MizHizzyFitz.com

Animals In Trouble At Briarwood Mobile Home Park in Port Orange, Florida…Out-Of-Control Homeowner’s Association Killing Pets & Wildlife!!

I have a small cat rescue in Port Orange, Florida. We have been here for three and a half years. During that time no one has ever complained about our animals. Our adoptions were done from other businesses and no one was ever allowed to come to this premise to do business of any kind because this was a private residence..

In fact, none of my neighbors have ever seen the cats, heard the cats or smelled the cats here. But all of a sudden there has been a complaint. I have to send all but four beautiful, intelligent, affectionate animals to be slaughtered by our local kill (humane) Shelter. Who by-the-way receives $80.00 dollars for every animal they kill. Since when is killing physically healthy animals that have homes humane? h It is most definitely is lucrative!

When Animal Control came to check out the complaint he had received, the first thing he said was “Your animals are in good shape, and the place is clean”. He was quick to catch on to the fact that he was here because I had made an enemy, not because my animals were abused. Still, I am not in compliance with the four pet law, so die they must.

Next Thursday Animal Control will return to take all but four of these animals to be “put down” (slaughtered). The adoption rate in this God forsaken place is less than 20%. Probably even less, now that all the people that are losing their homes are turning in their animals or worse yet abandoning them. We kill 5 million homeless pets every year in this country! My animals have a home….there is something horribly wrong with this picture. If this cruel and unnecessary act is carried out ,in my humble opinion, insanity reigns. May God help us all.

These Animals Need Your Help To Survive

1. We need more time to find a new place. Call Animal Control and respectfully request that we be given a reasonable time to relocate out of this county.(See number below)

2. Call the out of control Briarwood Homeowner’s Association and tell them not to kill my animals just because the President’s sister doesn’t like me. (See numbers below)

3. Tell them to stop trapping the pet cats here in the neighborhood and dumping them in other peoples neighborhoods. That’s irresponsible. Tell them about TNR.

4. Tell them to stop trapping the wildlife on the pond and sending them to slaughter, especially the ducks.

If anyone knows of any available housing in any Rural Central Florida area that is zoned for multiple animals and that could be rented or rent to own or donated, please contact me ASAP. Other buildings on the property that could be fixed up would be a bonus as we’d like to start a wildlife sanctuary as well. And of course we need money…. anything you can afford to give will help keep these animals alive!

Port Orange Animal Control

386-756-7400

Homeowners Association

1. Joane Northrop Pres. 386-767-8712

2. Dan Theodore, VP 386-322-8983

3. Steve Manfredi, Sec. 386-589-9040

4. Lita Williams 386-761-3248

My Name is Carol Kacey, 106 Jackson Circle, Port Orange,Florida 32127. 386-761-2036. I also have a blog called MizzHizzyFitz.com and one called PetFancyNews.com. I’ll have some of the cats pictures by tommorrow

Thank You and God Bless

Things are getting complicated…at the speed of light, technologically. First we had websites, then we had blogs and now blogs are morphing into micro blogs, lenses, hubpages and  magazines.  I try to remember that they are all basically the same thing. A marketing tool for my homeless animals, that only differs in the number of pages, ease of use and interactivity.

 Websites…Briefly

Most of us already have websites. Most of us understand the principle behind websites even if we can’t actually design them ourselves. A “website” is a collection of single web pages. Most of us had to have someone else design them and put them on-line. How much we paid for them or didn’t pay for them was a matter of luck and who we knew.

 Many rescuers are also  using websites as a platform to educate the public with pet related information. Hopefully we have had the time, knowledge and or money to get the maximum benefit from our websites by utilizing affiliate marketing and Google Adwords.

The downside to a website, if you want to call it that is, they are static. Once you put them up they don’t change much. Changing articles and pictures or information is a more complicated process and requires knowledge and software that not all of us have.

An Easier Way To Fund-raise

I, as an independent rescuer do not possess the time nor the staff to go the traditional  fundraising routes. I don’t have the number of members, donors or volunteers necessary to raise all the funds I need as the larger organizations do.  I’ve had to get creative and find easier, faster ways to fund-raise.

