Animals love social media

Written by alliephillips on May 15, 2012 — Leave a Comment

When I started officially working in animal rescue and protection in 2000, there was no such thing as social media. Facebook, Twitter, and other sites had not become a reality. At that time, homeless companion animals were just starting to make their way onto websites (such as Petfinder). Now imagine back to the 1980’s or even earlier when none of those options existed. We’ve come a long way, baby, and the animals are benefitting.

While it seems like we’re always treading with our head barely above water to safely place so many animals each day, and we wonder whether we are actually making progress, I want to tell you that we are making progress. Social media is now an amazing tool that we have at our fingertips to help us help companion animals. Here are some ways that social media is helping:

  • To promote the adoption of companion animals in shelters and with rescue organizations;
  • To feature difficult-to-adopt companion animals;
  • To help get an animal out of an unsafe situation (being abandoned in a foreclosed home);
  • To help fundraise for a specific animal-in-need or for an improvement at a shelter;
  • To help raise awareness of an issue, such as a legislative bill or a petition to help animals;
  • To mobilize communities to take action on an issue related to animal protection;
  • To advertise fundraising events or community programs;
  • To share stories and information about your efforts to help animals, especially post-adoption stories.

This list goes on and on as to the benefits of social media for animals. I could not even begin to speculate on how many Facebook and Twitter pages are dedicated to shelters and people helping animals. I see hundreds of postings a day about animals that need help. And while we wonder whether these postings fall on blind eyes or actually work, they are helping more often than not.

For example, on March 16, 2012, the St. Croix Animal Welfare Center put out a request for $250 to replace a dilapidated washing machine. Allstar Rescue inNew Jerseyprovided the money. Despite over a 2000 mile distance between Allstart Rescue andSt. Croix, social media worked to help bring them together.

And just this morning, the Humane Society of Midland County in Michigan put out a plea for cat food and printer paper and people were responding immediately to fill the need. That same shelter also put a plea on their Facebook page on May 10th to have feral and semi-feral cats placed in barns. Not only did someone come forward and offer to provide free transport between the shelter and the barns, but another lady found a barn willing to take four of the cats. Although this particular shelter is working endlessly to have all of their animals placed, finding a safe home for feral or semi-feral cats is extremely challenging. They went to social media to help and it worked.

If you work or volunteer for a shelter or rescue organization, or simply have a voice to help animals, you can reach more people through social media. Having a Facebook and Twitter account can help you reach people across the globe (and you can connect those two accounts together so that you simply post on one page and it automatically posts on the other).

Here are some other social media options to consider:

  • YouTube is a compelling tool to help you share videos of animals in need.
  • Picasa is a tool that I have used to create slide show video presentations of shelter animals. Click here to see an example.
  • LinkedIn is a professional networking site where you can connect with professionals in the field (which is excellent for obtaining advice) and to animal-related groups for updates, news, and information.
  • Care2 is good for taking action on petitions, or for creating your own free online petition to raise awareness of a cause.
  • The Petition Site is also a good site for taking action on petitions or starting your own.
  • Change.org lists animals one of their top causes and provides information on current trends and issues that need action.
  • MeetUp will help you bring together people in your community for events, meetings, etc.
  • HootSuite is a tool to help you combine all of your social media sites in one platform which not only saves on time, but also provides you with ways to measure your results and who you reach.
  • ChipIn is a quick and easy way to raise money online and provides you a fund-meter that you can place on your website.
  • Or create a free online blog to feature your great work!

King Street Cats, where I volunteer, is now using multiple social media platforms to help our cat orphanage. We currently have a ChipIn campaign to help with some excessive veterinary bills and have raised over $3,500 in just a week. We also create videos and place them on YouTube to help promote our cats. And our Facebook and Twitter pages have multiple postings each day. All of this effort is due to a handful of volunteers who are dedicated to these tasks.

Although shelters and rescue organizations are always overworked and struggling to get basic work accomplished, it is worthwhile to find someone (even a volunteer) who will take on your social media presence and spend even just an hour a day posting information about adoptable pets, asking for help, and advertising what you are doing. Just a little effort goes a long way.

