Vet Wisdom® Café

I Love My Cat And Dog

Well, I don't have a dog, but I'd love one if I did!

But... if you have a dog or a cat, there is a sale you need to know about! For our loyal Twitter followers and Facebook fans, we are offering a sweet deal this month! I'll tell you what the sale is, but to get the coupon code, you'll have to join us on Twitter or Facebook! We hope you will!

We are offering a huge discount on I Love My Dog and I Love My Cat ClayPaws® kits! They are normally $25.00 each. During April, you can order them for only $17.00 each! That is a full $8.00 off and more than 30% off! If you've thought about getting a kit to make a paw print of your pet, now is the time! Or buy them as gifts for fellow pet lovers!

So, why not come join us on Facebook and/or Twitter? We have a lot of fun conversations, and we give you great deals too! Find the coupon code in our feed or on our wall after you follow us! 

--Tammy

Great Food Giveaway!

We are pleased to be donors to a great contest that is going on now!

LIFE+DOG and FIDO Friendly are teaming up for a contest called The Great Food Giveaway. Through April 15, they will be giving away more than 3,000 pounds of food to animals in need AND over $5,000 in prizes too! We have donated a prize set to their amazing list of prizes and couldn't be more pleased to participate in this great giveaway!

Here's how you can enter:

Sign up at their special contest website here:  http://wildfireapp.com/website/6/contests/89089 You will need to provide your normal statistics (name, email address, DOB, etc.) But then, you get to choose your favorite animal welfare group. The group with the most nominations will receive donated pet food (provided by PetSmart).

Or if you are on Twitter, you can tweet about the contest and receive entries that way too! Tweet this phrase, “@lifeanddog, I nominate ______ to win 800# of food!” (Fill in the blank with your animal welfare group name). Each week, winners will be randomly drawn from these tweets to receive 200 pounds of pet food. And then at the end, the group with the most nominations will receive 800 pounds of pet food too!

To read all about the rules, the prizes, and the guidelines be sure to visit the official contest site at LIFE+DOG. You could win a bunch of cool things, while helping out needy pets! (Our donation is valued at $100 and includes an I Love My Cat and an I Love My Dog ClayPaws® Kit, a handcrafted silver pin, and a pet record keeper and organizer.)

We hope you join in and win!

--Tammy

Pet Adoption

Today is Petfinder's 15th birthday, and we are helping them Adopt the Internet today to celebrate!

I love being able to help with this cause. Petfinder is a fantastic organization that helps so many homeless pets find forever homes.

My husband and I have talked about what we'll do in the future with pets. None of our current kitties came from shelters, however, we did rescue Ben (and his late sister, Miss Girl) from an abusive situation. My Luna kitty (now in her new home) was from a cat rescue in Colorado. Her mother was only about 10 months old herself, and her sibling (named Maui) was adopted by another person that I worked with. Her mother also got adopted!

In the future, when we add a kitty member to our family, we will definitely be adopting from either a shelter or a rescue. Not only does it feel good to be able to help an animal out, there are just so many kitties (or pups!) who need homes. Knowing what I know about pets, I would never feel good about getting a pet any other way actually.

Do you have a rescue pet? Or would you do this in the future? Share your adoption stories! And consider helping Petfinder today. Check out the ways you can help at their Adopt the Internet site! (Pictured is Taz. She needs a home! Read more about her at Petfinder.)

--Tammy

Adopt the Internet Day

We're helping Petfinder adopt the Internet! They are celebrating a big milestone birthday by bringing attention to their mission of finding homes for pets!

Courtesy of Petfinder here's how you might be able to help:

What It's All About
In honor of our 15th birthday, Petfinder is asking people everywhere to pledge to spread the word online about adoptable pets on March 15, 2011.

