Rattie Idol - Last week to vote!

This is the last week you'll have a chance to vote for Rattie Idol! There is still time to vote your favorite into the running for 1st place, but on February 5th the contest will be over.

Just go to the voting page on New Rattitude's Website and vote for your favorites. The votes will be put in a "shopping cart" and after you are finished you'll be directed to Paypal. Each vote costs $1.50 and all of the proceeds are going to help pay for the vetting of all the nurseries that NR is currently fostering.

The above photo is of the pups in the Wisconsin nursery, all named after cheeses (Brie, Romano, Bleu...) and they have a hilarious photo in the contest where they are all wearing cheeseheads. How she got 7 puppies to keep those on their heads is beyond me!

Kiss me, I'm adopted!: Freebies from Planet Dog

To thank people for adopting a pet vs. buying one, Planet Dog has put together a cool free rescue kit. The kit contains a special promotion code for 10% off planetdog.com for 1 full year PLUS:

An Orbee-Tuff adopt toy (Ball for dogs, a Mouse for cats)
An adopt. campaign decal and WOOF or MEOW EURO sticker.
A Bark mini-magazine
A special promotional offer from Dog’s Life magazine

All you have to do is send Planet Dog a copy of the adoption certificate/contract you received from your shelter or rescue group. For more info link to Planet Dog's "Kiss me, I’m adopted" kit Webpage. I'm just bummed that I can't send away for one. Those minty scented Orbee balls are AWESOME and I love the adopt campaign decal.

Battle for the Bone

Frodo LOVES the plush squeakie toys that are brought out when we have puppy fosters at the house and can often be found skulking around their crates, waiting for one of us to forget to lock the crate door to keep him out. Here he is, sitting atop the couch with his prize, but Laika didn't let him keep it for long. She's a 5 pound, tough little cookie and she just bounced up there and grabbed it back from him.

I don't know what it is about shearling material but the dogs are obsessed with it.

Here's a photo of Laika, after she snagged the bone back from Frodo. He looks on longingly but is too much of a wuss to try and take it back.

Send your love to a chained dog for Valentine's Day

We've all seen it - a neighborhood dog spending all of it's time chained outside without any company and sometimes barely even access to water. It's so sad. Well now you can help without any confrontation.

February 7th-14th is "Have a heart for chained dogs" week, and there's a group called Dogs Deserve Better that send out valentine's to owners of these dogs, hoping to educate them on why a dog shouldn't be chained. Yes, most people won't pay attention to this, but if the effort makes even a few dog's lives better it is worth it!

If you go to their Website it will give a detailed explanation but here's the basics. They want folks to send in mailing addresses of homes where dogs are chained. Then they will send Valentines cards along with a brochure about the problems of chaining a dog. Kids around the country volunteer to make these cards and then the group sends them out to the addresses that have been collected.

Last year 10,435 cards were sent out and this year their goal is 12,500. Either E-mail them an address at info@dogsdeservebetter.org or link to their Website and fill out an online form.

The above photo is from the Dogs Deserve Better group.

Vote now for the next RATTIE IDOL!!

Voting opens today for the 2009 Funniest Rattie Idol. It only costs $1.50 to vote, so join in the fun! Go to http://www.newrattitude.org/RattieIdolVote.htm to learn more and to link to the photos. You can help us choose the top 3 dogs entered in the contest. Remember, there are some very valuable prizes up for grabs so be sure to help these deserving comedic dogs on their way to stardom!

- Each $1.50 vote will bring you to the Paypal shopping cart.
- To vote multiple times for an entry simply change quantity in the cart.
- To vote for multiple dogs/entries add them to the cart and pay just once! This saves time and saves NR from paying extra Paypal fees.

If at a later date you see that your favorite photo needs more votes, feel free to vote again. All money raised from this contest will help pay the vetting expenses of the 25 or so rescued puppies that are currently in New Rattitude nurseries.

7:45 pm - WHOOPS! I got so excited that I jumped the gun. TOMORROW is when the voting starts. So be sure to start voting tomorrow. :)

A wild and crazy dog

Last night I decided to take a few more photos of Miss Laika and after about 50 shots with a little black blur in them I opted for video, which is a better media for a wild and crazy little pup. Why am I not introducing a video? Well, that didn't work out either.

It seemed like every video that Hunter would start talking and say something that I didn't really want to share with the rescue world. In the first video he was talking about Guinness world records and said "did you know that there was a guy who pulled a car by his nipples?" Of course I had turned on the video camera right as he said "nipples" which sounded like a really weird thing to say as a video of a little puppy was playing.

In the next video I was about to shut the camera off when he exclaimed, "ewwww, Frodo has weiner gunk!"

Well, I thought the third time was a charm. The video was cute - Laika attacking a monster tug toy that we have. I uploaded the photos and video to the computer and when I played the video, realized that I must have double pushed the button or something. There was about 1 second of video. So I only have a photo that represents most photos taken of Laika - everything in focus but with a little black blur somewhere in the frame. This was one of the last photos taken and note the look on Frodo and Hunter's face. After 10 minutes everyone was a little tired and wondering how much longer until the little bucking bronco was worn out.

Still time to enter Rattie Idol 2009

There are just 3 days left to enter your favorite funny photo of your dog in New Rattitude's "Funniest Rattie Idol" contest. It's only $5 to enter and the prizes are spectacular! Plus, you love puppies, right? Well, all proceeds will go towards the vetting expenses of New Rattitudes current 25 rescued puppies.

Even if you choose not to enter you can take part by voting. Each vote is only $1.50 so get as many people involved as you can to boost the votes for your dog or for your favorite entered photo. The voting starts on February 22nd and I'll post a link to the voting page at that point.

Come on, guys! Everyone has at least one funny photo of their dog, right? Remember, it doesn't have to be a rat terrier. Any dog with a terrier spirit is welcome in the contest.

The above photo was taken of Holly-Jo, one of our past fosters (was Nova) by her mom Allison. Can you believe that little Chocolate lab had a rattie momma? Her poor 15 pound rattie momma gave birth to 6 little lab puppies that were fostered in Washington.