The gang and I are very fortunate to have nature right in our backyard, even here in the city. The University of Central Florida is nearby and the forested lands of the Arboretum are available for walking dogs. The wildlife is varied and always present – today we saw a gopher tortoise and a deer! We’ve seen snakes, opossums, raccoons, river otters, and sandhill cranes too! Every day we spend at least an hour wandering through these woods. Would you like to join us?
This past Saturday the StinkDogs and I headed down to Lake Eola in downtown Orlando to celebrate at the Central Florida Earth Day festival. This festival was hosted by the Vegetarians of Central Florida, Orlando Sentinel, and Aeon Blu. Orlando is such a dog friendly town and this festival was no exception. The weather was beautiful and hundreds of people, children, and dogs milled about the booths scattered throughout the park. Vendors included everything from eco-friendly home products to personal products to artists. A mind-body section contained massage therapy, yoga, and pilates – all free! There were several stages where musicians entertained the crowds, singing songs of evolution and change. SlobberDog particularly enjoyed the Food Court, where many vendors sold the most amazing teas and vegetarian fare. It was delicious!
We met up with one of Grady’s friends, Albert, whose Daddy works with me. Albert was a little jealous that Grady was getting all the attention.
Grady was ashamed to get his photo taken while he was having a pawdicure
In addition to the great selection of vendors, there was a large animal rescue section that housed a number of local rescues with many dogs available for adoption. I hope many of them found homes on Saturday. Finally, there was a stage where presentations were offered throughout the day. Topics included things like composting, preparing herb water, and vegetable gardening. Although I didn’t see any of the presentations, they looked very interesting.
The festival was a lot of fun! Lake Eola is a gorgeous park whose backdrop is the Orlando skyline. Swans mill about the bank and swim in the water. A walking trail loops the entire lake. It was the ideal location for this festival and we had a great time! As always SlobberDog was a hit with children and adults alike. Even HazelNut came out of her shell and made some friends. All in all, it was a lovely day with my two best friends in a beautiful city, celebrating our world.
“Treat the Earth well. It was not given to you by your parents, it was loaned to you by your children.”
~ Kenyan proverb
We hope you have a wonderful day today! Plant a tree, hug your dog, and recycle something for us!
As I’m sure you’ve noticed, Grady, Hazel, and I have taken an extended leave of absence. Between managing FromTheHorsesBack and trying to recruit readers and subscribers to The SlobberDog and the Pets Blogroll, I became a bit overwhelmed when life started to slap me around. Creativity zapped, I checked out. But we’re recharged and refreshed, and ready to tell you all about life with SlobberDog (and HazelNut too!) If you’ve hung in there during our absence, thanks for sticking around.
So, what have we been up to for the duration of our hiatus? Wow, what HAVEN’T we been up to?!?! To start with, we relocated back in August. Now Hazel (redubbed HazelNut for reasons which shall be described at some later point) resides with our little family full-time. It often feels like a hurricane has swooped in and upended us, but we all adore her and she’s doing a great job of keeping G-Dog young. Now we live in a huge house with a teeny-tiny backyard (but it’s still a backyard) that borders on an arboretum forest preserve. We go for daily walks through the woods and the dogs are enjoying “hunting” the squirrels, birds, and gopher tortoises that we often see. Hazel particularly enjoys stealth bombing out of the woods at some unexpected place to scare the crap out of Grady and I.
Grady has (*touch wood*) thus far managed to stay staph and yeast free since last August, so I’m hoping that whatever he was so allergic to is not present at our current location. Fingers crossed! Although he celebrated his 8th birthday last month, he’s still a wild man – just in smaller doses. Hazel graduated with her A.A. in Dogology from the University of Doglando in January. She is slowly becoming a well-adjusted member of society and Hurricane Hazel is now down to a Category 2.
Bella Cat is happy to be in a house filled with windows (although she frequently requests that I install a screened porch for her to hang outside in) and can often be found in the kitchen watching birds out the window. Milo somehow survived his near brush with death last summer (severe urinary blockage that resulted in a 2 week stay at the emergency hospital) and has resumed his role as my Number One Love Cat. He can often be found on my lap, in my bed, or on the kitchen counter being naughty!
We’re glad to be back and can’t wait to continue on with Tales from SlobberDog (and friends)!
