Happy New Years Everyone!

Happy 2010 !

  I thought it might be fun for us to review some of what the anipals accomplished in 2009. I wish I had thought to save more from all of our pawpawties this year. We all had so much fun, and they grew in such a way that none of us could have foreseen.We have made wonderful friends and created a way for all of us to help animals. The Anipal Twitterverse has a lot to be proud of for 2009!

February ~

 Many of the UK anipals were celebrating Rednose Day, and many of the US and Aussie anipals found a way to sport a rednose in support of their friends, so that the twitterverse saw tons of red noses.

 It gave us all a common cause, and @romeothecat and @frugaldougal decided we could try to have our first organized pawpawty in March.


The St Pawtys Day Pawpawty

  Oh,did we have a wonderful twenty four hours.Of course there were pwises,and anipals took turns DJing, @BunnyJeanCook and @CosmoHavenese, and several others kept the tunes spinning! It wasn't organized like we know the pawpawties now. But we had green drinks and noms, and all the cats made sure there was plenty of nip! @SylvieDog made cookies and was one of our 1st barktenders. Some of the anipals were able to use tweetgrid, but most worked off their webpage, or tweetdeck.We were invaded by a lot of spammers and SylvieDog's dad set up a "RealPawpawty" site to keep them out. It was the first"collecter" site for our pawpawty hashtags, and was so cool, because it was a moving waterfall of our tweets and avatars! Later the Sekurity Patrol was created to help keep out the spammers and to help folks to find the Tweetgrid search page.Our charity was Animals in Distress.

 There's even more to read about the St Pawty's Day pawpawty at frugaldougal's blog 

The April Pawpawty ~

  It was Easter time,and one of our favorite cats' birthday! @BrewskieButt turned 5 and was the host for the festivities! Our charity was @Kittenrescue in Los Angeles. It was held on April 5th.

The Brew's staff,@BZTAT did this wonderful picture of him for the pawpawty

For well over a week before, the anipals started sporting their pawpawty finery

  Once again we had a wonderful twenty four hours, and for the first, but not the last time, we made our target to raise funds for our charity. We all brought Easter ham, and noms to share. We drank barkaritas and catinis.We had quizzes and pwises! Once again, we had twitter search problems, and spammers to deal with. But we were the #1 twitter trending topic! The DJing was getting more organized with @FergustheDog and @CosmoHavanese getting the DJ's organized to cover the entire twenty four hours.

@EmmytheCat once again did the wonderful pawpawty pawwall

And then we went to PussyCatIsland on the 18th.  @BrewskieButt drove the boat to the Island. @MonkeyCat and @BabyPatches were some of the cats that were there! @Copious_Tuna swam along side the boats and surfers. Dogs, bunnies and guinea pigs joined in.

Perry was ready WELL in advance!

One of the cats at #PussyCatIsland!...snicker..

And @BorisKitty provided the first Sekurity patrol !

@CatnamedSinbad made us all our own surfboards to use on the PussyCat Island beach!

The May Pawpawties ~

  We were having such a wonderful time with our pawpawties, we just had to have two in May also!!

   First we had the super fun Cinco de Mayo pawpawty! Our charity this time was the Margaret Green Animal Rescue Centre in the UK. For over a week beforehand @henryandfriends showed us all wonderful pictures of this great facility. We were all so happy to be supporting this wonderful shelter!

 We found Jib-Jab, and had some fun videos of anipals doing the Mexican Hat Dance! We had what was left of the tequila that @perrythebirman and @FergustheDog didn't drink the night before from @SylvieDog's bar. As usual they blamed it on @MugsyDog...

  Once again we had a super time, with lots of wonderful noms, DJs,and quizzes. There were puppy pinatas, and castanets! Oh, and giant Barkaritas! And once again we met our target for the shelter.

The Cinco de Mayo PawWall,

as you can see it is growing in numbers

  The second pawpawty was the Weekendroadtrip! This one took place over the weekend of May 23 and 24th. This was a national banking holiday in the UK and Memorial Day here in the US. @GD_Kenworth and I thought it would be a really fun time to take a virtual weekendroadtrip around the globe. And it was! So many anipals helped to do this by being the Tour Guides in different parts of the world! @frugaldougal took us to London, @EmmytheCat to Cornwall, @rumblepurr took us to NewZealand, @PeanieWeanie took us to see Santa Barbara, Calif, @BrewskieButt took us to the Art District in Canton, Ohio. We visited so many wonderful places! And ate so many wonderful and exotic noms all over the world!

 Then while we were visiting Rome,Twitter search went down! Many of the anipals couldn't continue on our world tour! But for those of us stuck in Rome, we went on a wonderful moonlit drive in the Italian countryside and drank Chianti all nite long! @perrrythebirman filled his wonderful bucket with the stuff!We tooled around Italy for over six hours. @GD_Kenworth joined in about 2 in the morning for us West Coast anipals, and @frugaldougal joined us soon after. Search came back up about 3am, shortly after I'd taken a break to sleep. The anipals then continued on with the Weekendroadtrip, going to the Great Barrier Reef, and many other wonderful stops. I joined them again in Cornwall, and then we continued on the tour across the US, ending up on the beach in Malibu!

@CatnamedSinbad took

us to Hawaii

  This was the first and hopefully only pawpawty that lasted twenty eight hours! But a wonderful time once again was had by all our travelers! The noms, and tunes, and quizzes had only gotten even better, despite the overnighter in Rome! Our charity this time was very appropriate for Memorial Day ~ VetDogs, The Foundation for the Blind's service dogs for veterans.

@perrythebirman traveling on our #weekendroadtrip!

