We don’t always factor in the annual pet spend when we are deciding to bring a pet into the family.

The key is to save on supplies and services so that you have enough in your budget for proper veterinary care. A lot of people are cutting preventative veterinary care to “save”, when in reality, those visits are very important and can save you money down the road.

Start your 2012 pet budget off on the right paw with this exercise:
1. List your pet’s “need to haves”
2. List your pet’s “nice to haves”
3. Eliminate what your pet doesn’t need from “nice to haves”
4. Find ways to save on the remaining list

Save on veterinary care: (more tips are in the book, available at www.pamperedpetsonabudget.com)

Estimate annual costs for routine care (depending on age and type of pet, this can be anywhere from $200-500/year). This is health care that you should budget for as part of your role as a responsible pet owner.

Factor in unexpected emergency or illness ($250-$1000)

Consider a pet health insurance plan (ave. $25-30/month for unexpected exp) Read reviews and ratings of pet health insurance companies at www.petinsurancereview.com

Talk to your veterinarian about a payment plan or Care Credit (for emergencies)

Start your own pet health savings account

Save on consumables (food, litter, liners, etc.)

Buy in large quantities, store in sealable plastic containers. Join rewards programs at local pet supply store or boutique (they all have them, and a great way to save on expensive items like food and litter). Clip coupons, shop dollar stores or join daily deal pet sites.

Diet is important. Buy the best quality pet diet your budget will allow.

Save on supplies

For crates, litter boxes, cat condo’s etc., look to dollar stores, garage sales, animal shelter shops, even eEbay and Craig’s List! Ask friends if they have a crate or cat condo they are no longer using (use enzyme sprays to eliminate previous pet odors). Ask an animal shelter if you can purchase a used crate.

Make toys or rotate toys, buy from dollar stores or use rewards points.

Save on services

DIY grooming or less frequent visits. Instead of a pet sitter or boarding facility, ask a friend or family member to barter favors to watch dog/cat, etc. Group training at shelters or pet centers are more affordable than private lessons. Spend more time with your pet! It costs you nothing and rewards you with lowered stress and a healthier heart.

Adopting a pet vs. purchasing a pet saves money and saves a life!

Co-founder Super Smiley Flash Mob 4 Pet Adoption

If there were an award for most creative grass roots effort to encourage people to adopt a pet, the Super Smiley Flash Mob 4 for Pet Adoption would win a golden bone!

Megan Blake, actress and passionate pet adoption advocate created the unique tour along with her adopted dog Super Smiley. The flash mob includes a choreographed dance (anyone can perform) and tail wagging theme chant. Their mission is to celebrate pet adoption and education around shelter animals with a rockin’ campaign that energizes people to get up and take action!   Watch it!

Join the Super Smiley Flash Mob 4 Pet Adoption and dance for the dogs this fall. They’ll be visiting Phoenix, AZ Sept. 10-11 at the Wonder Pet Expo; Jacksonville, FL Sept. 24 at Strut Your Mutt; New York City Oct 28th at Pups on the Runway; and Pomona, CA Nov 5th at Pet Expo USA.

As I read ‘National Stress Awareness Month, by the Numbers’ in the April issue of Fast Company, I give thanks for my dog Chilly.  We’ve known for years that having a pet reduces stress; petting them can lower blood pressure, and simply watching them can make us laugh, offering further stress reduction.

Imagine not having a pet to help you decompress!

Read the full story.

What It’s All About
In honor of our 15th birthday, Petfinder is asking people everywhere to pledge to spread the word online about adoptable pets on March 15, 2011.

