Blog the Change

Eldad Hagar from HopeforPaws.org at BlogPaws 2012

Eldad Hagar from HopeforPaws.org, whom many of you met at this year's BlogPaws conference, had ticket to Saturday night's "CATS for Cats" celebrity musical benefit at L.A.'s Orpheum Theatre for Kitty Bungalow. All dressed up with someplace to go, he got a call, which for Eldad usually means, "Drop everything!' And he did...

Where's Eldad??

Last year Eldad met a homeless disabled veteran in downtown L.A. who was sleeping in his car with his four dogs. Eldad gave the man some dog food and his card - and told him to call if he ever needed anything. 

Not the guy we're talking about, but another guy
Eldad photographed in Santa Monica some time ago.
But you get the general idea, homeless animal lover...

The man finally called last night. He said the V.A. had helped him get a small apartment, where he'd been bringing home homeless dogs. He was up to fourteen dogs now and asked Eldad if he might be able to help with some dog food and to find them homes.

A 'night on the town' went out the window and Eldad instead went to the pet store, grabbed a car load of dog food and spent the night taking photos of this kind man's dogs - probably not far from the Theatre where CATS for Cats was being performed. Eldad will be posting pics and trying to find forever homes for these dogs next week.

This is an average day in the life of a full time animal rescuer. Here is something easy you can do to help:

The Forgotten Dog Foundation helps Eldad and Hope for Paws by fostering and helping place some of his rescues, fundraising, etc. Please take a second to click on the Facebook contest link HERE, "like" the page, select The Forgotten Dog Foundation, and vote for them to win a $20,000 food donation from Kriser's Pet Supply. (You can vote daily for the next seven days).

Thank you! And next week... 

Cokie and Kristin

Blog the Change for Animals!

"APRIL 15: BE, BLOG AND READ THE CHANGE FOR ANIMALS! – Get the badge & spread the word! http://bit.ly/pO7dZp #BtC4A Come together to support people helping animals in need each 15th of January, April, July and October. Bloggers, write about a cause near and dear to your heart. Readers, share your comments and ideas."

I've been working the past several years to devote more of my time to working with animals, raising money for animal rescues and donating to individuals needing help caring for their own pets, raising awareness of animal related issues, and helping find fosters and homes for homeless pets.

I'm very proud and honored to be working as a Special Projects Manager for BlogPaws, which is doing so much for pet bloggers and rescues, pulling us together as a true community to effect change on a much larger scale than we could individually.

I'm excited to have my friends Eldad and Audrey Hagar from Hope for Paws coming to BlogPaws for the first time this year. They work for animals day in and day out, every day. Eldad will be giving a presentation on how he uses YouTube to raise awareness and evoke action to help homeless animals around the world. I blogged about them here last month.

If you've managed to NOT see any of Eldad's amazing (and I don't use that word lightly) extreme rescue videos, here's one, just to give you an idea of what he does and hopefully encourage you to come to BlogPaws, if for no other reason (and there are many good reasons) than to meet and get to know Eldad:

This particular dog in this video was rescued on Thanksgiving, and has recently had the pins removed from his leg. A Readers Digest contest Hope for Paws won paid for his surgeries. He's ready now for his forever home. Do you know where that might be?? You could change Little Will's life TODAY.

I'm making a new commitment today to share all of Eldad's videos, spreading the word and inspiring people to take some sort of action when they see animals who need our help. Don't just look away. Do something. Call someone. Change a life.

Kristin ~ & Cokie

A Dog's Last Will & Testament

Audrey Hagar from Hope For Paws sent an email with the prose below, saying she'd received it as a text from her grandpa's iPhone! Simply wonderful.

I wrote up this post, but then decided to re-write it as "A Cat's Last Will & Testament." When I did that, I accidentally erased this one, so this is my meager attempt at rebuilding the post. Apologies.

Mom's first and only dog Marrakesh
A border collie. He lived to be 17.

A DOG'S LAST WILL & TESTAMENT
Before humans die, they write their Last Will & Testament, give their home and all they have to those they leave behind. If, with my paws, I could do the same, This is what I'd ask . . .

To a poor and lonely stray I'd give:
* My happy home.* My bowl & cozy bed, soft pillows and all my toys.
* The lap, which I loved so much
* The hand that stroked my fur & the sweet voice which spoke my name.

I'd will to the sad, scared shelter dog, the place I had in my human's loving heart, of which there seemed no bounds.

So when I die, please do not say, "I will never have a pet again, for the loss and pain is more than I can stand."

Instead, go find and unloved dog . . . one whose life has held no joy or hope and give My place to him.

This is the one thing I can give . . .