The vehicles or platforms I’m going to talk about here are all of the above plus they have the advantage of being inexpensive. Monetizing these platforms is one of the most popular subjects on-line today.

An Overview

I wanted to do an overview of the different platforms you can use to raise funds and perhaps clarify exactly what each platform is and does so you can decide which one might work best for you. If you already know all this hang in there…I’m going to be doing marketing and fundraising in the days to come. My OCD requires me to go in sequential order ;-).

“Blog” Explained

A blog (web log) is a website where entries are entered and commonly displayed in reverse chronological order (the latest entry comes first). They are more flexible and easier to change or add to than websites are.

Many blogs provide commentary(textual content in the form of articles) or news on a particular subject; others function more like personal online diaries or journals. A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, web pages, and other media related to its topic.

 I  see blogs being utilized to create  photo “albums” in a central location, of adoptable animals with longer histories/stories about each animal accompanying each photo or video. All of this information can be changed, added to or deleted on a daily  (or more often) basis.

You can have your adopters “sold” on a particular animal before they ever walk in your door. You could also have them prequalified with an on-line application they already printed out, filled in and faxed back. Of course, you would still talk to those prospects, in person. The disqualified could be dealt with at a distance.

Blogs also offer the ability for readers to leave comments in an interactive format. Thus blogs are interactive. People can be more involved with you and your animals/animal rescue. That personal level of involvement can be adventageous to your overall success.   Blogs can be used as  stand-alone platform or you can use it in tandem or within your website.

Blogs range from free up. They are usually less expensive than a website.I have one that I paid $79.00 for(www.petfancynews.com) from Brian Gardner, called Revolution (www.revolutiontheme.com).  I bit off more than I could chew with this blog. It is actually a magazine format. At the moment I’m only using the blog page of this magazine/blog/website set up. I have a lot to learn before I can utilize the whole thing effectively(XHTML,CSS and some PHP) But hey, on the bright side, I have what I want for the future.

 The blog we are on now (www.mizhizzyfitz.com),  was a free Wordpress blog from (www.doshdosh.com, called Prosense-Blue. This blog comes already monetized with Google adsense ads. It’s easy to use and has saved me a lot of time. The Wordpress site also has a wide selection of blog themes to select for, for free.

There are other free blogging platforms like www.blogger.com, but everyone seems to agree that you have more flexibility in advertising, if you use the blogging platforms that allow you to have your own companies name by itself, like www.mizhizzyfitz.com as opposed to www.mizhizzyfitz/blogger.com.

Typepad has a paid blogging platform that is really easy to use, I think it was $7.95 a month. I chose the $14.95 option. I liked Typepad but, once again, you have the Typepad extension on your URL address. (www.mizhizzyfitz/typepad.com). Personally I think the prejudice against those kinds of sites is going to fade out due to the fact that everybody wants an easy to use blog and everyone has started monetizing their blogs. Why turn away advertising exposure just because there  are a few extra letters on a URL?

Hosting

There are a lot of good hosting companies out there. I can only tell you about the company I use. I utlilize  www.bluehost.com. They came highly recommended by Wordpress. My Bluehost account costs $6.95 per month, payment for one year is required  up front. Bluehost allows me to host as many blogs as I want on one account, at no additional charge. I have found them very helpful. If you don’t have a domain name you can get yours through Bluehost or Godaddy.com for under 10.00$

Warning: Before you park your name with your hosting company, make sure you will own the name and be able to take it with you if you change hosts. I lost a really good domain name like that.

One thing that’s different about Blogs than the older websites is you need to load a software called Wordpress onto your computer. The best way I know how to explain  Wordpress is.. Wordpress is a free content management software. Worpress  makes your blog easy to work with and allows you to make all those changes.