If you have a successful social media story, please share so that we can all learn! And if you already haven’t signed up for my Facebook or Twitter feeds, please join in on our great conversations to help animals!

 

Posted in Animal Shelters, Extraordinary Stories, Innovative Ideas | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Happy Mother’s Day

Written by alliephillips on May 13, 2012 — Leave a Comment

I would like to wish everyone a Happy Mother’s Day, and especially to those who are mothers to our furry or feathered family members. Thank you for providing a loving home to our animal companions, especially if you adopted from a shelter or rescued your companion animal.

We are at the beginning of the busy season for animal shelters and animal rescue organizations across the United States. Kitten season is in full bloom and our shelters are already becoming overcrowded. If you have already opened your motherly heart to a companion animal or two and are not in a position to take in another, considering spending today to spread the word to others about adopting. Social media, like this blog, Facebook, Twitter, etc., are wonderful methods to share information about companion animals who need a loving home. Can you spend even just 30 minutes today to peruse online sites to find postings for companion animals and share those with others? Maybe today, a small effort on your part will match someone with a pet that needs a home. And there is no better way to celebrate Mother’s Day than to help someone else become a mom to a homeless pet.

Another option is to open your home to foster a pet in need. Shelters always receive pets who need a home environment to thrive. So if you have the space and little more room in your heart, you can save lives by becoming a foster parent. It really is a wonderful joy to help a homeless pet for a few days, weeks or months until they find their permanent home.

If you volunteer for a shelter or rescue organization, consider a Mother’s Day adoption event to feature some of your mom pets who are ready for adoption. Check out the promotion that King Street Cats (where I volunteer) has been running all month.

So today, let’s celebrate all of the mothers who not only have human children, but those who have animal children that bless their homes. And in the process let’s help some of these adorable companion animals find loving homes today.

Thank you for all that you do  to help our animal friends and I know that they send their love back to you.

Posted in Animal Shelters, Getting Started | Tagged , , , ,

Getting Involved

Written by alliephillips on May 2, 2012 — 2 Comments

Let’s see a show of hands … how many of you lead a very full life and struggle every day to balance work, family, friends, activities, and hope to carve out a little down-time for yourself? How many of you love animals and wish you could find a way to get involved or, if you are involved, to do a little bit more but cannot fathom adding more to your busy schedule? I am certainly raising my hands on both of those. And even though it seems like every aspect of my life involves helping animals in some way, there’s always one more animal to help and more to do, right?

So, how can you maintain balance and sanity in your world and fulfill your heart’s longing to do more for animals? The answers can be surprisingly simple. Here are just a few simple things that you can do each day or even just once a week to make an impact:

  • When you are shopping, check the labels on cosmetics, bath & body products and household cleaners to make sure you are purchasing cruelty free products. Check out Leaping Bunny for a listing of cruelty-free companies.
  • If you consume animal products, consider making one day an “animal-free day”, such as Meatless Mondays or Tofu Thursdays! If you reduce your intake of animal products by even one day per week, collectively this could have a big impact on the number of animals kept in confinement.
  • As you clean out closets, consider donating old and clean linens to your local animal shelter. The comfort of a towel or blanket can go a long way to helping a homeless pet feel comfortable while they wait for a new home.
  • If you have a social media page, join a few animal protection pages (especially those that are local to your community) and share posts about animals that are in need of help or a good home. Simply by taking a few minutes every day to pass along information could result in a homeless pet finding a new home, or funds being raised to care for a pet with significant medical costs.
  • If you are able to listen to online radio shows at work, check out All Paws Pet Talk Radio, Animals Today Radio, Animal Wise Radio, The Real Dr. Doolittle, Dog Talk or Cat Chat with Tracie Hotchner, or search for online shows about animals. Listening to these stations may provide you with some simple ideas on how to get involved. Please check out my weekly segments on All Paws Pet Talk Radio, along with other radio interviews on how to help animals.

For more ideas, have you grabbed a copy of my book Defending the Defenseless: A Guide to Protecting and Advocating for Pets? It is chocked full of ideas and raising awareness of how we can all get involved.

I always love to hear of other simple ways that we can get more people involved to help animals, so please post some of your ideas so that we can all benefit.

