The Best Singles Ad Ever Printed

Reported to have been listed in the Atlanta Journal:


SINGLE BLACK FEMALE seeks male companionship, ethnicity unimportant.  I'm a very good girl who LOVES to play.  I love long walks in the woods, riding in your pickup truck, hunting, camping and fishing trips, cozy winter nights lying by the fire.  Candlelight dinners will have me eating out of your hand.  I'll be at the front door when you get home from work, wearing only what nature gave me...  Call (404) 875-xxxx and ask for Annie, I'll be waiting.....

More than 150 men found themselves talking to the Atlanta Humane Society, according to our source.  Call your local animal rescue organization today, and find the companion you've been longing for.

What's in a Name?

Why do we spell DERMagic with the funny capitalization?

"DERMagic" is how we spell our name, with the first four letters capitalized.  We actually kicked this around in focus groups for a long time before we trademarked our logo and officially incorporated under this name.  What we needed to convey in our name was that this product line was for skin (derma), and that it wipes out skin problems like magic.

It isn’t spelled "Der Magic."  There’s actually a German company out there who does a “magic” show, we think for kids.  Pretty cool, and makes much sense for this spelling.  But this is a different company and no connection to us.

And our focus groups considered a simple spelling of Dermagic, with no peculiar capitalization.  Not bad, we thought, but then people were pronouncing it “DermaJEEK” or “Derma Magic” and other strange things.

So, in the end, we have DERMagic, and we love it.  And our pets love it, and they couldn’t care less how we spell it!  So just ask for it at your local pet supply shop or at your groomer.  They will know what you mean no matter how you pronounce it!  End your pet’s skin issues today, the natural way, like magic!  

DERMagic works!  Guaranteed.

Just a-Walkin' the Dog....

Ahhhh.... summer...   Lovely, warm, sunny morning... birds chirping, dew on the grass, my beloved Shih Tzus stopping to sniff every tree or shrub along the way... Such sweet little mutts they are.

Protective too, the little Changelings.  Joggers and bikers who use the sidewalks for exercise, instead of for walking like the rest of us, get exactly what they should expect when they sneak up behind us at full trot.  (Get it?  SideWALKS... not SideRUNS or SideBICYCLES.)

We nearly sent a runner to the hospital this morning.  These days, with high-tech running shoes in stealth mode, it's impossible to hear a runner coming up behind you.  The dogs don't even hear them.  But suddenly, Skoshi stops in mid-pee, now at full-on attack on the aggressor who materialized at my side... out of nowhere and running at full trot.

With two leashes and spread out across the walkway, we managed to capture an ankle and send the jogger flying, luckily into the grass and not the pavement.

Please explain to me why he was angry at US?  He could have seriously injured my dogs!

People... please pass this on to all your running and biking friends... and tell them to use the jogging trails, use the bike lanes, and stay off the sidewalks.  We have nowhere else to walk our animals in the city and suburbs.  And you should know by now that it's not smart to surprise a dog, under any situation.  When you see dogs ahead, GO AROUND THEM!!!  Cut them some slack, runners!  And bikers, stay the heck off the sidewalks!

Be a Hair-o

Pet Hair Needed in Oil Disaster Cleanup... reads the headline in this July issue of The Whole Dog Journal.  Pet Hair Donated for Oil Spill... reads a similar header in July's Pet Age.  There are many more articles, and much on the internet, but these two just happen to be open before me as I sit here eyeing the masses of hair sprouting from my two Shih Tzu furkids.

The idea is simple: densely packed hair, and even feathers, can act as an efficient filter to extract oil from contaminated water. Any hair will do: pet hair from dog groomers and human hair from hairdressers has been bundled into boxes across the USA and shipped to central warehouses.

Matter of Trust, a San Francisco based non-profit organization has been coordinating volunteers to stuff the hair into nylon stockings to create oil-busting mini-booms. There’s been a huge response: warehouses in Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Florida are storing thousands of tons of hair while efforts are being made to work out how best to use it.  This photo shows a mountain of packed mini-booms currently stored in Ft. Walton Beach, Florida.

Unfortunately, some engineers are saying that using the material is not feasible. The stuffed stockings can sink, resulting in even more garbage that will need to be cleaned up in the aftermath of the crisis. Commercially made booms containing manufactured oil-grabbing materials are said to more effective and easier to use than hair stuffed nylons. BP and the USA Coast Guard have now asked organizations collecting the hair to stop doing so.

Regardless of this negativity, Matter of Trust continues to maintain databases of donors and warehouses of these mini-booms.  And, these are being deployed in the Gulf right now.

To get in on the action, go the the Matter of Trust website and register, and they will keep you up to date on the most current shipping addresses for donations and what's needed most right now.  Hair, fur, and feathers not needed in the Gulf Coast right now will be stockpiled for future (Goddess forbid) spills around the globe.

PS - It is beyond my comprehension that it is probable, even likely, that this can or will happen again, and that we seem to be planning on it.  This is another story, another rant, another loud screaming to come from Mother Nature.  But think about it.  Please think about it, really hard.