September 6, 2016

Don't Forget: Remember Me Thursday® on 9/22

According to the The Humane Society, only 30% of pets in US households come from rescue facilities. And there are huge numbers of pets out there just waiting for their forever home. That's why Helen Woodward Animal Center (where I volunteer every Monday) started Remember Me Thursday®, which takes place this year on September 22.

Remember Me Thursday® is a global awareness campaign advocating for orphan pets to live in forever homes, not die waiting for them. The goal is to "shine a light on all orphan pets waiting in shelters and rescues right now."
Rita and I are totally down with that!

This is the fourth year, and in previous years 164 countries and 500+ separate animal welfare organizations have been involved.

You can be involved too - and you can even win goodies for a shelter you love. Here's how:
1. Visit the Remember Me Thursday® website - while you're there, add your rescue pet photo on the #RememberTheRescue Photo Wall for a chance to win funds, food, and toys for a shelter or rescue that you love.

2. Help spread the word on social media - use hashtag #RememberMeThursday or #RememberTheRescue on 9/22 and post pics or share stories of your own rescue pets or help bring awareness to pets who still need a home.

3. Light a candle - real or virtual - for homeless pets.

Mark your calendars!

Thanks to BlogPaws for hosting Wordless Wednesday! Stop by their site to check out all of the other blogs in the hop.

33 comments:

  1. Excellent post. Thank you for the handy tips and ideas about Remember Me Campaign.

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  2. My cats are both from the shelter, so I can post their photos. What a nice idea.

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    1. Great! Hope you win something for the shelter they came from!

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  3. What an awesome event. Even though I've mentioned before Booker T and Cassius were not rescues, we do a fund raiser each year for our local animal shelter - Walk Your Paws to raise money for them. I will be sure to visit the website that day!

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  4. Thank you for making me aware of this event! Toby wants to go put his pic on the wall.

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  5. Hi Y'all!

    I'm the first dog my Humans have had that weren't from a rescue or shelter. You can't remind people enough about all the homeless pets out there.

    Y'all come on by,
    Hawk aka BrownDog

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    1. There are so many! Hopefully some day it won't be that way.

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  6. I believe strongly in the mission of rescue as our first two came from Sheltie Rescue. However, I do think that the rescue/shelter movement needs to look at why people like myself didn't get the next dog from rescue. It isn't because we aren't aware, don't believe in helping homeless dogs, or don't care.

    I can't speak for the rest of the country, but in this area the process needs to change dramatically. The focus needs to be on finding safe homes, not on finding people who you would date. There are plenty of qualified homes who walk away because of the ridiculous demands placed upon people who want to adopt, who have adopted, and just want to help one more time. The differences between the first time we adopted 13 years ago and now are amazing.

    There were a few things that really bothered me this time around.

    1. Attitude. You can have standards and rules but you don't have to be rude about them. Don't even bother applying if you don't have a fence vs. We are not able to accept applications from homes without a fence. Is it really all that hard to be polite and not turn people off before they even get to the application page?

    2. The amount of information required before they will even speak to you about the dogs they have available. Even my insurance company doesn't need pictures of the inside and outside of my home before discussing rates. That was the proverbially straw that turned us to a breeder. I'm not giving you pictures when I don't even know if you'll ever respond to my application.

    3. How much of it is personal preference vs. dog safety. There are basics that prevent neglect and abuse. Then there are ranges at which we all make decisions regarding types of food, medical care, training, etc. There are a wide range of acceptable answers that don't reach the levels of neglect or abuse. However, I learned to be very careful and find the answers people wanted to hear before answering questions. I found this childish and something I remembered from high school. This again turns away perspective adopters. There are certainly things that are neglectful or abusive. The fact we choose different brands of kibble or the fact I even use kibble shouldn't be one of them.

    I would also say if they want to improve the rate of succesful adoptions recruit some trainers to work with the dogs who have behavior problems. Most dogs will do fine with basic obedience classes people enroll in after adoption. However, there are far too many dogs with behavior issues being adopted out to people who don't know where to go when basic obedience doesn't work. Bartering for services by sending new adopters to their basic obedience classes might be an incentive, I don't know. However, I do know the return rate on these dogs isn't helpful.