 

Posted in Animal Protection, Getting Started | Tagged , , , , , , , ,

April is a Good Month for Animals!

Written by alliephillips on April 3, 2012 — 2 Comments

So why is April a good month for animals? It’s National Volunteer Month and it’s National Animal Abuse Prevention Month! For those of us who love animals, April is the perfect time show how much we care before the busyness of summer arrives. This is the time when far too many unsterilized stray animals are busy creating offspring; it is the time that shelters begin to fill up and foster homes are filled with pregnant moms and newborn babies; and it is the time that shelter staff and volunteers begin to stress about what are we going to do with all of these pets?

There are some simple things that you can do to help lessen the stress at shelters, to help abused animals get to safety, and to help more pets find loving homes.

  1. Volunteer your time! Ask your local animal shelter or animal rescue organization how you can help. They may need help directly in caring for the animals (feeding, cleaning, walking, brushing, socializing); or they may need help off-site, such as with website design, answering emails, blogging/social media updates, fundraising, marketing, transporting, and any other creative endeavor you can come up with to benefit abused, neglected and homeless animals. Everyone has a talent and you can find a way to use that talent to benefit animals.
  2. Open your home and heart to house an abused, neglected or shelter pet that needs a little extra care and attention. While many people feel like they would get too emotionally attached to their foster pets and would end up keeping them (and that does happen), it is also so wonderfully sweet when you can help an animal trust people again, start eating after being neglected or ill, or to have a safe environment to give birth and nurse babies. I have fostered almost 150 cats over the past 12 years (and never kept one) and while it is bittersweet watching them go to their new home, I love getting emails, photos and letters from my foster cats showing how much they are loved. There is no better reward than knowing that you saved a life!
  3. Offer to sponsor a shelter animal for the month by donating money for their care.
  4. Offer to donate items to your local animal shelter or rescue organization. Spring is a time to clean your house and closets. So donate old and clean linens, towels, blankets, or anything soft that a pet can lay on; round up paper towel or toilet paper cardboard rings and donate them as toys; take old socks and fill them with catnip; donate old tennis balls; purchase a little extra pet food when you’re shopping for your pet, or some laundry detergent.
  5. Be proactive! If you see a pet who is being abused or neglected, call the authorities in your community who can help. Be a good neighbor and watch out for pets who may be in jeopardy or who have been abandoned.

Are you willing to pledge doing just one thing to help an abused, neglected or homeless animal this month? If so, please post a comment on my website, Facebook or Twitter pages stating what you will do to help by Saturday, April 7th. I will then randomly draw out one person from those who post and send you a free autographed copy of Defending the Defenseless!

For a more extensive listing of how you can help, grab a copy of my book Defending the Defenseless: A Guide to Protecting and Advocating for Pets (available on my website, Amazon or Barnes & Noble). It is chock full of ideas in each chapter on how you can help, from small tasks to more involved efforts.

If everyone who loves animals simply does one thing this month, it will have a ripple effect and greatly benefit animals. Happy April!

Posted in Uncategorized

What Pets Teach Us

Written by alliephillips on February 29, 2012 — 8 Comments

Last Friday (February 24th), I said goodbye to my Sammy Jammy. He was at 14 years old and had been declining from kidney failure for the past few years. Sammy came into my life on March 2, 2000 from an animal control shelter in Michigan. We truly chose each other. I gave him a loving home filled with everything he wished for; he was my heart and forever will be. He passed one week shy of our 12th anniversary. I will still honor him on our anniversary. Sammy was my talker who always greeted me with a “monroe” or “mwow”, and he always wanted to burrow into my lap. When he was happy, his nose dripped and he cooed like a dove; and when we cuddled, he would bury his head into me.

As his inevitable death was nearing the past 6 months, I spent a lot of quality time sitting with him, reading, meditating, and watching movies (he particularly liked Harry Potter movies). Despite the demands of my work and many projects, I put much on hold in order to be with Sammy and I’m grateful that I did.  I did not expect him to live to Christmas, but he seemed determined to hang on.

Although I am coping with his loss (as are his cat siblings Oscar and Lucy), I am taking comfort in the countless lessons that I learned from Sammy.  Pets teach us so much if we simply take the time to listen and learn. Pets teach us kindness, compassion, generosity, and love. I truly believe that Sammy held on longer than expected because he had lessons to teach me (and he needed to make sure those lessons stayed with me).

