Skiing and Coffee and Animals, Oh My!

Well, it's no secret that I'm not the biggest fan of skiing, 4.5 years of staring at fungal toenails in a ski boot shop and the person attached telling you what a big deal they are will do that to you. However, I am an athlete, and as such, I can certainly appreciate the coolness of the sport at the Olympic level. I for one have watched just about every Olympic sport playing on my new flat screen 42" high def TV nightly from Vancouver. I'm hooked.

Of all things, I think I enjoyed the mogul skiing almost the best. I was blown away at the springy-ness of the competitors legs and the cool tricks they throw down in the middle of their ski run. Wow. And, I was super psyched for the genuine good energy that Shannon Bahrke had after her bronze medal win. I loved her free spirit, her pink hair, and her family cheering her on. Then I found out she is living here in Salt Lake City. How cool is that?! Then, on top of all of that, I learned that Shannon is a huge supporter of Best Friends! Not only that, but she has her own coffee company- AND, that she has several bags of Best Friends Blend. With each bag, Shannon donates $5 to the Sanctuary. A rippin' skier, a coffee connoisseur, and an animal lover and philanthropist? That's my kinda girl.

Shannon also supports other athletes by having different Athlete Blends that feature the them and they all designate their favorite charities. Shannon then donates $1 to their charity of choice, then a dollar goes towards helping the athletes fund their Olympic dreams. Rad sauce.

Thank you Shannon for supporting the animals and your community!

HERA Climb for Life '09

 

 

 

 

Here's just a few of the pics I shot at the HERA Climb for Life event this weekend in Salt Lake City.

This year I was one of the climbing pros that got to guide participants climbing to raise money and awareness for ovarian cancer. I have tried to do this event every year since 2005, when I met Sean Patrick the founder of HERA in Las Vegas at Red Rocks. Sean passed away this year, and she was sorely missed at this years event, but the spirit of HERA seemed even stronger as everyone was inspired to 'do it for Sean' this year. Nearly $100,000 was raised by participants from all over the country.

My group was very cool and everyone was so positive it was infectious. We had the father-son duo of Sean and John, Diana, Shelly, and Alison. Some of these climbers were very new to climbing, or had never bouldered outside. Everyone was determined, and every climber enjoyed tons of personal success.

I was proud that the company I work for, Black Diamond, as well as one of my climbing sponsors Five Ten, were involved in making this important, inspiring event happen.

I hope to see many of my faithful readers at next years event!

Fall Super Adoption Event- Your Help Needed

An open call from NMHP:

Dear Animal Lover
The Fall Pet Super Adoption is this weekend! We are still in need of volunteers to help us care for the 800 homeless animals that will be saved at this event.

It takes a lot of teamwork to successfully put on an event of this size. Hundreds of cats and dogs will be adopted into loving homes this weekend - and you can be part of making that happen!

We need help with setting up and tearing down, walking the dogs, caring for the cats, gate security, keeping things tidy and helping with other various tasks.

Here are the shifts we still need help with:

Thursday Sept 10th: 8am or 9am-1pm and 1-6pm to help set up. We really need good volunteers to help us get this event set up.

Friday Sept 11th: 8am to 1pm to help finish setting up; noon-4pm and 4-8pm to clean and care for the animals, etc.

Saturday Sept 12th: 7am-noon for early morning dog walking; noon-4pm and 4-8pm to clean and care for the animals, etc.

Sunday Sept 13th: 7am-noon for early morning dog walking; noon-4pm and 3:30-7:30pm for cleaning up and tearing down the event. We always appreciate a fresh batch of volunteers for our tear down crew!!

Even if you can only commit a few hours and not a whole shift, no problem! We'd still greatly appreciate the help! To sign-up, please contact Maranda Hawkes (801-364-0370 x27, maranda@utahpets.org) or Danielle Slaughter (801-364-0370 x20, danielle@utahpets.org) as soon as possible.

On behalf of all the dogs and cats who will be saved at Super Adoption, we thank you in advance!

Visit Our Website
Sincerely,


Holly Sizemore
No More Homeless Pets in Utah

Tiggs- One Year Later

Today marks the 1 year anniversary that Tiggs was diagnosed with the dreadful, awful disease IMHA/AIHA (Auto Immune Hemolytic Anemia) that nearly took him from us.

He is in remission and off of medications to treat this disease as of today, and after fighting so hard, we thought he deserved a little party. We made him a big hamburger and he LOVED it! We also got him a special bandanna from the Morris Animal Foundation's Meisha's Hope Fund, which donates money to research that helps find better treatments and hopefully a cure for this terrible disease. Perfectly timed, his bandana arrived today.

We are so grateful that Tiggs is doing so well, he continues to be a joy and a friend to all, and inspires me daily with his happiness, kindness and love.

We are so proud of him. Way to go Tiggy!

 

 

 

 

Please Help a Climber in Need

Any amount will help! We all have to stick together, that is what makes the climbing world so special.

This is Tacos, a climber from Japan, who was seriously injured in a car wreck here in the States. Tacos needs help getting back home with two caregivers. To read more about her, please visit over at my good friend Rachel's blog.

