Woof Wednesday, July 4, 2012

It's the Fourth of July, and people all across the United States will be celebrating with cookouts and fireworks.

Did you know that July 5 is the busiest day of the year for animal shelters in the United States? That's when they have more strays than at any other time.

I'm cross-posting this from my pets blog because it's so important. Pets don't like loud noises, and when they see and hear fireworks, they get scared. If they're outside, they run, and it's not easy to catch them.

It doesn't even have to be a major fireworks display to send a dog or cat into panic mode. Backyard fireworks have the same result. That's why it's so important to keep pets inside whenever you know or strongly suspect that fireworks will be set off.

We all know that fireworks aren't limited to just one day a year, but we also know that July 4 is a huge day for fireworks lovers. It's important to keep your pets inside so that when the action starts, they'll be safe and unable to run away in terror.

Source: fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net via Eliza on Pinterest

Sunday Six

I've decided to list three things I accomplished last week, followed by three things I'd like to accomplish this coming week. It's not everything on my lists, but it adds up to six!

Posting goals for the following week should help hold me accountable and make me actually do something. At this point, I don't know whether or not I'll make this a regular Sunday topic.

Last week

1. Put up new posts at four of my blogs, including this one. The topics included writing contests, animal welfare, and personal goals.

2. Finished reading Wheat Belly. It had taken a while because once I got to the recipes, I pretty much lost interest. I finally decided to read them and actually saw a couple I might have to try.

3. Reorganized the freezer. Older items were getting shoved to the back when new ones arrived, causing me to forget what we had, so it was past time to deal with the situation.

This week

1. Finish reading another book. Even though I finished one last week, I'm in the middle of two others.

2. Write at least one book review to post at Goodreads. I don't expect to write a long review, but I'd like at least a few sentences.

3. Revive another one of my blogs. I have six but let them all go for too long. Now that I'm posting at four of them again, I'd like to revive another one.

---
Does posting your goals help you, or do you tend to let them go?

Wordless Woof Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Source: frenchiefriends.ning.com via Eliza on Pinterest

Wordless Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Here's a great image for the first day of summer, which happens to fall on both Wordless Wednesday and Woof Wednesday.

Okay, so it's a set of images, but they go together.

Source: doggiestylish.com via Eliza on Pinterest

One Lovely Blog and Kreativ Blogger Awards

This was a nice surprise! Lisa at Diary of a Square Toothed Girl honored me with two blogging awards: One Lovely Blog and Kreativ Blogger. Thanks, Lisa! I wholeheartedly recommend following her blog if you haven't yet.

As a condition of accepting these awards, I just need to answer a few questions, provide ten facts about myself, and pass the awards along to seven more blogs. Let's start with the questions and answers.

What is your favorite song?

Favorite song? Are you kidding? That probably changes every time anybody asks me. Instead, how about I tell you which one is in my head right now? It's "Little Talks," by Of Monsters and Men. If you haven't seen the video, I recommend checking it out; it's fantastic.

What is your favorite dessert?

Are you trying to trip me up? All I can say for sure is that chocolate has to be involved--well, unless it's fresh peach or blueberry pie. I prefer fresh peach and blueberry pies to their baked counterparts.

When you are upset, what do you do?

That depends on how upset I am and why. If I can pull it off, the best thing for me to do is just take a nap. I'm usually calmer when I wake up.

What was my favorite pet?

Favorite pet? I can't possibly choose. They've all been special.

What do you prefer to wear, black or white?

Probably black. White clothes get ruined too easily when you tend to spill things.

What is your biggest fear?

I don't even like to type the word, but it's those eight-legged creepy crawlies.

What is your attitude mostly?

I'm pretty realistic most of the time, but I do get my occasional bouts of pessimism.

What is perfection to you?

I guess it would be when everything goes the way I think it should.

What is your guilty pleasure?

All I can think of is when I finally eat something that contains wheat after going a few days without any wheat at all.

Now, for ten random facts about me:

1. I used to be a voracious reader but slacked off considerably, so I recently signed up at Goodreads as an incentive to read more.

