5 Ways to Help Pets on Your Drive Home From Work

Lending a hand for pets in need is always a nice thing to do, but it doesn’t have to be a huge production. Sometimes, it’s the littlest gesture that makes the biggest impact. Here are a few pet-loving tasks so simple, you can do them for your local shelter or rescue on your drive home from work.

1. Take a Dog for a Walk or Offer Some Playtime

This is an easy, fun, and incredibly helpful way to lend a hand. By volunteering to stop by the shelter and take a dog for a quick walk or play chase-the-mouse with a cat before heading home, you make the lives of those running the shelter (who are likely spread a bit thin) a little easier, and you give a pet some well-deserved attention. You might even make a new friend in the process.

2. Bring Office Supplies

Helping pets can start with helping the people working for them. A simple way to help out your local shelter is to drop off a few office supplies every so often. Pens, pencils, Post-Its, legal pads, paper clips -- anything your office has in surplus they’d be willing to donate, or anything you have lying around your home. People tend to forget the clerical side of running a shelter, but as anyone who has ever worked in one can attest, there is no shortage of paperwork.

3. Bring Over Dinner

As quick as a trip to the local pizzeria, throwing your shelter an impromptu pizza party is a great way to let them know how much you appreciate them. Two pies and a couple of two-liters are the universal sign for “thanks.” Homemade goodies like a batch of cookies will score big, too. Just be careful about bringing homemade treats for the pets -- shelter rules might not allow the workers to share anything unlabeled by a manufacturer with the pets. But you can always bring some extra store-bought treats.

4. Give Some Cleaning Supplies

Things like soap, hand sanitizer, or all-purpose cleaner are often on short order at animal shelters, so if you have time to stop in to the local supermarket and drop a few bucks on cleaning supplies, everyone at your neighborhood rescue would be grateful.

5. Give Them All the Plastic Bags

You know that pile of plastic bags under your sink, or in your closet, that is starting to get out of control? Why not take half (or all) of them to some people who can put them to some real use? Just think -- if your local shelter is home to 40 dogs, that’s 80 walks a day, and 80 good reasons to have a plastic bag on hand. Cats need litter boxes cleaned every day, too. Your shelter staff will seriously thank you.

Guest post: Sam Bourne is a pet lover and dog and cat parent lucky enough to get to write about them for a living on PetCareRx and The Wet Nose Press.

Give Cancer the Paw: How You Can Help

It seems we're loosing way too many pets to cancer these days.

I don't know if it seems that way because my awareness is heightened after losing Cosmo Havanese to cancer 10 months ago or if it's because cancer is truly on the rise. Either way, the facts don't lie. According the National Canine Cancer Foundation:

• 12 million cats and dogs are diagnosed with cancer every year
• Cancer affects one out of every three dogs
• Half of all dogs diagnosed will die from cancer

But even with these grim statistics there's hope. Cancer is not a death sentence -- amazing advances in treatments can provide some pets with high quality of life for years to come.

So when we heard about the Give Cancer the Paw Blog Hop, which kicks off today, we wanted to participate to help share some of the information we gathered from our cancer experience, and how you can help.

Fundraise for cancer research 

Just last weekend we participated in the Puppy Up! Atlanta walk to help raise funds and awareness for cancer research through the 2 Million Dogs organization. You can learn more about it and look for a walk in your area here.

Many of this year's walks have already taken place, but you can keep them on your radar for next year or start up a walk in your area.

Photo by ABJ Photography

We had a terrific time walking in the Puppy Up! walk with Rocco... who always has a terrific time!

Support the National Canine Cancer Foundation

This November, PetCareRx is teaming up with the National Canine Cancer Foundation to spread the word about National Pet Cancer Awareness Month.

You can join in the effort to raise $5,000 for the NCCF. For every "like" on the PetCareRX Facebook page, they'll donate 50 cents to the foundation. 

Fuel the Love to Fuel the Cure with Zuke's

Today, Zuke's announced a new social media campaign titled "Fuel the Love to Fuel the Cure"to help support The Dog and Cat Cancer Fund (DCCFund), a non-profit organization dedicated to understanding, treating and preventing canine and feline cancer. 

This campaign will invite and inspire Zuke’s fans to share photos and videos of their dogs in action and loving life. For every person who follows @ZukesPets on Instagram or Twitter and tags their action-packed photo or video with #FuelTheLove, Zuke’s will donate $5 to The Dog and Cat Cancer Fund up to $10,000.

Here are a few more resources to help with coping with cancer:

• Pet360 has started a pet cancer support group
• This quality of life scale helps pet caregivers determine the current state of their pet's day to day existence and can help guide future care
• This article I wrote on dealing with pet loss includes additional resources and support group

We're joining the first Give Cancer the Paw Blog Hop, co-hosted by Peggy's Pet Place and Pooches Smooches. Check out the blogs in the linky below for more helpful information about pet cancer.

The Dieting with my Dog Guide: Inspiration to Get Active with Your Dog!

For today's edition of FitDog Friday I'm so excited to tell you about the new book that just came out by our FitDog co-host Peggy Frezon at Peggy's Pet Place!

I got my copy of The Dieting with my Dog Guide to Weight Loss and Maintenancethis week, and it's filled with tips on healthy eating and lots of fun activities and exercises you can do with your dog.

It's not just about weight loss, so don't let the title fool you. There are plenty of activity ideas and great photos too, that will inspire you to get out and get active with your dog!

Rocco gave the book a little taste test, below, and when he realized it wasn't edible, he looked for his next fun activity!

Lot of our blog pals are included in the book, offering up great information on everything from swimming to snow shoeing and other fun exercises you can do with your dog too.

We even have a little feature in the book about how to get started in dog agility.

The official book launch is Sept. 9, but you can get the book now on Amazon. For the launch, Peggy will be hosting a contest with a great prize basket, so keep an eye out for that as well as the Fun and Furry, Fit and Healthy Book/Blog Tour Sept. 9-30.

In other news, we're also featured this week in the PetCareRx community in their "Ask the Expert" section! Through Aug. 31, I'm answering questions about how to get active with your pet. And if you ask a question on this section of the community page by Aug. 31, you'll get entered into a drawing for a chance to win a Kong Flyer.

The fun and games continue every Friday with FitDog Friday, the weekly Blog Hop brought to you by To Dog With Love, SlimDoggy and Peggy's Pet Place to promote a healthy active lifestyle for pets (and their people, too!) and to help combat pet obesity. Join in every Friday by linking up your FitDog story or visiting the blogs in the Hop.