What were those lessons?

  • Be a human being, not a human doing. I tend to work too much, especially work to help animals. When Sammy started declining last October, he taught me to stop working at dinnertime. No matter what was left to be done, it could wait for the next day. So each evening, Sammy and I (and his siblings) spent time together. That is one lesson that I know he wanted me to understand and I will continue in honor of Sammy.
  • Be present; recognize and appreciate all that is around you rather than going through life at a fast pace. Animals live in the present; they do not get wrapped in what happened in the past (which cannot be changed) or what may come in the future (which may not materialize). When you live in the present, you can marvel in miracles and messages that unfold around you.
  • Be quiet and still. This helps you to hear your inner voice and the guidance it will provide. Slowing down will help you recalibrate to a healthy vibrational energy so that you feel better. Slowing down helps you to match your energy to your pets (who are always emitting nonjudgmental and unconditional loving vibrations).
  • Be joyful, and do not worry. Pets don’t worry and they are always happy to see their family. They live with the understanding that each day is a gift, for you never know what will happen the next day.
  • Speak your truth. Sammy was a Siamese who conversed with a beautiful voice. He never hesitated to tell me what he wanted, which was usually “sit down so that I can lay in your lap.” When you speak your truth, you are authentic. And being authentic is important to living your best life.
  • Sunshine is healthy. Sammy always found a space on the couch where the sun would radiate upon him. Sunshine is a vital life force for the planet and all beings. Enjoy the sun each day that it is present.
  • Share your heart with those who will cherish it, whether human or animal.

The lessons that Sammy taught me are countless and have left pawprints on my heart. I hope that I will do him proud by practicing what he taught me for the rest of my life. I share his teachings with you because they are important for all human beings to slow down, be present and enjoy this life we have been given.

You taught me well Sammy. Rest in Peace my little angel.

Posted in Extraordinary Stories, Human-Animal Bond | Tagged ,

Greater protection

Written by alliephillips on February 15, 2012 — Leave a Comment

 

This morning I was reading with excitement that Idaho has a felony animal cruelty bill that passed the Senate Agriculture committee and is headed to the full Senate for a vote. But then my excitement quickly waned as I read what this legislative bill actually covers. 

Idaho is one of three states that does not have a felony animal cruelty law. Normally I would be praising the introduction of felony animal cruelty legislation as a recognition that crimes against animals needs to be treated seriously, but in reading the bill language, this bill provides very little to protect animals.

  • A person would only be charged with a felony if they have 2 prior convictions within a 15 year time period. A conviction only involves a guilty plea or a guilty conviction, not a no-contest plea.
  • A person would only be deemed to have one conviction regardless of how many criminal charges are filed and how many animals are involved. 
  • And the felony penalty is only a maximum of 12 months in jail, the absolute bare minimum to be considered a felony.

So if you are cruel to 100 cats and dogs in one incident, you only receive one felony conviction on your criminal record, and only if you have 2 prior convictions. For all of the effort that it takes to introduce and pass animal protection legislation, it makes me wonder why a bill with little power is being considered? From my experience, there are behind-the-scene powers that have significant influence on legislation that is not known to most voters.

Provisions that make for a solid felony animal cruelty bill include: a deterent penalty (a minimum of 4 years to 10 years); charging one felony count for every animal harmed or killed; the ability to charge felonies based on the current incident and not based on whether there are prior convictions; using prior animal cruelty convictions to increase the felony penalty (charge as a habitual offender); banning the defendant from possession or ownership of animals; and mandatory psychological testing and counseling.

So while my excitement was quickly doused this morning, I think we can all agree that Idaho has the power to do better. So what can you do to help? Since the bill has already passed the Senate Agriculture committee and is headed to the Senate floor, amendments at this point can be difficult, but not impossible. If you live in Idaho, please contact your legislator and ask them to speak with the bill sponsor about why the provisions in the bill are weak and to lend support towards a stronger bill. If you live outside of Idaho, please do not contact the legislators as this can negatively impact animal protection legislation. But please share this information with anyone who lives in Idaho.