Most blogs are primarily textual, although some focus on art (artlogs), photographs (photoblogs, see; www.icanhascheezburger.com), sketchblogs, videos (vlogs), music (MP3 blog), audio (podcasting). All of these are just blogs that utilize other tools, but they are still basically blogs. I think that content, photo combination blogs or content, video  combinations (or all three together) are probably going to be the future of blogs in general and animal rescue, in particular. Like they say, a picture is worth a thousand words… a video is even better!

Then There is Seth Godin’s Squidoo

 Another type of blogging which consists of  single-highly focused pages(Squidoo) and very short posts (Twitter) have come on the scene. I use them as traffic-driving accessories (no that doesn’t mean jewelry I wear when driving :-), and mini marketing tools. I also use them to earn additional funds.

Squidoo is a website designed to make it easy for anyone, for free, to set up a single page on a topic he or she knows or cares a lot about. Advertising revenue is shared with these content creators, and some of it is given to charity.

 www.Squidoo.com is a network of user-generated lenses –single pages that highlight one person’s point of view, recommendations, or expertise. Lenses can be about anything, such as ideas, people or places, hobbies and sports, pets or products, philosophy, and politics. Lenses aren’t primarily intended to hold content; more emphasis is placed on recommending and then pointing to content on the web (your website, your animals, your account at Petfinder, etc.).

Users who create lenses are called lens-masters. A lens-master uses the tools available online to provide links, feeds, abstracts, and lists to users who are trying to make sense of a topic. For example, a single lens could point to Flickr photos, Google maps, blogs, eBay auctions, YouTube videos, and other links. Lensmasters are encouraged to promote personal agendas, expertise, causes, products, and opinions.

Squidoo splits its ad revenue with its “co-op” of lens-masters. 5% goes straight to charity, first. Then 50% goes to the lensmasters. 45% goes to Squidoo. The site is estimating that nearly half of all the lens-masters on the site are donating their royalties to any of 65 featured charities, ranging from NPR and the American Heart Association to smaller organizations like Chimp Haven and Planet Gumbo.

You can take all of your earnings for your rescue. Or, and I really like this one…do something different…instead of asking your volunteers, those who donate regularly, or friends, neighbors and family for money… ask them to build a FREE lens on any topic they wish or your homeless animals and donate half or all of the proceeds to your non-profit rescue. I’d like to take credit for that idea but I can’t, it was Seth Godin’s. Seth Rocks.

Each person can have as many lenses as they wish on as many topics as they want. The more lenses the more money. Carrying that one step further if you could ask them to ask people in their sphere of influence to do the same. Exponentially, you could do very well. People like to talk and write about themselves and  what they are interested.It’s fun. And in  today’s market everyone is short of money. They have the choice of receiving the funds themselves also, as do you. And its all free except for their time. I think it’s a very doable idea. I also think it’s a win-win. Here’s an example of a good Squidoo lens

One big advantage to using Squidoo is that they do a lot of Search engine optimizing, advertising and marketing. Getting listed high-up on a Google search page is easier because you don’t have to do as much.

Hubpages

www.HubPages.comearns its revenue from Amazon, Ebay, and Google ads also, HP splits the ad impressions with their writers(you). An impression occurs whenever an ad appears on a hub. You, the writer, receive 60% of the impressions, while HubPages receives the remaining 40%. Any revenue generated while your ad is displayed is entirely yours. So if a Hub is visited 10 times, 6 of the ad impressions are yours, and 4 are HubPages. You keep all the revenue generated from those 6 ad impressions. Hubpages also self promotes for their “Hubbers”

Wikis

There are lots of wikis out there you can also utilize. There’s the $.25 wiki, the $10.00 wiki, the $100.00 wiki, etc., etc. Personally, I find them “gimmicky”. I stay away from them for now. I do however utilize Wikipedia for information.

Tommorrow…Setting Up A Squidoo Lens

Next to animal nutrition, pain management in our pets is a really important subject to me. Until very recently, it was also a subject of great concern and frustration.

Why it takes the scientific community so long to “prove” their theories is hard for me to fathom. Science takes far too long to catch up to common sense! Ask any animal rescuer if animals feel pain. You will get a resounding and emphatic Yes!

