HoundsGood: Chronicles of a Virtual Volunteer

Today is the final day of the Saving Shelter Pets fall auction. Find art, jewelry, gift certificates and more!!

Bid Now! Watch for any last minute additions, too!

Biddingforgood.com/savingshelterpets

All proceeds after fees are deducted go directly to the Saving Shelter Pets, Inc., Puppy Promises program. Each $50 sponsors one youngster into the program. Through the program, pet owners who are in the process of surrending their litters to a rural county kill shelter are approached with another alternative:

1) If they are willing to take the pups home for 2 more weeks, the pups are vaccinated at SSP’s expense. These two weeks are a quarantine period after vaccination. The survival rate of pups in the partner county facilities is low, due to the chance of contracting parvo or other illness, or euthanization due to space.

2) The puppies are then transferred to a reputable nokill rescue that carefully screens adopters. They typically have an adopter waiting list for pups. When they have healthy puppies to match with new homes regularly, it encourages local residents to adopt rather than buy from a breeder. Since the puppies are vaccinated and are sent to the rescue without medical issues, the rescue can use the adoption fees to care for dogs rescued locally that have higher medical bills and to care for dogs that take longer to find a home.

3) SSP returns to the surrendering family and spays and neuters all adult pets in the house – both dogs and cats. This prevents a repeat occurrence and helps families keep their existing pets. The pets won’t multiply, are less likely to wander away from home. Certain cancers are also completely prevented.

It is a win/win/win all the way around. Paired with a spay and neuter program for adult dogs and cats, SSP is working a multifaceted approach to reducing and halting euthanization of adoptable pets.

So what are we waiting for? Biddingforgood.com/savingshelterpets

End time is 11:00 PM Eastern Time.

For the past two weeks, I have been in dire need of an ink cartridge. I am never buying an inkjet printer again. My next will be a Laser, as I could have purchased one three or four times over with the periodic restocking of ink. While I explored the idea of a refurbished, refilled cartridge, a leftover balance on a gift card enticed me to check out a certain retailer’s website (I will reveal it later later.)

After the small but mighty gift card balance, I emptied my pockets for a total of $4.99. In addition, I used one of the shopping links at InboxDollars and they kicked me .26 into my InboxDollars account (not a fortune, but hey people its free money. I was credited within 24 hours.) The cartridge arrived a day earlier than expected – Bonus.

The point of this all is Exhibit A. This is the box my printer cartridge came in, full of the ubiquitous “air pillows” to show scale for a 14×12 box. Now, if you look carefully, you will see that the cartridge is indeed still in the box. (Yes, that blue rectangle in the upper half of the frame.) The photo was snapped so I could share my outrage. But really, I am un-outraged. If I had a mere slip of an envelope, it would have most likely ended up in the trash. You can recycle certain envelopes, but not every one of those bubble lined envelopes qualify for the recycle bin. The box is very clean, with no big logo on it and based on the shipping parameters, transit in an envelope or this box worked out to be about the same. On various box company the websites, I would pay .75-1.24 per one of these boxes if I bought a 25 box bundle, which seems to be the going minimum.

If I discard or scribble out about once inch of the shipping label, I now have the perfect box to jettison across the country to someone else after it completes as life as a catch all on my desk. So is this wasteful packaging or is it super considerate in that I have a useful item instead of a shredded envelope.

Now its your turn: Guess the retailer! Take your best stab at who the online retailer is who sent me this box. There is no prize per se,  just the satisfaction of generating a healthy discussion. And is the packaging useful or wasteful?

(Just as an aside, if you want to try InBoxDollars, here is a link. I am using my earnings towards a rotating roster of charity groups + pet surgery. You can use yours for whatever you want, or use it as a way to have pocket change for a collection box of a worthy cause. There are a few legit and worthy ones on my Links page. I am updating the list again soon.)

Previously, I reported that artist Dean Russo was donating $5.00 from each of his Mixed Breed paintings in his Etsy store to Saving Shelter Pets, Inc. The details have been changed. Russo will now donate a percentage of everything in his Ebay store to SSP. He will now donate 10-15% of each sale, no matter what the subject matter is. If you are looking for an art piece of your favorite breed, or just like modern and contemporary art, visit his store today.  SSP has created a banner for the promotion, below, where you can click to travel to his store. Keep checking back for new additions.