Thinking about adoption or want to take a walk this weekend?

This weekend, more than 1600 shelters in the U.S. will join the North Shore Animal League America in hosting the Pet Adoptathon® 2010. As this is a cause that we care deeply about, BISSELL is working with the NSALA as the Supporting Sponsor for this event. In 2009 more than 20,000 pets were saved during the Adoptathon. Hopefully that number will be topped this year!

We will have BISSELL employees helping out at two different shelters over the weekend. We’ll be in Port Washington, NY at the North Shore Animal League America and in Phoenix at the Arizona Humane Society. If you are in one of these two areas, please stop by and say hello! Plus we’ll be handing out BISSELL booklets at these and other participating shelters across the country that include information about us and our products, cleaning tips and coupons to help new pet owners get the products they need to clean up after their furry friend.

Our research shows that 38% of pet owners would be likely to add a pet to their home if cleaning up after them was easy. Imagine how many pets could find homes if clean-up was simpler. Through our partnership with NSALA, BISSELL is working to make sure people know how easy it can be to clean up after pets.

If you are thinking about adopting a new pet, check out a shelter or rescue in your area this weekend to see if they are participating in the Adoptathon. Many organizations have great specials to help find as many homes as possible for pets during the Pet Adoptathon® 2010 weekend. I hope you find your new best friend!


Also for those of you in the Denver, Colorado area, the Furry Scurry is happening this Saturday, May 1 at 9:00 a.m. in Washington Park. Furry Scurry is a 2 mile walk fundraiser benefitting the Dumb Friends League. BISSELL is also a sponsor of this event and I’ll be there in the “Flealess Market” to talk about our products. Please stop by, say hello and tell me if you have seen this blog. I love meeting readers, fellow bloggers and pet lovers. We’ll also be handing out some fun freebies so stop by early before they run out!

Something to crow about...

I am proud to welcome Dave Aupperlee as a guest blogger to Inside the Pack. Dave is BISSELL’s Manager of Product Safety and Regulatory Affairs. It is Dave’s job to assure that BISSELL products are safe and in compliance with all applicable regulations. Dave was introduced to birding by his high school biology teacher. In recent years he has combined his love of birding and all things outdoors with his passion for habitat preservation and has worked on projects to have corporately-owned land certified under the Wildlife Habitat Council’s Corporate Wildlife Habitat Certification Program. An avid wildlife photographer, he has also contributed works to wildlife calendars.

Here's Dave talking about a recent bird event at our corporate office:

As part of organized Earth Week activities for BISSELL associates, I volunteered to lead a “bird walk” for anyone interested at lunchtime last Tuesday. I am a life-long birder and it is always a joy to take people out and introduce them to some of the most abundant wildlife that is easily observable, be it at a park, along the roadways, in the backyard, or even at the workplace.

At BISSELL we are fortunate to have some very nice habitat areas on the property that are easily walkable during lunchtime or a break. I knew we would not see a great number of different species due to the time of year, but for me it is not the quantity of birds one sees, but the quality. Rather than counting the total number of species, I like to point out the behavior of the birds and their distinctive flying, perching, feeding, or nesting habits.


I was encouraged that a group of 10 or so BISSELL associates showed up for the walk, binoculars in hand. Mostly novices, some perhaps “birding” for the first time, they observed the usual early-spring suspects: Tree Swallows catching insects in flight, Eastern Bluebirds dropping down from their perches in search of food, American Robins working the ground for worms, a Red-tailed Hawk soaring high above, male Red-winged Blackbirds staking out their breeding territory.

But, no doubt, the highlight of the walk came when one of the participants spotted a very large bird perched on a branch of a massive White Pine: a Great Horned Owl. The Great Horned Owl is one of the most widespread and common owls in North America. However, spotting one is a rare treat indeed. We observed the bird for a good long while, as he seemed to be unconcerned about our presence. To find out more on the Great Horned Owl, go to http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Great_Horned_Owl/lifehistory



Subsequent visits back to the site revealed the mate to the bird we observed and a youngster! The little one had probably hatched out a 4 or 5 weeks previous and now was venturing out of the nest. This behavior is known as “branching”. Young Great Horned Owls begin branching at 5 weeks, when they are almost the size of their parents. However, they are not efficient fliers until 9-10 weeks.

Since that walk, I have had many BISSELL associates ask me when we are going out again.

Stay tuned for future updates from guest blogger Dave as he ventures out again in the next week or so!

Can I please go?