Ever since I can remember (about the age of five) I have been told that animals don’t feel pain…Historically it was believed that animals either didn’t feel pain or experienced pain differently than humans. They even went so far as to say that pain, following surgery was a good thing because it kept the animals still and prevented further injury. Hogwash!

New pain management guidelines are just now being released. I’m 59 now.

To address the “evolution” of pain management in companion animals, The American Animal Hospital Association and the American Association of Feline Practitioners have released their new guidelines for cats and dogs.

According to Robin Downing, DVM,Dipl. AAPM, co-chair of the guidlines task force , “It’s such an important focus. There has been a big transformation on how pain management is approached, partly because pet owners are now demanding it,” she says. Dr. Downing also goes on to say that “for me as a practitioner, to witness the difference in my clients’ attitude toward pain and pain management now versus 21 years ago is almost mind-blowing.” 

I wonder where this veterinarian was all those times I’ve had to beg, plead, cajole and get pissy just to get pain killers for one of my rescues who had just been spayed, neutered or worse.  Where was she when I had a tumor removed from my cats (rabies) injection site. No pain killers were sent home with the animal.  The vet couldn’t tell me why the cat kept trying to put that leg in in his cold water bowl. “They don’t know what causes that.” he saidI’m sure the poor cat felt like his leg was on fire!

It was always the veterinarians who were telling us that “animals can’t feel pain.” Yes, and dry cat food is good for cats and you must have yearly rabies vaccines and expensive disinfectants are better than bleach…Hogwash!. You guys got it wrong more than once. Don’t get me wrong. I love veterinarians, in fact I know one I’d marry right now..if he was single. What a savings that would be! But they sure can be pig-headed. Apparently vets are just as easily influence by salesmen as the rest of us..

 Well, better late than never. I did some research for us (as in you and me) and came up with the following links on pain management plus, a few others that I tripped over that looked informative. They are too long to insert here, most are PDF format.  The articles are on pain management, zoonotic diseases, feline behavior and senior care for cats.

If you already know the info, you still may want to make copies for your adoptive parents. The pain guideline are new information. All of these articles are from The American Animal Hospital Association and The American Association of Feline Practitioners.

http://www.aafponline.org/resources/guidelines/Feline_Behavior_Guidelines.pdf

http://www.aafponline.org/resources/guidelines/ZooFinal2003.pdf
http://www.aahanet.org/PublicDocuments/PainManagementGuidelines.pdf
http://www.aafponline.org/resources/guidelines/senior/FelineSeniorCareGuidelines_27pages.pdf.

Heart-worms are now a recognized problem in cats and prevention is the name of the game.

Heartworms do not need to reach maturity to cause illness in cats, which makes the disease more  and hard to diagnose than veterinarians previously believed. The effects of feline heartworm disease are also more extensive than the veterinary community had previously known and because diagnosis and treatment of the disease are problematic prevention is very important.

Effects of Heartworms on Cats

The death of immature  heartworms can cause marked lesions in cats lungs, as well as the alveoli, bronchioles and bronchi. Thus cats can develop airway disease and arterial disease even when infected with immature heartworms. Dogs, however are not usually symptomatic until the heartworms are adults.

In studies done at the University of Florida it appeared that even transient  exposure to immature parasites can leave cats with substantial lung pathology that may persist long after  traces of the parasite have been eliminated. Knowing this, it would be wise for all of us to take a more aggressive stance in promoting heartworm prevention in cats.

Heartworm Symptoms

The symptoms of heartworms in cats are:

• Respiratory Distress
• Chronic Coughing or
• Chronic Vomiting
• Sudden Death (as in dogs)

Cats with Heartworms are often misdiagnosed as having asthma.

Treatment

Treatment for cats is the same as for dogs but is very dangerous and recovery is a long process. Symptoms are treated with Prednesone the heartworms are treated with a heartworm adulticide.

