The folks behind Buy A Shirt Help a Dog donate one-third of every t-shirt purchased to another non-profit dog charity every 4 months. They’re taking nominations for dog charity groups through December 31, 2011. Pop on over and nominate your favorite! We’ve already nominated ours … Humane Society of Boulder Valley.
Fellow dog writer and dog blogger Peggy Frezon from Peggy’s Pet Place asked us to take part in blog book tour to promote her new book Dieting With My Dog: One Busy Life; Two Full Figures and Unconditional Love. I’m VERY good at keeping Lilly’s weight perfect, and I mean perfect. Even our veterinary nutritionist friend said Lilly had a perfect body condition. Me? As I mentioned last week, not so much. So, I asked Peggy a few questions about her weight-loss journey.
Now, in its third year, the Santa Paws Drive is like Toys for Tots, except the money and toys donated go to pets in selected shelters and rescue groups. That includes Black Dog Animal Rescue Inc. in Wyoming this year. Goodness knows everyone at Chez Champion of My Heart loves black (and mostly black) dogs.
Even after all the years working in magazines, I’ve never quite adjusted to thinking about holidays 6 months or more before they happen. That’s why I’m just NOW putting out a call for friends and vendors to think about gift ideas for the Champion of My Heart community.
The ASPCA launched a campaign to educate people about the puppy mill sources of puppies sold in pet stores. You too can take the pledge NEVER to shop for anything in stores that sell puppies. And, you can sign a petition to the White House, asking for legislation to close dog care loopholes (particularly for mass puppy breeders who sell pups via the internet).
I know you guys. I’m confident that you know all too well where pet store puppies come from and what it means to give your money to stores that propagate this icky dogs-as-cash-crop industry.
September 17-25, 2011, Petfinder.com is hosting Adopt-a-Less-Adoptable-Pet Week and asked bloggers to take part. Big surprise … We picked this adoptable border collie in Newburgh, Indiana, to promote. His name is Marty!
All American Dawgs, the rescue group currently caring for Marty, posted this description:
The girls of Champion of My Heart first “met” Ecco D’Oro, a passionate Spinone Italiano (Italian pointer) with a penchant for stealing underwear and snorkeling in the koi pond, when we reviewed Ecco’s human grandma’s book about a Native American artist named Quincy Tahoma.
"It's exhausting being this handsome."
The truth? We were a little sad that we were not the first dog-based book reviewers on the scene.
Since then, however, we’ve made friends via the blog, via email, and on Facebook with Ecco and his many, many dog friends … who collectively put the “Power of the Paw” into action every day through both virtual and real community efforts.
Many thanks to Living Large in Our Little House for tagging Champion of My Heart in this Best of Blogging 7 Links thing that’s sweeping the web. It began with mostly travel bloggers, but it’s reached our shores. Here are links to our 7 Best blog posts:
Today is the last day to vote for Champion of My Heart for Best Dog Blog. This month-long campaign for votes has been a real beast. So, all you here and who follow Champion of My Heart on Twitter and Facebook have my gratitude for putting up with all the begging and reminders.
Thank you for your help and support and encouragement.
There is no way of telling how the voting has been going or how close (or not) the voting might be. Just like all of you, I’ll find out Friday, August 26 @ 5 pm (eastern time) [3 pm here in CO].
Plans for the Petties Award Ceremony changed mid-stream. Rather than a live event at the BlogPaws Conference, Dogtime will be broadcasting it somehow via YouTube.
I’ll be watching from home, most likely. Perhaps we can do some live chatting online in the process. Or, maybe Tom will take us girls on a date to celebrate no matter the outcome.
We’ve been told that not only will each winner get a prize package that includes a $1,000 donation to their pet shelter / rescue of choice, but that there is some $10,000 donation in play too. I have no details on that.
The Real Lessons
Winning last year, being nominated this year, and giving it our best run taught me several things. Some good. Some not so good.
I’ve been thinking about it a lot in recent days. And this process is a lot like the process of helping Lilly over all these years with her fears, and here is what matters most — win or lose:
Before I beg one last time for votes, I leave you with this passage sent to me by a friend, after I suffered a recent and big disappointment in my life:
One Last Shameless Voting Reminder
Please vote again today, the final day … you never know if it’s the difference between winning or not!
Please VOTE Champion of My Heart as Best Dog Blog!
I’ve been saying all along that you can vote each day (1-2 times). Other nominees are asking for more votes per day, and indeed the site will let you vote, and vote, and vote. We’ve been told “excessive voting” will not be allowed. But no one really knows what excessive voting means, I’m simply asking that you vote however many times YOU feel is fair.