Voters have tremendous power to influence legislation, so now is the time to speak up for animals in Idaho. To learn more about how to become an animal advocate, pick up a copy of Defending the Defenseless: A Guide to Protecting and Advocating for Pets.

Posted in Animal Protection, Cruelty and Neglect | Tagged ,

Legacies for change

Written by alliephillips on February 9, 2012 — 3 Comments

Patrick (photo used with permission from Associated Humane Societies)

We continue to see the passage of laws to protect animals from humans harming them, and many of those legislative bills are named after an animal who has been victimized. There is Daniel’s Bill in Pennsylvania to end gas chamber killings and named after a dog who survived an attempt to end his life in a gas chamber; the federal Pet Safety and Protection Act bill is named after Buck, a dog who survived the inhumane conditions at a now-closed Class B dealer facility in Arkansas; and then there is Patrick, one of the most prominent figures on social media sites in the campaign to end abuse of animals who, himself, survived near-death due to starvation and being tossed away in a garbage dumpster. In 2009-10, I drafted a bill to end pound seizure in Michigan and named the bill after Koda, a dog who was surrendered to an animal shelter and later sold to a Class B dealer for research. Although that bill ran out of time, it is in process of being refiled and named after another dog who was cruelly treated in a research facility.

For those of who love, appreciate and respect animals (and frankly, any human being should at lease respect animals and their place in our world), putting a face and a name on a legislative bill helps to garner more attention, support and gives the issue life through the complicated, and often dead-locked, legislative process. These literal animal advocates unknowingly lend their name and tragedy to help raise awareness amongst the human race as to the atrocities that humans can inflict upon our animal companions. Some animal advocates travel to legislative sessions, advocacy rallies, and even to other states to help spread the message and plead with their soulful eyes for change. Daniel the Beagle, as he is known to his friends and family, has his own website, is making appearances on TV (including woofing it up with Anderson Cooper) and has dedicated his new leash on life to helping more animals find the lucky breaks that they deserve.

There are numerous legislative bills (and many laws) named after animals, so please share those that you know of, whether successful or not, and let’s give recognition to these animal advocates for raising awareness in a world that seems to have forgotten the adage … Do unto others as you would have them do to you.

To learn more about the 2012 legislative season and what you can do to help pass animal protection laws, check out my interview on All Paws Pet Talk Radio on January 23rd or pick up a copy of Defending the Defenseless:  A Guide to Protecting and Advocating for Pets.

Posted in Animal Protection, Cruelty and Neglect | Tagged , , , ,

2012 … a year to do more

Written by alliephillips on January 26, 2012 — Leave a Comment

Kate & Leopold, looking for a home together at King Street Cats

Yesterday, I taped an terview for The Animal House radio show on WAMU radio in Washington D.C. The topic was about Defending the Defenseless: A Guide to Protecting and Advocating for Pets and how we can make a resolution this year that involves helping animals.

Now that we are 4 weeks in to the new year, how are your resolutions coming for you? For most people, resolutions fade away after 2 weeks. I’m a big believer that we should set intentions, not resolutions, because the word “resolution” is associated with a failed intention for so many people. And while an intention and a resolution may be similar, setting an intention puts positive energy behind what you want to accomplish. So if you have already fallen short on your standard New Year’s resolutions, why not set an intention to do more for animals this year?

So where do you start? Well …. if you don’t mind the shameless plug, why not pick up a copy of Defending the Defenseless? It is packed full of practical tips on how to help companion animals.

Are you worried about the stray and feral cat population? There is a chapter with tips on how to help, such as making sure that the feral cats are spayed and neutered to prevent overpopulation, or supporting barn cat programs so that ferals in high traffic areas can be moved to a safer location.

Do you fret about the number of pets entering animal shelters annually, knowing that approximately 4 million are euthanized every year? So many people cringe in knowing this, yet are too nervous or timid to enter a shelter (either to adopt or volunteer). There is no better feeling than to volunteer in a shelter and know that you are comforting pets and putting them more at ease so that can be adopted. The first time you help a pet find a new home, you will be hooked! But if you don’t think you can volunteer in a shelter, why not help from the outside? Open your home to foster a shelter pet! Do you love to write? Offer to write a newsletter or donation letter for your local shelter? Are you an attorney? Offer to give pro bono legal advice when needed? Do you have kids? Ask their school if you can have a towel/blanket drive, pet food drive, or toy drive and have the school sponsor the shelter?

