Poooper of the Month is Back!

Some of our long time clients may remember in the early days of Poooh Busters we used to do a fun little thing called “Poooper of the Month” (POM). Back then I asked our current clients to submit a picture and a little bio about their dog or dogs. I would then feature their dog(s) on our website and in our printed, monthly newsletter that we hand delivered to our weekly clients each month. It was a fun way of sharing our love for dogs and for our clients who supported us.

Well we sat down and talked about it as a team and decided we wanted to bring back this tradition, but we're going to change it up just a little. Now that we have a Facebook page we have a much better way of communicating and sharing with not only our clients but everyone who is a member of our page.

We want to once again take the time to acknowledge our awesome fan base and their dogs by highlighting them for all to see! Poooh Busters is proud to bring back an old and long-time tradition of featuring a dog or family of dogs each and every month.

Here’s all you need to do to enter your dog(s):

1. You do not need to be an existing client of Poooh Busters, only a fan of our page. Go here, “Like” our page and you’re eligible.
2. Pick your dog! One you would like featured. It can be your current dog, a beloved dog from your past, a dog you know that is special to you and you'd like them to be acknowledged.
3. Send a picture and a bio to POM@pooohbusters.com . Tell us why they are so special, why you love them, what crazy habits or quirks they have and how they came to be in your family. It doesn't have to include all this info, just something fun and whatever you’d like everyone to know about this special dog in your life.

Once we have gone over all the entries for the current month we’ll feature the winner on our Facebook page and I will post a new story on the Poooh Busters Blog highlighting the winner. In addition to featuring the winning dog, Poooh Busters will give a $25 cash donation to the pet charity of the winner's choice. Just our own way of giving back.

At the end of 2013, we will have a year-end contest where all our fans, their families and friends will vote for their most favourite POM for 2013. The one with the highest votes will get a really great grand prize! We're still deciding what this will be but we'll keep you posted.

We are extremely excited to begin again this old tradition we started some six years ago. Join in the fun help us to feature some really great dogs for everyone to see!

One Christmas Wish For Your Pet.

As the administrator for the Poooh Busters Facebook page and general online presence for PooohBusters I get to interact with so many different people from many different backgrounds. The one thing we all have in common is our love for animals.

On December 10^th, I posted a question to our Facebook fans asking, “If you could give your pet anything in the world for Christmas, what would you give them?”

The responses received were overwhelming and touching to say the very least. It really put some perspective on how much we take for granted when it comes to the health and well being of our beloved pets.

I've captured a screen shot of the conversation so you can see exactly what I mean.

Generally I post a question or a topic for conversation, I then comment on my own post in order to get the replies started. I always do this immediately upon creating the post. In this case you can see two of our fans posted a response even before I had a chance to submit my own. The first response almost brought tears to my eyes. Especially after my own superficial response about giving my pets a nice home in the Caribbean; a tongue-in-cheek wish that was really for my own benefit and not for the benefit of my pets.

After reading all the responses, I truly felt fortunate that I currently have happy, healthy, well adjusted pets with no pending critical illness or extreme behaviour issues.

We always know in the back of our minds that there are so many people in the world who are less fortunate than we are. People with no families, no food, shelter or even any hope for their future.

Now I know that I am also very fortunate to have the lovely pets that I do. But most of all in a world full of animal cruelty, neglect and abuse, I’m thankful and so very lucky to have such great people following the Poooh Busters page.

Knowing that there are so many folks out there who truly love and care for their pets. People whose only wish is to have their pets by there side for much longer than the short time we are given.

ARF's 2012 Walk n' Wag

Several times each year Poooh Busters participates or donates to a few of the many worthwhile causes in Calgary. Next Sunday, September 23rd we'll be doing it again and this one is one of my favourites.

The Animal Rescue Foundation (ARF) will be holding its Third Annual Walk n' Wag. We are proud to say that we have been there each and every year helping out at this fun event. This is one of the few fund raisers where we have been there from the start and thoroughly enjoy every second of it.

ARF started the Annual Walk n' Wag to help them reach there goal of raising $1,000,000 by 2014, enough money to open there own facility. It's their Pad for Paws campaign. To date they have raised an incredible $400,000!

