The future of Our Place to Paws

Our Place to Paws, the Web site (www.OurPlacetoPaws.com) has been online for nearly three years now. In that time we have posted articles about animals and animal welfare, run monthly photo and essay contests, posted fun animal columns and Kids' Corner art projects and tried our best to create a fun online community for animal lovers everywhere.

The addition of Facebook has helped us connect with new friends, both through the Facebook group and the newer Facebook page, which allows us to post photos and share comments with the fans who have also "Friended" us there.

As 2010 approaches, we have a tough decision ahead -- whether to keep Our Place to Paws online. The site makes no money -- it is run purely for the love of animals and has attracted no advertising (truthfully because I am not a marketing person and have put little effort into trying to get any advertising or into building the daily visitorship of the site after the initial six months or so, when finances ran out to keep the professional effort going). In addition, our visitorship has remained constant -- only about 40-45 visitors a day, and we're not sure how many of those are actually individual visitors.

Much of the decision about whether to keep Our Place to Paws online will depend on whether there are people out there who really enjoy the site and feel strongly about keeping it up. If you do feel strongly about keeping Our Place to Paws online, please send a note to OurPlacetoPaws (at) aol.com and let me know. If I get a strong response, it will certainly help us make the decision. If you have ideas for increasing participation and visitorship, those are always appreciated, too, but keep in mind we have zero budget.

Thanks for your interest in Our Place to Paws, and thank you for caring about the animals.

Best,
Faye Rapoport DesPres
Editor, Our Place to Paws

Duncan the Scottish Fold

Enjoying a Friday afternoon cat nap.

From the Chicago Tribune: Reduce Your Pet's Carbon Footprint

by
Morieka Johnson McClatchy-Tribune

Most pets spend their days focused on three main events -- food time, poop time and playtime. If only life could be so easy for their owners. Fortunately, there are easy options that will help reduce their mark on Mother Nature. Make just one of these changes, and your pet's paw print will be a bit smaller.

-- Get the good stuff: Invest in a high-quality pet food that lists a protein such as beef, lamb, chicken or fish as the first ingredient rather than a by-product or beef meal. This one change can make a major impact on your pet's health while reducing the amount of poop left to scoop. Read the rest here.

DOG LOVERS: IMPORTANT TO KNOW Sugar-free ingredient called a dog killer

By Patty McCormac

NORTH COUNTY — LuLu, a 2-year-old teacup Yorkshire terrier, ate sugarless gum that she pilfered from a purse that was left on a recliner in her Solana Beach home.

It almost killed her. What probably saved LuLu was owner Dorit Hanein seeing a gum wrapper on the stairs and remembering a poster listing toxic substances for dogs weeks earlier at a veterinarian's office.

“I don't know why I would make that connection, but it took about three seconds,” Hanein said.

With the little dog vomiting and shivering, Hanein raced her to the veterinarian, who successfully treated 4-pound LuLu for xylitol toxicosis. Read the rest of this important story here.

Hamilton

One of our cats, Hamilton, went in for an ultrasound and some needle aspirate biopsies yesterday. So far, so good...nothing showing lymphoma. Hamilton is 14 and has lost some weight recently, and now we're hopeful that it is just ongoing long-term kidney disease, something that can be managed with diet and subcue fluids. We're waiting for the results of a couple of more tests to be sure he doesn't have pancreatitis or something else that might be causing inflammation or other issues.

It's so tough watching them age and worrying that they won't be around forever.

No labor here!