Guide Dogs Go Green

I have been crazy busy the past month with our new guide dog puppy in training - Grace. Grace is an active, precocious, and absolutely adorable 3 month old black Lab. She is the third guide dog puppy we have raised for Southeastern Guide Dogs in Palmetto, Fl. Southeastern Guide Dogs has recently completed a major renovation of their puppy kennel. In an effort to save money and be more eco-friendly the school added solar panels to the roof of the kennel to take advantage of the Florida sunshine to heat the water used in the puppy kennel. The school estimates it will save $5,000 a year by switching to the solar water heater. The school also uses green cleaners to provide a healthy environment for the puppies.

Interested in more information on Southeastern Guide Dogs check out www.guidedogs.org while at the website be sure to check out the adorable puppies on the puppy cam

Hope's Lessons

Recently our guide dog puppy in training Hope returned to Southeastern Guide Dogs to finish her training. Hope is the second puppy we raised for this awesome group who provides free guide dogs for veterans and other who have need them. While we taught Hope all the basics she needs to hopefully succeed in her training she taught us a lot about life. Here are some lessons Hope taught our family:

1. Live in the moment. Dogs don't worry about the past or future, they fully enjoy the current moment.

2. Trust your instincts. Pay attention to others body language and energy, it will tell you more about them than the words they use.

3. Be sure to communicate clearly with others. Dogs only understand clearly given commands, too many words can be confusing - the same can be true for people.

4. Don't hold on to negative feelings. If dogs in a pack have a conflict they resolve the dispute and move on.

5. Celebrate each day. According to Cesar Milan, "For a dog, every morning is Christmas morning. Every walk is the best walk, every meal is the best meal, every game is the best game." Live like a dog and celebrate life's simplest moments.

Want to learn more about the amazing experience of being a puppy raiser for Southeastern Guide Dogs or more about their great programs check out www.guidedogs.org

National Animal Shelter Appreciation Week

Today is the start of National Animal Shelter Appreciation Week. How can you show your support for the animal shelters and all the great work that they do?

1. Donate money or much needed supplies to your local shelter. To find your local shelter visit www.pets911.com.

2. Foster animals waiting to be adopted to help ease the overcrowding at the shelters and to help the animals up for adoption be more comfortable in home settings.

3. Donate your time - many shelters need help with dog walking or training. Dogs that are leash trained and have good manners are more likely to be adopted.

4. Donate your skills to help the shelter - they may need clerical help, photographers, help with websites for adoptions, or help with fundraising events.

5. Speak out for animals and support organizations that help protect animal rights.

6. Don't buy animals from pet stores or irresponsible breeders, save an animal's life by adopting your new friend from the shelter.

Food Drive to help animals in the local shelter

In order to give back to the community, my shop is co-sponsoring with Pawsatively Dapper a pet food drive to help feed the dogs and cats at the local shelter. The area shelters are taking in a large number of unwanted pets and stray animals, especially kittens. They need the support of the community to help care for all the animals up for adoption. Our family recently fostered a family of young kittens to help ease the overcrowding at the shelter. By raising the kittens at our house until they were old enough to be adopted, the kittens stayed healthier, learned to interact with people, and eased the burden on the shelter to feed the kittens. It was a great experience for our family and when we returned the kittens to be adopted we adopted an older cat for our family. The employees at the shelter have the very difficult job of dealing with all the unwanted animals in our community, but are always friendly and helpful, they are truly amazing individuals. Please help us support the shelter by dropping off pet food donations at the store located at 528 East New Haven in Downtown Melbourne.

Save a life ...

Looking for a new friend for your family? Please check out the great animals available at your local shelter or rescue agencies. When you get an animal from the shelter you save a life - euthanasia is the single greatest cause of death for cats and dogs in the U.S. Each year, 8 to 12 million animals are euthanized or 1 pet every 4 seconds. Our county alone euthanizes over 10,000 animals a year! Also by adopting a cat or dog from the shelter you will be helping to reduce the demand for the puppy and kitty mills where animals are horribly abused. If you are looking for a particular breed of animal check your local shelter, many purebred cats and dogs are also abandoned or check for local purebred rescue agencies. Online resources - www.petfinder.com and www.pet911.com

Want to help, but not ready to commit to a forever friend? There are many ways you can help. We are currently "fostering" 4 abandoned kittens for our local shelter. Baby animals are at risk in the shelter since they are to young to be vaccinated against respiratory diseases and other diseases they may be exposed to in the shelter. Our job is to help them eat well and gain weight and to give them tons of love - not a bad job huh? When they are older they will return to the shelter for their vaccines, be spayed or neutered and will be available for adoption. Animal shelters always need donations of food especially kitten, puppy, and canned food as well as towels, and kitty litter. They also need volunteers to help with the animals and with office work, contact your local shelter for more information.

Earth Week

This week in honor of Earth Day - April 22nd - my family will be working to make the world a better place. Today my daughter and I cleaned up our road which we had previously adopted through our town's Adopt A Road program. It gave us an opportunity to get out in our community and visit with our neighbors while making our neighborhood a better place. When attempting to find a way to help Mother Earth remember - Think Globally, Act Locally.


* Sorry to disappoint anyone who was looking for this week's pancake recipe. My daughter spent the weekend with her grandparents and didn't come home today until after lunch, but don't worry her Grandma made her pancakes this morning :)

Beach Clean Up

Yesterday my daughter and I participated in a beach clean up with her Girl Scout Troop. Last month we also did a beach clean up with a volunteer group to which we belong. Both times we found an alarming amount of fishing line, balloons, and other debris that can harm sea creatures, especially sea turtles. Our area has one of the largest concentration of sea turtle nesting sites in this country. Our county has been proactive in preventing sea turtle deaths by keeping lights out on the beach which can confuse turtles - instinct drives nesting, egg-laden female turtles and lure newly-hatched baby turtles from their nests on beaches towards the brightest horizon, ideally the waterline, but the bright lights of street lamps, illuminated parking lots, and buildings can disorient them towards artificial light sources. However the large amount of garbage found on the beaches can also contribute to sea turtle deaths. Discarded fishing line can become entangled around animals, balloons and plastic bags floating on the oceans surface can be mistaken for jellyfish a staple of the turtles diet. While we regularly participate in organized beach clean ups, we also do our part whenever we go to the beach. While wandering the beach searching for shells, we take two bags - one for sea treasures we find and the other for trash. At the end of the day the treasures come home and the trash is disposed of properly.

Adopt A Road

In an effort to do our part to clean up the world, my daughter and I "adopted" our road. Our city has a program where you can commit to cleaning a section of road; they provide the trash bags, trash pickers, and bright yellow shirts to help make you more visible. They also mark the road with an "Adopt A Road" sign with your name on it. You must agree to do several clean ups a year and report them to the city. The coordinator of the program told me that when people see you cleaning the road, it makes them think before littering and that you will notice over time that the road will be cleaner over all. I hope that if others see us cleaning our road it will encourage them to do the same. I know it has made an impact on my daughter already- the other day when we were walking the dog she asked for a bag to clean up the trash we saw on our walk. Imagine if everyone did this how much less trash we would see in our neighborhoods and waterways!