Teddy’s big sister, Cookie  (photo: Jessica F)

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Wassup GBD!

So we’ve got something new for you today.  Over the many posts and comments that have gone up on this blog, we’ve noticed that many of you care deeply about animals.  So we thought it would be nice to bring you animal news on a regular basis.  You know how the news channels have “correspondents”?  Like White House correspondents, and foreign correspondents, etc.?  Well, today we’re proud to introduce to you our very own animal correspondent, Jessica F!

Jessica has contributed to the blog a number of times before, including movie reviews and sending in news stories.  And she loves loves loves animals.  She’s got three dogs of her own:  Cookie (who’s pictured in the photo up there), Teddy (who thought he was Superdog), and Brownie.  Considering how much poop she needs to scoop, you can be sure that her love for animals is tried and true.  She’s also working on another project, which we’ll introduce to you when she’s ready.  But in the meantime, enjoy her first write-up as GBD’s official animal correspondent.

Whoohoo Jessica!

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Hey all! I wanted to share this on behalf of Kernie, Dublin, Teddy, and the rest of our four-legged, furry GBD members.

The creators of Dogster.Com and Catster.com have partnered up with The American Red Cross and invented a new way to help pet owners ensure their pets can be found if lost!  Here is the article for the full read.

So this new creation is called Together Tags.  A Together Tag is basically a tag that has your phone number, an assigned ID number for your pet, and the Together Tags website printed on it.  I know it seems like just a basic collar, but it’s not!

When owners purchase the Together Tag charm, they also register a bunch of information about their pets, including their diets, their veterinary records, and contact information.  The big plus in this situation is that any person can log onto the site and look up the information of the lost pet.  (All they do is type in the ID# on the tag.)  No special login is necessary, nor is the information restricted!  Also, once the pet is lost, owners are able to activate an alert that notifies nearby shelters with a picture of the missing animal!  How awesome is that?!

And although microchipping your pets is a huge plus, there are four different kinds of microchips that exist, and not all animal shelters and vet offices carry all four microchip readers.  So, there’s a chance that your pet could have a microchip, but the shelter that finds him/her may not be able to scan it because its machine only reads a certain type of chip – the one that your pet doesn’t have!  While only vet offices and shelters can read the microchip, ANYONE can access information via Together Tags!  But I recommend doing both so your furry baby won’t ever be lost for good.

Hopefully this will inform you about the chances of losing a pet whether they run away or there is some sort of natural disaster and motivate you to take some action!!  I know how much the GBD readers love their animals and I would never, ever ever want any of us to lose our pets!

So, how many of you have your animals chipped or registered? 

<3,

Jessica F