having one jar for dogs and one jar for cats, or you can set a cat-loving employee against a dog-lover. You get a point for each penny in the jar, but you get negative points for all other money put in there. So if someone likes cats, they'd put their pennies in the cat jar, but by putting a quarter in the dog jar, it's minus 25 points against the dogs! Dollars are awesome since you have to make up 100 pennies!
Do the penny drive/war for a week and each day post the score to encourage people to get involved!
Let me know if you're interested in doing this, I'm going to try to make up little signs and rules that you can print off to go along with it.
If you end up meeting a lot of cat people or already know a bunch of people with cats, I'm selling my home-made cat toys as a fundraiser as well. You can purchase them at Muddpuppies or you could take some and sell them. If you're wondering if cats really like them, just visit PetSmart when we hand them out! I sent one home for a former foster cat and when I asked his mom if she had given him the new toy yet, she said that he helped himself to it and took it out of the bag and played with it before she had a chance to think about getting it out.
This is an excerpt from an article, to read the whole thing, please use the link. I think you'll learn something important about pitties and hopefully change what you think you know to be true about them.
http://www.washingt onpost.com/ wp-dyn/content/ article/2008/
07/06/AR20080706023 51.html?sid= ST2008070602429& pos=
Saving Michael Vick's Dogs
Pit Bulls Rescued From the Football Player's Fighting Ring
Show Progress in an Unprecedented Rehabilitation Effort
Shelter for the Scarred
Audio Gallery: Shelter for the Scarred
More than a year has passed since a Federal court
confiscated Michael Vick's pit bulls. While fighting dogs
are often euthanized, many of Vick's received a second
chance.
By Brigid Schulte
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, July 7, 2008; Page A01
When football superstar Michael Vick pleaded guilty last
year to conspiring to run a dogfighting operation, we knew
he had kept about 50 pit bulls on his 15-acre property in
rural Surry County, Va., on a road named Moonlight. We knew
the dogs were chained to car axles near wooden hovels for
shelter. And we knew the dogs that didn't fight were
beaten, shot, hanged, electrocuted or drowned.
But we didn't know their names. Headlines described the
nameless dogs as "menacing." Some animal rights groups
called for the "ticking time bombs" to be euthanized as
soon as Vick's case was closed and they were no longer
valuable as evidence. That's what typically happens after a
dogfighting bust.
Instead, the court gave Vick's dogs a second chance. U.S.
District Judge Henry E. Hudson ordered each dog to be
evaluated individually, not judged by the stereotype of the
breed. And he ordered Vick to pony up close to $1 million
to pay for the lifelong care of those that could be saved.
Of the 49 pit bulls animal behavior experts evaluated in
the fall, only one was deemed too vicious to warrant saving
and was euthanized. (Another was euthanized because it was
sick and in pain.)
More than a year after being confiscated from Vick's
property, Leo, a tan, muscular pit bull, dons a colorful
clown collar and visits cancer patients as a certified
therapy dog in California. Hector, who bears deep scars on
his chest and legs, recently was adopted and is about to
start training for national flying disc competitions in
Minnesota. Teddles takes orders from a 2-year-old. Gracie
is a couch potato in Richmond who lives with cats and
sleeps with four other dogs.
Of the 47 surviving dogs, 25 were placed directly in foster
homes, and a handful have been or are being adopted. Twenty-
two were deemed potentially aggressive toward other dogs
and were sent to an animal sanctuary in Utah. Some, after
intensive retraining, are expected to move on to foster
care and eventual adoption.
How can this be? Reports of gruesome pit bull maulings make
international news. Pit bulls are one of the few canine
breeds thought to be so dangerous that they are banned in
some places.
The answer, says Frank McMillan, a veterinarian who is
studying the recovery of some of the Vick dogs, is that we
don't know. "We've assumed all pits are the same, and we've
never let this many fighting dogs live long enough to find
out. There are hardly ever studies, because these animals
don't survive," he said.
I took an online "webinar" today on cats who think outside the box. I learned that I already know a lot about cats because I knew most of the stuff that they talked about, but it was still good to be reinforced that I was on the right track. Since this is such a huge issue with cats, I'll share some of the main points.
CLEAN THE DARN BOX!!!
The next three paragraphs are for all cat owners, even if they are using the box, it shows that you took the time to care by knowing exactly what your precious puss is looking for in litter.
No one likes to scoop the poop, or at least few will admit to enjoying it, but the number one reason that cats have litter box issues is because they don't want to go to their nasty box. Scooping really needs to be done daily, and I'm guilty of putting it off for my own cats so I understand the desire to ignore it and hope it'll go away. But then they'll get desperate and find somewhere else to go and sometimes that other spot becomes pretty enticing and a new habit is formed. And as far as covered litterboxes go, the cats hate them for the same reason that we like them - it traps the odors in. Think port-a-potties, do you like going in them or do you hold it as long as you can and then go in and out as quickly as possible.
As far as what type of box and litter to use, it's up to your cat. Some may even prefer the covered box, but if you don't give them a couple of choices, you won't know. The magic formula for the number of litter boxes to have is equal to the number of cats you have plus 1. So if you have three cats, you should have 4 litter boxes, all scooped daily. That's why dogs have families and cats have staff! The majority of cats prefer a fine-grain scoopable, clay is prefered for young kittens to avoid the "concrete shoes syndrome" and the possibility of ingesting it while grooming and causing a blockage. The answer may be an automatic litter box, but some kitties find them scary and will avoid them all together - if you try an automatic one, make sure to have a traditional box available as well.
We still haven't addressed what to put in the box, some cats are loyal to their brand of kitty litter and to some it's just the texture. Most cats don't like perfumes and so unscented litter is better for them (although harder on our noses - thus the constant scooping). They suggested getting a bunch of cheap, yet big enough litter "boxes" (can be rubbermaid bins, disposable aluminum casserole dishes, cardboard boxes with a plastic garbage bag underneath) and trying different litters in them. Isolate the cat in one area so that they don't have the ability to pee in bad places and then see which box they use the most. Suggested litters included Cat Attract (one of my favorites and every bag comes with litter box advice), clay, potting soil and towels. For me personally, I always offer a "buffet" of litter boxes. My two cats have 6 boxes, not all get used that often, but 4 are tagged regularly. Having that many also lets me scoop the boxes every couple of days. In my boxes are 2 of Feline Pine, 2 of Cat Attract, one with a plastic bag and one of whatever I feel like buying and having them try. Right now it's Feline Pine pellets and they barely touch it, but still use it every so often.
So you're already doing all this and kitty is still thinking outside the box.
The next question is why. No, not why did he pee on my clean jeans, or the carpet or the worst possible - the bed. Sometimes we jokingly tell the cats that if they don't like their new home, just pee on the bed and you'll get returned! People take it so personally, but the cats just don't see it that way. People think that because a certain family member's item got peed on, that the cat was acting out against them, but it's not so. Any time a cat avoids the box, a urinalysis is in order. I've had people test the cat a couple of times before a bladder infection shows up, so just because you had one negative test, doesn't mean that the problem isn't medical.
Some cats truly just have a behavioral problem and will continue to miss the mark (sorry Cheri) but most can be retrained. Sometimes we can figure out why they are doing the deed in strange places and other times we can just cope with retraining.
For more information, stay tuned when I continue to review my notes and pass along some wisdom on a very frustrating topic. Speaking of frustrating, I got 4 phone calls while trying to write this and so now it's too late to make much sense. The good news is that all of my boxes are already scooped so I can actually go to bed!
