An Easy Way to Promote the Xolos!

Pink, who's missing a leg, still manages to help others.

If you've read our book, Almost Perfect, you've read a great little piece by Sharon Sakson about Nancy Gordon, who suffers from chronic fibromyalgia. Her dogs, Pink and Toaster, are Mexican Hairless dogs, also known as Xoloitzcuintlee (pronouned "show-low-eats-queent-lee").

Toaster, Pink's mom, also serves as a therapy dog.

Because they're hairless, the warmth of their bodies radiates freely, and they serve as therapy dogs to Nancy and others, lying on the afflicted parts of the body and warming them like a living hot-water bottle.

Nancy and Pink

Nancy created an organization, Xolos For Chronic Pain Relief (X-CPR), to get the word out about this marvelous service. X-CPR has just been added to the wonderful fundraising websites called Good Search (search the Net) and Good Shop (shop the net). Using these social good sites is an easy way to donate to this worthwhile nonprofit, without any cost to you.

Just follow this link next time you need to do a search, and make sure the drop-down menu is designated for Xolos For Chronic Pain Relief. Then go to the search box and search for whatever you were looking for anyway. Each search generates one cent US for the group. This may not sound like much, but it really adds up if everyone uses this service.

To donate to X-CPR through Good Shop, simply use this portal to the stores you'd already shop at. Just by going through this doorway, you'll donate a penny to X-CPR. And all those pennies soon become dollars.

Don't forget to bookmark or favorite these sites for future use!

Today is "Adopt A Less-Adoptable Pet Day!"

Yesterday's guest blogger, our own Roberta Beach Jacobson, alerted me to the fact that today is a very special day, and I wanted to let you know about it.

Tabby's Place helps lots of less-than-adoptable kitties find forever homes.

Petfinder.com has designated August 12 as "Adopt A Less-Adoptable Pet Day."

They even have a special page on their website in recognition of this special day, with all kinds of information about adopting shelter pets deemed less-desirable in most people's eyes. But the fact that you're reading this means that you're NOT "most people." And most likely, at least some of your friends aren't, either. You're special, too...special enough to recognize that every living thing deserves a chance at a good, happy, healthy life full of love and as much compassion as we can give.

"Cow," a blind, deaf, hypothyroidal and incontinent
dalmatian has found a forever home!

So I ask you today to recognize this special day by talking to at least one other person--preferably someone you wouldn't normally talk to about this subject, because it does no good to preach to the choir--about "Adopt A Less-Adoptable Pet Day." Ask them to take a few minutes to visit Petfinder's special page, and to consider becoming the parent of a deserving animal that no one else can bring themselves to love.

The Senior Dogs Project looks out for older dogs.

Because I know what an amazing group we are, and how capable of doing the impossible (because I have seen it and lived it myself), I have faith that between all of us, we might be able to actually spur the adoption of at least one less-than-adoptable pet. And that will have made the effort worthwhile.

So please: Spread the word today and then let me know what happens...because I know something will.

Meet Brownie: From guest blogger Roberta Beach Jacobson

Today's post is from guest blogger Roberta Beach Jacobson. Roberta is a contributor to Almost Perfect: Disabled Pets and the People Who Love Them. She wrote the final piece in the book, Fritz: Pink Ears, Red Tape, about her experience with a cat whose ears were terminally sunburned from the intense sunshine on her home Greek island of Karpathos. With the help of her husband, Alf Meier, she runs Animal Welfare Karpathos, an independent, all-volunteer critter rescue on their home island of Karpathos, in Greece. 25¢ of each copy of the book we sell goes to support the efforts of this worthwhile organization.

Meet Brownie.

You could say we got tricked into this foster care situation. Greek tourists on our island witnessed the pointer mix dog get bumped by a car, later by another. He had no collar, apparently no owner, so they got him into their rental car to help him.

Where to go?

Someone gave them our telephone number. One of the negatives of living on a remote island is there's no vet or shelter. My husband Alf, a photographer, is the one called to patch up all the critters in trouble.

Alf and some of his charges

Brownie, as the tourists named him, got a fiberglass cast. He moved in with us. We assume he'd never been inside a house before. So he could go outdoors when needed, we started sleeping with the kitchen door open. Our regular dog flap is too small for the likes of Brownie!

For whatever reason (my guess is from his licking) he got an infection in one of his wounds. Off came the cast. He got braces and bandages for a few days.

With our gang of 33 rescue cats and three rescue dogs around the house, we're plenty busy as it is. Still, we're doing our best to accommodate Brownie. He got a new cast. We had no more fiberglass in our makeshift volunteer clinic (better said, what we had was dried out and worthless), so Alf went to the hardware store for some plaster and got to work on creating a cast.

The Greek tourists came by our house with bones and restaurant treats a few times, but their vacation drew to a close and they headed to the ferry to depart our island.

In the meantime, Brownie was up to a few dog tricks. The plastic cone didn't stop him from gnawing at his new cast, eventually shredding parts of it to bits. We tried to outsmart him. We stapled two cones together. We don't live in the sort of place where there's a pet shop or where we can buy needed supplies. Everything is improvised. We even put a cork at the bottom of the metal stabilizing bar in his cast. (Think of cork-soled shoes!)

Brownie has needed yet another replacement cast. With a little luck, this one will last six weeks. We hope he'll recover to have full use of his leg, but part of his bone was splintered, so that remains to be seen.
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Roberta has her own blog at the Seattle Post Intelligencer online, and can be found tweeting about the beach on Twitter.

Happy Birthday to Tashi!

Back in May, we held a celebration of Be Kind to Animals Week here in Bucks County. Hosted by our gracious friends at Lackland Self Storage and Office Suites here in Ottsville, the event was an amazing success. We invited the community to watch a half-hour digital slide presentation about disabled pets, then enjoy free refreshments as we had a meet-and-greet with our Word Forge Books authors and several animal-related organizations from our area.

Tashi, a handsome and charming boy

One of those organizations was Tabby's Place, a no-kill cat shelter on the Jersey side of the river. Denise Jeffries, Senior Veterinary Technician there, brought along Tashi, a gray tiger kitty, who's paralyzed in the rear legs. Tashi has become the spokescat/mascot for Tabby's Place, and little wonder: whatever might be missing in sensory function in this little cat is more than made up for in the abundance of sweet, lovable personality! He absolutely captivated his visitors, who flocked around his carrier for a chance to shower him with affection.

Last month, Tashi celebrated his first year on Earth, so I just wanted to wish him a belated Happy Birthday from our little corner of the world. If you'd like to know more about Tashi, here's the YouTube vid of his first year. Or visit his web page to learn how you can sponsor him or other deserving kitties he lives with.