What You Can Do

• Add a badge (below) to your Web site to show your support. (Our badge is in the right hand column!)
• Take our pledge that you will tell one person about pet adoption on March 15. By pledging, you'll enter for a chance to win one of 10 Pet Hair Eraser^® Vacuums from BISSELL.
• Caption a Petfinder adoptable-pet photo on ICanHasCheezburger! The photos with the best captions will be featured on the ICanHasCheezburger.com homepage on March 15.
• On March 15, donate your Facebook status and photo to an adoptable Petfinder pet. Simply replace your photo with one from the Adopt-the-Internet All-Stars gallery and post one of these messages:
  • More than 320,000 pets are waiting for homes on Petfinder.com. Help Petfinder Adopt the Internet today and find forever homes for as many as possible!
  • I adopted my pet from Petfinder and now I want to help get this pet adopted! If you want to help pets in need of forever homes, please repost this!
• On March 15, share an adoptable Petfinder pet on Twitter with the hashtag #adopttheinternet.
• Add a link to your blog, Facebook or Twitter post to this page! (Come back on March 15 to find out how.)

How will you help? Come back next week on the 15th for our post about adoptable pets and help us adopt the internet! (Pictured is Tonka - read all about her adoption details here.)

--Tammy

Toto alerts

The other night, our home phone rang and it was an automated message telling us about a neighbor's dog that was missing.  The message told us the neighbor's name, contact information and gave a description of the dog.

It's called a Toto Alert and I loved it!  They're like the Amber Alerts for missing children, only for missing pets.  This is an idea whose time has come if I've ever seen one!

A quick visit to their website allowed me to see how to place an alert and how to track the status of the missing animals who've been reported.  I couldn't find an update about my neighbor's dog, but there were many, many reports of pets being reunited with their owners.

The service is not cheap, but when you consider the time (and time lag) that goes into making flyers, posting flyers, going door-to-door to talk with neighbors, etc., the cost is probably worth it. Especially when they'll also post your alert on Facebook, Twitter, and other social media networking sites.

You can learn more about this brilliant idea at www.findtoto.com

Have you ever received or posted a Toto Alert?  If so, tell me how it worked!

--Laurel

Helping Joey

Back in September when we went to Blogpaws in Denver, we met these guys who have an interesting take on the whole pet overpopulation issue.

There they were, wandering around the convention in these crazy orange shirts that said, "Help Joey" on them... Who are these guys? And who's Joey? And why does he need help? Questions all of us were asking.

Turns out they have a very interesting idea. I've been searching for a "gentle" way to bring their idea to you! They are on a mission. To stop animals from having sex. Or in their words, "stop chasing tail". It's a funny angle on a serious problem.

Even the ASPCA has caught wind of Help Joey. They are partnering with Help Joey to help bring their campaign the attention it deserves! Joey said on the ASPCA blog, "I had just stopped two lust-driven labs from doing the sex, when I got the call from the ASPCA—I was so psyched and frankly, surprised, maybe I’m not as crazy as I thought. Now with the ASPCA’s help, I’ll have the support I need to get a whole army of folks out there helping me stop the humping. With them in our corner, we'll be able to help so many cats and dogs.”

Go check out the Help Joey site. In their newest video (embedded below, may not be suitable for younger viewers!), Joey tries to learn to speak "cat".  Their mission is a good one! Don't be surprised to see these orange T-shirts popping up in a town near you soon!

 

--Tammy

Pawcurious Blogathon 2010

One of our favorite bloggers, Dr. V at the Pawcurious blog, is doing something fun and just a little bit crazy tomorrow. We want you to know about it so you can go join in the fun!!

She is hosting a 2nd annual blogathon! She will be posting a new blog each hour for 24 hours! There will be prizes (one from us!), guest blogs (maybe even a couple from us at the Café!) and it's all for a good cause!

This year, Dr. V has chosen to donate any money raised during the blogathon to Bradyn Ferguson. Bradyn is four years old, and he has uncontrolled epilepsy. He has been accepted to receive a service dog from 4 Paws for Ability. The training costs for this dog are expensive and 4 Paws for Ability asks recipients of these service dogs to do fundraising to help offset the cost. The family needs to raise $13,000 before they can take ownership of their service dog for Bradyn.

