I had a finished post which I had worked on for a good bit. When I set up the scheduled posting time, WordPress ate it, leaving me nothing but the title. So instead you get this open thread, which I was going to post this afternoon, a little early.
I hope the disappearing of my post is the only Friday the 13th bad luck I have today.
HSUS has a board game for the kiddies:
http://humanewatch.org/index.php/site/post/has_hsus_reached_a_new_low/
I would have thought they could just use Monopoly and scrawl HSUS over the title…
…and then take credit for originally developing the game.
AHAHAHAHA!
This an older Facebook social time-management game (think Farmville) that was picked up by MindJolt SGN awhile back, and shut down recently. It’s now been ported to iOS:
http://blog.games.com/2012/01/05/fluff-friends-rescue-ios-humane-society/
AppFriends’ review:
http://appadvice.com/appnn/2012/01/rescue-lost-puppies-with-fluff-friends-rescue
The game itself is free to download and play, but over time it gets harder and harder to progress without paying real money for in-game credit, necessary objects, etc. to level up. According to several other articles (I’ll spare all the links) at least some of this in-game merchandise will be HSUS-branded.
Here’s the LA Times article on it from last week:
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/entertainmentnewsbuzz/2012/01/chris-dewolfe-social-game-network-humane-society-fluff-friends-rescue.html/
According to this, DeWolfe is donating 10% of the in-game purchase profits to the HSUS, so in that sense it’s a partnership.
This link, though:
http://gamepolitics.com/2012/01/04/mindjolt-teams-humane-society-ios-game
… specifies that the profits shared will be from sales of HSUS-branded in-game merchandise, which would I suspect be a smaller slice of the pie, possibly much smaller. It’s also stated that all of the money will go to the HSUS’s Animal Rescue Team (and thus they imply, not the general fund).
Apropos of ‘Farmville’ type games, I just saw this:
http://m.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/01/the-zynga-abyss/251920/
… which discusses their structure & whether or not they’re unethical. (I think, definitely not.)
I would like to publicly thank Morgana who agreed to take an FIV+ cat from GA even though she was already full. With her agreement we were able to have Kain pulled as we searched for a shelter/rescue that had more space available and was a bit closer. Within a few days we found a rescue in VA that took him in and he is traveling there tomorrow. Her stepping in allowed us to close the gap between when he would be killed and when we could get him somewhere safe. Thank you Morgana for being there for the animals!
Daniela
Thanks for letting us know Daniela. And thank you Morgana for stepping up AGAIN.
When we have animal issues at work, I’m always the one they call. Not sure how I got in that position, but yesterday it was a lost dog who was camped outside our door (and who at one point managed to bound into the lobby). He had a collar, no ID, “What should we do, Aubrie?” I called a rescue contact who agreed to put a hold on him if I had animal control pick him up. I was tempted to bring him up 6 floors to my office but knew that wouldn’t go over too well and while I was loathe to call for “the bus,” I knew it would get him out of the cold and keep him from being hit by a car so I did it. I leashed him, gave him some treats, found he knew simple commands and he was picked up a short time later. My rescuer called and put a hold on him to keep him from the needle and all was stable. Three hours later, I got a call that his family had claimed him. He was either chipped or they were looking for him. Happy ending for all.
This is what shelters should be. A safe haven for dogs like “Frank” (he looked like a Frank to me) who are lost or homeless. A safety net. Not a place we are afraid to call without a back up plan for fear we are sending an animal to its death.
Obviously this doesn’t help now, but I’ve found that if I’ve had a wordpress page open for a while, I should ALWAYS copy the contents into my computer clipboard before trying to save/post it. WordPress times out too often. Better safe than sorry!
Steve Markwell at Olympic Animal Sanctuary is seeking a lot of small donations to fund a trip to New Orleans. He will be bringing Mari(o) and several other dogs back to WA. The request is on Olympic Animal Sanctuary’s FB page and says:
“Remember Mario, the feral dog from Memphis? He’s in New Orleans now, waiting for his ride to WA, and we have a few others that have been waiting a very long time — these are dogs that can’t be put on a plane for one reason or another, so driving is the only option. We need $4500 to make the trip — that’s 48 cents from each of our friends on Facebook. Please help us save some more lives by making a small contribution, and as always, we’ll keep you updated on our progress.”
He’s referring people to OAS’s all-purpose secure donations page:
https://secure3.4agoodcause.com/olympic-animal-sanctuary/donation1.aspx
Found a pit bull dog or want to help a few that are in your local animal shelter?
Here are a few places to check out:
Pit Bull Rescue Central -http://pbrc.net/ lists pit bull rescues by state.
RESCUES – http://www.pbrc.net/organizations.html
RE-HOMING – http://www.pbrc.net/adoption/owners.html
LIST A DOG – http://www.pbrc.net/submission.html
Post dog on some of the Pit Bull pages on Facebook.
Pet Pardons – http://www.facebook.com/petpardons (the facebook page) and post to their Facebook app too: http://apps.facebook.com/petpardons/Default.aspx Become a Virtual Foster Parent – http://apps.facebook.com/petpardons/vparent.aspx Submit a Pet – http://apps.facebook.com/petpardons/pet-submit.aspx
Good ideas on this site to about rehoming: Positive Alternatives to Shelter Surrender-BR: Rehome Your Pets – http://passbr.blogspot.com/p/rehome-your-pets.html
So sorry about WordPress eating your post, Shirley. I’m sure it was a good one (they all are) and hope you are able to recreate it.
I am being sent lots of links regarding Mitt Romney and his family vacation where he put his dog in a crate on top of the car for the trip. The dog had an accident and the poor dog was hosed off, put back in the crate and the trip continued. This occurred in the 80’s.
I had not read this story before and I thought it was a prank and/or fake but no!
Yes, that’s a real story and like every other thing Romney has done that most people find objectionable, he remains unapologetic.
Anyone want to adopt a cute little mystery mutt?
http://www.adoptapet.com/pet6641161.html
All I know is he’s NOT a German Spitz and he and Jack loathe each other. He gets along great with other dogs that are not husky/shepherd mixes though. :)
He’s currently in Dallas, and no, we’re NOT restricted to local adoptions. :)
I’m in Los Angeles for work and was supposed to be here for two weeks but its turning out to be ten or more weeks. Its fantastic but my dog is still in New Jersey being watched by friends. I wanted to have her flown out but it scares me sick so I was looking at having her driven by one of those pet transport companies (like Paws n Claws) but I don’t know about that either. Has anyone ever had a pet shipped cross country and can give me some advice or have any other suggestions?
Does anyone know of a Blind Dog rescue. there is a man in Memphis trying to give away his blind collie.
Try
http://www.blinddogrescue.com/
they seem to be across the US and Canada. I have no personal experience with them.