News, Advice and Resources for Thoughtful Pet People
Amazon now has a dedicated site for pet products—Wag.com. I wonder if this will have an effect on the specialty pet sites (like PetExpertise.com) I like for finding progressive training tools and books. I hope it means more people will have accesses to quality foods, tools, and information!
(Note: I’m not connected in any way to either site, other than having ordered products from PetExpertise and Amazon.)
Jan Van Dusen, who has fostered over 70 cats, went up against the IRS and won. Good news for animal rescue groups all over the U.S. Van Dusen had deducted expenses she had incurred while fostering cats for an IRS- approved charity. The ruling will make it easier for volunteers to help animal rescue groups. Yea!
Check out the article to learn more and keep your receipts for next year’s taxes, if you’re fostering or providing some other service.
Spread the word about Paws for Japan happening today. Be the Change for Pets is working to raise funds for World Vets, who is on the ground in Japan and is already assisting Japanese animal welfare groups. You can make a donation here.
And Pawcurious has organized a bunch of online business who are donating proceeds from today to World Vets. Check out the post to see the businesses participating, and don’t miss the Blog Hop below it where there are more business listed among the blogs promoting the event. For example, Yarntini is having a raffle of yarn & fabric and the professional pet photographer, Poochie Freak Photography, is having a greeting card auction.
Animals in Emergencies is an excellent video produced by the U.S. Army and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. There’s a wealth of easily accessible information covered—check it out!
http://youtu.be/dgSE-HwUMtM
Note: Hurricane Irene has me thinking about disaster preparedness so I’m reposting this. It a good reminder that we should all be prepared for an emergency, so I challenge you to start your emergency preparedness kit this weekend for your whole family—pets included! Our thoughts are with those on the East Coast and we’re hoping for the best.
The anniversaries of 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina remind me how important it is that we plan to care for our whole family for an extended period of time in the event of a natural or man-made disaster. Turns out September is National Preparedness Month, so this is a great time to start getting prepared. This post has been a long time coming and was researched consulting the AVMA, FEMA, ASPCA, HSUS, CDC, Petfinder, & more. I hope you find it useful! (I ask that if you re-post it, that you give credit to & link to PetProject.)
It’s not that I’m all gloom and doom. It’s just that in the event of a disaster, I don’t want to be forced to rely on other agencies, if I can help it, and I know my pets will be safest under our care, so I’m working to be as prepared as possible. I live in earthquake country and we have a kit to take care of everyone in our family—human, feline, and canine. Getting prepared has been an ongoing process so I can spread out the cost and spread out the time & energy spent on the project.
Make sure your whole family is taken care of and do not leave your pets to fend for themselves. Keep them with you. If you evacuate and think you’ll only be away from your home a short time, take your animals with you! You don’t know when or if you’ll be able to return to your home.
I’ve divided the list into categories and put a ♥ by the items to start with first. Don’t get overwhelmed. Begin with the ♥ items and once you have those, set a goal—maybe 1-2 items every other week? And begin by gathering at least 3 days worth of supplies and work up to 1-2 weeks. Defray the costs by checking thrift stores and looking for sales—buy an extra bag of cat litter when it’s on sale, etc. Some of the items listed will double for a human preparedness kit.