Cats and Coupons

Sites just for pet owners are becoming quite popular. I recently learned about another community just for pet lovers called Animal Attraction. It’s free to sign up for membership. Once you’ve joined you can create a profile for you and your pets. There’s a search enging to help members find new friends with common interests. Members can communicate with each other using chat rooms, message boards and instant messaging.  On the site you can share photos and stories, as well as look for and offer advice. Every day that a member logs in Animal Attraction makes a small donation to an animal charity. If someone joins as a new member on your recommendation Animal Attraction will donate $1. The site is a terrific way to meet others with the same interests while helping animals.

Thanksgiving is less than a month away. It’s the beginning of the holiday season. People visit each other more, increasing traffic in the home. Here are some tips for pet owners.

• Don’t give your pets bones such as turkey bones. They splinter and can harm your pet.
• Some people might not notice a small pet near their feet when they’re entering or leaving your house. Be sure your pet is put safely away somewhere in the house if your door is going to be open for a long period of time or frequently.
• Do not allow your pet to get in the habit of drinking from glasses, particularly alcohol.
• If you’re going to be out for a long day make sure your dog has someone to exercise him while you’re out.
• Do not allow your pet to eat candy, especially chocolate. Candy, especially chocolate, is dangerous to pets and potentially fatal. Make sure it is stored out of reach from your pets, as you would be sure to store ephedra diet pills away from children.

Do you receive a lot of catalogs at home that you no longer need, no longer want or never requested in the first place? I always get a little mad about the ones I didn’t request or buy from, because that’s how I know someone bought a mailing list. Catalog Choice is a free service designed to help people cut down on the amount of catalogs that they receive that they don’t want. It’s very good for your garbage and recycling piles and it’s great for the ecology. Users can create a free account. There’s a list of catalogs that work with Catalog Choice, so you mark in your profile which you want to receive and which you don’t. Not all catalogs are on the list, so it might not stop all of the unwanted catalogs you receive but it could help make a dent. Why do we even need catalogs anymore since we have the internet? Everyone knows that by the time a catalog arrives it’s out of date. I can find a better deal online for everything from CAT5e cables to zippers. Are there any catalogs you absolutely can’t do without?

Did you ever notice that energy drinks are expensive and they’re never on sale? I don’t drink them, but my twelve year old TJ had one over a friend’s house and liked it. He’s a little upset with me because twice this week I wouldn’t buy one for him. I explained I don’t see any reason why a healthy, growing, athletic twelve year old like himself needs to drink that stuff. He likes Monster Energy Drink best. I checked their website and they don’t even list how much caffeine is in the can! He needs to drink those about as much as he needs diet pills. (That means he doesn’t need them.) Monster features sports figures on their website. Why are these companies making products with spokespeople that kids look up to when the kids shouldn’t have the product in the first place?

The Fourth of July is Independence Day here in the US. It’s the anniversary of the day that the United States declared her independence from England. The US declared her independence with the Declaration of Independence. Continental Congress passed the final text of the document on July 4,1776.

As I mentioned recently on one of my other blogs, my son CJ has been having a blast watching golf on television lately. He goes wild when any of the players hit the ball. CJ is turning nine years old in two weeks and I’ve been thinking about what to get him. Today I saw a set of kids pretend golf clubs on Amazon and thought that he might really enjoy one of those. A couple of companies make playsets like this but so far the Little Tikes looks like it’s the nicest. Do any of your kids have a pretend play golf set? Which one? Do you recommend it?

Literally. I thought this article from nj.com was very cool and I wanted to Share Some Good Stuff.

If you’re like me, you’ve probably heard of the MilkBone company. They make doggie treats. What I didn’t know is what a very charitable, generous company they are. In 1997 MilkBone started a program called Canine Heroes, which is a nationwide program that provides assistance dogs to people with physical disabilities and provides dogs trained to detect bombs and drugs to law enforcement agencies. In celebration of MilkBones 100th anniversary, this month the company has donated another million dollars to the Canine Heroes program. Canine Heroes is an expensive program to run, so that money will be put to good use.

Canine Assistants are dogs are placed with people with disabilities and/or other special needs. The program has for types of dogs - service, companion, hearing and seizure response. People that receive an assistance dog also receive free pet food and veterinary care for life. It is estimated that the cost to train one dog is over $12,000 and the training can take more than a year. The article included brief interviews with two New Jersey families who have been fortunate enough to receive Canine Assistants.