We hope you can take a few minutes and go over and visit Dr. V's blog. www.pawcurious.com Sign up for some of the give-aways (no obligation to donate to join in for the prizes) and if you can, donate a bit to help Bradyn! We're really happy to be part of the fun and the great cause!

--Tammy

Related products you might like:

ClayPaws® Holiday Gift Kits

Facebook rescue

So, you've all heard about Facebook by now! It's a huge, and growing, social network. And it's helping people in unique ways!

A family in California was reunited with a dog that was left when they relocated from Florida four years ago via Facebook! (They left the dog with a relative initially, and then the dog was rehomed supposedly to a good home since the family in CA couldn't take the dog back.)

Well, last week, Diane Stess-Kirschner found Topaz, a Lhasa-Apso outside her apartment. She decided to do a lot of detective work and figure out who the little dog belonged to. Topaz was micro-chipped and unfortunately, her chip information hadn't been updated. The names of the Greenfelder's (Topaz's original owners) were all that she had to go on. Diane decided to go to Facebook and see what she could find. She sent messages to the two names that matched her search. Within minutes, she heard from Glen Greenfelder.

Diane got Topaz groomed, got a health certificate for her, and she has (by now) arrived home to CA with her original family.

What an awesome story for this little dog and her family! Have you heard of other stories of rescues of pets on Facebook? Would you think to search Facebook if you were doing detective work (of any kind)? (Read the full story at the Sacramento Bee.)

--Tammy

About BlogPaws

The Blogpaws West conference was this past weekend! It was in Denver, CO, and I flew in to participate in all the fun and learning.

There are so many fun things about the conference to share with you, but, I'm still traveling (staying with friends and family over the next few days). So, I'll just share a bit as a teaser now, and have a longer post once I return to my "normal" life! :)

What an amazing group of people! There are so many great pet bloggers out there! I had no idea. I met many of them (you?) in person, and found out about a load of blogs that I have not read yet, but will be adding to my list!

The organizers of this event deserve big kudos. It ran seamlessly and the presentations, breakout sessions, and networking time was all great! I attended a lot of sessions and learned so much about blogging, the internet, shelters, and so much more! We even sang happy birthday as a group to a dog named Cosmo, who was in attendance!

Were you in Denver? Drop me a comment if we saw you there! I'll post more (and pictures) next week! For now, though, just know we had a GREAT time! If you have a chance to attend a Blogpaws conference, do it. It's loads of fun!

--Tammy

Meet you at Blogpaws?

I'm taking a tip from Dr. V over at Pawcurious. She posted yesterday about the Blogpaws conference that is happening in Denver, CO NEXT Friday and Saturday. She is going to be there. Well, I am going to be there too!!

World by the Tail is headquartered in Fort Collins, CO, just a short drive away from Denver, where the conference is taking place. (I live in Oregon, so I'll be flying in to join the fun! Laurel will be driving down to be there too!) I am very excited about the classes that are being offered, and for the chance to meet many pet bloggers who will also be there!

Are you going to be at Blogpaws in Denver? Let us know! We'd love to meet you all in person!

--Tammy

(P.S. - we are taking the day off on Monday for the Labor Day holiday! Hope you have a great day off as well. We'll see you back here on Tuesday.)

Adopting a pet

So, as a follow-up to yesterday's post about Adopt-a-pet.com, I am going to share some information directly from them about adopting a pet. I know that if/when Mike and I adopt another cat, it will be a shelter or a rescue cat! I hope you'll use this information the next time you are considering adding another pet to your home! Thanks Adopt-a-pet.com for all of the information, and the great work  you do!

Common Questions about Pet Adoption

Q: Although there are millions of pets in shelters needing homes each year, many pet-owners-to-be don’t think about pet adoption when they’re looking for their new four-legged friend. Why do you think this is, and what can be done to turn that around?

