So this weekend while listening to the TED Radio Hour on NPR (interested? there’s a podcast!), I heard portions of a TED talk by Dan Pallotta, who claims we hold our charities back with our expectations of low overhead. Pallotta’s argument is that while we reward start-ups for taking big risks with other people’s money, when […]
Today the polar bear was gone. I knew eventually the museum would change the main installation, but still, to not see him there was shocking. But he has other eyes to open, so on he goes to his next stop on his journey while I continue mine. Yesterday I enjoyed a free lunchtime guided meditation at […]
I am pleased to report that starting in 2016 the FBI will begin tracking cases of animal cruelty. The four categories of cases to be tracked include neglect, intentional abuse and torture, organized abuse (dogfighting, cockfighting), and animal sexual abuse. This is huge! Despite mental health professionals having said for years that animal cruelty is […]
Last night I watched the All-Star Dog Rescue Celebration . May I just say that the people that put this show together are genius? In addition to showcasing dogs in rescue that are in need of homes, they hit on every rescue-related topic- from the importance of spay/neuter to the cost of rescuing to the need […]
It’s happened again. This time the ASPCA and Texas Humane Heroes worked with Hendry County, Florida, Sheriff’s Office, Clewiston Animal Control and the Humane Society of Broward County to rescue over 100 dogs from an unlicensed puppy mill in central Florida. Here’s a local media story about the rescue effort. Beatriz Perez and Alexei Fernandez […]
Yesterday I read a story in the Daily Mail UK about a dog named Lana that was so depressed over being returned to Mighty Mutts, a Toronto animal shelter, that she refused to go on walks. Of course, after you read the actual article, you see that behavior lasted for all of one day. Compare that to […]
Folks across the pond are celebrating National Black Cat Day. Cats Protection started the day to highlight black cats because they feel black cats remain in shelter longer than cats of other colors. RSPCA, on the other hand, say there are more black cats in care simply because black is the most common color for cats. […]
I was recently asked to review Sit! Stay! Speak! This is the debut novel by Annie England Noblin. Ms. Noblin teaches writing and communications at Arkansas State University. She also volunteers in animal rescue. She weaves her experiences in small town America throughout the novel. To be clear, this book is a romance novel. It uses the tried and […]
We learned last week that Bela the German Shepherd was accepted by Best Friends Animal Society. Now we can all breathe a collective sigh of relief that he will not die before his time. And we can all forget that it was even an issue. I feel bad for Best Friends for having been thrust in […]
Augusta is a city of 200,000 located in the eastern part of Georgia. If you’re a golf fan, you’ve heard of Augusta- it’s where the Masters golf tournament is held each spring. The unemployment rate in Augusta as of August of this year was 9.8%. Augusta’s animal shelter has a 70% kill rate. It’s not […]
Dogpaddling Through Life 