If time or money is limited for you, there are still other ways that you can protect animals. When you purchase cosmestics, bath and body products or household products, always check the label to make sure they are cruelty free. Leaping Bunny has a great website that lists companies that produce cruelty free products. Supporting cruelty free products will reduce the number of animals used in animal testing. Or when you go to renew a credit card or order more checks, support animal protection organizations by getting animal-friendly versions. Many of the national organizations have credit cards that support their efforts, as well as checks.

There are countless ways everyday that we can do more to help animals. Just imagine if everyone who loved animals (that is at least 73 million homes in America that have a pet) did one simple thing each day to help animals? We would undoubtedly see a massive shift in how we relate to animals and would provide a better world for them to thrive. We can get to a day where we lovingly co-exist with all animals, rather than use them for our own selfish benefit or decide whether they live or die. So pick up your copy of Defending the Defenseless today on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or through my website (where I will autograph the book for you). Doing so will end up being one resolution that you will actually accomplish and feel good about!

If you have an intention to help animals in 2012, please share!

 

 

Posted in Animal Protection, Getting Started | Tagged , ,

Tragedy in Ohio

Written by alliephillips on October 21, 2011 — Leave a Comment

Many of us read this week about the tragic deaths of 49 exotic animals in Zanesville, Ohio. While 6 of the animals survived and are now being cared for at the Columbus Zoo, it raises the long-standing issue of people possessing exotic animals. And while the debate continues in Ohio and nationally about strengthening laws to prohibit private ownership of exotic animals, I am plagued by a different issue: How was one person able to collect and possess this large number of exotic animals?

It must have been terrifying for the Zanesville community to learn that over 50 exotic animals were on the loose; and it must have been terrifying for those animals to be set loose into an unfamiliar world. While experts have said that it was impossible to safely round up the animals during nighttime, it is heartbreaking to know that these beautiful creatures lost their life. However, it brings us right back to the beginning of why a person was allowed to possess over 50 exotic animals.

We may never know why this individual set the animals loose and then killed himself. All we can do is mourn the death of these amazing animals and support the process of strengthening laws to prevent the possession of exotic animals.  If you are curious to know what your state laws is regarding the possession of exotic animals, check out Born Free USA’s webpage.

Posted in Animal Protection, Extraordinary Stories | Tagged ,

Doing too much?

Written by alliephillips on September 27, 2011 — 2 Comments

I am embarassed to confess that it’s been over 2 months since my last blog post. Have been lounging in the summer sun and relaxing? Have I been touring the world? Sadly, no. I have simply been doing too much.

Are you one of those people who does too much, especially to help animals? Do you work a full-time job and then spend your evenings and weekends helping animals? I would never criticize or judge anyone for doing too much to help animals, particularly since my website, blog and books are all about doing more. But for many of us, we can get to a point where we do too much; it wears us out, makes us frazzled, and then everything in our life is impacted. When we are frazzled, we are not at our best to help others.

This month, I became frazzled because I was doing too much. Because I am a master energy worker, having frazzle energy is not good. And when you are frazzled, you are not in a position to manifest the good things that you truly desire.

So here’s the run down … (1) After a year of doing consulting work and working at my own leizure, I returned to full time employment on September 1st. I love the work (I help train prosecutors on animal abuse), but the change in schedule was an adjustment. (2) I started teaching energy healing classes in August through my side business called Manifested Harmony and started a monthly Harmony Circle community to share healing. I love these classes and the healing that is shared. I even attended my first Expo event this past Sunday.

(3) I am continuing my work on helping domestic violence shelters welcome families with pets. This program was discontinued by my previous employer, but it is a life-saving program that I felt the need to continue. So I have been doing that work in my spare time and today I am launching the website for Sheltering Animals & Families Together (SAF-T)! I am also hosting the 2nd Annual National SAF-T Day on October 1st where there are 8 family violence shelters signed up to host a dog walk fundraiser in their community to raise awareness regarding the co-occurrence of animal abuse and family violence and to sustain their on-site pet housing program. I love this program!

