House With A Heart Provides Care And Love For Senior Dogs

Senior pooch well taken care of at HouseWithAHeart.com. Photo courtesy of Sher Polvinale, founder.

It's nothing short of amazing how some humans sacrifice so much to help animals in need, while others, at the first sign of extra work needed to care for a sick or aging pet, dump them off at a shelter. Sher Polvinale and her husband had been rescuing companion animals for over two decades before they decided to turn their home in a senior pet sanctuary, aptly called House with a Heart.

This recent article from the Huffington Post, says the sanctuary requires about 55 round-the-clock volunteers to help care for all of the animals this couple has taken in—mostly seniors and/or pets with special needs who suddenly found themselves at shelters when their owners chose to no longer care for them. The animals have a list of maladies including blindness, dementia and incontinence, and some require special carts for outside playtime. Have we mentioned that these people are saints?

Although the reasons why this haven is necessary confound us, it's a beautiful feeling to know that so many people open their hearts and their homes to help animals in need of care and love in their last days.

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@ASPCA: April Is Prevention of Cruelty To Animals Month!

        Let's all get to work this month on behalf of animals in need!

Our good friends @ ASPCA work tirelessly to prevent animal cruelty all year long, but the pretty month of April is especially important for those of us working to help prevent cruelty to our fellow creatures. Why? Because the ASPCA has officially designated April as Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Month, and has prepared a whole list of fun ways you can get involved and help spread the good word.

One easy way to help is to use your blog and social media channels to call attention to this special month for animals—remember to tag @ ASPCA in your posts. And consider calling attention to National Dog Fighting Awareness Day this coming Wednesday, April 8. The ASPCA has a very special "Get Tough" Campaign to highlight their work against dog fighting. Bocci's Beefs is proud to participate in this campaign—we hope you'll check out our special "Get Tough" post this Tuesday, April 7!

As always, a huge thanks for all you do to help animals.

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BlogPaws Wordless Wednesday Blog Hop!

BlogPaws is celebrating "Giving Month" for this shiny new month of December, 2013. As you complete your holiday shopping, why not think creatively about how to give back to those in need. Does someone's pet you know need an extra walk or high quality treats? Does your local shelter need your time or donations? (Bet they do!). Whatever you can think of during this month of giving to help humans or pets in need, we're sure will be appreciated—probably more than you'll ever know.

                             Does someone need help?

Now on to today's BlogPaws Wordless Wednesday Pet Blogger Hop!

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Iam's Home 4 The Holidays: Your Pet Will Be A Singing Sensation!

You already know that we're honored to be one of the blogs partnering with Iams and The Helen Woodward Animal Center  to promote their annual adoption drive-see this year's announcement here:www.boccibeefs.com/2012/10/iams-home-4-holidays-2012-adoption.html.

And they've got lots of ways that you can help orphaned animals in need of a good home (or a good meal) while they're waiting for just the right human to rescue. This year, Iams has teamed up with the Talking Animals Channel, the latest YouTube sensation, to feature your pets singing...yes, we said SINGING! Check out this video from last year-it's hilarious! http://bit.ly/Sl0Kt2

And here's the good news for both you and homeless pets: For every valid submission, Iams will donate one meal to help feed orphaned animals. But you only have until midnight (EST) on Monday November 19th to enter. So why not have some fun, possibly catapult your dog or cat to fame and fortune and donate a meal to a pet in need, all at the same time?!

                              Here's how to enter...

As always, thanks for your support-and have fun!

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Iam's Home 4 The Holiday's 2012 Adoption Campaign!

We're thrilled to help promote an incredible annual adoption campaign: Iam's Home 4 the Holidays! This is Iam's 14th year partnering with the Helen Woodward Animal Center for this three month adoption blitz, which has helped place more than 7 million pets into loving homes and donated an average of 200,000 tons of Iam's dog and cat food to its partner shelters in the last 13 years! Let's all put our paws together in a hearty round of applause for Iam's, the Helen Woodward Animal Center and the founding father of this campaign, Mike Arms, the longtime president of the Helen Woodward Animal Center (and one of Parental Unit's personal heroes)!