Several weeks ago, Loco got a special treat and got to come to work with me for a couple days. We are opening a pet friendly area in our office at BISSELL and had a “soft” opening. She had a great time hanging out with Mom at work and meeting lots of new people and some new dog friends. Today, Loco decided she really wanted to go to work with me again. She was waiting right by the back door as I was racing around getting all those last minute morning things done – you know important things like filling my coffee travel mug, finding my phone and keys, and kissing the kids goodbye as they ran to the bus! As soon as I opened the back door to put my computer bag in the car, Loco raced out and jumped in the car. She was using all her doggy persuasiveness to convince me to take her along. Check out the tongue, she had just tried to go for one of her special doggy “kisses.” I felt so bad telling her no today… We’ll have our grand opening soon and I’ll share more about the new BISSELL Pet Spot. Loco can hardly wait!

Now if I could only get my hands on the new photo correction tool that I saw at BlogPaws from Kodak that fixes pet eyes in photography, then Loco wouldn’t have to have glowing green eyes!

My Dog Thinks I Cheated on Her

BlogPaws was an amazing event. I had so much fun meeting the many pet bloggers and other pet people in attendance. It was especially nice to meet many of the other members of the BISSELL Pack of Pet Lovers. We actually got to dog-sit for a few minutes for Max the super dog of The Dog Files fame and enjoyed visiting with Kenn! That’s Max and Kenn in the pictures below.


We also spent some time with Jaime from ThoughtsfurPaws. I was able to say hello to Yvonne and Tom from Scratchings & Sniffings but they were very busy running the event. I’m hoping to spend more time with them at the Furry Scurry in Denver in a few weeks! We missed Adam and Wendy from Paw Luxury. I’m sorry I don’t have more pictures; I forgot my camera this trip… I have a ton of blogs and websites to check out as I have time, in future posts I’ll try to talk more about others I met!

I learned so much from the other bloggers and also from the sessions that I was able to attend. One of the most challenging things for me is going to be posting enough. This was a reoccurring topic and the consensus was that daily posts are needed. I’m hoping for weekly with the help of some guest bloggers occasionally. I hope that works. I wasn’t able to attend all presentations but of the ones that I went to, a few really stood out including Larry McDaniel’s keynote address “Confessions of a Corporate Sponsored Blogger”. He had some great advice regarding developing a voice, good content, credibility, marketing and my favorite to “love critters.” I can’t wait to read his “Musings on Miles” post in the Scratchings & Sniffings blog. I also really enjoyed hearing Natalie Malaszenko from Petco. She was very interesting and shared some great tips on writing an engaging post. Her first point was to create a compelling title; I gave that a try on this post!

As far as that title goes, the only downside about BlogPaws happened when I returned home late Saturday night. Loco greeted me excitedly at the door and then took one big sniff. She spent the next 10 minutes with her nose glued to my legs. After this she stepped back, gave me one of those “how could you?” looks and then I got the cold shoulder. I tried to explain that I didn’t really spend a lot of time with the other dogs but given all the smells, she didn’t really believe that. Next I tried to explain that if she wasn’t, well so “crazy” and awkward in meeting other dogs that she could have gone with me. She seems to find her behavior perfectly acceptable so no luck with that either. Finally, I realized that there were treats in my BlogPaws goodie bag. I busted out the Biscuits by Lambchop treats and she loved them – especially the banana, coconut, vanilla ones. I think I’m forgiven, for now at least! I need to work more on her socialization skills so I can take her along next time.

Global Pet Expo

We just returned from the Global Pet Expo in Orlando. It’s the largest pet trade show in the U.S. It was so exciting to be part of this show. Over 800 pet product manufacturers were there exhibiting and showing off new products, plus several celebrities were in attendance. Rachel Ray, Victoria Stillwell and Dr. Marty Becker all made appearances!

We had a great show and were able to talk about our products with lots of potential new retailers as well as many existing customers. Check out our booth below, Eric our “Chief Odor Officer” is demonstrating the color removing capabilities of one of our stain and odor removers. When he poured the oxygen action cleaner into the container, the dark purple liquid turned clear!

Here is most of the show crew dressed in black to show off Pawsitively Clean - our new brand and product line that is designed for pet specialty stores.


During the show, we also talked to lots of pet magazine editors and publishers. I thought one of the most exciting things was that so many pet people mentioned things they are doing to support or promote adoption and rescue. Whether it was Dog or Cat Fancy, The Bark or several others, nearly everyone is passionate about helping homeless pets find their forever homes. This is something that we care so much about at BISSELL and it is wonderful to hear our media partners sharing this passion. I’ll share more about what we do to support pet adoption in future blogs. If you want to learn more now, see the Partnerships section in our Pet Lovers Community online.

Next week is BlogPaws in Columbus, I hope to meet some fellow bloggers there!