Ark Lady

This time of year people think that it might be a good time to add a new pet to the family or to give one as a gift.

Although the Home for the Holidays Program has been pretty successful, for most people the hectic season and additional financial demands of maintaining another household member makes it a poor time to add and integrate an animal into a home.

One of the biggest mistakes people make is to buy a dog for a friend or family member.

Why is it a mistake?

A new pet is a personal decision that demands research, resources, and that places additional responsibility on the new pet parent.

It is best to let each person make that commitment instead of surprising someone with a live present that may end up abandoned or relinquished when it is not a good fit or the recipient cannot adapt to the demands of pet parenthood.

Instead, create anticipation with a cascade of gifts that will create excitement and anticipation surrounding the possibilities.

If you don’t want to wrap a bunch of gifts (but personally I think more can be fun) you can create a nice basket of supplies by using a dog or cat bed and then filling it with the items that will be needed when a new pet is selected and wrapping it up as one big present.

Take the bed and then fill it with toys, treats, collar,leash, brush or comb, toileting aids (pet clean up aids doggie toilet or cat litter box) and gift certificates for puppy preschool or kitten kindergarten.

Certificates for grooming, pet sitting, and veterinary wellness exams or pet insurance make great additions to this present.

Help in the selection of pets by giving a book about selecting the right dog or an encyclopedia of the different cat or dog breeds. Above Photo: Puppy Care Package – Medium Puppy Starter Kit

Here are a few to consider:

Blog Posted December 9, 2008 at 6:00 am

Going Green: Sheep Poop Paper

When you are an animal person poop becomes very important to you especially if you work with wild or exotic animals.

Why?

Because wild animals often hide illness and the condition of their poop can be an indicator of health–of course there are a lot of other ways to determine if something is wrong but since we tend to shovel a lot of the stuff (especially when you are working with elephants) it becomes something just short of an obsession.

The lack of poop, loose poop, really dry poop…you get the picture.

So, when I found a group with a strange sense of humor and odd idea of commerce that was, errr, pretty shitty, (sorry I just couldn’t resist) I had to share it with you.

Now perhaps I am behind (no pun intended) on things since they’ve been noticed by a bunch of oddballs and even won awards. Their product is sold in Manhattan and other places BUT let me redeem myself by saying that I am cutting edge in that I do know about their plans to introduce Reindeer Poo Paper™–with any luck perhaps in time for the holidays next year?

The Sheep Poo Paper™ people might at first seem to be an odd bunch but the group behind this product is the green company called Creative Paper Wales with some impressive goals:

Creative Paper Wales (and Sheep Poo Paper™) is all about rejecting established thinking about what is possible or sensible and then transforming that impulse into action and actually doing something differently. We are setting out to upset conventions and trying to see the world and its possibilities in a new and more sustainable way. Read more about Creative Paper Wales environmental policy here.

Now the team thinks they have the best job in the world. They collect super fresh sheep poo from the beautiful (and rainy) mountains of rural Wales and take it back to the mill, situated in southern Snowdonia to make the Sheep Poo Paper™ but they also make other papers from waste papers, rag and textile off cuts and just about anything else they can think of–as long as it contains cellulose fibers that are long enough. They don’t use trees–because they like them.

As for the processing of the poop, the sheep poo is completely sterilized by boiling it in a specially designed pressure cooker at over 120 degrees centigrade (using only the purest Welsh mountain water, of course) and then it is washed repeatedly over several days until it has lost approximately half its original weight leaving a different type of pile behind.

These fibers are then beat down and then blended with other recycled pulps until it reduces to a consistency suitable for making paper. When asked for more information the response was, “This is a difficult process to get right and the exact method is a closely guarded secret.”

Right!

Now if you are also looking for fertilizer the by-product of the paper making process is that it produces a clean, sterile, rich, liquid fertilizer which the Sheep Poo Paper™ people store in a tank at their mill and pass on to local growers.