    Lastly, prevention. Our previous two dogs came from rescue so they were spayed and neutered. Annie's breeder had her spayed before she came to us, but other breeders we looked at were not as accommodating so we looked into the cost for the first time and realized spaying in particular is costly. I've looked at the lists on various petfinding sites over the last few years and there are few young purebred dogs. The vast majority are mixed breeds, likely unplanned dumped into shelters. Getting those dogs fixed before they dump unwanted puppies into shelters would reduce the burden on shelters. This is definitely an area where pet groups could fund raise and work with clinics in the area to offer more low cost spay an neuter options to reduce the number of unwanted pets in the area.

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    1. Wow - your comment is longer than my post! :)

      I definitely agree with you - some rescues can get a bit over the top with their rules. (I mean, the kibble thing is completely ridiculous to me.) And I can't believe the wording about the fence - you're absolutely right - there is NO reason to be rude. (I think some rescue workers have been doing it too long and are suffering from some severe burnout. Not an excuse for being rude, but I'm sure a lot of them have seen some tough things.)

      And, yes, prevention is a big one. I've seen several dogs in the last couple of days walking around (loose!) intact. Not cool. I wish there were more low-cost spay/neuter clinics and more outreach about the importance of getting that done. We got our first dog in Canada, and I remember her surgery being pretty cheap. I don't know if it was subsidized or what - but I was shocked to find out how much it can cost here in the States. (Luckily we've never had to pay that ourselves, as our dogs we got here were already spayed when we got them.)

      I'm sorry you had such a bad experience with your last attempt to rescue. I have heard others complain as well about the strictness of the rules at some places.

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    2. I know I get carried away, but this issue really sets me off. In some ways rescue has come a long way in 13 years at educating the population about adoption, puppy mills, the responsibilities and costs of pet ownership and that's all to the good.

      However, in other ways, it is so much worse than it was 13 years ago when we got Bailey. I don't think there is as much of a lack of awareness in this part of the country at least. The problem is people don't want to deal with the hassles and that needs to change if rescues and shelters want to get the adoption rates up. There are so many people with great backgrounds in pet ownership who want to rescue who end up doing what I've done and walk away to get there dog from a breeder because it is just too frustrating dealing with rescue.

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  7. I have heard a lot of people who have Sheltie's experience and it is so unnecessary. I got all of mine before they got to a shelter when their owners needed to re-home them. I will investigate your links

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    1. It IS so unnecessary. I wish there were some easy answers to fix that situation.

      That's great you were able to help someone looking to re-home their pups. Those dogs won the doggy lotto when they came to live with you.

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  8. What a great event. I wish them all every success to find forever homes.

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    1. It's sad when you think about how many homes are needed.

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  9. Thank you for the reminder!!! We are currently looking at adding to the family and we are looking at getting a new pup from the same rescue organization I was adopted from.

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  10. we've been looking at poodle rescues but so far no go and we're really not ready. Guess that's why we haven't found one

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    1. Hopefully when you're ready everything will fall into place!

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  11. I love this! The Boys and I will certainly light a candle - a real one!

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  12. Given our recent adoption - fully on board with this!

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  13. We totally agree that Rescues Are Best! (both dogs and cats in our home and barn too)

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  14. What a terrific campaign! Thank you for the reminder! I LOVE the picture of Rita and the surfboard!

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  15. This is so fantastic! Kudos to you for your involvement with this worthy campaign. ღ

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  16. What a wonderful campaign. I've marked my calendar to share on that day, and I'm going to add Luke's photo to the website as well.

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  17. I hope they have a successful event.

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  18. hello pooch smooches its dennis the vizsla dog hay this is an importent topik thank yoo for publisizing it!!! hmm me and trixie and trouble the kitty kaym frum the pownd or frum reskyew wile tucker and pooh bear the kitty and saya the mighty kaym frum breederz so hay that is like ... ummmm kerry the wun .... divide by a hunnerd .... wel ennyway that is a gud persentadj of reskyewz heer!!! maybe wotever dog comes after me wil tip the balanse eeven mor in the reskyew direkshun!!! ok bye

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