How Your Pet Blog Is Going To Change The World

Changing the World – One Amazing Pet Parent at a Time

I thought for quite awhile before titling this post “How Your Pet Blog Is Going To Change The World”.  I wondered, for a bit, if it should be, “How Pet Blogs Are Going To Change The World,” but finally, the singular spoke louder to me so, there you have it.

I’m back at my desk, after a busy and exciting week in Phoenix for the 2016 BlogPaws Pet Blogger and Social Media Conference. I have a glass of iced tea at my elbow, my ceiling fan is moving slowly, creating just enough breeze on this warm Colorado morning, and the Emily is fast asleep at my feet. As I prepared to do a blog post about the conference, my thoughts turned to all of the bloggers who attended, both old friends and new. And that is how I came up with the “How Your Pet Blog Is Going To Change The World” for my title.

As usual, the conference kept me on my feet and very busy! I was fortunate to reconnect with so many old, and dear friends – knowing that ‘old’ is a relative term. No one is old in years at BlogPaws, we are only old in friendships. I also met so many new people. So many new and established bloggers with stars in their eyes. Wonderful pet people who came to learn and to understand how they might be part of the movement that is BlogPaws.

We Are a Movement

I call us a movement because we are moving mountains. We truly are creating change in the world. If nothing else, we are attracting more and more devoted pet people to our community and our conference, all the better to raise our voices louder and stronger. But, beyond that, we are teaching all pet bloggers, and those who blog about pets but perhaps not exclusively about pets, how to communicate their message more effectively. It’s not that we don’t share properly, or that our words are not the right words. It’s that we, as a group, should always be striving for Gold, as the awesome BlogPaws Chief of Everything, Chloe DiVita, said in her opening remarks. And in that desire to communicate properly, via our sharing, we should always be in learning mode.

Learning mode is our foundation. Learning mode is how your pet blog is going to change the world. When you commit to learning, each and every day, you commit to excellence and that is the first step towards climbing the mountains that stand in our way, as we work towards a place of community.

Climbing Mountains

Let’s talk a little bit about the ‘mountains’. I want to be clear, as clear as I can be, from my personal perspective, about what mountains we can and should be climbing.

1. Ignorance. This is a sad state of affairs but ignorance exists in the world of pet people…I would say, pet ownership, but that sticks on my tongue. So, I will say pet people. Too many people are ignorant of animal behavior (banning pit bulls comes to mind); they are ignorant of the horror of puppy mills and pets sold online; they are ignorant of the proper veterinary care for cats, thinking those precious stoic creatures are always fine, because they act fine; they are ignorant of the very nature of animals to bring both joy and love to our lives, via the human-animal bond.
2. Fear. There is fear in many areas of the pet community. First and foremost, for me, is the fear of being rejected because you’re different. In our Nose to Nose Awards, we consciously put a category called “other” because we recognize the deep bond pet people have with all kinds of animals, not just dogs and cats. It’s our job, as bloggers, to embrace those who are different, who love as we do, as passionately and proudly, whether they open their families up to horses, ferrets, guinea pigs, birds, lizards, and yes, rats and mice. You are all invited into BlogPaws. Another fear is one of being thought less of because you’re new or because you are still working to achieve some honor or another. Be assured that within BlogPaws, we highly appreciate our new bloggers. You are at a place of envy. A place of beginning. A place to be applauded. Being in learning mode probably comes naturally to you!
3. Indifference. This is separate from both ignorance and fear and may be worse than both. Indifference is a mountain full of sand. Those who are indifferent to animals, sit atop this treacherous mountain and remain unaware of those of us trying to climb high enough to show them how powerful the human-animal bond is. There they are, going about their daily tasks, never glancing over at the thousands of us who want them to understand how important animals are to our lives. They are too busy, too absorbed in their own lives, too self-centered, to even acknowledge the lesser beings… us and our pets. We must work very hard to gain their attention and teach them what they are missing.

When you, as a pet blogger, write in your blog, whether it’s a humor piece, a story about vaccinations, a story about your local shelter, a piece about the human-animal bond, or a sharing story about a good friend, a pet you lost, a new friend made at BlogPaws, whatever it is, once you hit publish it becomes a part of the growing voice of pet people everywhere. Your story, your blog post, becomes another step forward, rising up the mountains of ignorance, fear and indifference, to say to the world, “We matter. We count. Pet bloggers and the pets they love, are not voiceless any longer.”

Thank you for being part of what we are building at BlogPaws. Thank you for embracing our idea of bringing pet bloggers together, to meet each other and share ideas and become a voice for the voiceless.

Your pet blog is going to change the world with each word you write and each video you share and each time you post to social media.

I invite you to be part of our Wordless Wednesday linky list, every week, to share those stories.

I ask that you not be shy about telling others how important this is to you – your blog, your pet(s), and your desire to give voice to the voiceless.

Now is the best time to move your blog forward, by joining our Social Learning Community.

See you in Myrtle Beach. Register at the conference rate through today only! (Don’t worry: After today, you can register at the Early Bird rate!)

Yvonne DiVita is a Co-Founder of BlogPaws. She is dedicated to storytelling and the human-animal bond. When not working on BlogPaws, she writes at Scratchings and Sniffings and The Lipsticking Society. You may contact her at Yvonne@blogpaws.com .