I’ve blogged recently about the Blog Paws 2010 convention I attended in Columbus this month. What I haven’t yet mentioned is the powerful, exciting, grassroots movement that was spawned there and is still going strong today. Be the Change Challenge was the brainchild of several amazing women who presented their case at the conference. Dorina Wagner (Your Daily Cute), Lynn Haigh (pawpawties), and Dr. V. (Pawcurious) – and moderated by Jane Harrell of Petfinder – combined their genius minds and came up with a challenge to the convention attendees. The idea was simple: a charity was chosen at random (the winner was Pets Without Parents) and the challenge was put out to all attendees to spread the word and raise money and awareness for unwanted animals.
The weeks since the conference have been filled with a number of events, but the fun is not over. Donations can still be made by clicking the button below. The cause has already exceeded the goal by leaps and bounds and continues to grow. Donating money is not the only way to help! Consider donating old bedding, towels, toys, or other items to local shelters in need. Sign up to be a volunteer for your favorite rescue. Spread the word on your own blog and among your friends. Anything you can do adds to the growing momentum of this wonderful cause. Remember that an ocean is made up of billions of tiny droplets – be one of those drops!
If you’d like to know how I am making a difference, visit my other blog From The Horse’s Back. There, you can read about Hazel’s story. In addition, I am going to sign up as a volunteer for Pet Rescue By Judy, a local no-kill shelter that is a superstar saver of unwanted animals. Finally, if you have an idea for change or have contributed in some way, comment here. Happy Changing!
Each of these beautiful dogs is unwanted and awaiting adoption at Pet Rescue by Judy. Photos courtesy of www.petrescuebyjudy.com
Well, I’m finally back and in the swing of things! My trip to Columbus was exciting, eventful, and productive. Slobber Dog had a great time hanging at his second home with his buddy Bella, and everyone was happy to see me when I got home! So why the delay in posting about my wonderful adventures? Well….I’ll leave that story for another day, but suffice it to say that I have a houseguest at the moment!
Anyway, back to BlogPaws. I found out about this convention of pet bloggers quite by accident just as I was getting ready to leave for a horse convention being held in the same town at the same time! Tell me THAT’S not fate? So I signed up to go, and boy was it worth it. I met some really fantastic people while I was there and got tons of great information about blogging in general and specific to pets. It was held at the Westin and was entirely pet friendly. I saw cats and dogs by the dozen and they even had a little doggie daycare service for those pets needing a break from the blog talk. All in all it was a great time, with over 200 attendees. The seminars they held were:
- Tips, Tricks, and Habits for SEO and Traffic Stats – this session was incredibly helpful and I could have sat through another 2 hours of it. Stephan Spencer, in particular, was extremely helpful in guiding bloggers to success. He even critiqued some of the audience’s sites and gave tips on improving traffic.
- Fair, Focused, and Fun Product Reviews
- Book Publishing in a Digital World
- Sponsorship and Advertising on your Blog
- Building your Blog Strategy
- Leveraging Social Media: Using Today’s Interactive Tools – This was another helpful session for a social media newbie like myself. Sure, I have a Facebook page, but I don’t use it for blogging purposes. And I’m brand new to Twitter and just learning the ropes with it. It was fascinating to hear how these tools have made critical differences to many bloggers in terms of their popularity and success.
- Business Blogging
- Be The Change You Want to See
- Contests, Sweepstakes, and Promotions – This was another good one! I hadn’t given much thought to the legal aspects of contests – in fact, I’d just posted a contest on my other site, From The Horse’s Back, before leaving for Columbus! It was very helpful to learn some of the regulations and tips to making sure contests stay fun.
These four legged attendees cruised BlogPaws in style in their very own Pink Catillac!
If all this information gathering wasn’t enough reason to attend, the swag they gave out sealed the deal! Huge bags filled with treats, toys, cleaning products, books….you name it! I can’t wait to dig into it, it’s almost like Christmas! As you can see, there was a ton to see and do at this convention! Anyone that has the chance to check out the next one should definitely do it. Meeting all those awesome pet bloggers has reminded me how great pet lovers are and reinforced my commitment to creating a successful online pet community.
Click the link if you’re interested in checking out information about Blog Paws or want to see the slides for the presentations.