(4) Then my 2nd book was published in August (with an official publisher release date of yesterday). Defending the Defenseless: A Guide to Protecting and Advocating for Pets was a joy to write because it is chock full of ideas on how to help animals. Each chapter focuses on a different way to help companion animals, with chapters ending with “You Can Do More” tips. Tips range from simple (such as purchase cruelty-free cosmetics and household cleaners) to more in-depth (launch a nonprofit or seek employment in the animal protection field). So I have been working with Maryglenn McCombs, an AMAZING publicist in Nashville, who is helping me to promote the book. It is a joy to identify markets and ways to get this book in to the hands of people who loves animals but need to take that small step to get involved.

(5) Then I have fostered a darling cat named Pandora (aka Panda Cat and Pandorable) for the past 3 months. Pandora came from the island of St. Croix. She is grateful to be alive, but has been stressed with all of the changes. She stopped eating, thus necessitating her coming into foster care with me. After a few weeks, she developed an eye ulcer from the stress. The treatment required medication almost every hour, so she was day-boarded at a veterinary clinic while I worked. So I drove to and from the vet clinic twice a day for a month to help her. Then she developed an ulcer in her other eye, started treating with a specialist, had eye surgery to place a graft in her eye to save it, then 7 weeks of volunteers coming to my house every morning and evening to help me give eye meds. My schedule was not my own, yet it was important to help save her crystal blue siamese eyes. Last night, I took her back to the King Street Cats’ orphanage so that she could be seen for adoption. And although she was not happy about it, I know it is the right thing for her.

Then I sleep. Exhausting, eh? I did not realize that I was buring the candle at 100 ends until a few weeks ago when Panda Cat started to become frazzled and edgy around me. She was sensing my energy in trying to do everything. But my mission to ”save the world” was negatively impacting Panda Cat, my health and my sanity. Even my acupuncturist grimaced at me last Friday and told me to brace for an aggressive treatment (ouchy!). So things that I love to do, such as blog on this website, blog on Manifested Harmony, updating those Facebook pages, and a desire to start on Twitter, have not received the attention they deserve.

So why I have detailed my life for the past summer? It was not to impress anyone or to seek sympathy (but feel free to give me a cyber hug!). It was to show how we can get caught in the cycle of taking on too much. There is always “one more” to save, there is always a pet who needs extra TLC or foster care, there is simply always more to do. And most days we feel as if we will never be done in the work to protect animals. It is exhausting. But if we are exhausted, we cannot be our best to help animals. If we are exhausted, we are suffering from compassion fatigue and burnout. SoI am here to confess that I am suffering from compassion fatigue and burnout. And for those that know me, that is a HUGE confession that does not come lightly.

So once you come out of the burnout closet, what can you do? Here are a few ideas to help take care of yourself:

  • As soon as you feel jittery, frazzled and are going through your day at warp speed, not taking time to look at the sky or smell the coffee, take just 5 minutes to sit quietly and just breathe. This will ground you and slow down your energy.
  • Set a deadline each evening on when you will stop working (even if it’s volunteer work). There is always more to be done, but setting a deadline so that you can meditate, exercise, do yoga, or take a bubble bath will give you more energy for the next day.
  • Spend time each day doing things and being with people that are not associated with work, helping animals, or whatever keeps you busy during the day. Having a break and changing your routine will refresh your mind and energy.
  • Delegate and ask for help!

For more ideas, I encourage you to get Defending the Defenseless and read Chapter 3 about Staying Strong and Resilient. We cannot help animals (or the people in our lives) if we are not in good physical, mental, emotional and spiritual health. Remember what they say during the safety instructions on airplanes? “Place the oxygen mask on yourself before assisting others.” So today, I will let go of my to do list for even just a little bit; I will take the oxygen mask and refresh myself. Then I will return and be in a better place to help both animals and people. And I hope that Panda Cat will feed off of my new relaxed and refreshed energy so that she is at her best when her new family arrives to take her home.

If you have great ideas on how to combat compassion fatigue and burnout, please post a comment and share!

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