Prevention

Again the same preventatives are used in cats as in dogs:

• Heartgaurd30 for cats
• Interceptor for cats
• Revolution for cats
• Revolution  (has the advantage of killing fleas, ticks and ear mites at the same time.)

A highly contagious, systemic form of Calicivirus has emerged that  is far more deadly than its predeccesor and it’s  spreading to cats across the country.

Transmission

The new and deadly form of Calicivirus is highly contagious and more often fatal than the traditional virus. This new form of the virus is easily transmitted from cat to cat through contact with hair, dander saliva, blood, feces, urine and eye and nose secretions. It also can be transmitted through indirect exposure via contact with objects such as clothing, tables, doorknobs, shoes and hands.

The older vaccines are not affective with this new virus.

A new vaccine is available from Fort Dodge Animal Health, CaliciVax, the only licensed vaccine proven effective against this new form of Calici.

 The new virus also protects against the older, traditional Calicivirus.

Symptoms Include:

High fever, swelling of limbs and face, sores and hair loss - especially on the face, muzzle and feet. Discharge from the nose and eyes, anorexia and depression are all seen in this new form of Calici.

Another Tell Tale Sign Of Calici

All of the cats I’ve had who contracted Calici (the traditional form) have  favored a front paw and limped to one degree or another. Usually the limp was the first symptom observed. I have two questions:

1. Has anyone else noticed this in the traditional virus?
2. Has anyone noticed this in the new form of Calici?

Protect All Your Cats 

When taking your pets to the vet ask them if they’ve incorporated VS-FCV into their core vaccination protocol.

What if you could use the Internet to bring in more funds for your animal rescue for free? What if you could do this and still have the time and energy you need to take care of your animals? What if, instead of having to beg for donations, people would volunteer to raise money for you. A new set of on-line tools makes this approach not just a possibility, but also an imperative for your animal rescue organization to grow.

One of the challenges you face in drumming up interest for your animals, is the fact that as human beings we are selfish by nature. The thing we are most interested in is ourselves. Most people are unwilling to spend a lot of time in this time-crunched era promoting your rescued animals. We all know how hard it is to get good volunteers these days! It’s too much work, too time consuming and there’s nothing in it for them (at least until now).

The Internet Changes Everything

Now, one person with a computer and a keyboard can reach millions. One person with a video camera can tell a story that is seen around the world. And one person with a blog can do a lot of adoptions and pull in a lot of extra income through donations. And if they choose to, they can do all of that while talking about themselves or something that they care passionately about. For Free. I call that a Win-Win!

It is now possible, with very little knowledge, for you and your supporters, friends, family etc., to get the word out about your organization, your adoptable animals, birds, reptiles…whatever. And to do it in an authentic, uncontrolled, honest way.

All of these tools are free, very effective and easy to use.

Del.icio.us 

 The Del.icio.us site makes it easy to “tag” website or blog pages. A tag is just a simple set of keywords that people can use to mark a page. It works exponentially. What happens to your site if say, a dozen people “tag” your latest article or your latest pet who’s up for adoption, your latest product or fundraising event? If just a few surfers tag your pages, other surfers will pick it up and the word will spread.The big secret with Del.icio.us is that it only takes a small percentage of users to spread the word and bring your message to the top of the pile. If you already have your own website or blog then by all means ad the Del.icio.us tag to your pages. But don’t stop there. Ask your family, friends, neighbors, volunteers, adopters, donors and even the people you take animals for to add a Del. icio.us tag to their sites for your rescue. And don’t forget to ask the person who doesn’t have any money to donate if they have a blog or website or if they would like to have one they could put your information on. (Your going to find out how easy it is to have your own site on this blog)….and the blog is FREE!

Blogging

 You do have a blog right? In case you don’t know, blogs are just simple, non-stagnant (ie., easy to change) website pages. In other words they are like journals that you can write in an put pictures in, easily, on a daily basis…for all to see. They are also great for fund- raising. Many even come with donation buttons installed (the one I recall says “buy me a beer”)

Blogs can be used as a stand alone platform or they can be used in conjunction with a website. Best of all there are many to choose from that are Free.

