Pet food drive for the holidays

I saw this lovely local story on how a class of kids in Tehachapi conducted a pet food drive for the Tehachapi Humane Society. We really need to get something like this going in Bakersfield for the upcoming holiday season.

Anyone up for helping get one coordinated?

The Fido Awards announce their nominees

The 2009 Fido Awards has teamed with Dogs Trust, the largest dog charity in the United Kingdom, to present the nominees for the third annual Fido Awards. The Fido Awards are for canine excellence on the big screen. The winner will be announced on November 22 at BFI Southbank in London.

And the nominees are:

Historical Hound - for period drama excellence

The Young Victoria

Dean Spanley

W.

Taking Woodstock

Rom-Com Rover - for romantic-comedy companionship
The Proposal
Marley & Me
My Best Friend's Girlfriend
I Love You, Man

Comedy Canine- for outstanding comedic contribution
Fantastic Mr. Fox
Beverly Hills Chihuahua
Hotel for Dogs
Bolt

Blockbuster Bowser - for event-movie performance of the year
Gran Torino
Inglorious Basterds
Coraline
Up

Mutt Moment - for a single, stand-out canine moment
Wendy and Lucy
Fish Tank
Let the Right One In
Sleep Furiously

Dogs Trust has its own category as well, the ‘Dogs Trust Star of Tomorrow’ where people can nominate their pups to attend the awards ceremony and have their dog featured as the cover dog for their magazine, Wag!

For more information about the Fido Awards visit their website.

For more information about Dogs Trust visit their website.

HSUS Kleenex ads: Please make it stop (for a while, anyway)

Another holiday season, another so-sad-I’ll-start-crying-if-I’m-anywhere-near-PMS-time ad from the Humane Society of the United States. Their latest campaign features Wendie Malick at the plate, an actress I love dearly for her incredible comic timing and charm.

This rant has nothing to do with her and her good-heartedness at helping out the HSUS. This rant is about the sheer number of impressions of suffering animals the HSUS seems to want us to wade knee-deep through in an effort to part us from our money. And I say this as someone who actually likes the organization.

Enough already with the sad, starved, wounded creatures in need of my (financial) support. I have friends who won’t even open the envelopes from several animal agencies anymore. Not because they don’t believe in the mission, but because they can’t stand to see the abused creatures or read the heart wrenching stories. Rather than guilt my friends into donating, you’ve shamed them into tossing your appeals into the garbage, unseen and unanswered.

Can’t you try something a little different? How about rows of happy, healthy puppies and kittens along with a message of how for only $10, ten kittens were vaccinated against deadly diseases. Or a photo montage showing people who adopted pets from the shelter, along with the message that donations allowed these pets to be vaccinated, altered and housed until the met the loves of the life? Something that makes me want to join in the good vibes going around from helping pets find forever homes, rather than reach for a tissue box and the remote control?