. . .The love I left behind.

--Author Unknown

Hope For Paws at BlogPaws!

Eldad & Audrey Hagar

Most of my regular readers and pals know about Eldad and Audrey from Hope for Paws. Mom interviewed them at their home, helping me with an article about them for The Anipal Times in 2010. 

At that time, they had just rescued a now famous little blind dog named Fiona. You've probably seen her video. It's completely viral - tons of newpapers, magazines, and TV stations have picked it up and run with it the last few weeks. I'm such an insider - I had such a jump on Fiona's story, her video wasn't even ready in time to be included in the article - but I did talk about her!  ; ) 

Eldad, Audrey and Fiona

Eldad showed Mom a video he was editing of a little dog he'd just rescued. She didn't realize until he mentioned it halfway through, that the little blind dog in the video was sitting on her lap. If Fiona's video affects you, imagine watching it with a clean and happy, but still blind Fiona licking your face. 

I was Editor-in-Chief of The Anipal Times, and we organized a Twitter Party (#ATPawty) with Hope for Paws as its beneficiary. We raised over $2000 in 24 hours towards Fiona's eye surgery to restore her sight in one eye. Yay!

Now, as a Special Projects Manager at BlogPaws, I'm very excited to have arranged for Eldad and Audrey to be at this year's BlogPaws Conference in Salt Lake City in June!

Eldad will be joining My Favorite Pup Jasmine and Paige the Border Collie (and their moms) in a presentation about "The Power of YouTube."

Lauren Girard and Paige the Border Collie

My Fave Pup Jasmine and CJ Jackson

And this is just ONE session of One day. Check out the conference program for info on all the awesomeness that is this year's BlogPaws!

You won't have a better (certainly not a more fun) educational or networking opportunity if you're in any way involved or interested in animals, animal products, or pets in social media - or even if you just want to hang out with us wild and crazy animal lovers and meet all your online pals!

I'll even make it even easier for you -- > Use this code for a 20% discount on your BlogPaws registration: BlogPaws2012-Cokie

And you can bring your pets! 
It's a no brainer. See you there!

Cokie

Hope for Paws: Desert Rosie's Forever Home Update!

Hi and thanks for visiting my blog! Two weeks ago I began posting Hope for Paws videos as my Saturday Pet Blogger Hop posts. Please stop by each week to watch and share these amazing videos of Eldad and Audrey Hagar's EXTREME animal rescues.

You should either turn off the music on my stereo, up top, or turn off the sound on this video, so they don't clash!

Today I have two videos to share. You may have seen the rescue video of Desert Rosie, who'd been living in the California desert for over a month, and was finally rescued after a smart woman put up a flyer near where she'd seen the dog, and a man put a map to that location on Craigslist, which was forwarded to Eldad at Hopeforpaws.org, and the rest is history... After a lot of patience on Eldad's part trying to actually rescue the dog once he found her. She had a good set of legs on her. Fortunately, so does Eldad. ; )

The second video is, "Ta-da!" Desert Rosie's new forever home and doggy boyfriend. The happy ending! Enjoy...


Hope for Paws' new edition of "Our Lives Have Gone To The Dogs" - a truly beautiful hardcover coffee table book - is still available here for only $15 including US shipping. If you don't have one yet, go on and get yours. You'll love it. And they make great gifts and Pawpawty prizes!

Thank you for your support of this two person EXTREME animal rescue organization, Hope for Paws.
If you're visiting my blog for the first time, please look around, sign my TV guest book and leave me a comment as to how you found me! I'll do the same for you.

Happy Saturday!

Cokie the Cat

I'm joining Blog the Change in this post by making it official - I'm making the extreme sacrifice of letting Mom go to BlogPaws this year. That's 2676 miles away from me, and a minimum of four days home alone with Dad. I hope he doesn't forget to feed me. Give me my medicine.  : ( 

She'll be here while I'm home. Practically alone.   : /

I'm kidding. He won't forget. He loves me. 

 I'm making her hotel reservations right now.

She'll learn how to better promote The Anipal Times, her Boho Pets site, Hope for Paws and lots of other good pet-helping stuff. 

There. It's in writing.

Mom, sign here:

  

OK, then!

She'll see you there!

Cokes

=^..^=

Hope For Paws - Recap

Thank you for visiting my blog for the Saturday Pet Blogger Hop. Last week I began posting Hope for Paws videos as my Saturday Pet Blogger Hop posts . Please stop by each week to watch and share these amazing videos of Eldad and Audrey Hagar's EXTREME animal rescues.

This video is a Recap of many rescues, small clips of each. If you want to see the entire video of a particular animal, click on their image, and a new window will open with that video. Click your back arrow to return to this original video and watch it from the beginning again.