Set up your own blog and talk about what you are doing. Spot-light different animals with an interesting story about how and why they were rescued. It’s a well known fact in marketing, that people love stories…especially when they end well.

Provide a free blog template for the the people you know, your sphere of influence, your family, friends,neighbors and volunteers. They don’t have to talk about you. They can write about whatever they want. They can write about hobbies, their children, grandchildren, recipes, shopping sources, boyfriends, product reviews, art, books, you name it and they can blog about it. They can talk about the new puppy or kitten they just adopted from you. 

 All of these blogs can be passively advertising your rescue organization or your individual animals, doing the work of many while leaving you the time to do other things.

It gets better. The hottest trend going in blogs today is monetization. Youand the people in your sphere of influence  can earn money 24/7 by allowing others, like Google’s Adsense (more about that later) to advertise on your blogs or your websites. You and your friends can sell your own products or join affiliate programs advertising product for other companies. The great thing is that you earn income while displaying the animals you have up for adoption on your blog.

The whole process has become incredibly simple for anyone to use. And it’s FREE! Why wouldn’t you do it?

Flicker 

 is another free tool that is perfect for your purposes. Flicker is simply a photo-sharing site. It is incredibly easy to post digital photos and “tag” them. It’s a wonderful, free, fun way to spread pictures and information of the animals you have for adoption. You can set up the Flicker platform for your friends, family and volunteers to, just like blogs and Del.icio.us.

With Flicker you need a camera. Digital cameras are great but if you don’t have one use a regular camera or one of those cheap disposable cameras and scan the pictures to disk. If you don’t have a scanner take them to you local office supply store. Have it scanned to a cd and your ready to roll.

I’ll have some more funding ideas for you tommorrow.

One of the main things I’ve noticed within the animal rescue community is the difficulty non-profits have  getting over their negative mindset toward making money. Why is making money so often considered taboo in this industry? And God forbid, don’t ever accuse anyone of “selling” their animals. That’s the worst insult you can hurl at an animal rescuer! There are too many animal rescuers selling (whoops, there’s that word again) themselves but mostly their animals short by having apologetic attitudes and adoption fees that are to low.

Both attitudes are absurd. Whether you want to admit it or not, if you are rescuing and adopting animals you are operating a business. If you are “by the book” you have a business license, a tax ID number  and a non-profit corporation. If you’re lucky you have your letter of intent from the IRS, in order to legally take contributions. You are operating a business.

1. The United States Government considers you a business.
2. The people who donate money to you consider you a business.
3. And businesses/corporations exist for only one reason; to perpetuate themselves indefinitely.

How you go about doing that is only relevant to you. Whether you want to do that rescuing animals or pregnant teens or trees, is the secondary issue.

If the business fails because your adoption fees are too low, or you don’t ask for and get donations, you will fail and you will fail your animals. You won’t be able to take care of them or find homes for them if you are underfunded. You can’t do a good job for your animals if you think making money is less than honourable. It is the only way to succeed!

 What is not acceptable is a rescuer/shelter who hasn’t enough funds to get all of the animals spayed and neutered prior to adoption. Every animal needs to have a medical check-up, reasonable vaccinations, testing for communicable diseases, quality food and housing in a safe, clean environment…at the very least. That takes money.

Selling, Advertising & Marketing Homeless Animals

The second issue of “selling” animals is also out of touch. Those homeless animals are your businesses “product”. The most important and precious product you will ever have. The more you know about:

• Selling
• Marketing
• Advertising
• Fundraising

the more animals you will find homes for. The more people you can get excited about your rescues the more adoptions you will do. That’s true of the independent rescuer as well as it is the larger humane organizations, who by-the-way bring in millions of dollars a year.

Built-In Protection

You have your interviews, your questionnaires and your contracts in place to protect your animals. Utilizing those tools is absolutely necessary. It is an integral part of a successful rescue business.

