About Me: The Animal (Advocacy) Addict!

ThoughtsFurPaws.com is all about my experiences with anything and everything pets.

Some people call me a fanatic – and I happen to believe there are lots of others like me out there.

I call myself an “Animaniac,” like the old cartoon. Remember? “We’re ani-man-iacs, we’re zany to the max…”

Administrator/Author/Owner & “Animaniac” JL Smith 

I write and share personal stories here to share, educate, advocate and even learn (more than I know) about:

- animal welfare causes

- animal welfare legislation

- the politics of “pets,” i.e., recent pet causes

- the puppy mill industry

- pet charity and rescue/shelters

- cats and dogs: breeds, behaviors, nutrition, health

-And to offer up funny stories and pet loss poems and info

BUT THE BEST PARTS ARE:

*** TONS OF FUN stories, funny pet pictures, funny dogs and cats, stories & other random pet “stuff” about my day-to-day life with our animals, friends’ and family pets, rescue pets, and intriguing/silly/fun or cause-related pet stories I find elsewhere!!!

- ThoughtsFurPaws.com is also more recently noted for its AWESOME pet photo contests (or more accurately, for the “awesomeness” of the contest PRIZES!) Contests are at random so check often to see what’s up or sign up to subscribe!

** Please note: I will probably end up stirring the online pot a bit as I have no problem with sharing my strong opinions. On the same note: I seriously encourage ANY and ALL comments, as I’d like ThoughtsFurPaws to be a “sharing and learning plus some fun” forum. (I will not (as of 07/2010) accept comments with embedded links, fake email addresses, curse words, personal attacks, or other offensive language or assumptions (about the story, another commenter, myself, another writer, etc).)

Mostly, I’ll be sharing the very deep-down-”in the trenches” education I’ve obtained by/through:

* Owning & training pets my whole life (okay, not my WHOLE life, but I did start bringing animals home at the age of 6…and I started training when I was about 14)

* Working with multiple local city/county shelters in the three different states that I’ve lived in (Ohio, Colorado and California)

* Interning and volunteering for almost a decade at county humane societies in three states

* Interning for one year at the Colorado Division of Wildlife, where I diligently spent nearly ALL my free time conceptualizing, carrying out, and finding GREAT success for the non-profit by creating an entirely unique volunteer retention, local donations, and public events & awareness campaign

* Interning at the Larimer County (CO) Humane Society for 6 months in college

* Being a Local Campaign Manager for two national animal welfare organizations

I also want to share the ups, the downs, twists and turns in owning, working with, volunteering for or just plain LOVING pets. Light-hearted

Sasha

stories and musings about my beloved pets will come to light, plus you’ll read about pets in the news, funny pet stories, animal welfare issues, and SO much more.

Since 2000, my family had two Golden Retrievers, Benson and Gibson, litter-mates. We also had a rescue cat named Nickodemus (after the kids movie “The Secret of Nimh”). Unfortunately, Nicky crossed the rainbow bridge in 2009. Gibby was taken by cancer in a matter of seconds as it went straight to his heart on February 12, 2010.

I personally have owned (or have been owned by!) two cats since 1998 – my sophomore year in college. They are both rescues, Theodore and Sasha. To my dismay, once again, on February 8th, 2010 Theodore (my BEST FRIEND) was taken from me by that evil Cancer monster. I have never been bestowed with such a loving and joyful gift as Theodore and he will never be forgotten.

So it WAS  just my family, Benson & Sasha for 7 months.

Tater Tot

And then there were two…

We then added (Sept 2010) a rescue kitten, Maxwell. We’re pretty sure he was a “dump” as we found him playing with cigarette butts in a parking garage in a “not-so-safe area” of downtown Cleveland; then we got Tater Tot, a wild cat who had two or three homes before he got here, just about three weeks after Max.

(Benny passed away earlier in 2012 unfortunately.)

Stay tuned for special stories about these special pets.

Maxwell, aka Mad Max

** Plus I have some really funny dog stories and damn cute dog and cat photos of our pets PLUS the extended family pets - which include my sister’s Basset Hounds (a foster Basset named Franklin {former puppy mill stud dog she rescued from Ohio Basset Rescue}, a foster named Ramsey, plus Barney the perma-Barn! PLUS she has three sweet rescue kitties, Lily, Meeps, and Gracie Lou.

Phew! That’s a lot of animals! (Actually if the city and county would allow it, I would have probably 8 cats and 3 dogs…)

This is something that CONSTANTLY comes up:

If I MUST choose my preference between dogs and cats – the age old question among us pet-lovers and bloggers – I just couldn’t do it. There are too many sides to the coin and too few ways to flip it.

Throughout my life I have brought home every kind of four-legged friend you can imagine, starting when I was about 6 my Mother told me: frogs, turtles, lizards (in CA), stray cats and dogs, other people’s cats and dogs, rabbits, fish (okay so they don’t have four legs), and a variety of rodents (including a white dairy farm rat – don’t ask).

I seem to have a sign on my forehead that only animals can read that says, “WELCOME: You Will Be Safe Here.”

Anyhow, I currently volunteer and/or donate in-kind and in giving to:

-  American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA)

-  Defenders of Wildlife (DOW)

- The Doris Day Animal League

- Humane Society of the United States (HSUS)

- American Humane Association (AHA)

- Humane Society Legislative Fund

- World Wildlife Federation (WWF)

- Natural Resources Defense Council

- 4+ local rescues/shelters including: Peace for Animals (PAX), Love-A-Stray (cat & dog rescue), the Public Animal Welfare Society and Safety for Animals and Families in Emergencies – all based in/around Cleveland, OH, and Coalition to Ban Ohio Dog Auctions in Columbus.

* I’m now partnered with other pet experts & bloggers, writing for prestigious and esteemed companies’ websites, including the ”by-invite-only”  The Bissell Pack of Pet Lovers, and NBC Universal’s pet industry Internet arm, Petside.com and it’s “Annual Pet Blog Cause Day” (2008: Pet Net Adoption Event and 2009: Pet Safety Event plus a 2010 PetNet event. In addition, I am the Cleveland, Ohio Pet Rescue Examiner… which I’ve totally neglected a bit lately… and was a Star Blogger for We Are Pet Nation before they let the site go. You can read my posts about The State of Puppy Mills, Animal Welfare Resolutions for 2012, and What are The Most Reputable Animal Welfare Org.s and How Can You Tell? WAPN stopped blogging a few months back (around 1/1/12).

Let me know what you think of the site below. I love feedback! Keep in mind I do not have much money to operate ThoughtsFurPaws.com so if it’s slow or outdated every now and then — that’s why!

“If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went.”
~ Will Rogers

© Copyright Notice: All content, photos and materials are solely, personally owned; this blog is monitored by the FCC and its Author/Administrator/Owner, JL Smith.

All posts are copyrighted in her name and are not permitted for use on other sites without written permission from the owner.

Abusers of this policy and Copyright notice will be pursued…

Please contact me at thoughtsfurpaws@gmail.com.