BlogPaws

Friday Freebies for your Blog: Photos from the U.S. Army's Photostream on Flickr

By Tom Collins

This week's resource is a BIG one that I'll come back to often for specific examples and links: images created by the government.

The photo here comes from The U.S. Army's Photostream on Flickr, with the caption, "Homeless dogs help healing troops." When you click through to the individual image, they've provided a nice little summary of the story behind the photo:

We Heart our PALs

Last week I shared a little video from PAL (Pets Add Life) and promised more. Here are two more - they will make you smile, maybe even laugh out loud.

The message is far more than one of humor, however. The message is aimed right at your heart - remember to encourage friends, family and even aquaintances that they should consider adoption when thinking of adding a new pet to the family.

When we moved to Colorado from NY (me and Tom and The Grumpy Old Lady), we knew we were going to adopt from a shelter, even that we were going to look for an 'adult' dog, not a puppy. Over time (we gave ourselves a year to get settled), we decided we needed two dogs. We knew we might be traveling a bit, for BlogPaws, and we did some research into the benefits of having two dogs - where they might keep each other company while we were away.

National Feral Cat Day

In honor of National Feral Cat Day, we bring you The Grumpy Old Lady and Romeo the Cat - who, though not feral, understand the need for a recognition of their fellow felines. Both of these cats were shelter cats - and might have been feral in another lifetime. They remind us that - there but for fortune, go you or I. We (BlogPaws and our cats) ask that you visit the links offered here and take action.

 

Petfinder explains Feral Cats

 

BestFriends shares a video about National Feral Cat Day

 

Bissell-BlogPaws Announce Blog Carnival Winners!

Congratulations are in order! Let's hear it for the winners of the BISSELL-BlogPaws Blog Carnival!

Congrats go out to Robin Craft, the grand prize winner, for her wonderful feline adoption story about Oswald. Robin has selected the Black & Orange Cat Foundation in Plain City, Ohio to receive the $2500 grand prize grant. Big round of applause for Robin, Oswald and the Black & Orange Cat Foundation.

Also, give a big cheer to Kim Clune and Pamela Douglas Webster for achieving runner-up status. Kim shared her story about Beelzebub and Pamela told her story about Shadow. They will each receive a $1000 grant, which they are giving to Hudson, NY-based Animalkind, Inc and the Tompkins County SPCA in Ithaca, NY, respectively.

What Would a Responsible Blogger (or Friend) Do?

By BlogPaws Team

UPDATE: The post and comments below serve as a warning about the dangers of being too quick to click "publish" before reaching out to the people involved, gathering more information, and just plain cooling off. We screwed up in several ways. Thankfully, equally public apologies have been exchanged (ours; Mel's) and, certainly from our end, some valuable lessons learned. And one other beautiful thing to emerge from the hurt and anger is this post by Pamela Webster over at Something Wagging This Way Comes: Lessons in Grace – The Idealists vs the Realists.