Doggone Green: A Call to Action to Save Our Earth © Copyright, Doggone Green 2008

Please share what your book Doggone Green is about.

I am passionate about caring for our earth. I would like all of us to become better stewards of the earth and its creatures. The earth’s health and my own are interconnected.

If pets are prepared with information, they can nudge their parents to go green. I have Doggone Green Actions in every chapter that are fun and easy. That’s why I wrote this book. I want to show pets ‘n their people how simple it is to go Doggone Green

What inspired you to write Doggone Green?

Mom reads to me. Awhile back, we read and watched Al Gore’s Inconvenient Truth & then read Dominion: The Power of Man, the Suffering of Animals and the Call to Mercy by Matt Scully.

In my book, we bark out about Dominion a powerful book on the suffering of animals at the hands of humans. It prompted Mom and I to ask how is it that people can treat animals so cruelly; i.e. the abuse and neglect at puppy mills and dog-fighting operations. Think about how many 2-leggeds “practice” his or her crime on an animal before doing the same thing to another person. We talk about The Link® between domestic violence that the American Humane Association addresses.

Factory farming is another example of how some animals are treated worst than others.

Scully says, “pigs and cows should be able to walk and turn around, fowl to move about and spread their wings, and all creatures to know the feel of soil and grass and the warmth of the sun. Then there will be no need for labels saying “free-range” or “humanely raised.” They will all be raised that way. They all get to be treated like animals and not as unfeeling machines.”

In my chapter, Haunted by Homelessness, I bark out about homelessness and pet overpopulation. Something as simple as spay or neuter of all adopted companion animals before they leave a shelter is a beginning. I was a rescue dog, so the subject is close to me.

Today, many animals are losing their homes because their humans’ life has changed. As foreclosure rates climb so have shelter populations, many are struggling to keep up with caring for the extra animals, especially cats.

This quote from Scully blew me away.

“There are hunters who claim their sport helps control animal populations and who support popular and ‘scientifically’ proven notions that animals do not feel pain, do not experience emotions and are not conscious of our own lives.” There will always be enough injustice and human suffering in the world wrongs done to animals seem small and secondary. A wrong is a wrong and often the little ones, when they are shrugged off as nothing, spread and do the gravest harm to others and us. I believe this is happening in our treatment of the animals.” tomaketothe

In Al Gore’s book, An Inconvenient Truth we learned it’s the simple things we do that will make a huge difference for the earth.

Around that same time our city of Wheat Ridge, Colorado was talking to its citizens (including the dogs) about storm water runoff; water that picks up “everything” (ug) in its pathway as it flows “untreated” into our rivers and streams.

At that point, Mom and I knew dog poop was an eco-concern. Many humans believe dog poop is fertilizer. This is often the excuse used to justify leaving it on the ground when walking their dog in public. Imagine, 40% of pet parents do not pick up after their dog; the 60% who do all too often use grocery or newspaper bags. They all go to the landfill; picture the mounds of dog and cat waste in bags that break down thousands of years from now.

My book was born that day and I knew I had another job. I already was doing pet therapy for the elderly; I asked Mom what I could to prevent homelessness, overpopulation and to speak up and serve in ways that improve our lives and save the earth. The book expanded from there.

Tell us a little about yourself and your dogs.

I am a 10-year old Chesapeake Bay Retriever. Click to see the rest of my “home pack”

Why did you choose to write it in the voice of your dog?

I am an unusual dog. I have my own mind about things and a lot to say.

I believe a dog best presents my message. I asked Mom to transcribe my thoughts.

What age group is your book geared toward?

My book is for kids of all ages. You will want to color-in the scores of illustrations of me on the job.

What is the best piece of advice you would give to our younger generation?

Two things:

I want more pets ‘n their people to become Doggone Green Crusaders. My doggie wisdom tells me that what we desire and do for ourselves must not harm or take away from anyone else or the planet.

Practice unconditional love. Take a queue from the pets in your life; if people would give to others, a tiny portion of the love we give you every day our planet would be a very different place

What impact do you hope your book makes?

When pets ‘n their people tell us they’ve changed to a safer cat litter or a high quality pet food, that is huge.

When people pick up dog poop because they know it pollutes the waterways and that it is not fertilizer; when they flush it or throw it away in bio-degradable or compost able poop bags. (There are other options but you’ll need to read my book to see what else you can do).

Maybe they’ve switched to a stainless steel food and water bowl vs. the old plastic one that hold all kinds of bacteria. There are also safe ceramic options.

When pets and kids have safe toys, no more of the cheap, ugly painted birthday cake-plastics; those changes make me roll-over and smile.

When our people decide it is healthier to buy non-toxic grooming products for themselves and their pets.

These are just a few examples of huge changes for pets ‘n their people that will make a difference for the planet.

If you had one message to share with all of your readers, what would that be?

Do something to help the earth and begin today, reduce, recycle, reuse. If you can’t change out all of the unsafe products in your household at once, switch to a safer product each month.. Join me as a Doggone Green Crusader. Then broadcast to every pack you know to do what you have done. Sustainability is thought and action, something I’d like the two-leggeds to value so together we can help save the earth.