Blog Paws is Coming

Marylin: This will bez my third Blog Paws and Marcuz’s fourth but it will be the first one without Manny. Hooman really thought about not going this year but wez talked her into still going.

We also talked her into making 30 of these adorable stuffed ferrets to sell to make the trip easier on all of us. Each ferret is numbered on it’s rear paw and has a 2015 charm collar and the word Nashville and paw prints ironed on their bums.

Each one is $20 and if you have hooman hand deliver your ferret there will be no shipping charge but those that do get one shipped (US$6 International $25 shipping charge) to them they are eligible to participate in two contests.

The first one will be a scavenger hunt. You will have to get into the mind set of being a ferret but wez think it could be fun.

The rules for the scavenger hunt are

1. You have to have a mobile hidey hole. Be creative as each ferret has his or her own space to hide stuff in.

2. Do take pictures of the found items but only post a portion of the found item to make others wonder what the item could be. NO DISCRIPTIONS! just the photo *chitters*

3.Your ferret MUST travel with you and may be in the photos

4. Have fun if it isn’t fun then why doz it?

The hooman who has collected all or most of the items will be eligible for the prize.

Each hidey hole will be inspected by Hooman and ourselves to determine the winner at Blog Paws.

Once wez have sold three shipped ferrets wez will post the scavenger list.

The second contest is still in the works but it will deal with photos with your ferret.

To get your ferret just drop Hooman an email with Nashville Ferret in the subject line toz enlightenedferret@hotmail.com and she willz get back to youz on howz toz order one.

Orders will be taken until May 15 to make sure your ferret arrives in time for the fun.

Haz a Chittering Good Dayz,

Marylin.

Semi Wordless Wednesday: National Ferret Day.

Yep you read that right today April 2 is officially National Ferret Day for the first time ever. While ferret owners have recognized this as an "un"official day for several years this is the first time it is official.

 

 

and this month Blog Paws is celebrating small pets this month! Can't believe that Blog Paws is just around the corner. 

Have a Chittering Good Day,

Jo

 

Wordless Wednesday: Play/Bored

 

 

Have a Chittering Good Day,

Jo

 

Blog Award

    I was nominated for this award

   

by Honey I Shrunk the Pig

 

Here are the rules for the award:

1. Provide a link and thank the blogger who nominated you for this award.

2. Answer the 10 questions.

3. Nominate 10-12 blogs that you find a joy to read.

4. Provide links to these nominated blogs and kindly let the recipients know that they have been nominated. I should add if you email the link you should also tell the recipients what the link is about as not to have it deleted.

5. Include the award logo within your blog post

So Thanks Kevin and here are our answers to the following questions:

Here are the 10 questions.

1.  Facebook or Twitter? Both

2.  Your favorite pattern? If you are asking sewing then it is the Warm up Jacket I’ve created for fur challenged ferrets

3.  Do you prefer getting or giving presents?  Both

4.  Your favorite number? 13

5.  Your favorite day of the week? FSS

6.  Your favorite flower? lilac

7.  What is your passion?   Ferrets

8.  What is your favorite color?  Black very soothing

9.  Your favorite animal? Growing up Horses now Ferrets

10.  Your favorite non-alcoholic drinks? Coffee

Nominations:

The Pet Blog Lady

Bunny’s blog

Boris Kitty

Cokie the Cat

I love Rescue Animals

 Pepper’s Paws

Pet Blogs United

Just Meowin’

My tail hurts from wagging so much

Kol’s Notes

Pet Blog Challenge 2013

Last year was the first year we participated in this challenge hosted by Go Pet Friendly and Will My Dog Hate Me  and participating in this challenge this year will  help us focus on where Enlightened Ferret is headed this year.

I couldn’t find if they were doing the challenge this year so I’ve used the questions from last year’s challenge and updated my answers for this year. Here is the link to last year’s post. Pet Blog Challenge 2012

1. When did you begin your blog?

June of 2009

2. What was your original purpose for starting a blog?

To help others understand ferrets and help new or prospective owners understand what having a ferret entailed.

