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?

Last week may have been the official Be The Change day (click that link to read our post out about it and help out Feline Forever Ranch), but that by no means says that it has to stop there. This week on April 21st, there will be a PawPawty (or BlogPawty as the case may be this time) to help raise money for Pets Without Parents. To help out, I am going to be hosting a giveaway of my own.

The Giveaway

If you didn’t know it already, I am a web designer. I work for a small company here in Austin, but in my spare time, I freelance under the name Design Coyote (and @designcoyote on twitter). So to do my part in this great twitter pawty, I will be giving away one awesome pet design (estimated cost up to $500) for one lucky pet blogging winner!

You can see my work here at ILRA (the current design and the illustrations), over my personal blog Snailbird, or my design site that I linked to above.

The Rules

01. You don’t have to have a blog to win. We can set you up with an awesome blog either on Blogspot or a self-hosted WordPress blog (or another blog platform of your choice). The only catch is, whether you do have a blog or you’re going to be making one, it has to be about animals/pets!
02. WordPress.com blogs are not eligible unfortunately, only because they do not host custom designs. If you have a WordPress.com blog and win, you have two options: either move to a hosted wordpress blog, or move to blogspot.
03. You do not have to make a donation to be eligible to win.

How To Win

Now here’s the fun part! Ash and I tried to think up different ways that would not only be fun to do, but would also get people to promote adoption, shelters, and rescues and here’s what we came up with. To have your name thrown in the hat, we would like for those of you on twitter to pick a twitter account that posts about animals in need (be it urgents needing fosters or adoption, or animals requiring donations for injuries or rescue purposes) and RT it.

Once you’ve done your retweet to help the cause, comment here with a link back to your retweet, and we’ll toss your name into our hat of entries. If, for some reason, you do not have a twitter account, no worries. Just find something you would like to “retweet” and post it on your blog and post that link here! This giveaway is open as of now and will continue on until 1am EST on Monday the 26th of April I will announce the winner sometime later that day.

Be sure to attend the awesome BlogPawty on Wednesday starting at 7pm eastern time. It’s going to be a blast – full of new friends, great music, and awesome connections. See you there!

Contest Closed!

Winner will be announced soon.

I’m sure a lot of you have heard of this movement already. It’s been HUGE on twitter and across the blogosphere since the BlogPaws conference last weekend. This video has practically been going viral and it’s easy to see why. It’s a simple concept and yet the potential impact for animals everywhere is unimaginable! The video is also incredibly touching and no one seems to be able to watch it with a dry eye. Already people have raised close to $1000 for a no-kill rescue in Columbus, Ohio: Pets Without Parents. Challenges are being laid down all over the place for more people to get involved and do their part to help animals. It’s already a well-organized, well-oiled machine, getting out an incredibly important message that people seem to be responding amazingly well to. To think this all started with a session at the first-ever pet bloggers conference…

I had the pleasure of attending the “Be The Change You Want to See” session. No lie, and I told this to all of the panel speakers I met, this was my absolute favorite session! Seriously, I was quite mad at myself afterward for not having taped it. I hope they come together next year for another session! It was so inspiring and motivating that I was all gung-ho and ready to make a difference even before they threw down the #BeTheChange challenge! The panel consisted of Dr. V from Pawcurious, Dorian Wagner from Your Daily Cute and Lynn Haigh from Pawpawty.com and was moderated by Jane Harrell from Petfinder.com.

Jane started the session by talking a little about Petfinder.com. She talked about how Petfinder began and that in and of itself was one of the most awe-inspiring stories about helping animals I’ve ever heard! Did you know that Petfinder was created back in 1995 by Betsy and Jared Saul, a husband and wife who dared each other to make a real difference with their New Year’s Resolutions. They decided that the internet needed to be utilized to help shelter animals get more exposure and they began by personally entering the information and photos of homeless animals around New Jersey. As they grew, they decided to expand nationwide and they have never looked back! 15 years later and Petfinder has helped to unite over 15 MILLION pets with loving owners! I can’t even begin to imagine how incredible the Sauls’ must feel. Their one, relatively small decision has changed the lives of 15 million animals for the better. 15 MILLION! Wow. Just wow.

First up from the panel was Dr. V who was very charming as she told of her “harebrained” idea to raise money by eating dog food. She thought it would be something small but quickly found out that people really enjoy watching other people eat gross things. She raised more than she ever expected: $2250, which with a matching donation from the incredible people at k9uisine.com, meant a total of $4500 for the shelters she was supporting! Not bad for crazy scheme, huh? Now crazy is something I can do. In fact, it’s what I do best. I come up with silly ideas and Nikki helps bring them to fruition. We can make a difference too! (By the way, to raise money for today’s #BeTheChange challenge, Dr. V also ate some Pupperoni! Yum!)

Next to speak was Dorian Wagner who related the stories of how she has raised not just money but also toys for animals in need! I love her idea for the Santa Paws Drive and can’t wait to help her raise awareness this year! Can you imagine the happiness that would come from giving homeless pets their very own Christmas presents? I know they’re animals but you will never for one second convince me that that they did not feel that they were loved when they received those toys! They knew that someone in the world cared for them and that’s the best Christmas gift you could ever ask for!

Last, but most certainly not least, on the panel was Lynn, who is probably best known for being the typist for @frugaldougal on twitter. He’s the hairy mastermind behind what has become one of the biggest pet sensations on twitter – the PawPawty. A PawPawty is an all-twitter, 24-hour “pawty” held to raise donations for different animal rescues & organizations that are randomly chosen from suggestions of participants. The first PawPawty was held back in March of 2009 and in that very short amount of time, the PawPawties have raised a total of $26,060 for 17 different animal groups! Isn’t that just incredible? I am in awe! Lynn, who is always entertaining, told great stories about the blunders she found herself in as she learned the ins and outs of raising money online. The tale that probably got the most laughs was the one where PayPal contacted her & suspended her account because they thought she was a money launderer! Haha! All I can say is that I’m glad these bumps in the road didn’t deter her because the animal world wouldn’t be the same without her and Mr. FD!