I suggest you watch it all the way through first, then go back to watch individual rescues, if you like.

Hope for Paws' new edition of "Our Lives Have Gone To The Dogs" - a truly beautiful hardcover coffee table book - is still available here for only $15 including US shipping. They're great to get for your veterinarian's, doctors', and hospital waiting rooms, for libraries, etc., to encourage animal adoption.

You should either turn off the music on my stereo, up top, or turn off the sound on this video, so they don't clash!

Nala, the dog featured in last week's video, is still available for adoption and waiting for her forever family.

If this is your first visit to my blog, please leave a comment and sign my TV guestbook. =^..^=

Warmly,
Cokie

Hope For Paws: Nala

I've decided take the opportunity to share Hope for Paws' latest videos on my Saturday Pet Blogger Hop posts from now on. Hopefully, a lot of Pet Blog Hoppers will watch and share these amazing videos made by my friends, Los Angeles EXTREME animal rescuers Eldad and Audrey Hagar, aka Hope for Paws.

Right now, the beautiful Nala is being fostered and is looking for a home. Watch her rescue here and tell me you don't want her. Please help us find someone who can give a forever home to this people/dog/cat/child loving Pit Bull girl, Nala.



Nala is an African name, meaning "successful." This was obviously a successful rescue. Let's see if we can help make it a successful adoption!

Please share this video on Facebook, Twitter, all your other social media accounts, and email it to your friends.

Let's get Nala adopted and make room for another rescue.

If this is your first visit to my blog, please sign my TV guestbook.   =^..^=

Warmly,
Cokie

Happy New Year 2011!

This has been a tough year on a lot of us. I lost my sweet Wynnie princess cat, Dad lost his brother, Grandpa got lymphoma, and a lot of my anipal friends and family have been sick or gone to the Rainbow Bridge, including my dear friend & soul twin, @inigoflufflebum. @Pepismartdog has been crazy busy keeping up with all the new residents at the RB... And when I was very ill myself, my darling @jazzydacat wheeled me out and eloped me! So, yes, I am no longer a bachelor. I'm not even kidding.

For better of for worse...  ; ) 

So along with the sadness, there's been some joy. I married my British tart, I became Editor-in-Chief of the new online newspaper for anipals: The Anipal Times, which has an international staff of 40 and has raised $3000 for the NYC Shiba Rescue and Hope for Paws through advertising and AT Pawpawties. And my mom started two new projects of her own: BohoPets portraits & gifts and The Pawed Squad pet-centric reviews and giveaways. 

My New Year Greeting - Abridged Version
You might want to turn off the stereo for this.

Here's hoping 2011 will be the best year ever, with each year to follow even better for us all! I love you guys.

Cokes

Anipal Photo Hunt #16: My 2nd Job

Well, this Anipal Photo Hunt's an easy one for me... Aside from taking care of Mom and Him, which takes a LOT of time and effort, not to mention PATIENCE, I've also been the Editor-in-Chief of The Anipal Times since its inception in April of 2010 - a job I'm very proud of.

In case you don't know, The Anipal Times is an online newspaper by and for anipals and their humans. We have a staff of over forty volunteers - managers, writers, editors, cartoonists, advice columnists - from all around the world, whose goal is to publish a quality online newspaper for the animal community, or as we prefer to be called, anipals.

We publish new content every day: Real animal related news, online Twitter, Facebook, and blogging anipal news, announcements, book and movie reviews, interviews, health stories by our two resident veterinarians, Dr. V. (@pawcurious) and Dr. Peter Wedderburn (@petethevet), and really, you just have to go to www.anipaltimes.com and check it out to see what all we have. There's a lot!

We raise money for animal charities with our advertising revenue. All ad fees go to designated animal charities via the FirstGiving.org widget on the front page of The Anipal Times. No money touches our paws. We all work very hard and we do it all for the animals and for the anipal community.

We also have a monthly free drawing for our readers, in which companies donate animal related prizes valued at $50 or more, with winners chosen by www.random.org. All have been really great prizes!

As much as we love our jobs, it's all the more worthwhile when we can raise a good sum of money for our charities. This month's charity is www.hopeforpaws.org, and our donations have helped pay for surgery to help this sweet little blind dog see again:

Check out the before and after youtube videos!

Fiona before: http://youtu.be/4ZDY3F89z50 

Fiona after: http://youtu.be/iDK1_7fXsk0

Fiona Before - Blind

Fiona After - Sighted

If you'd like to support what we do, spread the word about us, tell the merchants you frequent about advertising in the AT, retweet and forward our articles, drop a dollar in our FirstGiving.org tip jar, comment on our articles, or write a letter to the Editor (me!)