3. Is your current purpose the same? Yes, it is still the main focus along with other aspects of being a ferret owner in a populace of mostly dog and cat owners.

If so, how do you feel you’ve met your goals?

Until last year, I hadn’t really set any goals for Enlightened Ferret. But thanks to doing, this challenge last year I feel that I have met most of my goals for Enlightened Ferret and it has opened the door for other opportunities to help promote Enlightened Ferret.

4. Do you blog on a schedule or as the spirit moves you?

Blogging on a set schedule is hard and sometimes life does get in the way of doing so. But having a few guest posts helps relieve the stress of blogging every time.

If the former, how often — and what techniques do you use to stick to it?

I am trying to use an editorial calendar more so that I have specific posts written for Mondays and Fridays to help eliminate the stress of worrying what to write about. Wednesdays are still reserved for Wordless posts. Last year I tried to have Featured ferrets on Tuesdays and Thursdays but found those to be over whelming and depressing as many of those same ferrets are still looking for forever homes.

5. Are you generating income from your blog?

I have earned some revenue from Enlightened Ferret this last year but not a steady income.

If not currently, do you hope to in the future — and how?

I still have mixed emotions on this. While I do want to have an income from Enlightened Ferret that will allow me to do the things I want to. I don’t want to have ads that are unrelated to Enlightened Ferret’s mission.

6. What do you like most about blogging in general and your blog in particular (bragging is good!)?

I enjoy doing the research for each post I do and hearing from people that have found Enlightened Ferret either by accident or followed a link back from twitter, Facebook, or Linked In.

7. What do you like least?

Self promotion. I am normally very shy and it is really hard to come out of my shell and let other see the passion I have for ferrets.

8. How do you see your blog changing/growing in 2013?

I would love to see Enlightened Ferret gain 400 new followers by the end of 2013 and drawing the attention of companies that cater more to the dog and cat owners and showing them another avenue they might look at for revenue. I also plan on replying to more of the comments than I have been.

I also hope to move Enlightened Ferret from Blogger to its own webpage in 2013.

Hope you will all participate in this challenge this year and see how you do in the coming year.

Have a Chittering Good Day,

Jo

Blog Paws Here We Come and So Can You

What a month this has been so far.

First we found the perfect vehicle to be the Ferret Chariot and have made a down payment on it we will be paying off the last little bit owed on Thursday and driving it home. More on the Ferret Chariot when we have the keys in hand.

We were notified that we were a finalist in the Nose to Nose blogger contest through Blog Paws. Our category is Best Wiggle Blog. We are in the running with three other blogs.

Ducks and Clucks

 Living with Anteaters

And we are running against another ferret blog

Mustelamaina

Good luck to all.

We get this nifty badge

 

 

Now as a finalist we have a pass to Blog Paws but since we have already had ours we are giving away our second one to one lucky commenter. This will run until May 28^th then I’ll choice the winner by using random.org

I like to make my contests easy with no hoop jumping as that just annoys me when I have to do it.

But there are a few rules

1. No I want to win entries I will delete those

2. Tell me what you’ve been told about ferret.

3. Tell me what you have learned about ferrets through this blog and conversations with me on twitter

4. Tell me what you would like to learn about at Blog Paws

Have a Chittering Good Day,

Jo

Blog Paws Experience pt I

 

     I didn’t think I could feel the same excitement that I did when I went to the very first Blog Paws in Columbus, OH. Boy was I wrong!

    Getting to meet new people and reconnect with other has been great. I am already a little hoarse from talking about Manny and Marcuz but that is fine with me as it helps me with my public speaking skills and calming my nerves about doing so.

    It has been a roller coast ride with trying to find out if Snotface Critter would be here or not due to a policy change with Frontier Airlines that customer service overlooked when his hooman booked the flight in July directly with them.

