We Are The World Blogfest: One of My Heroes & an Eagle

Photo courtesy of Red Wolf Sanctuary

Hello and Happy Friday, all! I have been a very lazy blogger but when I heard about the We Are The World Blogfest and learned that it only occurs once a month, I thought I would give it a try. Without going into details, I have found the past several months to be emotionally draining and have had to limit my consumption of news. So I love the idea of a fest focused on sharing positive and heart-warming news stories and am excited to join in this month.

My story features one of my heroes, Paul Strasser, the force of nature behind Red Wolf Wildlife Sanctuary. I visited Red Wolf last year and fell in love with the place. Mr. Strasser goes above and beyond every day to rescue and rehabilitate injured wildlife in our area, and often gets bit or scratched for his troubles.

You can watch the story of his latest rescue or read about it at the link below the video. Brooke AKA Liberty, the eagle in question, has done amazingly well since being rescued and is now able to eat on her own and continue recovering in a temporary outdoor enclosure. Depending on her recovery, she will either live out her days at Red Wolf or be returned to the wild.




http://www.fox19.com/story/35135935/injured-eagle-hopes-to-soar-again-at-indiana-sanctuary

And just to share a little more sweetness, this is a baby red fox who was found in the middle of a road and is now also recovering at Red Wolf. I don't think she could be any cuter!



The main thing that struck me about Mr. Strasser when I met him was how kind he is. And Red Wolf itself reminds me of a this quote I love from the Dalai Lama.

"Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible." 

Click the badge to learn more about the blogfest and sign up if you'd like to participate!

Celebrating a Trip Out West

Hello, all! I missed the Celebrate hop last week because I had the good fortune to be traveling out west and visiting Utah. It was an amazing trip and definitely something to celebrate.

I've wanted to visit Best Friends Animal Sanctuary in Kanab, Utah, since I volunteered as a writer for them back in 2010. That experience led me to the blogging and writing journey that has changed my life in truly wonderful ways, so it meant a great deal to finally visit the place in person.

The sanctuary is located in beautiful Angel Canyon, shown in the picture above, which is of the view from the Angel Cafe lunchroom. It's home to nearly 2,000 animals, including dogs, cats, pigs, horses, birds, rabbits, and many others.

My friend and I stayed at one of the sanctuary cottages, which was located right by Horse Haven and Piggie Paradise. So we got to meet these cuties.

Three little pigs enjoying an afternoon nap

I volunteered at Bunny House and met some adorable bunnies. I also held bunnies for the first time ever. They are the sweetest!

I also volunteered at Dog Town and took several doggies on walks along trails in the canyon. That was not a chore, as this was the view at the end of one of the trails.

Two of my walking pals:

Petunia

Rumba, who was found as a feral stray in the Mojave Desert

Best Friends was one of the most beautiful and peaceful places I've ever visited, and I loved it even more than I thought I would. It was heartwarming and good for my soul to see so many sweet animals being treated with love and kindness. And while I'm sure it's not a utopia, the people we encountered all seemed happy and peaceful too. I think maybe there is something in the Angel Canyon air. ;) 

The sun going down over Angel Canyon

I also visited Bryce Canyon and Zion National Parks and will post about those adventures next week. It's safe to say I'm now totally in love with Utah's Canyon Country. 

The Celebrate the Small Things hop is hosted by my buddy Lexa Cain and co-hosted by L.G Keltner at Writing Off the Edge, Tonja Drecker at Kidbits, and Katie at The Cyborg Mom. Visit Lexa's blog here to find out how join in the hop yourself and to see the list of participants.











Happy April and best of luck to everyone participating in the A-Z Challenge. Have fun! :)

Favorite Cat Rescues, the Realms Faire, and Friday Celebrations

Since National Cat Day was this week I thought I would share some of my favorite cat rescues for this week's Friday Faves. These organizations all do amazing work!

Best Friends Animal Society

As I've mentioned before, writing for Best Friends changed my life and signing up to volunteer for them was one of the best decisions I've ever made. Someday I hope to visit Best Friends in Kanab, Utah and take a trip to Cat World which is, in their words, "a place where cats rule."




Tabby's Place 

Thanks to Best Friends I got to know the amazing people and cats of Tabby's Place in Ringoes, New Jersey. Tabby's Place is a cat sanctuary dedicated to bringing hope to cats in hopeless situations. They care for numerous special needs cats and are known for finding forever homes for cats thought to be "unadoptable." I wrote a story for Cat Fancy about three kittens who were rescued by a US marine in Japan and came clear across the world to Tabby's Place, where they ultimately found a home with a woman in Pennsylvania. Tabby's Place is an extraordinary and one-of-a-kind place.

