Scratchings-and-Sniffings

Get Out Your Camera! Win a Trip to Denver!

Over at BlogPaws, we're gearing up for our next conference - in Denver! W00t!!! We hope you'll be there.

As anyone who reads this blog knows, I'm a co-founder of BlogPaws, the only online resource for pet bloggers, created to help you be a better blogger, whatever "being a better blogger" means to YOU. So whether you are blogging for fun, to raise money or on behalf of a company or organization, BlogPaws is your go-to place.

We held a successful conference in April and we're doing it again! It may seem a bit soon, but we got such wonderful feedback and lots of applause for BlogPaws East (in Columbus), that we thought it only fair to do it again in the West. We chose Denver because Tom and I live here. And, for the most part, Denver is pet-friendly.

A Girl and Her Dog

I've written lots about the unique relationships we have with our dogs and cats. I've written extensively about our dog Miles and the effect he's had on my wife and I since we took him in last winter. He's a special dog and we both love him.  

Lately though, I've noticed something interesting.

Miles is my wife's dog. Oh, he likes me and he's happy to see me in the morning when I come up the steps. He wags his tail and gives me a nice greeting, but he's really waiting for Chris to come up stairs. When he sees her his whole body wiggles and his tail wags and it seems that he even smiles. He's excited to see her and the feeling is mutual.

Save Our Pets in the Gulf

I've written about this on BlogPaws, but I wanted to share it here, also. We cannot discuss it enough. We cannot speak of it enough. We must hold BP accountable on all counts - not only for the oil in the gulf, not only for ruining the livelihoods of so many Americans, but also, for causing the drastic increase in abandoned pets.

I'm not talking about pets left by the roadside, though my heart goes out to them with great love! I'm talking about pets surrendered at shelters because their pet parents can no longer care for them, or feed them!

Celebrating Love for Our Pets

Nestle' Purina and Kroger grocery stores are celebrating love - of the mostly four-legged kind. I say 'mostly' because we know pets come in two-legged versions, also. In fact, I just read a superb story in Reader's Digest about pets where an Eagle was featured. And, I know people who keep chickens as pets!

The pet world is a big one, my friends. And, precisely because of that, pet parents and pet enthusiasts need to come together to help disadvantaged animals . Okay, disadvantaged is marketing-speak. We'll say abandoned and abused animals, animals that have saved lives, animals who give more love than they will ever get. Your pets and mine.

Save This Pup: Our Aha Moment by Laura Posey

As a supporter of the Save This Pup idea and organization, I will be hosting guest posts from Laura Posey on a regular basis, here on Scratchings & Sniffings. You will remember Laura and Save This Pup from our previous interview describing how Save This Pup came to be.

Today, Laura shares an "Aha Moment" --

Be the Change for Pets at BlogPaws

Regular readers know that I'm a co-founder of BlogPaws, along with Tom, my business partner and husband, and Caroline, the founder of Romeo the Cat. BlogPaws exists to bring pet bloggers together - for learning, community and fun.

As we all learn more about ourselves and each other, we discover the true value of friendship. Many BlogPaws' friendships began online, via blogs and twitter and facebook, and continued IRL (in real life) at the first ever pet blogger conference, back in April.

Now, we are connecting to each other even more - all to help make a change in the world.

Banning Pet Stores

I posted on this over at BlogPaws but thought I'd add some thoughts here, also.

Some cities in America are banning pet stores to save puppys and kittens from the ordeal of being bred just to go to a pet store. The idea is that by banning pet stores outright, the puppy mills and kitten factories will go out of business. They will have no where to market their "wares".

Who believes this? Apparently, lots of people. People in Florida, New Mexico, Missouri and other states, are working to put pet stores out of business, on the theory that no more pet stores, no more puppy mills and no more kitten factories.

Wow, This is Cool

You've got to see this video on Oscar the cat and his amazing surgery. My Facebook pal, Patrick, sent it to me and it totally made my day.

Oscar had an unfortunate run in with a farm implement and lost both his hind feet in the process. His owner took him in to his Veterinarian who referred him to Dr Noel Fitzpatrick; star of a British TV show called the Bionic Vet.

Need The Info?

I added up the number of posts I've done on Scratchings and Sniffings over the last three and a half years and it comes to a little over five hundred. That's a fair amount of information archived right here on these pages. That's not even counting the posts by Yvonne and Tom, either.  

Some of that information might also be useful and I want to make sure that any interested pet lovers know how to dig it up.

Some blogs list all the posts by title somewhere on the blog and that's what I asked Tom and Yvonne to do, at one point. They thought that would be a bit cumbersome and suggested a search function instead. After initially balking at that idea, I've come to appreciate it. With some posts you can't tell the content by the title, anyway.

Do Pets Dream?

I can tell you that my pets dream. Carmie definitely chased rabbits or squirrels in her dreams. And, Wabby, well, she probably chases the ferret. Or, spends her dreaming time wondering when her next meal is. Or, maybe she's thinking about being FURminated! She loves her FURMinator!

I came across a great article in Bloomberg Businessweek titled, "Where Do Pets Go When They Dream?" and I couldn't resist sharing. The conclusion of the article is, "Pets do dream while sleeping." Which isn't news to any pet parents, of course. But, the way this was uncovered is interesting.