But we can't spend too much time resting on our laurels because another holiday season is upon us, and their are still millions of companion animals that are needlessly euthanized each year for only one reason: the lack of a loving home. This year's Home 4 the Holidays campaign runs from October 1, 2012 through January 2, 2013, and believe it or not, has already placed over 100,000 companion animals with their new forever homes! So our job is to help spread the good word about adoption, and the role education plays in finally ending the heartbreaking cycle of not enough homes for an overabundance of companion animals. More on specific ways you can help coming soon!

Meanwhile, here's something new that's been added to the campaign just this year: It's called the Digital Dish Drive and it's an easy way to donate meals to pets in need, right from your laptop or mobile device! Just log to Iam's Facebook page to check out the dogs and cats available for adoption, and during scheduled "feeding times" each day, every "Like" or "Share" will result in a meal donation to a participating shelter. Cool huh?!

We'll look forward to bringing you lots more information about this incredible adoption campaign real soon! As always, thanks for your support.

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Mr. Chewy's Shelter And Rescue Network: A Great Idea To Help Animals In Need!

Hear ye, hear ye, all animal rescue organizations! We're thrilled to be able to give a shout-out to Mr. Chewy's Shelter and Rescue Network that we think is one of the greatest ideas since...well, you name it!

The company's (now officially chewy.com) goal is to "create the largest shelter and rescue network designed to support non-profit organizations that help animals in need." Once you register your non-profit organization, you'll have access to all sorts of programs designed especially by Chewy.com to help your organization help animals through donations, fundraising and visibility opportunities (did we mention that Mr. Chewy is master of the social media universe?)

Chewy.com is so dedicated to helping animal organizations, it even has its own charity coordinator, the lovely and savvy Michelle Miller. And here's what she has to say about Chewy.com's Shelter and Rescue Network: 

"For me, the best part about being a part of Chewy.com is meeting the people and hearing the stories behind our Shelter & Rescue Network partners. They're the ones doing the hard work, giving shelter, providing care, and finding homes for animals in need. When you hear as many stories as I do, you realize that they're doing more than giving a cat or dog a place to sleep... they're helping build a family. I'm glad we have the opportunity to come alongside them and help in any way we can."

Here's how Chewy.com's Shelter and Rescue Network works:

1. You register your non-profit, animal shelter or rescue with Chewy.com (Of course, it's free and super easy).

2. Your organization will immediately have access to all kinds of cool stuff, like banners, icons and links to help promote your new partnership with Chewy.com and start funneling donations your way.

For every new customer referred from your organization who registers and orders a product, Chewy.com will donate $20 to your organization!

3. Your organization will receive it's very own "landing page" on Chewy.com's website to welcome your referrers, and will include your logo, name, location and brief description of your organization-cool!

4. You'll have access to all kinds of nifty printed materials, too, like posters, new adopter welcome kits and pamphlets to help promote your partnership with chewy.com and help drive even more referrals (aka donations), to your organization.

5. Chewy.com will help you increase your organizations visibility and social outreach through its hundreds of thousands of social media fans on a national level, and even "geo-target" your audience through e-mail and direct marketing to promote your upcoming events, like special adoption fairs or fundraisers.

And as an extra bonus, when your organization reaches 100 referrals, Chewy.com will issue a press release to both national and local media to further promote your joint partnership! And you know what all this free, expert marketing of your organization does, right? It helps you to achieve your goal to increase pet adoption! 

On this very important day, Be, Blog and Read The Change For Animals, we salute Chewy.com, the Be the Change for Animals organization and all of the animal shelters, rescues and bloggers who work tirelessly to help animals in need. Thank You!

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A Young Dog Lover Worth Emulating

Remember last week when we promised to introduce you to a young lady who has found her calling? Well, Parental Unit and I were able to interview our friend, Meg just yesterday, and we're thrilled to bring you excerpts from that interview today. Meg is the daughter of one of Parental Unit's friends, who we know to be a long-time animal lover. And we also know that Meg has been shadowing a veterinarian, her chosen career, for over four years. Now get this: Meg just turned twelve, so that means she's been shadowing this vet since she was about seven or eight years old. (Parental Unit says she could probably say "Hello" pretty well at that age, but that's about it).

