Overcoming Pet Owner Apathy

[Guest Anonymous]

Our greatest challenge in getting this book out there has been overcoming pet owner apathy. The fact is that every pet owner is at some level of risk. It has nothing to do with how responsible a pet owner you are. The woman that wrote the Foreword for our book, Nancy Peterson, Issues Specialist for Companion Animals and Coordinator for Pets for Life National Training Center for The Humane Society of the United States, is quite possibly the most responsible pet owner in the world, and even she lost a pet. Fortunately, her cat Obe was found right away. But it just goes to show you that anyone can lose a pet.

Just yesterday I ran into a guy who was out searching for his lost dog. Apparently this was becoming routine, he told me his dog escapes a couple of times a week. Having recovered his dog many times he was very confident that he

[Horsefeathers!]

Hi, welcome and all that.

Just one question, so please forgive me, but I'm just going to throw it right out there. Would you like to talk about your dogs, or are you here just to promote your book? It looks suspiciously like a long spam ad and nothing makes me run further in the opposite direction.

Please tell us a little about YOUR dogs. Stories? Pictures? We'd love to see them.

[Guest Anonymous]

:-? Horsefeathers....think you are wrong this time...the comments and observations are good.

[Carolk9s]

Anonymous napisał(a):

:-? Horsefeathers....think you are wrong this time...the comments and observations are good.

The comments and observations are good BUT I agree with Horsefeathers, looks exactly like an ad. THEY WANT YOU TO BUY THE BOOK!
Is it a worthwhile book? Perhaps so. Did the poster of the ad ask for a discussion? No. Is the ad a good starting point for a discussion? Sure.
I am going to post a new thread for this, look for it under 'What Would You Do If Your Pet Was Missing?'

[Hobbit]

I agree with Horsefeathers and Carol. This is a shameless ploy to get someone to buy his book. Click on the link....it is a place where you can purchase the book.

Just come right out and say that you want someone to buy your book instead of trying to hide it in a post.

[Horsefeathers!]

Guest_Someone_Forgot_To_Sign_In, I'm not disputing the original poster's thoughts and ideas. Of course, it offers something to think about. I offered a friendly invitation for him to share stories and pictures of his dogs and was not at all insulting or inflammatory in my demeanor. However, I do tend to feel somewhat insulted when someone wraps a spam ad in a neat little warm and fuzzy post, feigning interest in this forum.

I still extend a sincere invitation for Andrew to come and join in our conversations and offer his insight. Who knows? If he is as knowledgeable as he is articulate, I may be first in line to buy his book.

[Guest Anonymous]

I don't believe you could have taken very much time to explore our web site if your conclusion was that it is simply a place to buy a book. If that's what we were trying to do the site wouldn't need to be more than 5 pages. It's more like 120 pages. 120 very costly pages. Put together mainly by myself, my sister and co-author, and my brother. It is so much more than a place to buy a book. In fact there are several chapters from the prevention section posted on the site, including our entire Pet identification section. We did this because we felt that using proper pet identification was so important to the overall safety of our pets that we wanted everyone to have access to this important information whether they buy the book or not. We also included all of the important elements of our recovery section because we didn't want to give people anything less than the best chance of recovering their lost pets. We also posted the chapter from the third section, What to Do When you Find a Stray, since strays are very likely to be someone's lost pet.

We invest hundreds of hours, maybe thousand, I lost count, making it a useful web site. A web site that is far more than a place to buy a book. Our flyer generator alone was a huge undertaking, making a flyer generator that creates a PDF flyer that you can edit is no simple task. We searched everywhere and finally found a guy in Spain that had the software that could make it work and that we could afford. The flyer generator, as with all of our resources, lost pet tracking log sheets, our links and resources, our ebook, etc. are all free for everyone to use. No registration of any kind is required to use them, we don't even ask for an email address. Free for everyone, except to us it cost us hundreds of hours, most of our money, and a lot of hard work because we wanted to be a resource for people that have lost their pets. If all you came away with was it's a buy a book site, I don't know what to say, you totally missed it. The entire site was actually set up to benefit aimal shelters, rescue groups, and humane organizations, through our affiliate program. Our affilate program pays a 20% commission to said organizations, that is 5% to 10% higher than many affiliate programs offer. We wanted this book to benefit lost pets and we couldn't think of a better way than to raise revenue for those that bare the greatest burden of caring and or advocating for strays animals many of which are people's lost pets.