If we’re chosen, we’ll give the $1,000 donation that’s part of the prize package to our friends at Humane Society of Boulder Valley.
Thanks so much for everything. Have a great weekend!
Today is one of four annual Blog the Change Days, where pet bloggers promote their favorite people, organizations, and events that improve the lives of animals in communities all over. The girls of Champion of My Heart decided to promote Petfinder’s Big 15th Birthday Bash. The goal? To get 15,000 pets adopted this weekend. Whew!
A couple weeks ago, we jumped into help a neighbor’s nephew whose two Malamutes were stolen from a Wal-Mart parking lot in Ukiah, California. Here is the back-story of their recovery, as far as we can piece together.
M’wah! Lilly and I offer our biggest THANK YOU to everyone who nominated Champion of My as Best Dog Blog in the 2012 Petties (DogTime Media Pet Blog Awards). We made the finals! So, once again, we need your help (and your votes)! Here’s how.
Voting ends Friday, July 29, 2011.
How to Vote Champion of My Heart as Best Dog Blog
1. Go to the DogTime Media Petties Page (use this URL of the link doesn’t work http://dogtime.com/petties.html).
2. Click on the little button next to Champion of My Heart in the Best Dog Blog Category (left-hand column, second block).
3. Select your choices in the other categories, if you’d like. (Our suggestions below. You do NOT have to vote in every category).
4. Click the VOTE button at the bottom , and you’re done.
If you do NOT see the VOTE button, hold down your SHIFT key and click on your page reload icon. That forces the page to dump your cache and use the most recent version of the page available.
UPDATE ON VOTING RULES (7/6/11 @ 11:30 am)
Unlike in 2010, when you could only vote once per email address, this year you can vote every day … just not excessively. According to DogTime’s Chrstina Kwan, “We aren’t capturing email like we were in the nominations phase. However, my tech team has assured me that there is something in place to prevent someone from sitting at the computer all day long submitting votes. Telling readers to go and vote once or twice a day is fine, but not excessive voting.”
That said, Lilly and I would appreciate:
Extra Love and Gratitude to Those Who Campaign for Us
We appreciate every vote . Extra credit, good mojo, and eternal thanks to those who post our voting plea via email, Facebook, and/or Twitter as well:
Suggested Tweet:
I voted for @champofmyheart for Best Dog Blog. Won’t you please do the same? http://su.pr/1ib892
Suggested Facebook Post:
Our friends from @ChampionofMyHeart need your votes for the Best Dog Blog Award. I vote for them once each day, and I’m asking you to do the same. http://su.pr/1ib892
Share the Best Pet Blog Awards LOVE
With Champion of My Heart Friends
We’re happy to report that several of our pet blogging friends also made the finals in various Petties categories. Lilly and I would consider it a personal favor, if you voted for them too.
You do NOT have to vote in every category to take part, but we know our friends would appreciate the help.
Best Overall Pet Blog: Pet News of Views
Best Dog Blog: Champion of My Heart
Best Cat Blog: The Conscious Cat
Best Cause Related Blog: Be the Change for Animals … or K9Chronicles Rescue Me … or Raising Ruby
Best Blog Post: Raising Ruby … OR … I Love Rescue Animals … or Sparkle Cat
Best Designed Blog: your choice
Best Social Integration Blog: your choice
Funniest Blog or Blogger: Will My Dog Hate Me? … OR … Grouchy Puppy
The deadline for this year’s pet blog award nominations is tomorrow, Wednesday, June 29. Lilly and I would VERY much appreciate your nomination as best dog blog. If you’ve already done it, thanks MUCHO. If not, we hope you’ll take a few minutes to help.
Last Friday, Lilly and I created our very own foundation online so that we can better manage and accrue our charity donations for favs like Humane Society of Boulder Valley. Join too, and you might win one of the $1,000 per day prizes before GiveBack.org’s 100 Days of Giving ends July 16.
Congratulations to Petfinder on CHANGING the pet adoption world forever 15 years ago. Truly. Both via online access and the popular app, people use Petfinder a LOT to search for adoptable pets. It was a terrific idea, then. It’s a terrific idea now. In celebration, here is our Adopt the Internet Day post.
Adopt. Don’t Buy … I’m Begging
While attending a local non-dog event recently, I realized just how much education is still required about the horrors of puppy mills and the pet store puppy sales that support them.