What You Can Do

• Add a badge to your Web site to show your support.
• Take our pledge that you will tell one person about pet adoption on March 15. By pledging, you’ll enter for a chance to win one of 10 Pet Hair Eraser^® Vacuums from BISSELL.
• Caption a Petfinder adoptable-pet photo on ICanHasCheezburger! The photos with the best captions will be featured on the ICanHasCheezburger.com homepage on March 15.
• On March 15, donate your Facebook status and photo to an adoptable Petfinder pet. Simply replace your photo with one from the Adopt-the-Internet All-Stars gallery and post one of these messages:
  • More than 320,000 pets are waiting for homes on Petfinder.com. Help Petfinder Adopt the Internet today and find forever homes for as many as possible!
  • I adopted my pet from Petfinder and now I want to help get this pet adopted! If you want to help pets in need of forever homes, please repost this!
• On March 15, share an adoptable Petfinder pet on Twitter with the hashtag #adopttheinternet.
• Add a link to your blog, Facebook or Twitter post to this page! (Come back on March 15 to find out how.)

My About.me profile!

If you’re like me you have several online profiles scattered across various social networks such as, Facebook, LinkedIn, Flickr, and Twitter. Wouldn’t it be great if you could pull all of this information together to build a single online identity?  Well, you can with About.me! In a sense, it’s an online business card offering you a custom splashpage and personal analytics dashboard.

Earlier this year, we noticed that one of our client’s could have possibly entered AND WON a contest for the longest email signature ever.  We helped her by creating her own about.me profile.  Now she has a single dynamic splash page that points visitors to all of her content around the web.  Check it out!

Once you’ve created your professional or personal online identity, About.me lets you see how many people are visiting your profile, where they’re coming from and even what they’re doing on your page.

Need some inspiration?  Check some of Fetching’s About.me profiles:

Kristen Levine

http://about.me/kristenlevine

Liz Lindley
http://about.me/LizLindley

Lauren Spencer
http://about.me/laurenspencer

Sharyn Frankel

http://about.me/sharynfrankel

Kelly Farnan

http://about.me/KellyFarnan

Stephanie Rotunda

http://about.me/stephanierotunda

Adie Lee

http://about.me/adielee

Kayla Stevens
http://about.me/kaynichole

Below is a map of the new features, followed by an additional summary of the changes, many of which we expected:

1-Photo strip above the Wall (with the most recent photos you posted or tagged) TIP: To optimize your photos size them to 96×67px in order to fit in the space provided and plan for them to be in random order.
2-Tabs move over to the left panel, in the form of a list (maximum of 6 above the fold)
3-Profile picture reduced from 200 x 600 pixels to 180 x 540
4-Blurb box that was below the Page picture moved to info tab
5-Pages can Like other Pages, not just favorite them
6-Featured Pages and Admins
7-Page category
8-Choice for Wall posts between “Everyone” and Page posts only
9-Mutual Friends and Interests section
10-Ability to interact on Facebook as your Page
11-Ability for admins to post and comment around the site under their Page’s alias
12-News feed of updates from Liked Pages
13-Pages can now feature iFrame tab applications
14-Email notifications when users post or comment

For all details:

Successful trade show booth traffic requires a steady stream of visitors. For the highest return on investment you must be communicating with your customers before, during and after the event. While there are many marketing tactics to ensure your overall trade show success, direct mail in particular should not be overlooked. Why?

1.  Builds Recognition – Direct mail puts your company or product in front of the buyer before the show begins. A well targeted message mailed at least 2 weeks prior to your event is essential to boosting recognition. Be sure your message or campaign represents your brand and that a cohesive connection can be easily made as potential customers stroll past your booth.

2. Creates excitement – A direct mail message can quickly build traffic by requesting that a recipient redeem something to receive a gift or to enter a special drawing or sweepstakes. You might send tickets in an envelope or just the make the mailer itself the redeemable ticket.

3. Helps customers find you – Lousy booth location?  Turn lemons into lemonade by making light of your awful location in your mailer.  Not only will your traffic think your message is humorous, but you will be surprised how many people take the time to find your booth.

4. Creates urgency – Direct mail should be designed to generate an immediate response. 80-90% of your responses will occur in the first week and a half. Give the reader a reason to act now. For example, you might say “The first 50 people to RSVP will receive…”

5. Offers a choice – It’s a fact that not everyone you mail to will be attending the show, despite a real interest in your company or product. Increase your virtual traffic by asking them to like your Facebook page,  follow you on Twitter or sign up to receive your newsletter and be notified of future opportunities to connect.