We hope this year's Walk n Wag gets them even closer. You can help too! Just go to there Walk n' Wag website and register to become a participant. Not only will you be helping ARF reach their goal, you'll have a ton of fun doing it. Everyone brings their dogs and walks the short route. Every year it just get better and more fun!

Poooh Busters will be there handing out poooh bags at the beginning and we'll be there at the end of the walk to pick up the used ones.

So come on out, have fun and enjoy spending time with your dog and some cool friends. What a great way to spend a Sunday afternoon!

ARF's 2012 Walk n' Wag

Sunday, September 23, 2012

River Park, Calgary - 14 A Street and 50 Avenue SW

Registration opens at 10:30 am and the walk will be followed by an awesome BBQFor further info and or to answer any questions you may have contact ARF directly at:(403)-243-1910 or padforpaws@arf.ab.ca

Lest Ye Judge

Well it's been about a year since my last blog. I took a break from being Big Nate and attended to some things that were long since calling for my attention.

Now I'm back in full swing working with the Poooh Busters crew again to promote responsible pet guardianship, pet care and the general well being of our most beloved creatures.

My first blog upon returning is being sparked by a couple of pictures I posted on our Facebook page. I wanted to show the world what a great thing we were doing cleaning up a new client's winter long poop build up. We get many, many calls from folks who don't get a chance to make it out to the yard or the dog run to scoop the poop throughout our crazy, Calgary winters. In the spring, the snow melts and reveals a rather overwhelming mess.

Most folks realize they let it get out of hand and call us to come help. We are always glad to do so. After all, without these situations we certainly wouldn't have the client base we do!

After posting the before and after pics of a an initial cleaning we did for a dog run, many of our fans expressed a passionate response to what they saw. The original intent of the posting was to show any potential clients who come to visit our page what we can do! We can take a poooh-filled dog run and make it look beautiful again. We just wanted to show a transformation and certainly did not want to put our client's situation on display for public chastisation (is that even a word?).

Now our team sees this kind of thing all the time and to us this was not even close to the worst of what we have seen. Trust me, this particular job took next to no time to do and generated 5 or 6 bags of waste. We go to some places where the massive amounts of poooh has been stepped in because there simply is not any visible ground to walk on! We walk out of some yards 2 or 3 hours later with 20 bags of waste.

To us, this job and all the others we do every Spring was just business as usual (no pun intended). We posted pictures of this particular job because it had a dramatic before and after effect.

So all I ask is please do not judge, we certainly don't. We know that scooping the poop is not something we think about on a regular basis. It's out of sight and out of mind. Simply put, people have so much going on in their lives that it is easy to let it go. Then one day you go out and BAM! The sheer amount of the poop build-up catches you off guard. Hey even the Poooh Busters team can be guilty of not staying on top of their own dog run that is shared by four very large pooches.

Mrs. Big Nate and I rely heavily on the team to come clean our yard every Monday too. If it weren't for them, our yard would have tons of little bombs everywhere from a winter of neglect.

Let he who has never sinned cast the first stone!

What About Dad?

Father's Day is this Sunday, so there's still time to find a thoughtful gift for your the dog dad in your life, and here are just a few ideas:

1. Honor dad's generous spirit with a donation to the Calgary Humane Society or his favourite rescue organization in his name.
2. Give a dog dad the gift of time: wrap up a custom-made coupon for dog washes or grooming, dog walking, or even a photo shoot.
3. Celebrate the love of a pup with a framed photo - perfect for the mantle or a dog dad's desk.
4. Surprise a dog dad with a photo mug or keychain featuring his best friend. Find a website with photo gifts, upload a photo and you're set.
5. How about a gift certificate from an awesome online pet boutique? Sometimes dad likes to pamper his best friend!
6. Plan a special outing (you, dad and dog), pack a picnic and enjoy an outdoor day of summer fun.

So don't forget the doggie loving dad's this weekend. They aren't always just about big screen TVs and Surround Sound Systems. Well maybe just a little...

Happy Father's Day! Woof!

Why Can’t We Be More Like Dogs?

Dogs are always true to themselves. They do what they want, live in each and every moment and are completely happy with whom they are.

