On a dark Friday morning I was still tightly tucked in, in a position known in our house as my "Call of the Wild" curl. This is when my nose gets tucked in deep, against dreamy pretend wind, turning me into a tight ball of soundly sleeping fur. What was I being disturbed for, at the ungodly hour of 4:30 AM? My female needed me to go with PL to drop her off at the airport. She has a hard time with goodbyes.
My female headed to Ohio and a pet blogging conference called Blog Paws 2010. The first of its kind. Thanks go to Mar's Pedigree US for sponsoring her, she would not have been able to attend otherwise (though truthfully I didn't like her leaving me).
Well this dark morning I put on my brave game face, and got into the flying bed to escort her to SFO, though secretly once I got into the car I needed to wee like mad.
BlogPaws is an organization designed to unite the online pet community, and their first event drew over 200 pet lovers, many of them bloggers and/or pet professionals - all are 100% pet friendly. Over $10,000 from the event was donated to three animal shelters.
Though she has since returned, my female continues to be inspired by the people she met at Blog Paws, all of the stories she heard there and all of the work that many around the country are doing for the sake of pets. Thank you @frugaldougal you created the PawPawty and a movement! Where else can we raise money while drinking a bark-tini?
My female isn't alone with her appreciation of how amazing Blog Paws was... Joan DeMartin, a blogger at Bocci's Beefs wrote this wonderful article about the pet blogging conference on Cesar Milan's dog news site.
You can read lots of articles and see photos from the conference here at DogTipper.com, they are keeping track - as of today there are 76 listed!
My female is passionate about helping important causes like the Pedigree Adoption Drive. Why? First of all because I'm a rescue dog. My pack found me at the SF/SPCA five years ago now. I'm also the muse behind Grouchy Puppy (TM). I inspired the name because I'm often misunderstood, like many people.
My blog Cleo's Day will show how sometimes people young and old are quick to judge me or make assumptions about me. I like to prove them wrong, though sometimes I'm not sure they appreciate it. [cough, no sir I am not a wolf, even if you want me to be]
I consider myself lucky and grateful because though I was surrendered to a shelter up north, the folks there saw my potential and called the SF/SPCA. There are many others that are not so fortunate.
This turned out to be the perfect event for my female to meet like-minded people who love rescues and purebreds! Everyone that attended or were part of the exhibits clearly were passionate about pets.
Since the meet up, we have already joined in our first Blog Pawty. We helped celebrate the first Be the Change Blog Day! Now what's next? We plan to help Pedigree reach lots of new Facebook fans so they can keep giving bowls of food to shelters as each new fan signs up!
My pack is everything to me and it is up to each of us to demonstrate a little gratitude and help those who are not so lucky. I am sure my female will continue to try and make a difference, just like Pedigree, just like the wonderful people who made Blog Paws happen - thanks Yvonne, Tom & Caroline, and certainly all the pet people and pack leaders that attended.
@YourDailyCute @boulderdog1 @Felissahadas @CosmoHavanese @designcoyote @BunnyJeanCook @Nigelbugger @petfinder @brewskiebutt @fergusthedog @AboutDogs @blogpaws
These are just some of the Twitter followers of @grouchypuppy who made the time away from me all the better. They made my female feel that she is on to something with all of this following me around the house, writing and taking my picture.
I'll keep you posted on how I handle that. Woof woof -Cleo
Cleo, you write wonderfully! We were honored to have your pet parent at BlogPaws and only wish you could have been there, too. How wonderful to hear your story - it brought tears to my eyes.
Ask your female to also follow @mypetblog on twitter. As we build our BlogPaws Community (our family, so to speak) we hope to generate more donations to shelters so more dogs, like you, will be adopted.
Huggaboo to you! Yvonne
Posted by: Yvonne DiVita | 04/29/2010 at 09:38 AM
Thanks Miss Yvonne! If you are ever in SF I promise to let you hug me for reals...xx
Posted by: Cleo | 04/29/2010 at 01:21 PM