20th Anniversary, Part 4

We have used social networking to help our foster animals get adopted since our first litter with Millie. In the days before the internet, blogs, and Facebook, Harriett carried a stack of photographs with her and showed them at meetings. She was an administrator at the University of Illinois and started many meetings by passing pictures of our latest foster litter around the table. If someone pulled out pictures of their children or grandchildren before she got the puppy pictures out, Harriett would pull out an even larger number to pass around.

Because of the photographs, word spread about the animals we had available. People would know someone who was looking for a dog or puppy and tell them about the litter. Friends would tell friends and by the time the litter went back to CCHS people would go out there specifically to see them. But as time went on that market got saturated, then Harriett retired and we needed to find an alternative method of marketing “our pups.”

In late August of 2006 I started this blog with a post about Max, a puppy with a broken femur and our foster animal #877. But right after Max we had a litter of five puppies that were in very bad shape. I was afraid of blogging about puppies dying so I dropped the blog. I didn’t post for two and a half years until we had a pup named Madrid here for surgical recovery. I thought his case was really interesting so I started blogging again. After Madrid came Daisy and her newborn pups and the start of live PuppyCam, streaming video from our puppy room.

The PuppyCam attracted the attention of an audience much wider than we ever could have imagined. A group of women who call themselves the “Cyber Aunties” found us thanks to Nancy “Cindypup” Kramer. Before we knew it we had viewers from all over the world. The Aunties who are regular visitors to the PuppyCam come from across the USA as well as Canada and Australia. Although we’ve only met Nancy, it’s like a bunch of old friends getting together when they join in on a chat. We’ve been honored that many of the Aunties have sent gifts to the puppies and became financial supporters of CCHS.

The Humane Society Facebook page was created around this time and we began to coordinate postings about foster animals. We added twitter to the mix soon after. Because of these efforts, news about foster animals is widely disseminated. More than 60% of the foster animals we have had in the last two years have been adopted before they returned to the shelter. Most of those animals never spend a single night in the shelter building. That’s a huge win-win-win for the animals, their adopters, and CCHS.

And on a personal note, social networking has allowed Harriett and me to stay in touch with the people who adopt our foster animals. We’ve had pictures and stories sent to us and it’s a wonderful feeling to see the pups all grown up or the moms in their new homes.

Traditional Media

Over the years we’ve had several TV crews out here to do stories on our fosters. Jim Dey, who often came out with his daughter to visit puppies,has written about several of our foster animals in his column in the News-Gazette. All of this exposure has helped our foster animals get homes and publicized the work being done at CCHS.

We helped many students with projects in print, radio, and video. I think the best one was done just a couple of months ago by Liz Clancy-Lerner, an award-winning broadcast journalism student (and one heck of a roller derby skater). You can hear Liz’s story below.

Wrap-up

In the ideal world there would be no homeless animals and our fostering efforts wouldn’t be needed. You can do your part to end the surplus of homeless animals by spaying and neutering your pets and encourage everyone else to do the same.

Consider helping the homeless animals at your local shelter by fostering. Volunteering to be a dog walker is a great way to enhance the life of the animals in a shelter. If you don’t want to work directly with the animals, consider volunteering for events like garage sales or other fundraisers. Don’t just sit by and say, “How can people give them up?” You can make a difference in many ways. Just do it.