But first you have to sell your customers on the idea of adoption and the animal. I’m not talking about disinterested on-lookers, I’m talking about people who show interest and concern. When someone shows interest, you need to know how and when to move in and help those individuals make a good, educated decision. It’s part of your job.

Some animals adopt themselves out. But there would be a lot more adoptions if we took a more active role in helping that process along. You might find you have fewer returns to.

I also think we would have a large drop in euthanasia’s if we had more people thinking of animal rescue as a business and those animals as the (precious) product. Some would take advantage. That’s true in regular non-profit rescues. I’ve seen some pretty bad situations in animal rescue organizations. I think that the majority of  individuals would still do a good job as opposed to a bad one.

Not for a moment am I suggesting any kind of irresponsibility where our animals are concerned. I’m trying to get you to look at a different mindset. One that embraces money as a means of accomplishing your goals for your animals and your animal rescue. Not as something evil.

Be Proud Of YOU and What You Do

I’m also suggesting that you should be proud of what you’re doing and that you are able to have the means (money) do it well. Advertising and marketing your rescue is also part of your job description.

People Like to Help Winners

 Be Proud of what you’re doing. Talk about(advertise) your animals and your rescue (business) everywhere you go. Self Promote. People want to help. Educate them about the overpopulation problem. Tell them about your rescue and what a great job your doing. People like to help winners.

Everyone understands that you need to have money to do what your doing. Don’t be afraid or to proud to tell people about you and your animals and then don’t be afraid to ask them for money! That’s what selling and marketing are…promotion of a product. Giving that money gives people a good feeling. It’s a win-win.

Success Is a “Forever Home”

The more you advertise and market your business of animal rescue  the more product you sell (= animals adopted out) the more money you will raise and the more animals you can rescue. It really is a “no brainer”.

A Great Way To Start Your Day! 

I always check out http://icanhascheezburger.com first thing in the morning. The photos never fail to make me laugh. One of today’s pictures struck a particular nerve because it pretty much reflects how I’ve felt during my 17 year’s in animal rescue. The sharks were always right behind me. It has been a time of fear, high stress and great joy.

Retirement

I recently decided to retire from animal rescue. HA! HA!

Yesterday I was driving down a very busy street, on my way to… where else… Wal Mart, like I could afford anything else… for my own pet’s supplies. All of a sudden, I see this little grungy white, grey, yellow, brownish, fluff ball thingy no bigger than a half grown kitten, running down the middle of the road, trying to dodge cars!

 What am I supposed to do?!? If anybody else on that road had been in hot pursuit of the grungy fluff ball, I would have gladly and with great relief… kept on truckin. But NOOO. Not a chance! Most of the drivers didn’t even seem that interested in dodging fluff ball! After all these years of being witness to man’s inhumanity to animals, I never get used to it. Something just “clicks in”. I went  on auto pilot and into emergency mode.. The chase was on!

Risking Life and Limb…yet again!

Have you ever tried to use a car to corral a fluff ball? I’m doing U’ees in the middle of a four lane highway! At one point I almost fell out of my car when the passenger side door flew open!! I and my mount (the circa 1991 Caddy) almost got hit twice by other cars and I lost track of how many times that grungy little floofy thing almost got creamed all over the highway. Hindsight says  it would have been better if I hadn’t kept putting my hands over my eyes every time the grungeball almost got hit. Apparently, even in today’s high-tech world, you still need two hands and at least one eye to drive safely. So much for hinsight and technology.

I finally managed to corral the him in some guys back yard, at which point, the fluff ball was not at all grateful. It took me another forty five minutes to convince him that I wasn’t the bad guy. All the while my car is parked, still running, with the keys and my purse still in it…door wide open… in the middle of the street…. I am focused.

Please Note: There is no dignity (and very little sanity) in animal rescue. If you aren’t capable of great humility, if you care what other people think…you had best look elewhere for an avocation.

A Hard Won Lesson

I learned a hard lesson that day (I already new I was crazy). Once a rescuer, always a rescuer. For us there is no such thing as retirement. For those of you yet to enter here, take note! As long as there are people who don’t take responsibility for their animals, there will always be people like us around to help. We can’t not help. We are help addicts!Thank God!