A: Many people who want to get a pet just are not aware of how many great pets are available at shelters. They might also have the misconception that pets in shelters might be there because there was a problem with the animal. In fact, most pets end up in shelters not because of any problem with pet behavior, but because an owner died, moved, or simply didn't have the time or money to care for the animal.  In some cases animals are lost and never found by their owners.  These animals are healthy and very eager to please.  Rescued pets are wonderful- just ask anyone who has one.

Some people are seeking purebred animals or puppies and think these animals are not available in shelters. In fact, nearly a quarter of all animals in shelters are purebred. Often someone buys an expensive purebred animal and then attempts to breed that animal to recoup their money. Often these animals are not placed in homes, and end up in the shelter. Puppies and kittens often up in shelters as well, but it is important to note that puppies require a lot of work and training and can be quite destructive (peeing on the carpet or chewing shoes). Puppies are great, but often people are much happier getting a dog who is older, and whose size and temperament is a known quantity.

Through Adopt-a-Pet.com and without even leaving their home, people can search all their local shelters and see pictures and descriptions of the pets available for adoption.  This way, they can find the exact pet they want, call the animal shelter or rescue group, and get information on how to adopt that specific animal.

Q: What are the 5 most important things a potential adopter should consider when choosing their new pet?

A: We actually have a blog post on this highlighting the top 10 things we believe are important when adopting. Here are five, the rest can be located by visiting this page http://www.adoptapet.com/public/guides/permanentpets.html.

1. You need to make a real commitment to care for your pet for its entire life.
2. Verify in advance that you’re allowed to keep a pet where you live.
3. Never adopt a pet on a whim or because you feel it’s love-at-first-sight
4. Provide sufficient exercise and stimulation during the first few weeks, this will help the pet adjust.
5. Make any necessary modifications to your yard and fence to provide for your pet’s safety.

Q:  What are 5 positive aspects of pet adoption, and why it’s a good option?

A: 
1. When you adopt an adult animal, you can see his/her size and temperament.  This helps ensure that the pet is right for you and your family.
2. It feels great to know you have saved an animal’s life and everyone you meet will give you kudos for that for years to come.
3. Adopted pets are very loyal and know they have been given a new home.
4.  Adopting a pet can be an important lesson to teach your children-- both about the value of life, and also about civic responsibility and even recycling- in this case recycling a living and loving animal into a new home.
5.  Choosing a mixed breed animal can help avoid many of the genetic health problems that have developed in purebred animals due overbreeding and inbreeding.

Q: If someone reading this isn’t in a position to adopt a pet right at this time, but still wants to help homeless pets, what are 5 things they can do to get involved?

A:
1. People can do Social PETworking and Twitter  Critter!  They can run a search on Adopt-a-Pet.com, find a pet they want to help get exposure for, and use the share tools on our site to post the pet link on their Facebook, Twitter, MySpace or other social network page. Or, they can email the link of a pet in need from our site to their friends.
2. They can place a link/graphic or even a search widget for Adopt-a-Pet.com on their personal website to encourage they users to see pets in need at local shelters. 
3. People can add their info to our volunteer database so shelters who need volunteers can find them.
4. People can search Adopt-a-Pet.com to find a local shelter, and make a cash donation to that shelter to help them with the costs of housing, feeding and medical care of shelter animals.
5. People can encourage other pet owners to spay or neuter their pet to help prevent unwanted births.

I hope you found all of this information helpful! Pass it along if you know someone who is considering adopting a pet!

--Tammy

Adopt-a-pet.com

I recently got an email from Jeff at Adopt-a-pet.com. He wanted to share information about their site and organization with me, and I'd like to share it with you! I'm going to share the great info in two posts with you! This first one is just to introduce the site and what they do. Tomorrow's post will be about actually adopting a pet. I hope you find all of this information helpful! I learned a lot, and will be keeping an eye on this organization. (I added a link to the site in our "Pet Links" on the sidebar.)