If you want to advertise, via inexpensive donations to animal charities, to our animal loving demographic, please contact me at cokiethecat at anipaltimes.com. You can also place very inexpensive classified ads with announcements, items for sale or trade, etc.

I'm very happy to be part of such a wonderful pack, and I hope you enjoy reading the AT as much as we enjoy bringing it to you!

Yours truly,

Cokie the Cat
Editor-in-Chief
The Anipal Times

Anipal TImes Holiday Office Pawty Today! "Hope for Paws"

Join Anipal Times management, staff, writers, advertisers, and readers as we party around the clock for 24 hours from 11am PDT Saturday Nov. 6th and running straight through until 10am PST tomorrow, Nov. 7th - and YES, us Americans (most of us) set our clocks back an hour right in the middle of the whole dang shebang! I kid you not!  Fun & prizes & helping Hope for Paws help animals!

Here's the invitation with most of the info: http://twtvite.com/ATofficepawty 'Business casual' holiday attire suggested. ; )

Menu, donation site, Hope for Paws video and more at http://pawty.anipaltimes.com.

We'll be raising funds for the L.A. based Hope For Paws, my favorite rescue! And Eldad is attending the pawty! Please follow @eldad75 http://www.hopeforpaws.org

Eldad & Audrey Hagar: Hope for Paws

Order their great book at www.hopeforpaws.org

 

 

 

 

 Music by Da Shibbering Cheetos at 11:15a.m. PDT on Saturday and at 9a.m. PST on Sunday!

 

Versatile Blogger Award!

My Puerto Rican twin bro, Pirulo Furry,

gave me this killer Versatile Blogger Award!

Pirulo Furry

Thanks, Pirulo. I really appreciate your friendship and that you enjoy my blog. It took me three weeks to get around to fulfilling the duties of one on whom this honor has been bestowed, but here we go! First I need to tell the world seven things about me, then I need to give the award to three great blogs. Here goes!

Seven Things About Me, by Cokie the Cat

1. I sleep naked in (or on) my castle in the bathroom.

A man-cat's bed is his castle.

During the day I wear pants, as I am continence-challenged, the long-term result of a fall from a palm tree.

I spent 3 days in that palm tree on the right.

2. At least one night a week, Dad picks me up and 'flies' me around the house stretched out like Superman while he hums the tune of Wagner's "Flight of the Valkyries." I don't know why.

I feel a ride coming...

3. Like Pirulo, I love prawns, but I call them shrimp. I also love tilapia fish and tiny bits of chicken and beef.  

Mmm. Shrimp.

4. I'm an indoor cat, but Mom and Dad let me go out on the balcony, or walk down the stairwell to the courtyard as long as they're with me. I like to just go out for a few minutes and then come back in. I love to sit in front of the screen door to the balcony and sniff the air and feel the breeze on my whiskers with my eyes closed. They love it when I do that, too.

5. I weigh 12 pounds. I used to weigh 14 pounds when I was younger, but now I'm 16 and I guess you shrink some when you get older. I'm still pretty strong and fit though.

6. I talk a lot. Lots and lots. Srlsy. I have something to say about just about everything. You can hear my voice on my Voki - the cartoon pic of me on the widget in the right margin of this page.

7. I'm the Editor-in-Chief of The Anipal Times, which is an online daily newspaper for anipals and the humans who love them. About 40 other wonderful anipals volunteer with me as writers, editors and management staff, and all of our ad revenue goes to animal charities.

Our current charity is a local Los Angeles husband & wife animal rescue organization called Hope for Paws. Watch this video to see what they do:


Now, it's my turn to give three blogs The Versatile Blogger award. Hmmm. How to choose? How to choose? Ack. Alright well, here we go:

1. E.K. Editor Kitty, in Oregon, U.S. www.editorkitty.com
2. Dog Gone It Byron's Blog, in Ontario, Canada http://doggoneit-byronsblog.blogspot.com/
3. Freya and Teego at A Cat Called Freya http://www.freyacat.co.uk
And, heck. When I was at Freya's blog, I discovered this other super cool blog that I have to add too now!
4. Banana and Cheese http://bananaandcheese.com/

Ok. Now you four blogs are "IT"! Nab the award from the top of this post for yourselves, and then you are herewith entitled "Versatile Bloggers" henceforth! It is your obligation to tell your readers, including the new readers who will find you through my blog, hopefully, seven things about yourselves. After that, do as I have done, and pass on the award to three new worthy recipients!

Congratulations and good luck!

=^..^=
Cokie