Hey everyone! Guess what this week is? It’s Petfinder’s Adopt a Less Adoptable Pet Week! What is a “less adoptable” pet, you say? They may be older, or have a disability, or simply be the wrong breed or even color! Okay, so what? How does that make them less adoptable? Well I’m inclined to agree with two of my favorite vets, Dr. V over at Pawcurious and Dr. Tobiassen of AboutVetMed, and say that these are actually “Seriously Adoptable Pets”!

As parents to a black dog and cat, a dog with hypothyroidism (and on pills daily), foster parents to an FIV+ cat, and huge bully breed advocates, we can honestly say that none of these “defects” would ever deter us from caring for and loving an animal in need. But far beyond that, what the real core message behind why this week is important is: These “less adoptable” animals will in NO WAY give you less joy, love and utter devotion than any other animal. We here at ILRA are firm believers that rescued animals know how lucky they are and return all of your affections back tenfold so imagine how overjoyed a “less adoptable” animal will be to find their furever home!

I know we don’t always get to choose the animals that come into our lives – a lot of our kids came to us on their own – but if you are going out looking for a new pet, PLEASE consider adopting one of these types of animals. Whether they’re not as young as they used to be, are a “dangerous” breed, or are suffering from “black dog syndrome”, I assure you the only curse they’re suffering from is purely man-made.

Here are a couple of Seriously Adoptable Pets that need your help finding their forever homes:

Meet Storm

First is our very own foster cat, Storm. Storm was found wandering the streets in East Austin. We soon learned that she is FIV+, meaning she has a lowered immune system. Because of this, it has been hard to find her forever home. If people could see past her FIV status they would see what a beautiful, loving cat she truly is. To learn more about Storm and why FIV is not the death sentence it was once thought to be, check out her recent Shelter Sketch post here.

Meet Princess Buttercup

Next is a gorgeous little kitty that we met at BlogPaws West in Denver. She is a resident of Duncan’s Place in Loveland, CO and her name is Princess Buttercup. If you knew her, you’d know she was aptly named. She is a sweet, sweet kitten and she would love to meet you. She is considered “less adoptable” because she has asthma but I can personally guarantee you that it in no way affects how gosh-darn adorable & loving she is! How can you say no to that face? Learn more about her at her petfinder page.

Filed under: Animals in Need, Be The Change, Causes on September 21st, 2010 | 4 Comments »

Hey everyone! It’s Ashley and we’re currently pawtying it up here at BlogPaws West! We’ve been having such an amazing time that we haven’t been able to find even a second to post. It’s been really great meeting all these awesome bloggers & tweeters and the energy from the last one has definitely found its way to this one as well. The networking is amazing and if you’re involved in the pet blogosphere I really hope you get to make it to a BlogPaws soon! We have so many exciting projects to tell you about and tonight’s is one that is so simple and yet it has the potential to help feed thousands of shelter dogs!

Write a Post, Help a Dog!

I’m talking about Pedigree’s “Write a Post, Help a Dog” project. Pedigree, the wonderful company who once again sponsored my trip here, is always looking for more ways to help shelter dogs. By now I’m sure many of you have heard of their Adoption Drive. The commercials they have on TV, showing how shelter dogs are heroes, telling us “Do not pity a shelter dog, adopt one”, ALWAYS make me cry. Seriously, no matter how many times I see it, I always cry from happiness. Awesome marketing for a GREAT cause! Obviously we here at ILRA are completely behind what they do.

In case you didn’t know, they have had a campaign running this year where for every new fan they get on their Facebook page, they will donate a bowl of food to shelter dogs. It has been a tremendous success and since it began in February they have accumulated over 1.1 MILLION fans – meaning 1.1 MILLION meals for shelter dogs! How amazing is that? And they have no intention of stopping there. Pedigree hopes to donate 4 million bowls of food – one for every dog that will end up in a shelter this year.

Now you can help them do even more for dogs in need simply by writing a post. For every blog that writes a post about their adoption drive from now until next Sunday, which is September 19, Pedigree will donate a TWENTY pound bag of their brand new Healthy Longevity Food for Dogs to a shelter. It’s really as easy as that! Write about an awesome cause and and shelters nationwide will receive a large donation of food. I’m super excited about it and I hope you will be too! Go out there and write your posts, then link to them here to the BlogHop (and to our comments) so we can help make sure Pedigree sees it. Come on, let’s feed shelter dogs!

Help a Dog, Win a T-Shirt!