What is Adopt-a-pet.com?

Adopt-a-Pet.com is the world's largest non-profit pet adoption website.  We are like an ad agency for shelters and shelter pets. Sadly there are 4 million healthy adoptable companion animals killed in shelters each year due to overcrowding. We do our best to relieve that problem and put pets from shelters in the homes of pet seekers all over the country.

Our website makes it easy for anyone with an internet connection to find descriptions and pictures of adoptable animals by location, breed, gender, age, size, and color. Over 9,000 shelters posts pets on our website displaying over 130,000 pets available for adoption at any given time. We also help volunteers connect with shelters, and currently host over 14,000 people listed in our volunteer database for shelters. 

What makes Adopt-a-pet.com unique?

- On our website, people can use something we call “Search Saver.” This feature will notify users by e-mail when a particular pet of their specifications in available for adoption. For example, I can tell “Search Saver” where I live, and what type of breed I am looking for. When that animal is available, I am notified the next time a pet matching my search is added on Adopt-a-Pet.com.

- As of this summer we have now made it easy for our visitors to find pets and then recommend them to friends and family via Facebook, Twitter and other social applications. We are calling the idea “Social Petworking.” Here is how it works; once you have searched and found a pet in need, on the pet details page simply hover over the button labeled “SHARE,” there you can send the pet details page to any of your friends.  For more information visit this page www.adoptapet.com/socialpetworking/signup.
 
- In addition to dogs and cats, we now feature all kinds of pets for adoption, including rabbits, farm animals, ferrets, hamsters and other small animals, horses, reptiles, amphibians, birds, and even fish.  This was a major initiative that took many months to research and program into the site, and it is being well-received within the shelter community.

- By teaming up with the renowned street-artist Shepard Fairey, who designed the iconic Obama "Hope" image, we have available a number of stylish ways to promote pet adoption. Shepard was able to translate his work with Obama to an image that can be used to represent pet adoption support.  Merchandise can be found at www.muttslikeme.com

Pet adoption and
rescue powered by

- We have begun blogging and created a Twitter Page along with a Facebook Page. Our blog is located at http://blog.adoptapet.com/, there you can join our Facebook Group, or follow us on Twitter. A few posts you might be interested in:

10 Ways to Help Homeless Pets, Even if You Can't Adopt
What to Ask Your Veterinarian
Good News in Pet Adoption
10 Things to Consider Before Adopting

Most of my cats have found me, but I did adopt my Luna from a rescue. I didn't do any research before-hand, but I probably should have! What is your experience with adopting pets? Look for more information about pet adoption tomorrow! Thanks Adopt-a-pet.com for all of the great info!

--Tammy

Cat tweets

Yes, I know... cats don't tweet. But now, thanks to Sony, they can submit posts to Twitter!

Yep, I posted a while back about dog tweets, so you know someone had to get cats into the action! (Hmmm... and I used the same joke too... I need a new staff writer for my comedy schtick!) The device the company is developing will attach to a collar of a cat, and will have (so far) 11 phrases available that your cat can tweet to his or her very own Twitter feed.

The data is transferred via a Bluetooth and picks up on the activities of your cat. For instance, if the device senses a cat eating, a tweet about food will be sent. The device isn't up for sale yet, but looks like it will be out before long!

What do you think of pets "tweeting" and joining the social media world? Personally, I think my cats wouldn't be interested, but who knows? I've never asked them if they want to blog or tweet! Maybe Henry could find his voice! :) I imagine there are a lot of people who will try this out for their pets, but I don't think I'll be one of them. I have to work hard to keep track of Twitter, Facebook, and blogs as it is, without having to help my cats network too!