The puppy turned out to be a poodle or poodle mix. He was covered (drowning) in fleas and matted to the red, raw skin. He can’t weigh more than 6-7 pounds. And of course he hasn’t been neutered! That was probably why he was out in the first place. Chasing…females. Typical male dog.

I’ve had him for three days now. The fluffy grungeball has a name now, Shelby. He has been shaved and given a flea bath by a groomer. He smells and looks as wonderful as one can shaved. Shelby has a full belly that begs to be snorgled. He now has all the love and attention he probably always wanted, needed and never got, judging by the shape he was in. He is scheduled to be neutered on the 6th of February.

Animal Rescuer Falls In Love…Again

This little fluff ball is so sweet, affectionate, cheerful, quiet…and surprisingly… housebroken! He gets along with all the other furry inhabitants in this “sanctuary” even “Rex the Raucous”, another rescued dog whom you will no doubt here much about.

Shelby also seems so grateful. The animals we rescue always are. Which is probably the reason I’ve been doing this for so long… and can’t stop.

Whoever let this little guy get loose, lost something special. I will not attempt to find Shelby’s owners. There is no excuse for the way they neglected him. Shelby deserves better. I will see that he gets it.

Money…There’s Never Enough

Giving these animals love and affection comes easy. Getting all these animals what they need is the hard part. The money for food, medical care, medicine, spaying and neutering, advertising/marketing, pet supplies, office supplies, cleaning supplies, gas, it goes on and on, is another matter all-together. And the  strays and abandoned animals just keep coming.

If You Don’t Do It Right

Animal rescue, if you aren’t careful, can cost you your health, bankruptcy, the loss of friends and family support. Rescue can  get you in trouble with the law. The animals can ruin your home, your furniture and your possessions. They can make your neighbors hate you, if your not careful.

A Better Way

I spent the better part of the last 17 years feeling like the man in the kayak, in the picture at the beginning of this article. I’m tired of it. I have thought for years that there had to be a better way to do rescue. There has to be a way to run a rescue so that it isn’t so terribly difficult. A way one can have the money available to do a good job and not always being forced to worry, to cut corners, to choose the lesser of evils. To sacrifice so much…. not have to sweat the small stuff.

Time an again, I’ve witnessed good, kind, caring people getting in over their heads, trying to do animal rescue. I think it’s time to find the “better way”, a win-win situation for the animals and for the rescuers to. I think we deserve a kinder, less stressful life. Our animals certainly deserve the best we can give them.

The Internet is changing so many things. Animal rescue will be no exception. We need to put more emphasis on this medium as a cost effective, money raising tool.

This blog is intended to find that win-win strategy for everyone who’s already doing rescue, and for those who want to start.

Taking Animal Rescue To The Next Level

Non-profit animal shelters and independent animal rescuers have done so much and come so far in the last 25 years. Now it’s time to go to the next level. To do more than we’ve done before for the animals and for ourselves…I hope you will join me in this “experiment”. I am going to need your ideas and I want your opinions and the value of your personal experiences. Together, I think we can take animal rescue to the next level. 

By utilizing:

•  The Internet
•  Websites
•  Blogs
•  Wikis 
•  Social platforms 
•  Seo
•  Affiliate programs
•  Affiliate advertising programs
•  Utilizing our volunteers within this arena
•  Utilizing our family and friends more efectively
•  Utilizing our adopters, relinquishers and donors within this new medium.
•  Creating fundraising programs that benefit everyone involved  not…  just the  rescue, humane society or shelter.
• And everthing else I’ve learned about but can’t remember at the moment and those things I haven’t learned about yet…but will given enough time..

 I sincerely believe that if utilize these inititives we can increase  awareness, raise adoptions, increase spays and nueters, lower euthanasias and increase income in less time than was ever possible before and with less expense and physical effort than ever before. It doesn’t get any better than that.

Then maybe…just maybe, I can retire.