If you think selling books is our prime motivation you are so off the mark. We are already selling books, PETsMART just purchased several thousand copies. Do I want people to buy my book, of course. Is it because I want to make a lot of money, money is nice, but far from what motivated the writing of this book or the building of our web site lostpetfoundpet.com. Do I want to tell people about my book, of course. My sister my brother and I worked our asses off for over three years, put countless hours and every penny we had into this. Every review from every respected humane or animal advocate group has been overwhelmingly positive. I am proud to have written it, and yes, I want to tell other pet owners about it, wherever and whenever I can.

Time is too short, don't be so cynical

Andrew

[Horsefeathers!]

Andrew, I do feel much better that you did take the time to come back and check in with us. Lol, you are definitely NOT the first person to call me cynical. It is another of the badges of wear. I am part of the management of another forum that has several thousand members and we too often see people join up just to post an ad and then disappear. You are right in that I did not take ANY time to check your website since the original post looked like a spam ad, though a well laid out one. I didn't care to read any further. That's just that ol' cynic in me.

Anyway, stick around and talk with us. I may indeed check out your site since you now have a more "human" persona (as opposed to a cold advertiser). There are always things to learn. It would be nice if you stuck around here and offered any input you may have on the different topics that come up. We are all here basically because we care for the well being of our pets and pets in general and I'm glad you seem to feel the same way.

Peace 8)
From a very cynical Horsefeathers! (You say cynical like it's a bad thing. :lol: )

[Guest Anonymous]

I am the chief of spam haters. I have had to close out more than one email account over it. I totally understand. I am trying to get the word out about what many believe to be a very important book that will help a lot of pets and their people. I just figured posting to some pet message boards was a good place to let other pet owners know about it. It is litterally just me, my sister and co-author and thank god for my brother, he has really helpped a lot, trying with our limitted resources to do it all. Fortunately the book has been well recieved and we are hoping some of the load will be lifted through the book finding its way to the normal channels.

I am happy to post here and offer any help that I can when people have questions regarding the issues I am familiar with.

I gotta hit the sack. I am on the east coast and it is approaching 2 am.

Thanks again

Andrew
www.lostpetfoundpet.com

[Hobbit]

Andrew thanks for posting again to clear up any misconception(s) concerning your book and your intentions.

Please understand, we see this sort of thing all time, like Horsefeathers said, they post then they are gone. Especially the dog food peddlers!

Good luck with the promotion of your book.

[Guest Anonymous]

I completely understand everyone's concerns about spamming. If you didn't stand firm your board would become nothing but spam.

About myself: I am 38, I live in Asbury Park, NJ, which is in the process of undergoing a complete overhaul. I lived for a short time in the house that author Stephen Crane grew up in, here in Asbury. I just moved a block away to another wonderful Victorian home. I am very active in the growing Asbury Park art scene. I produce spoken word events for The Black Box Theatre and sit on their board.

About our pets: We are a family of life-long pet owners. I adopted a rat last March during the shelter's adoptathon. His name is Clyde. He is just the most wonderful animal. He has brought so much joy into our lives. He is always the center of attention when we take our evening walks on the boardwalk.

I have about 100 dogs at any given time. I am a volunteer dog walker at our local ASPCA. The terms of my lease and my very busy lifestyle has precluded me from having a dog. Things have changed however and I am finally in a place that allows dogs and my lifestyle has become more sedintary and I feel I would be able now to give a dog the time and attention that every dog deserves. I am looking at adopting either from a rescue or the local ASPCA.

Our family, i.e. my sister has an Australian Blue Heeler, Belle, actually El Jebel, named for the town in Colorado where Belle is from, and where my sister took the name of her publishing company. Belle is as much my dog as my sister's. I spend a lot of time with my family and we take regular hikes in the woods and on the beach with Belle. Although the walks are not as brisk or as long as they used to be due to Belle having developed arthritis. It's very difficult to watch your dog's physical condition deteriorate, even while their mental faculties remain unchanged. I mean like most dogs, Belle loves to run and play and will if you let her. It's like she doesn't realize that she is sick. We just can't let her run like she wants to. Even with the medication if she runs too hard she pays for it later.

Other family pets include Elliot (her full name is TS Elliot.) a wonderful cat, and very spoiled. We have several parakeets as well.

Photos of pets forthcoming. My PC of five years crashed and burned recently along with everything on the hard drive. So many unreplaceable things. I will scan some new ones soon and introduce you to our entire furry/feathery family.

Be safe, be kind

Andrew
www.lostpetfoundpet.com