--Tammy

You'll Like This New Blog

My friend Jean is a terrific writer, mosaic artist, entrepreneur, and many other things...and lucky for all of us, she just started writing a blog about what she's learning at mid-life from her two elderly horses.  It turns out, they're dealing with many of the same things and Jean's insights are funny and wise.

Here' an excerpt (with her permission)

"When I first got Pepper, I was new to horses. I’d ridden a bit, though mostly at stables. Riding was something I did for entertainment, like going to an amusement park.

My husband brought Bud into our relationship, and I caught horse fever. I know this usually happens to pre-pubescent girls, and I was far from that stage of life. Really far! But, I wanted a horse of my own.

Our farrier told us about Miss Pepper. We visited her, took a test ride and decided she was the horse for me. She was ten-years old, gentle, and used to having kids and dogs around her.

“Bomb proof,” they said.

In other words, she was just the right amount of horse for a beginner like me.

“Might be a good idea to have her spend a week or so with a trainer before you take her home, just to make sure she knows to pay attention.” This was our farrier again.

So we took his advice and trailered Pepper to the trainer for a week of horse school.

The trainer was a grizzled old cowboy who walked like he’d taken one too many spills. He was a no nonsense kind of guy – a man of few words. I was pretty sure he thought I was a lightweight, which of course, I was.

He intimidated me. I didn’t have a good feeling about him from the beginning, but I didn’t listen to my gut. After all, I was new to this business of horses. Right? And he’d been recommended. He was the expert. I was a novice.

I left my sweet, soulful mare in the hands of this man. I trusted him."

Was he really trustworthy or maybe not so much....?  Find out by reading her blog Two Old Horses and Me at http://www.jeanmcbride.wordpress.com

--Laurel

New web resource for pet parents

Gosh, this is the website I wish I could have come up with...I love WebMD and use it all the time to look up weird symptoms and situations I find myself or a family member in... and now there is Pets.webmd.com. I think the information here is truly helpful and, of course, credible.

When you go to the pets section, scan the left-hand column until you find the topic called 'end-of-life care'.  In this section, you'll find a very good overview of the signs that will alert you to the fact that a pet may have very little time left, the resources and issues that you will need to attend to, and the impact your pet's death may have on you, your children, surviving pets, etc.

There are also short, well-done videos about grieving for a pet, as well as many other pet health topics.  Like many of the bigger, more commercial websites, there are advertisements, but I didn't find them totally annoying!

If you're a pet parent, I'd suggest you put pets.webmd.com on your favorites list and use the info there as a basis for discussion when you visit your veterinarian.

--Laurel

Video of the week

For a while now, we've been posting a new, fun "video of the week" at our websites. You can catch a new video every Monday morning over at either the veterinary site, www.veterinarywisdom.com/businessteams.htm or at the pet parent site at www.veterinarywisdomforpetparents.com.

We have also archived the videos, so you can catch up on ones you may have missed. It's a good place to take a little "stress" break and watch some fun animals in action! www.veterinarywisdom.com/videoarchives.com or www.veterinarywisdomforpetparents.com/videoarchive.com.

If you have a fun video you think we should post, email me! webmaster@wbtt.com and I'll see if we can use it!

--Tammy

Puppy Tweets

No, I haven't gone crazy! I know it's birds that are supposed to tweet.

But, Mattel has invented a toy that will get your dog hooked up to Twitter and allow them to have their own page.

The collar attachment is called Puppy Tweets. It randomly generates one of about 500 canned tweets when it detects barking or movement. It will then automatically post an update to your dog's Twitter page. Mattel is quick to point out that this is just a toy, however. It isn't actually "translating" your dog's barks into words. It is random!

Puppy Tweets is supposed to hit pet stores and toy stores in the fall of this year, and will retail for $29.99. (Image from Mattel.)

What do you think about Mattel's idea? Will you buy one for your dog and get him or her hooked up on social media?! I honestly can't imagine doing this. I have a hard enough time keeping myself organized on social media pages like Twitter and Facebook. I can only imagine if I got my cats going on something like this too!