Juanita: One of the darling cats available for adoption at Tabby's Place

Ohio Alleycat Resource

Located here in Cincinnati, OAR is a low-cost spay/neuter clinic for cats that also runs a cat rescue. The clinic has performed more than 6900 spay/neuter surgeries so far this year, cutting down exponentially on the number of unwanted cats and kittens in our area. The rescue, which houses as many as 90-100 cats at any given time, has taken in more than 200 cats and adopted out nearly as many so far in 2013.

Ashley, a long-haired beauty currently waiting for her home at OAR

Purrfect Friends Cat Rescue

Another Cincinnati rescue, Purrfect Friends is an all-volunteer organization which relies on foster families to care for their rescued cats. The Purrfect Friends won this Game of Thrones fanatic's heart when they named a group of adorable kittens after GoT characters. Little mother of dragons Daenerys is still waiting for her forever home.

Daenerys

Paws & Claws Animal Rescue

Paws & Claws is based across the river from Cincinnati in Northern Kentucky and is another rescue that relies entirely on foster families to house its animals. The tireless volunteers of Paws & Claws operate under the motto "one by one until there are none." While they are not limited to cats, they always have numerous cats and kittens available for adoption.

Simba, one of the Paws & Claws kitties waiting for a new home

Moving on from the kitties, I want to thank everyone who participated in my October giveaway. Jossie at Dreaming of Publication won the Polar Night ebook and $10 Amazon gift card. Enjoy, Jossie!

Instead of a monthly giveaway in November I am participating in a mega-giveaway with my Untethered Realms buddies as part of this year's Realms Faire. The faire will be held from November 11-15 and there will be lots of fun, lots of prizes, and lots of chances to win. Visit host M. Pax here for more details and stay tuned for info on our big prize!

For this week's Celebrate the Small Things hop I was hoping to be able to celebrate the Bengals beating the Dolphins last night and going to 7-2. Unfortunately that didn't work out, to the surprise of none of us who follow the Bengals. If there's one thing the Bengals excel at it's taking the wind out of fans' sails.

But they're still in first place and my Buckeyes are rolling at 8-0 so I'm celebrating a fun football season so far and keeping my fingers crossed that the rest of the season will bring more to celebrate.

Also, it's been a long and tiring week here so I'm mostly celebrating the fact that the weekend is here. I hope everyone has a great one. :)

National Dog Day and Wickedly They Come

August 26 is National Dog Day and Clancy is thrilled to have the chance to celebrate.

National Dog Day was founded in 2004 by pet lifestyle and author expert Colleen Paige. The day is an opportunity to raise awareness of and encourage dog rescue and adoption while also celebrating the joy of family dogs and the selflessness of service dogs, police dogs, search and rescue dogs and all of the working dogs who do so much to enrich our world.

My way of celebrating the day is to share a few more rescue dogs from my area who are waiting for their forever homes. Click on each dog's name for information on how to adopt them.

Buster from Three Sisters Pet Rescue

Nina from Fourgotten Paws Animal Rescue

Stella from the SPCA of Cincinnati

Nightingale from the Kenton County Animal Shelter

When I searched Petfinder for these dogs, I unfortunately found more than 5700 homeless dogs within 100 miles of Cincinnati! To find adoptable dogs in your area, simply go to Petfinder.com, enter your city or zip code, and limit your search to dogs.

The Dog Day site has many suggestions for how to celebrate the day, including donating time, money or supplies to a local shelter, writing your congressperson and asking for their support in efforts to ban puppy mills, assisting an elderly neighbor with walking their dog, or simply showering your own dog with extra love and goodies. For the full list of suggestions, click here.

I'd hate to imagine a world without dogs in it so I think this is a day that is definitely worth celebrating. However, someone in my house disagrees and feels like the whole thing is a waste of time and energy.

I promised Nate that National Cat Day is coming up in October so he was at least somewhat appeased.

In other news, this past weekend was a big one for my friend Cathrina Constantine, as her debut novel Wickedly They Come was released out into the world! Yay!

Cathrina is hosting a big giveaway to celebrate her release and you can find all the details, as well as read an excerpt from the book, here.

I happen to know that Cathrina is a dog (and cat) lover so I didn't think she'd mind sharing a post with the dogs. :D Congratulations, Cathy!