So here's what Meg has to say about helping animals in need, her chosen career...and a new addition to their household this spring.

Parental Unit: So Meg, I hear you did something pretty special for your birthday celebration this year.

Meg: I  invited a few friends over for a party and decided to ask them to bring a small donation to the American Humane Society instead of bringing presents for me.

Parental Unit: We think that's pretty nice of you, Meg! How much were you able to donate?

Meg: We donated $250 to the Humane Society.

Bocci: Whoa! $250 bucks! What a lotta loot for treats nice sum of money to donate. I'm sure they'll appreciate it.

Parental Unit: What did your friends say about your unusual birthday request?

Meg: My friends thought it was a great idea-they were excited to give!

Parental Unit: I know that you want to be a veterinarian, and you've been shadowing a vet for  quite a few years, Meg. What exactly do you do when you visit the clinic?

Meg: I go with the veterinarian and her staff when she sees each patient, help out when I'm asked, and usually just listen and learn a lot from the experience. I also get to observe during surgeries, "I don't get freaked out by blood and all that other stuff."

Bocci: Blood? I'm starting to feel woozy...clunk!

Parental Unit: Just ignore Bocci, he'll be fine. Do you plan to help out any other animal organizations in the future?

Meg: I have a good friend who's interested in helping animals, too, and right now we're doing some research on puppy mills. We'll probably write letters [to raise awareness] when we get more information. And we're looking into more ways to raise money-we're  probably going to expand into [more formal] fundraisers soon.

Bocci: O.K. I'm feeling better now-just had some water and a biscuit to normalize my blood sugar. Great about that fundraising thing, Meg. Just let me know when you get more loot money to donate. I've got just the dog treats to buy animal organization that would be grateful for your donation.
Speaking of dogs, I hear you've got plans for a new addition to your household!

Meg: Yes, Bocci, this spring we're looking forward to bringing home a Wired Hair Pointing Griffon puppy!

Parental Unit: That's exciting, we'll look forward to visiting and taking lots of pictures!

Bocci: Oh boy, I can hardly wait to meet the little rascal! I'll be happy to pass on all the ways I've learned to avoid getting caught doing something bad to strictly obey all of Parental Unit's commands.

Meg: Sure thing, Bocci!

P.S. Parental Unit and I can't help but wonder how many animals in need or other causes could benefit if more young folks would ask for a "donation to a charity or cause instead of presents" for just one birthday... We love this idea!

A hearty "thank-you" to Meg and her family for allowing us to publish this inspiring interview. We'll leave you with a picture of Meg and her late dog, Kelley, whom they lost to old age last year.

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How The WSPCA Is Helping Haiti's Dogs One Year Later

I'm sure you all remember that it was just over a year ago that the devasting earthquake hit Haiti, and millions of lives, both human and animal were forever changed.
We're glad to know that the World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPCA) has been actively helping to rescue, rehabilitate, and re-home the animals that were impacted. Here's a recent video that this fabulous organization put together to draw attention to the good work they've been doing, and why they still need your support.

In fact, the ASPCA has awarded a new grant of $50,000 to the Animal Relief Coalition for Haiti (ARCH), bringing the total funding provided by the ASPCA to support ARCH's efforts to $ 110,000. ARCH is headed by the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) and the WSPCA.




Read more about the ASPCA's fine work here:www.aspca.org

Speaking of helping animals, or at least helping to ensure their saftey, Parental Unit wrote a piece on how to prepare you and your pooch for a dog park visit. It was published yesterday on the BlogPaws website and another installment to round out these tips will be published in another week or so. Check it out here: www.blogpaws.com/2011/01/the-dog-park-craze-the-good-the-bad-and-the-sometimes-ugly.html

We hope you enjoy! In the meantime, I'm still waiting for my first walk today, let alone a romp in a dog park...Hello Parental Unit?

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