pet connection

Every year I produce an event for PetHobbyist.com called Chat Month, an online symposium with veterinarians, pet authors, breeders, rescuers, behavior experts and animal welfare leaders. And every year a certain number of the guests I invite decide not to join us because they aren’t comfortable with text-based online chat.

Well, guess what? This year, PetHobbyist is not only focusing on a topic very important to me, “Ending Pet Homelessness,” but is doing most of its chats in streaming audio, with the “audience” listening on the web while being able to comment, chat and ask questions by typing into the chat rooms — the best of both worlds, and one that should make for a much livelier, faster moving chat.

And one that also provides a much better showcase for those guests who are particularly dynamic speakers or, you know — hysterically funny.

Our opening weekend has two guests who are perfect examples of that principle in action.

The first, on Friday night, Feb. 5, at 10 PM Eastern Time, is the amazingly upbeat and successful Bonney Brown, director of the Nevada Humane Society. I’ve seen her speak a number of times now, including at Maddie’s Fund’s day-long seminar at HSUS’ Animal Care Expo and at the national No-Kill Conference in Washington DC, both last year.

I’ll be talking to Bonney about how Washoe County, Nevada, saved 90 percent of its homeless pets despite being hard-hit by the down economy and high foreclosure rates — and did it without bitterness, burnout or bankruptcy.

Then on Sunday night, Feb. 7, at 10 PM Eastern, is our own Dr. Tony Johnson, who I’m sure everyone here knows is one funny guy. I’ve interviewed him and he’s even funnier in person! His topic: “Tails from the Pet ER.”

I’ll be interviewing both Bonney and Dr. Johnson, as I will most of the non-reptile guests. (kingsnake.com’s Cindy Steinle will be handling the herp end of things — starting on Saturday evening, Feb. 6, when she interviews Australia’s Dr. Bryan Grieg Fry, one of the world’s top experts on venom research and venomous species, and another very, very funny guy.)

As the month goes on, we’ll also be joined by Pet Connection’s Gina Spadafori, discussing “The Backyard Chicken Revolution” and other topics related to sustainable living with animals; Dr. Marty Becker on “The Other End of the Stethoscope: How to communicate with your pet’s veterinarian”; Liz Palika with a broad-ranging, all-species look at “Disaster Preparedness for Pets”; Kim Campbell Thornton in a co-appearance with noted pet writer and radio host Steve Dale, to discuss how we can turn our grief at the loss of a beloved pet into action that helps other animals, and the two efforts they founded, The Darcy Fund and the Ricky Fund respectively.

That’s not all — Pet Connection “frequent flyers” — ie, those people we quote and link to a lot –  who will be making an appearance include Dr. Patty Khuly, Amy Shojai, Nathan Winograd, Dr. Marion Nestle talking aobut her recent meeting with the FDA’s Center for Veterinary Medicine,  BAD RAP’s Donna Reynolds and Tim Racer on “Pit bull rescue in the post-Vick era,” representatives from the Ad Council, HSUS and Maddie’s Fund discussing the first year of the landmark Shelter Pet Project, and a panel from IMOM taking a look at the challenges faced by organizations that raise funds to help pets in a crashing economy.

And I haven’t even mentioned the incredible array of reptile-related chats being held on PetHobbyist’s kingsnake.com, the oldest and largest reptile website in the world — including live streaming audio from the reptile legislative meeting that’s being held in Chicago the weekend of Feb. 12.

You can keep up with the events of Chat Month by bookmarking and checking this link, as well as by following PetHobbyist on Facebook and Twitter — those with an interest in herps can follow kingsnake.com on Facebook and Twitter, too.

And of course, when one of our own Pet Connection team is the guest, I’ll also be posting about it here!

Photos: Bonney Brown, top, and Dr. Tony Johnson, bottom, courtesy of Bonney and Tony, respectively.

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