In your excitement to create a direct mail campaign, please remember the most crucial element of success–your mailing list. Even the most compelling message will fail if it’s sent to the wrong audience. Make certain you are mailing to key prospects likely to attend the trade show. Invite those people who are genuine prospects for the product or service you are featuring at your booth.

If you need more paws on deck to execute your direct mail strategy for Global Pet Expo or HH Backer Spring Show, call or email us, 877-703-3824 x107 or katherine@fetchingcommunications.com.

Chilly played while I chatted with pet parents about the various pet restraint options for dogs when traveling in cars.  Chilly wears his red Kurgo Tru-Fit Harness at the park, which gives me the perfect opening to talk about pet safe auto travel and the Toyota PET initiative.

This family even let us try out the Zip Line on their Goldendoodle!

If you follow my blog, you know that we are on a holiday road trip as part of the Toytoa PET initiative–to educate pet parents about the importance of using restraint devices designed for pets while traveling by automobile. (Read my Nov. 14th blog entry for more info about the program.)

More and more Americans take Fido along in the car, whether it be to run errands, go to the dog park, or to take a family vacation. One in three pet owners admit that they have been distracted by their pet while driving in their vehicle, according to a recent study by AAA and Kurgo.  We all know that distractions can and often do lead to accidents.

If you’re headed out on a long trip with you dog for the holidays, here’s what we’ve learned works best for comfort and safety for medium to large sized dogs:

-feed your dog a light meal before hitting the road

-play ball or take a short jog to exercise your pooch before they load up for a long ride

-if you plan to drive for at least an hour, your dog will eventually want to lay down, so if using the Auto Zip Line with Tru-Fit Harness, make sure there is a little extra slack in the line to allow you dog to lie down comfortably. If using the Tru-Fit Harness with the seat belt loop, make sure there’s room in the seat and in the seat belt slack to allow him or her to lie down.

-for long stints of driving, Chilly likes to sleep in his soft sided crate in the cargo area. Be sure the crate or kennel is tethered down so that it cannot move back and forth, side to side during travel. Should you have to stop quickly or have a collision, the crate should be secure enough not to be tossed around. This is what protects your pet and other passengers–the inability to be thrown or tossed within, or from the vehicle.

-stop at least every 3 hours to allow for potty and exercise breaks. We’ve found that city parks or rest areas are the best places to stop because they allow plenty of room for you to walk or play with your dog.  Allow them a good 20-30 minutes to move their body and mind. That should be enough activity to get them ready for the next long haul

We’ve not seen any pet travelers on our stops yet. It’s probably a little early in the month for people to be heading “over the river and through the woods..”.  But we’ll meet plenty of pet people when we get to Colorado and visit dog parks and holiday events.

Check out the photos from our trip so far. Sit, stay, more to come!

If your pet goes along for the ride in your vehicle, be sure you take steps to properly restrain them.  Check out these survey results from AAA and Kurgo.

39 percent of U.S. households (45.6 million) have a dog, according to American Pet Products Association.

1 out of 3 dog owners admit to being distracted by their dog while driving, however twice as many (2 out of 3) admit to engaging in distracting activities with their dog while driving, according to the AAA/Kurgo survey.

Looking away from the road for only two seconds doubles your risk of being in a crash, according to the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) reports  6,000 people died in 2008 in crashes involving a distracted or inattentive driver and more than half a million were injured. However, many traffic safety experts believe the actual number to be substantially higher.

Only 17 percent of dog owners who have driven with their pet use some form of pet restraint while their dog is in their vehicle, according to the survey by AAA and Kurgo.

An unrestrained 10-pound dog in a crash at 50 mph will exert roughly 500 pounds of force, while an unrestrained 80-pound dog in a crash at only 30 mph will exert approximately 2400 pounds of force.

Similar to a young child, the front airbag system in a vehicle can be deadly to a dog during a crash if sitting in the front seat, even if restrained.