2. I'm a listmaker from way back. I even make lists of lists to make!

3. I'm pretty forgetful, so it's a good thing I make all those lists.

4. It really bothers me when I'm watching something and the sound and picture aren't in synch.

5. I'm always surprised when one of my favorite shows gets renewed for another season. Most of my favorites throughout the years didn't last long.

6. I'm never surprised when one of my favorite products gets discontinued or "improved" in a way that makes me hate it.

7. Black plums are probably my favorite fruit, and I'd never even tried one until a few years ago.

8. Broccoli is by far my favorite green veggie. I don't like it raw, though.

9. I like those peanut butter kisses that are only available around Halloween. You know--the chewy peanut butter candies wrapped in wax paper. Some have orange wrappers and some have black ones.

10. I drink more water more than anything else.

Last but certainly not least, I'd like to pass these awards along to the following terrific bloggers:

Becca at Lost in Thought
Betsy at My Five Men
Dana at The Daily Dose
Kate at The Suddenly Kate Show
Janna at Pastry and Poetry
notes4neta at Rabbit Trails
Sherri at Sherri's Graphomania

Blogging from A to Z April Challenge 2012

In my last post, I wrote about the Blogging from A to Z April Challenge that kicks off on April 1. At that point, I hadn't yet decided which of my blogs would be participating. Now I know.

For this year's Blogging from A to Z April Challenge, I'll be posting on three blogs every day.

Here are the themes for each blog during this challenge:

Ellie's Blank Book (this blog) - Pinterest
Ellie's Couch - music videos
Help Michigan Pets - animal welfare in Michigan

If you're interested in participating in this fun blog hop, be sure to check out the Blogging from A to Z April Challenge website.

The Blogging from A to Z April Challenge is the brainchild of Arlee Bird, who has several co-hosts this year. Here is a list of the official team members:

Tossing It Out (Arlee Bird)
Amlokiblogs (Damyanti Biswas)
Alex J. Cavanaugh (Alex J. Cavanaugh)
Life is Good (Tina Downey)
Coming Down The Mountain (KarenG)
Cruising Altitude 2.0 (DL Hammons)
Retro-Zombie (Jeremy Hawkins)
The Warrior Muse (Shannon Lawrence)
The QQQE (Matthew MacNish)
Author Elizabeth Mueller (Elizabeth Mueller)
Pearson Report (Jenny Pearson)
No Thought 2 Small (Konstanz Silverbow)
Breakthrough Blogs (Stephen Tremp)

Youtube

I don't watch TV online and rarely even watch videos on the computer, but there are a few exceptions. There's just something about animal videos, and these are some of the cutest I've seen.

I started to search for yawning puppies, especially Frenchies, and found this photo. Now I'm off to look for some Youtube videos of French bulldogs, which are so incredibly adorable. With any luck, I'll even find some videos of yawning Frenchie puppies.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This post is part of Alphabe-Thursday.

Urgent! Dogs in Danger!

Are you interested in adopting a dog? If so, please check Dogs in Danger. The dogs on this website have been placed on urgent status; they don't have much time left unless someone adopts them. Not all death-row dogs are listed; the listings depend on shelter participation.

There's more than one way to search the site. One option is to select a breed, type in your ZIP code, and choose a radius.

I always conduct my search by pulling up my state in the dropdown menu. That gives me all the listings from participating shelters in my state.

If you look on Petfinder, you'll see some pets designated as urgent. This usually means they've been there a long time and the shelter needs to make room for newcomers. Unfortunately, Petfinder doesn't have an "urgent" filter, but there are several ways to search, and if your search yields any urgent pets, they'll say "urgent," "emergency," or something similar.

While I'm on the subject of pets in dire straits, here is a page from some people looking for their dog. Ursula is a missing great dane/bullmastiff mix from Mayville, Michigan. Mayville is located in the Thumb, but Ursula could be anywhere by now. She disappeared in May, and her owners are desperate to find her. The page is public, so you don't need a Facebook account to be able to see it. If you think you've seen Ursula, please contact her owners with the information.

If you decide to adopt a pet, please don't forget to check for those with an urgent status. It could make all the difference in the world.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This post is part of Alphabe-Thursday.