Casino Night

 

 

 

 

We volunteered at the 2nd Annual Canine Casino Night to benefit No More Homeless Pets, it was a blast. Everyone wears a wig, and people bring dogs of all shapes, sizes and pedigrees. There is a huge silent auction. I donated a few items, and won a few. I won the auction on these beautiful small hand made bud vases, as well as 2 arial dance classes at a studio called Revolve! I didn't even know we had that here, but I have a feeling I'll be addicted- it's all fabric and trapeze, Cirque du Soleil style! I also bought a beautiful handmade necklace with an old fashioned picture of a pitty bull on it. The artist's name is Paige Burris, and she is a pitty advocate too. Her necklaces show through the old photos that pit bulls were once revered family pets, not ostracized outcasts. Fun was had by all, and I hope that we raised a lot of money.

Need a Lift? Volunteer!

My good friend Rachel, recently back from her kick ass 10 month climbing road trip, asked if she could come and check out what we do with the dogs when we volunteer for No More Homeless Pets. We were thrilled to have her, and Sparky the pit bull was even more thrilled. Rachel fell in love, and Sparky was a fantastic breed ambassador. Rachel has an inspiring view on volunteerism- give back by choosing a weekly volunteer project! She not only takes time out of her busy life as a brilliant venture capitalist, but then takes even more time to spread the word and the mission of whatever lucky, wonderful organization that she has helped. Awesome idea!

 

 

Please Vote for the Shelter Challenge!

Hello faithful readers! Please take less than 10 seconds out of your busy days to vote for No More Homeless Pets on the rescuesite.com's Shelter Challenge.

Go here, and then type in No More Homeless Pets in Utah- 1 click, and Voile! you're done. No registration required.

Thanks for supporting our local awesome no kill program! We will receive a $20000 grant if we win.

Two of my Kids are Poster Children

 

 

 

 

I am so proud of my 'kids.' Honey will be the next No More Homeless Pets appeal dog. This means that she will be on a special fundraising letter with her photos and story to promote adoption, specifically special needs adoptions. This couldn't have come at a better time, because we have learned that Honey will need BOTH of her knees operated on this year, at a whopping $2500 per knee, so our in addition to helping raise money and awareness for NMHPU and adoption, we will need to mount our own fundraising goals to help pay for Honey's surgery.

Also, Tiggs will be featured on a large poster at a sale to benefit the Morris Animal Foundation's Meisha's Hope fund, which raises money for research to find a cure and better treatment for Immune Mediated Hemolytic Anemia. Tiggs can be seen on this poster, about the seventh row down towards the right- one of my favorite pics that we snapped of Tiggs while living on the road, in Squamish.

Bravo to my brave furkids for helping raise awareness for special dogs everywhere!

I love Neko Case

Aside from her hypnotic voice and badass lyrics, she is donating $5 to Best Friends per blog post of her new song and one dollar per download of the song (free to you to download!). If you are a blogger, please consider adding this link to your blog.

Please go here to listen and download:

Here is the original post at antilabelblog.com:

The promotion will run from January 13 to February 3, 2009. Five dollars will be donated for every blog post and one dollar for every user of iLike that adds the song to his/her profile. Details and instructions after the break.





People Got A Lotta Nerve - Neko Case

Celebrating its 25th anniversary in 2009, Best Friends Animal Society is one of America’s foremost animal rescue organizations. Founded in 1984, Best Friends advances nationwide animal welfare initiatives by working with shelter and rescue groups around the country. On any given day Best Friends Animal Sanctuary, the nation’s largest facility for abused, abandoned and special needs companion animals located in southwestern Utah, is home to approximately 2,000 dogs, cats, horses, rabbits, birds, and other animals. The society also publishes Best Friends magazine, the nation’s largest general interest, pet-related magazine with approximately 300,000 subscribers. For more information, visit www.bestfriends.org.



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How do I post on my blog?
Every time a blog reposts “People Got A Lotta Nerve” by Neko Case, we will donate five dollars to the Best Friends Foundation. Here’s how to participate:

There are two ways ANTI will know you reposted the track. If your blog is currently being registered in Google Blog Search, Technorati, The Hype Machine or Elbo.ws, we will automatically be able to find it. If not, please email newmedia@epitaph.com with your blog post information and we will be sure to add you to the list of participating donors.

To find out if your blog has made it on the list, please visit www.antilabelblog.com and see the list of participating blogs on the left hand column under “Neko Case: Blog For Charity.” There you can also find available assets to help you with your post.

Post any of the following links to your blog

People Got A Lotta Nerve - Neko Case

How do I Ilike “People Got A Lotta Nerve”

Ilike “People Got A Lotta Nerve” by Neko Case and we will automatically donate a dollar on your behalf to Best Friends Foundation. Here’s how to do it:



1) Go To Neko Case’s Ilike profile here
2) Select “People Got A Lotta Nerve” under Featured Songs
3) Click “Ilike” in between Album and Send

Additional Artist Assets:
Myspace | Imeem | Ilike

Please take a brief minute

To click on this link, fill out a vote for No More Homeless Pets to recieve a grant.  It will take less than 30 seconds, and will cost you nothing!  If they get enough votes, they get $10,000!  It's super easy, please take a second to do this.