MilkBone’s Police Dog program helps place police dogs into communities with little or no cost to the community receiving the dog. In eleven years the Police dog program has sponsored more than 450 police dogs across the country, for a nationwide benefit that’s worth more then $2 million. MilkBone also donated $5,000 to a local NJ Sheriff’s department Canine Assistance program, as well as partnering with Petsmart in donating a Dalmation to the department.

This article touched me on a number of different levels. I liked it enough that I spent some time on the Milkbone Heroes site reading about the programs. The article is a fabulous story about a program that touches many lives. The program is quite interesting, and needed. This is a great human interest story but it also hit home for me on a personal level, as I have a son with special needs. I really enjoyed watching the video on the Canine Assistants site. To watch it just click the words Our Inspiration.  What you see is truly inspiring and heart warming. It’s good stuff.

This one’s easy. Be careful before doing business with a friend. I was friends with someone until recently. Ellie was the type of woman that had different money making ideas and was frequently checking out one small business opportunity or another. I think mainly she was only interested in the idea of getting rich or famous. In the past, when I haven’t been swamped, I’ve done a couple of simple html websites for her and charged her a couple of bucks to cover the domain and hosting. When Ellie told me about her latest idea she said she wanted to get this big expensive website set up by this company and it would cost her several thousand dollars. I told her I was a bit concerned about her laying out money she didn’t have without knowing how successful her venture would be. I suggested she let me set up a simpler, smaller scale site for a fraction of the cost. I’d invested over twenty hours into that site when I told her we were almost finished. She told me she didn’t want to pay the amount I’d asked and that I should delete the site. Needless to say we’re no longer speaking. I wish I’d never done business with a friend.

I read an article on MSNBC this week that according to the AAA Daily Fuel Gauge Report Maui is the first United States area to officially hit the $4 per gallon average price for gasoline. The US state with the highest average price for a gallon of gas right now is California, where the average for yesterday is $3.848. Many analysts have said we can all expect to be paying around $4 per gallon of regular unleaded fuel by the summer, and some of those analysts feel we will see prices peak in June. What’s the price of gas where you live?

Something every pet owner can enjoy is a digital photo frame. Actually, I can’t think of anyone that wouldn’t enjoy one. Digital frames have come down so far in price since they first came out that they’re actually affordable now. They come in many different styles and sizes so you can get one for yourself or give it as a gift. And they aren’t just for personal use. Businesses are now giving branded digital photo frames to their clients to keep them in the front of their minds. Now that’s a cool gift, far better than the jar of candy and gym bag that one of my other jobs gave out. Digital Frames Direct specializes in digital picture frames and has an incredible amount of selections to choose from. They even have some video reviews of digital frames that take the viewer from delivery to setup. I really got a kick out of the idea of using digital frames as a tool in a call center. That’s an awesome idea that would have worked great when I was selling computer products. If you want to see all sorts of different frames and ways to use them all in one place then Digital Frames Direct should be your destination.

I’m curious to know how many of you regift? I’m referring to when one person doesn’t like or need a gift they’re received and eventually end up giving it to someone else. I myself have not regifted anything because I just cannot bring myself to give away something someone went out of their way to give me. I know some people that do this and I wondered how typical of a behavior it is. It just seems wrong to me. I mean, hubby gave me a perfume that I don’t like but it came from the heart so it stays stashed away in the bathroom. My parents gave me some pearls (don’t know if they’re Tahitian pearls or not), that I’ve only worn twice but would never give away. I want to know what you all think about the practice of regifting, so let me know.

I have never sent money by Western Union prior to this morning. An old friend of my hubby called us this morning in a pinch wanting to borrow $30. Yes, that is three zero, let’s not even go there. He said it was an emergency and he needed it today and he had noone else to ask. At this point I was thinking he needed to do a self assessment because he clearly needs to point his life in a completely different direction. So rather then answer for my hubby I woke hubby’s butt up and handed him the phone to make the decision. Hubby told him yes and off I went to the grocery store up the street, which does Western Union.

I got online and waited my turn only to be called and be told I had to fill out a form and then come back. I filled it out and got back on line. I gave the woman the money in cash and she told me there was a $14.99 fee. I couldn’t believe it, the fee was half as much as I was sending. I bet Western Union is making money hand over fist at that rate, because another woman before me was sending money and her fee was much more because she was sending a couple hundred dollars. I told hubby that’s the last time we’re sending it like that. Have any of you gotten a call from someone who needed money in a big hurry? How did you send it? Is there a cheaper way?