--Tammy

A new website!

Yesterday was a momentous day at World by the Tail, Inc. headquarters! We have been working on, for quite some time, a second website. Yesterday, that website "went live"!!

If you visit our homepage - www.veterinarywisdom.com, you will see your two choices. On the left - the choice to go to the site for animal care business teams (veterinarians, technicians, crematories, and anyone else who works in the animal care field.) On the right - the choice to go to the new site specifically for Pet Parents!

At the new pet parent site, you'll find our high quality products (like ClayPaws® Kits, decorating accessories, books, and much more!) You'll also find our support center for pet parents. There you will find links to recommended resources, reading, our support service (grief counseling options by telephone appointment), and even ClayPaws® print repair services!

There are also articles for you pet parents - on topics such as children and grief, decision-making, and how to build the bond with your pets.

We will be adding articles over the months to come. We hope you'll use and enjoy this new resource!! Please let us know if you have any input, comments, or suggestions for the new pet parent site! (Email me at webmaster@wbtt.com or leave a comment here on the blog.)

Enjoy looking around!

--Tammy

Dolittler wants a PetCam. Wanna Help?

If you read the popular veterinary blog called Dolittler written by Miami veterinarian Patty Khuly, you know that her 11-year-old French bulldog Sophie Sue has cancer.  Dr. Khuly thinks it would be a good idea to have one of Panasonic's PetCams in her clinic so all of us can see Sophie Sue as she "assists" in the hospital.  The goal is to show that dogs can have good quality of life and live well even after cancer diagnosis and treatment.

If you want to help Dr. Khuly achieve this goal (she's hoping for a free PetCam from Panasonic), write to them and say "I want to see Sophie Sue on Doolittler!"  The email address is: webmaster@seemypetcam.com

Pets can have many months and even years of life following a cancer diagnosis (depending, of course, on the diagnosis).  This is one way to prove it's true.

--Laurel

Reunited via Facebook

Facebook is an interesting phenomenon. I have an account - and I've been in touch with more past school friends than I ever was before! It has been fun to reconnect with close friends I'd lost touch with, and to talk to people I went to school with, but wasn't really friends with then.

This story amazed me though! Bob the cat had been missing from the home of Shane and Nicole Meide for TWO years! They searched for him for a long time, with no luck. They never found him and in the two years he was missing, they moved away from the home he disappeared from.

Bob was found by someone who turned him into a humane society nearby. Bob had a microchip implanted, but because his family had moved, the information wasn't valid. The humane society workers did a lot of searching directories, etc. but couldn't find the family.

Then - Amber Walin of the humane society, decided to check for Bob's family on Facebook! She found them with their page they had set up only a few days before! She sent them an email about Bob! They were reunited with Bob and SO happy!

The Meides said that Amber Walin went above and beyond for them in trying to locate them and reunite them with Bob. Amazing! Such a happy ending!

Do you have your pets micro-chipped? If you do, don't forget, if you move - you have to update your contact info! Facebook worked for this family - hopefully, other lost pets will find their way to Facebook too! (Photo and full story from cbsnews.com)

--Tammy

Do you Tweet?

Twitter. A rather weird little website that is gaining popularity. Totally addicting! Twitter states that "Twitter is a service for friends, family, and co-workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?"

On Twitter you are given 140 characters to answer the question "What are you doing?" You can follow people, and people can follow you. It's a peek into other's worlds. I have my personal twitter page that I've been tweeting on for a few months now. You can tweet once a day, or as many times a day as you have time for! (it CAN be a total time sink!)

Today, I started a World by the Tail Twitter page! I'm going to tweet about what we do here in the office. I'll tell about specials, suggestions, tips, etc. (Much like I do here on the blog, but in the informal Twitter style, and in short bursts, hopefully more than once a day!) I'd love to hear from you if you Twitter too! Come follow me, and I'll follow you! Tweet at me! :)