We as humans however, trudge off to work everyday and face the unbearable monotony of our boring and unfulfilling work day. Why do we do this? In order to achieve all the things we are told we want. House, car, nice clothes, vacations and so on. We work 40, 50 or 60 hours each week to make the money we need to buy these things and most of us are unhappy in the jobs we do. And once we buy all this stuff, most of us are still unhappy and we continue to only see the things that we don’t have. It’s a vicious circle and we spend our lives existing instead of actually living.

Dogs however, take each moment as it comes. Although many dogs experience extreme sadness and despair through neglect, abuse, starvation and loneliness, they still find the good in everything and experience extreme joy once all that hardship passes.

Most dogs living within good families sit at home day after day waiting for us to return and as boring as it may get for them, they are completely happy doing so. They wait patiently for us to return which is the highlight of their day. They really only have one desire, to be our friend and companion. They only want to love and be loved in return. Everything else is either an annoyance or a bonus.

How simple would life be for us if all we cared about was being someone’s friend and wanting to be loved by those closest to us?

This old dog could certainly stand to learn a new trick.

Even Feral Dogs Deserve A Chance

I have a friend named Patty who recently moved to the Okotoks area and lives in a house with good sized yard. A perfect set up for someone who loves dogs and cats!

After moving there she quickly found an awesome rescue organization based in Okotoks called Pound Rescue. Believing in what they do, Patty ended up fostering a loveable little pup named Charlie who had met with some very bad luck early in his life. Due to his injuries, Charlie ended up losing one of his rear legs. The three-legged dog soon made his way into Patty’s heart and she went from fostering him to adopting him. I always meant to blog on this story because Patty’s dedication to Charlie was amazing as she nursed him back to health, created a loving home for him to feel safe in and eventually making him into the confident, fully functioning dog he is today.

Yesterday, Patty sent me a note on a new Pound Rescue foster she has dedicated her time to, a feral puppy she named Bear. She received this puppy only a week ago, he is only three months old and is believed to have never interacted or even been touched by human hands. He and his siblings were found on April 18th covered in porcupine quills.

Below is an email update she recently sent to Pound Rescue to let them know how Bear is progressing with his rehab into a home filled with love, food and a safe environment. Keep in mind, Bear is a wild puppy and has never known life with humans.

“I picked up the puppy on Thursday, April 21st in the AM, feeling sorry for him from the start when the vet picked him up and he defecated all over himself because he was so terrified. I got him home and into the kennel where he cowered into the corner.

I spent most of Thursday leaving him alone; Charlie and the cats spent lots of time in his room checking him out, I would walk in the room occasionally and just talk to him. Thursday evening I was able hand feed and he even let me crawl into the kennel to spend the night petting and scratching!

Friday I picked up an X-pen, which I set up in the living room by the TV (for people noise), in front of the window (for viewing) and right where he could see the other animals and myself all the time. This allowed me to also sit in the pen with him and Charlie while watching TV and I could pet Bear for hours!

Saturday we progressed to outside in the yard, I felt like the poor guy needed a stretch! I left a leash on him but let him run in the yard and just be a puppy. He came running to me on the deck with Charlie when I held out a treat and called. After that he started to come up to me over and over again to see if and whenI had any more to hand out. Turns out Bear loves the squeaky toys, and runs after this one special dog ball I have in the yard. Saturday night was spent in the pen again, all three of us, getting pets and loving!

Sunday was the best! We went in the yard again, Bear ran and played with toys and with Charlie, and even remember to come running to me to check my hand for treats again. My friend Chris came by with his dog, Bailey. They all three played and played, Chris could not believe his eyes! Sunday night in the pen again (need a bigger pen), Bear enjoyed getting pets until he fell asleep.

Monday I left him in his pen with Charlie roaming free in the house. While I’m at work, they have the window to look out and each other for company and when I get home we'll go outside for more play time.

If you can believe it, he's even started using the dog training, pee pads! Whew!”

This is just the beginning for Patty, Bear, three-legged Charlie and the cats. Patty’s goal is to be able to trust the newly rehabilitated Bear and Charlie with the run of the house in about a month. This is another example of people’s dedication and love for the unwanted and unfortunate. What would we do without folks like Patty and the people who run rescue organizations like Pound Rescue?

Keep it up Patty, we’re rooting for you and Bear! I think she’s actually thinking of renaming him from Bear to Teddy.

For more information on Pound Rescue visit their website at http://www.poundrescue.com/ or "Like" them on their Facebook fan page.