I’d already planned a post about Lilly’s coming-inside breakthrough, when pals reminded me that TODAY, July 15, is one of four BIG Be the Change for Animals days each year. I’ve been consumed with the fact that July 15 is another “hospital” day, so my whole week has been about that.
I meant to post about these causes we support next Monday, but I didn’t want to fall down on the Be the Change job, so you’re getting TWO posts today. (Yes, I threw this together, so if it looks weird or makes no sense … that’s why.)
More Be the Change Info
You can find out MUCH more about the many, many Be the Change efforts:
BlogPaws Be the Change for Pets (Facebook page)
I promise, promise, promise that our own Be the Change campaign is still being planned. (We’re just behind schedule due to the medical crises here at Chez Champion of My Heart). In fact, a meeting last week netted us a REALLY neat fundraising angle. So, we’ll be educating people and raising money for a bigger program at the same time. I need to plan some things. I need to get some programming widgets in place. I need to … oh, you know … WRITE some content, but we’ll get there.
In the Meantime
So, in the interim, I wanted to share links to just a few of the Be the Change causes we support.
Campaign to End BSL (breed-specific legislation): Operation Denver
Oh My Dog blogger Maggie Marton is collecting postcards addressed to Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper (who is running for governor in CO). She has templates and help with artwork on the site. She wants to have the postcards stretch for a MILE (Denver = mile high city) in time for the big BlogPaws conference in Denver, Sept 9-11.
I actually met Hickenlooper when I was president of the Colorado Authors’ League, and I later took him to tasks in letters to the editor and a Q&A in Westword for NOT picking a Colorado author for the city’s One Book, One Denver thing. (It’s worth a click-through just to see me with BIG hair.)
Anyway, so in my postcard, I reminded him that we’d met and that I’m a Colorado native and active VOTER, etc. I urged him to repeal the BSL laws, which are some of the more onerous and most-enforced in the country. I basically told him it made “my” city and “my” state look bad, and I didn’t appreciate it.
Operation: Give Big Dogs a Break
Our friends Amy and Rod Burkert at GoPetFriendly.com arranged this petition to get hotels to reconsider their weight limits. Many pet-friendly hotels only take dogs under 25 pounds, which I’m pretty sure rules MOST of our readers’ dogs out. Heck, Lilly is pretty small, at just 36 or so pounds, but she would be TOO BIG for many hotels.
In addition to their GREAT pet travel site, they write a terrific blog too.
Dog Days of Summer Pet Food Drive (Facebook page)
This one comes from our BlogPaws pals. I’ll be blogging about this next week over on my Dog Food Dish blog, but this summer campaign runs between July 19 and July 31. All you have to do is buy and donate some pet food to a local shelter or food bank. They want you to print out one of their “I am the change” fliers and take a picture of you giving the food with the flier.
Then, you can blog, facebook and/or tweet all about it to share the good news. They’ll be tracking the TOTAL pounds of food donated.
If you need a little inspiration, check out this new video from Dr. V @ Pawcurious.
Humane Society of Boulder Valley, ASPCA $100K Challenge
And, last … but not least, Humane Society of Boulder Valley (where we adopted Lilly) is one of 50 shelters competing for a $100,000 grand prize.
According to the ASPCA site, “The official competition period is August 1 through October 31, when all 50 contestants will start tracking their progress. To qualify for the grand prize grant, shelters need to save a minimum of 300 more animals from August through October 2010, compared with the same three-month period in 2009. Beyond that, the winner will be the shelter that saves the most additional animals during the same time period. The ASPCA will also grant $25,000 to the shelter that most engages its community to promote pet adoptions and reunite lost animals with their pet parents. Winners will be announced in December 2010.”
So, local-ish friends, if you know anyone looking for a pet in the coming months, please, please, please ask them to visit the Humane Society of Boulder Valley.
Thanks for sharing all of these! Also, I wanted to personally say thanks for doing your pet food drive day back in April. I loved it so much I was thrilled to suggest doing something similar for our first BTC4Pets Challenge. 🙂 You’re an inspiration!
Thanks, Jane. You’re the Queen of all this! I’m happy to help promote it.