Many animal lovers are already familiar with Freekibble.com and Freekibblekat.com, the trivia game sites that donate to shelters ten pieces of kibble for every answer (right or wrong) you give to their questions. You can visit every day (and really, you should!), but on special days sponsors will donate five times as much kibble. Today, Feb. 5, is one of those days.
The sites and the concept are really cool, no doubt, but what's even cooler is that our friends at Tonic scored an interview with the girl behind the site, 13-year-old Mimi Ausland! She shared lots of fun facts, including how she was inspired to start these sites and -- something we're all itching to know -- how much kibble has been donated since she started nearly two years ago.
Check out the full interview at Tonic!
Posts tagged "shelter dog"
Flickr/sneakerdog
The Save the Dogs From the Chill Project takes donations of old sweaters and repurposes them for dogs in shelters, something that's particularly important this winter when temperatures all across the country are reaching record lows. Even the southern states are seeing below-freezing temperatures, and not all shelters have indoor areas for all their dogs.
You can keep tabs on the project's progress on their blog -- at the present moment, Jones tells Paw Nation, "We have received so many donations that boxes are starting to pile up to the ceiling. It's crazy! We want to try and have everything mailed out by the end of next week."
And, of course, you can send your own used sweaters (or check your local Goodwill to scoop some up on the cheap) to the address in this post. Come on, you're never going to wear that ugly Christmas sweater again, are you? Lend a paw to a dog in need!
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Ben, Picabo, Whisky, and Anna
The week before the wedding, we stayed at Anna's mother's house, and had a chance to spend some quality time with her dogs: Whisky Sam "Damn-it" McGivaren and Picabo Street. Whisky is an extremely loyal and charismatic 13-year-old Westie who moves slowly these days but continues to charm as he did when Anna was still in the house.
Picabo Street was adopted more recently when Anna's sister Emily saved her from a group of thugs who were using her for target practice. Emily bravely put herself between the terrified dog and the gun, brought the dog home, and placed it onto her sleeping mother's chest. They named the dog Picabo Street after the champion alpine ski racer, who just happened to be competing on television that night.
Whisky and Picabo both love Anna, and she loves them. It's clear to me that she's getting anxious about finding a dog of our own. Now that our wedding is over, we can pursue the task in earnest.
Tell me your stories. Are puppies and newlyweds like chocolate and peanut butter, two great tastes that taste great together?
Yuki poses at our local dog park.
Kristen Seymour
On a warm fall Saturday in 2002, my fiance and I stopped in a Petsmart to buy cat litter. While he searched the aisles for the right brand, I wandered over to one of the pet-rescue groups, Puppy Hill Farm, that sets up shop in the store each weekend. I'd grown up with dogs, but my fiance hadn't, and I had yet to talk him into adopting one.
As we were about to leave the store, we both stopped in our tracks. A young couple was bringing in a black Labrador mix puppy, and we overheard something about it being their roommate's dog, for which they couldn't provide care after the roommate had dropped out of school and moved home. It took my husband about five seconds to fall in love with this puppy. It took me less time.
We named the dog Yuki, and she quickly became an enormous part of our lives. Yuki exhibited typical puppy behavior, but was eager to please and very smart, so although she was large (about 60 pounds), she went everywhere with us. We took her tailgating, to outdoor restaurants, up to Canada for vacation, and she was even in our wedding. She was the perfect running buddy, but was gentle enough to take on visits to my grandmother's nursing home.
Jada and Bella pose in front of their "Puppy Palace" tour bus. Photo: The 101 Dalmatians Musical
"The script for the musical is based on the original 1956 book by Dodie Smith in which the story is told from the dogs' perspectives," the show's producer, Lee Marshall, tells Paw Nation. "Nothing in the musical is related to any of the motion pictures," he says, referring to the 1961 animated Walt Disney movie and the 1996 live-action film starring Glenn Close.
To illustrate the world as the dogs see it, all the human actors will be on 15-inch stilts surrounded by an extra-tall set scaled to show a dog's eye view of the world. The lead dog roles of Pongo and Missus Perdita -- whose Dalmatian puppies are stolen by the evil Cruella de Vil -- will be played by human actors dressed in fashionably spotted suits, and child actors will play the puppies.
But Marshall sprinkles each performance with real Dalmatians. Fifteen fortunate pups bound on the stage at the end of Act 1 and during the show's finale, performing choreographed movements set to music written by Dennis DeYoung, founding member of the legendary band Styx.
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