As a small token of our appreciation, if you write a post and leave a comment below telling us about it, we will enter you for a chance to win a Pedigree “Dogs Rule” T-shirt! How awesome is that? We love wearing our shirts – not only is it just a great message (except maybe to our feline friends…), but it’s a great conversation starter to tell others about this great project. Make sure to include the link to the post so we can read it too! We’ll pick a winner for the shirt when the campaign ends – September 19th!

Don’t forget to add your post to this BlogHop (at the end of this long list there is a link that says “Click Here to Enter”) so that Pedigree gets notified that you participated. And let us know as well so you can be entered into a draw for a Dogs Rule t-shirt! You can also tweet @PedigreeUS with your blog post URL and the hashtag #dogsrule.

The Write a Post, Help a Dog Blog Hop: More Posts about the Adoption Drive!

Filed under: BlogPaws, Causes, Donations on September 10th, 2010 | 73 Comments »

You may remember this post we wrote up earlier about asking people to nominate us for DogTime’s Petties Awards. Well we asked and you came forth and did it! I Love Rescue Animals is now one of the four finalists for Best Cause Related Blog! Thank you so much to everyone who entered our names. Just making it to the final four has blown us away. You are all amazing.

Vote Again!

But it’s not over! Now that we’re in the final four, how about trying to get us to #1? I know we here at ILRA would be absolutely estatic if we managed to take the top spot, and we feel that with your support, we have a good chance.

So please take a moment to vote for iloverescueanimals.org in the “Best Cause Related Blog category. If you support what we do and what we stand for, this is a great way to show how much you appreciate it. With a few clicks, you have helped us take one step forward to getting our message to a bigger audience.

Thank you so much for getting us this far! Feel free to share this with friends and family. We could use all the support we can get it.

Filed under: BlogPaws, Causes, Events, Website Related on August 6th, 2010 | 2 Comments »

Ladies and Gentlemen, I am excited to announce that DogTime Media is holding their very first Pet Blog Awards: The Petties!

Vote for ILRA!

So here’s what DogTime says about the contest: “You can choose as many categories as you like and nominate as many bloggers as you like. You can even nominate yourself! Once nominations are closed DogTime will select the four most popular bloggers in each category. Then you and your readers, friends, family and anyone else can vote for their favorites! The blogs with the most votes will win! Nominations close on July 30th, 2010.”

That’s right, you have until July 30, 2010! We would love if you would vote for I Love Rescue Animals in the Best Cause Related Blog category. We have been working super hard to bring quality content to our readers and to make aware all the great things that we can do for animals. We feel we’ve been doing an awesome job, and we hope that you do too! Show us some love and vote for us!

You can find out more about The Petties at the BlogPaws page, and we hope to see you all at our favorite conference: BlogPaws 2010 West!

Filed under: BlogPaws, Causes, Events, Website Related on July 21st, 2010 | 3 Comments »

Hey everyone! Be the Change and BlogPaws are at it again, asking bloggers to be the change they want to see for animals. This latest call to action involves raising donations for shelters, rescues & pet food banks to help animals in need. It’s called the “Dog Days of Summer Food & Supplies Drive” and starting today (July 19th), with your help, we in the pet blog community are going to be collecting cat and dog food for shelters all over the country. Here’s what you can do to take part!

How to Participate

• Find a shelter or pet food bank near you and call to find out whether they accept food donations. (For people in the US and Canada you can search for a local shelter and pet food bank here.)
• Print out the BTC4Pets flier then head over to your local pet supplies store to pick up a bag of food.
• Drop off the bag of food at your local shelter or food bank and have someone take a picture of you with the bag and flier.
• Write a blog post, tweet (with #BTC4Pets) and share on Facebook your pawsome achievement to inspire your friends to do the same. (Of course you can always write two blog posts — one calling your friends to join you in the food drive and the second talking about your group’s trip to the shelter!)
• Post the picture of yourself donating the food and a link to your blog/twitter account/Facebook post to the Be The Change for Pets Facebook wall along with the pounds of food donated. We’ll add this amount to the total food/supplies donated so we can all see our impact!
• Want to take the campaign to the next level? Find out how to start a pet food bank on a shoestring budget.

To help out in our town, I Love Rescue Animals is going to be starting a drive to collect food for a few local animal groups, including our favorite cat group Central Texas Feline Rescue. We are personally trying to gather donations from several different area businesses – our main being at Camp Bow Wow Austin. If you’re in town, stop by! What plans do you have for the Dog Days of Summer Food Drive and who are you going to help?

Filed under: Animals in Need, BlogPaws, Causes, Donations on July 19th, 2010 | 1 Comment »