   So today is the first day of Blog Paws.

Registration was easy and the swag bag was filled with some awesome goodies ranging from treats to toys and a gift card to pet smart.

Then the boys and I checked out the pet park we had free roam of the whole room. Manny decided that the dog bed was the best ferret bed.

I wonder how many ferrets could fit into that size dog bed?

Came back to the room to let myself catch my thoughts and let my boys have some time to themselves.

We will be headed back down to the main floor and more people.

 

Have a Chittering Great Day,

Jo

P.S. here is a video of Marcuz enjoying one of the toys from Hartz®

Beauty Can Kill

While chatting with a bunch of likeminded pet people on Monday we were distressed to hear that a capybara that died from eating a small part of an Azalea bush. Like ferrets capybaras are exotics that many have not dealt with. You can read about the capybara here: story. The question was asked “Why don’t nurseries have warnings on toxic plants to warn pet owners.”

From the research I have done there are over 400 toxic plants to animals many are beautiful flowering plants that most of us have in our yards. A plant only has to cause some kind of upset to be put on the toxic list but many of these same plants are toxic to humans. The question then comes into play “How do we landscape our yards so they are both beautiful and safe for both our pets and our children?”
A lot of ideas were talked about during the chat and several seemed plausible and easy to do.

1.Blog about the plants indigenous to our area and link to each other’s blogs.
2.Create pdf file that can be distributed to nurseries.
3.Create a brochure for the area.
4.Talk to locally owned nurseries and see if they were willing to post a poster of toxic to pets/children plants.

If each of us did one of these four things we as a pet community could bring about a big change and maybe save the life of beloved pet whether they are a “Normal” or Exotic pet. We might even find some plants we never knew existed or help to bring back a plant native to the area we live in but the biggest reward would be the knowledge we gained from our research about potentially deadly plants that look so deceivingly beautiful.

Have a chittering good day,
Jo

2011=365 Days of Animal Advocacy!

     2010 is quickly coming to a close but what a year it was for pet people. Conferences were started just for pet bloggers, marketers, advocates, and just all around pet people. Out of these came some challenges one of which was Be The Change, An opportunity to make a difference in animal’s lives some how.

     With 2011 galloping towards us an idea has been thought up by Ash of I love Rescue Animals that is more than a one time shot it is embracing each of the 365 days of 2011. That idea is Advocacy 365. The purpose is to give rescues, shelters, animal non-profit, foundations, bloggers, or an idea that needs support and give them a chance for their message to be heard.

     All that is needed is a tee shirt from these places for the founder of I love Rescue Animals to wear each day. You can be a part of these terrific idea by sending a shirt from a project you support by first looking at the idea first hand to see just what the whole idea is by going to I love Rescue Animals 

     From what I have heard so far she has only been able to get enough tee shirts for a month. So I have decided that I am going to  give out a challenge to all those that read this blog or follow my tweets lets really make 2011 the year of the animals.

     I know that she has only requested 365 shirts but what if she was able to receive double that amount? 730 tee shirts representing animals in a good way. Think of it like this you first get to decide what animal function you support and then you donate to that cause which can be tax deductible.

     Most of these have tee shirts to buy through donations then have it sent to Ashley of I love Rescue Animals to wear. So if she is only one person why 730 tee shirts? Cause Ashley isn’t the only one behind I love Rescue Animals so two causes, foundation, blogs, or what ever animal related would be seen in a day. Let’s  help them reach their main goal of 365 tee shirts and see just how much further we can take it.

     Size needed is small adult tee shirt preferably unisex. Either leave your email in the comment section below or at I love Rescue Animals blog and Ashley will get back to you with the shipping information. I’ll be sending a tee shirt for Enlightened Ferret blog and one for the local wildlife rehabilitation Center as soon as I can.

Keep on Chittering,

Jo