At the end of the session, they gave away some cute prizes and one lucky winner got to choose the shelter that would receive the donations raised by the first #BeTheChange pawty. As it turns out, the woman who won worked with Pets for Parents, one of the groups who were lucky enough to receive $2800 from BlogPaws, as well as presents from a few of the sponsors! They must have some major karma built up to be so lucky! The majority of #BeTheChange participants are raising money for this group and they have already doubled the set goal of $500. That’s awesome for them! However, since they have so many people backing them already, I’m going to help raise awareness for another group in need of donations.

Romeo Golon aka Romeothecat and his staff Caroline also pick animal groups each month that they raise donations for. This month’s rescue is Forever Home Feline Ranch which is a newer no-kill cat rescue based in Springfield, Illinois. They are currently without a physical ranch but are instead a dedicated network of fosters. Who knows, the donations raised could go towards getting them a real ranch! For more information, check out the FirstGiving page set up by Romeo here. This looks like a great group and I know they can use all the help they can get. Being a foster is not easy but these wonderful volunteers do it because they know they are changing the lives of the cats they save. Can you help them out?

Now don’t think you’re alone in taking up this challenge. Nikki & I have something up our sleeves for the #BeTheChange pawty as well but that won’t be announced until this Sunday. For now, let’s get out there and help an animal today! That being said, time to go feed the ferals that live around our house. ^_^

Hey everyone! For those of you who attended BlogPaws, you know how hard it is to even begin to describe how amazing the conference was. For those of you who couldn’t make it this year, you NEED to go next year. It truly was a life changing experience for so many of those involved. You can’t imagine how energizing & inspiring & truly awesome the experience was! I know that there were so many incredible connections made and that there are months worth of stories to be told. This is one of ours and probably one of the most heartwarming of my entire life. This story is one that still makes me smile from ear to ear and makes Nikki tear up. I think it is one that perfectly describes the heart & soul of what BlogPaws is – animal lovers coming together to build an intentional community that will very truly change the lives of animals for the better! Keep in mind that Jo, Nikki & I met only about 10 minutes prior to this occurring! Without further ado, I give you our very own Nikki and Jo of EnlightenedFerret.com (@informedferret on twitter) with an awesome announcement:

Hey guys! I’m trying to win $1000 for the feral group I volunteer for, Central Texas Feline Rescue. It’s a contest being run by Maddie’s Corner. All I have to do is send them the most twitter followers or Facebook fans between now & January 31st. CTFR is a small group run by maybe 20 different people. We’re a Trap-Neuter-Return-Manage (TNRM) group that operates in Central Texas, mainly Round Rock, Austin, Pflugerville & Wells Branch area. We feed roughly 300 cats all 365 days of the year. Since we’re so small, donations are slim to none so it all comes out of the volunteers’ pockets – most from our founder. It would be great to be able to ease the financial burden on the group. As well as feeding different colonies we also trap almost every Tuesday night. The cats we catch are then taken to the Austin Humane Society where they are spayed or neutered & given rabies shots. We then take them back & re-release them into the colonies. Of course, any cats that are strays versus feral, we take in to foster until we can adopt them out. Our foster, Mika, was one such cat.

Anyway, to help us win, you can either follow them on twitter & tell them we sent you or you can fan them on Facebook. Either way, let them know that @RescueAnimals sent you. The official rules can be found here: http://www.maddiescorner.org/events.htm

So for instance, follow them on twitter & then tweet something like “@MaddiesCorner I’m following you because @RescueAnimals sent me over” or you can fan them on Facebook here & write pretty much the same on their fan page wall.

Thanks guys! The feral kitties appreciate your vote!

Nikki’s Post About the Contest

So, I have a favor to ask of you: there’s this group on Facebook called Maddie’s Corner (also found on twitter @MaddiesCorner), founded by Kristin Chenoweth (Galinda of Wicked, in tons of movies, was on American Idol tonight for those of you who don’t know her). They’re a pretty amazing organization that celebrates animals and the people who love animals. Well they’re holding a contest right now. The person who sends the most fans their way wins $1000 for any non-profit animal organization they want. We want that to be us.

Of course we want to try and get the money for the feral cat group that we volunteer for. It’s called Central Texas Feline Rescue and we’re a Trap-Neuter-Return group. We go out everyday, 365 days a year and feed the feral colonies that live in Austin and the Austin area. Almost every Tuesday we are out there trapping feral cats to have them spayed or neutered and given rabies shots before returning them to their colonies. We’re also an extremely small group, completely volunteer run. Most of everything we do comes out of our own pockets – our founder, Elizabeth spends the most to keep the group running. This year we TNR’d over 300 cats. Ash and I fostered a kitten we found on the streets and named her Mika. On Christmas Eve, she was adopted by some really wonderful people and they tell us she rules the household now.

$1000 would go far for this group. But we need your help. Here’s what you can do. Go to the Maddie’s Corner fanpage on Facebook and fan the group, or you can start following them on their twitter. Then post a comment/reply and tell them that Ashley Niels of @RescueAnimals sent you (Ash is in charge of the twitter account so they know her name). Make sure you add the RescueAnimals part since that’s the common name we’ve been using (on twitter and facebook). The more people the better so feel free to share this note.

Come on guys! With your help, we can win Central Texas Feline Rescue a much-needed $1000. They really deserve it. Thanks to everyone who helps us out! If you have any questions, please ask us and we’ll get back to you ASAP.

Help the kittens! =^..^=