{#MotivationMonday} July 21st is national No Pet Store Puppies Day! Look at the cutie from @ASPCA I met at #BlogHer15

Did you know that tomorrow, (July 21st) is No Pet Store Puppies Day? This is a holiday whose goal is to raise awareness about the fact that most pet store puppies come from puppy mills. Tens of thousands of 'breeding dogs' spend their lives in these mills. Often times they are subjected to tiny, overcrowded cages in very unsanitary conditions, most do not receive proper vet care or even adequate food and water, with so many sadly living their entire lives without any kind of human affection. The Female dogs are bred at every opportunity giving their bodies very little time to recover between litters of puppies.

To help raise awareness the ASCPCA wants to spread the word with this super cute video where a little girl named Molly and her shelter dog Joey explain why you shouldn't shop at pet stores that sell puppies that come from puppy mills:

They are not leaving out kittens either, here is an informative infographic featuring interesting facts you may not know about adoptable baby kittens:

While at the BlogHer conference I got to meet this cute girl who literally everyone wanted! It was hard to pin her down to get a shot without motion/blur, but meet Dollie:

EVERYONE wanted her! Myself included!

MY TAKE:

I highly encourage families seeking a pet to visit a shelter and not buy from a puppy mill. Shelter employees are also knowledgeable in taking your lifestyle into account and matching them with a Dog or Cat that will best match the entire families' lifestyle, not to make a 'sale', but to help get the pet and the family the best possible match. If matched correctly there is less likelihood that the dog or cat will be brought back to the shelter and that's the goal!

I am traveling too much right now for a pet, but when I am ready, I am definitely visiting the ASPCA and adopting a Shelter Dog and I hope you will too! (By the way the folks at Rover where also there with Dogs and you guys definitely responded positively to my doggie instagrams while at the BlogHer15 Conference so thank you!)

Do You have a Shelter Dog or Cat? If not, will you consider adopting from a shelter next time?

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Thinking of something warm and fuzzy for Christmas? Furbaby Anyone?

Do you remember back to when you first bugged your parents about getting you a pet? Was it during Christmas-time? Was it a cat? dog? bird? reptile?

I have always been a dog lover, and despite being an apartment dweller I have always had a love for big breed dogs. My last 'furbaby' was a female Rottweiler and I miss her greatly. She was so big that despite the fact she was super friendly little kids would always get intimidated by her size. She was loving, friendly and an all around goof ball, but could definitely go into 'protection' mode when she felt her family was being threatened.

She passed away, and this year I find myself so nostalgic for her. I've been thinking about getting another four legged, furry addition to the family again, but this time around, I'd probably do things a bit differently.

I've had quite a number and quite a wide variety of pets throughout the years (dogs, cat, birds, fish, python (yes you read that right, long story), and all of them sort of found me (except for the fish of course), this year I'm researching the idea of a rescue. There are so many dogs, cats, puppies and kittens in Shelters looking for a good home.

That's where The Shelter Pet Project comes in. I absolutely love their Tagline 'A person is the best thing to happen to a shelter pet' (isn't that cute? and we all know that it's the opposite that turns out to be true! Pets always turn out to be the best thing that happened to us!).

They have a pet finder on their site, and a button allowing you to select dog or cat, once you enter your zip and pet preference and hit search a results page appears with thumbnails and info about each animal. I put in my zip and selected dog as the pet choice and a really interesting mix of breeds appeared for me to choose from. In fact I got so lost reading about each dog's personality, I almost forgot to come back here!

I remember years ago when the movie 101 Dalmations came out and people rushed to get Dalmation puppies, and many of them wound up back in shelters. The most important thing to know before you go into a pet adoption is that each breed has it's particular health issues, some are better suited to families with children than others and you really should research and have in mind at least a type of breed that will suit your family and your lifestyle.

As I don't have kids, I will probably still go for a large breed, which are a bit rougher to walk until you train them.

Check out The Shelter Pet Project's latest ad campaign:

Let's help to keep pet adoption on the rise and shelter deaths on the decline!

Keep up with The Shelter Pet Project on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube

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