The June Pawpawty ~

 We started the summer by going Back to the Eighties! By now the DJs were well organized and @Frugaldougal had the quizzes and quizmasters well in paw! We had many wonderful noms and drinks and things for the young anipals as well! Many of us had gotten quite sophisticated with our pawty outfits by now and I just could not pass up using a Dolly Parton shot.

Our shelter charity was Angels for Animals, and we exceeded our target goal! The Sekurity Patrol with Capt. @SnicktheDog and @ShawneeShep was a great addition to the pawpawties.

The Back to the Eighties PawWall

The July Pawpawty ~

  Next we went on a Surfin' Safari. @JavatheCat, and @CatnamedSinbad supplied us with many wonderful and funny pics. @BadAndy_KityKat had us in tears with some of the funny stuff he did. The DJs and quizmasters headed by @FergustheDog and @frugaldougal respectively once again did a superb job! Our shelter donations went to D'arcy's ARC in Canada this time

We all hit the Beach in Style with the Beach Boys blaring in the background!

@hellahedgie brought his own flask, and @GodzillaofJapan threatened to eat surfers until Sekurity sent him to get @VampireKat instead. @Zackrabbit mooned everyone ! A couple of anipals got slightly injured wiping out in the big surf, but both @Apollo_Frenchie and @ConfuciusCat later reported as being OK.  Noms and drinks were perfect for a summer day! It was a wonderful summer beach pawty!

The August Pawpawties ~

The Black Kitty Pawty. Oh what a fun time this little pawty was! We all had to dress in black..the black cats had it made! @JavatheCat had a  fantastic menu for the pawty. I found a black dress to wear though...

  The now termed "official" pawpawty? What else could it be but Woodstock! Oh, everyone dressed as hippies! @PepiSmartDog came as Jimi Hendrix, there was tie-dye and beads everywhere! We will not admit to knowing what it was the cats were referring to as "Super Nip"...snicker...but there were once again wonderful noms and drinks from the JabaJazzBar , and by now we had full time barktenders to get us our choice of libations! Our shelter charity was TEARS. As should be expected we had all sorts of sixties and Woodstock tunes,and the anipals all enjoyed proving they were animals.... 

 @BadAndy_KityKat brought the hippy van, but the cats inside were all stoned and watched the beads on the windshield the whole twenty four hours. They may still be there!!  @LexiLou was the Dokumentasion Officer for our  Pawpawty Sekurity, and wrote  a wonderful report on the Happening! By now @GeorgetheDuck was our official pawtographer!

When the Moon is in the Seventh House,

and Jupiter aligns with Mars....

Then Peace will Guide the Planets, and Love will Steer the Stars...

The September pawpawties ~

We were all supposed to find women from the 50's and 60's that helped to shape the future for women, I chose Donna Reed!

  Chickfest! ~ you would have thought at this point there wasn't much we could do to make the pawpawties even more fun, they were fantastic as they were. Well, that was true, but @JavatheCat with the help of @jazzydacat and @MizzBassie, continuing what they had started at the August Black Kitty pawty, kicked it up a notch for us at the Chickfest.

  Java came up with a complete menu of noms and drinks, and scheduled the barktenders to match, and now the pawpawty goers have her and the others to thank for the wonderful pawty specific menus. The target for the shelter charity was exceeded and raised and met still again!

  While not actually a pawpawty, an amazing thing happened with the animals in September. On what was an early Friday morning for the US anipals, word came that @PepiSmartDog had suddenly left us for the Rainbow Bridge. Now, we have lost other anipals in the past, such as @Quadpawd's older brother @CatNamedOscar last May; every pawpawty starts with a tribute to the pals we have lost. But we had watched as Pepi had struggled for about a month with kidney problems. He was released from the vet's ICU as being on the road to recovery. I think he came home to say Good Bye to his mom, as he had a stroke within five minutes.

  What was so amazing though was the anipals reaction. There were plenty of tears, but @henryandfriends and many others helped organize a send off. Within hours all the anipals that could make it, were in a meadow at the edge of the Rainbow Bridge, celebrating Pepi's life. Those of us who could not join them were there in spirit! It was a wonderful way to say good bye to our friend.   
                                           See ya on the other side,super star!

  Down on the Farm was the theme for our "official" pawpawty, and everyone came as farmers or farm animals. For the next twenty four hours we hoe-downed, and spent a lot of time behind the barn...snicker... Java again served a wonderful farmer's spread ! We had some funny cat-faced calves and lambs! @BorisKitty had to prove his innocence to Sekurity on a cow-tipping charge! I just brought my tractor!

Everyone once again had a super time(even if there were Poo-guns!) and our shelter charity this time was SoiDogs in Thailand! We exceeded our goal and raised over $1300 for them!

The October Pawpawties ~

Howloween! Boy, did the anipals have fun with that! There were vampires, and bats, ghosts and goblins! I was the Headless Horseman...snicker...

Our Shelter charity was Persian and Himalayan Cat Rescue. Once again, everything was super, from the noms and drinks our barktenders served us to the great DJs spinning tunes for twenty four hours to the great crew of quizmasters.There were quizzes every half hour with lots of wonderful pwises! and Persian and Himalayan Cat Rescue got the best trick or treat of all! We exceeded our target goal of $1000 by double!  and then @Nutrish also contributed another $1000. Well done anipals!

                          

Dudefest! Everything Dude! @brutusthedane, @HanktheDoggie, @thetrailerparkdogs, and @BrunotheDog with the help of several other Dudes put on a Festival of all things Dude ~ Bacon, Bacon Beer, Beans with Bacon, and every food known to dudes to cause burps and farts! Brutus drove a team of horses from the Dogmingo River with a load of hooch! We all helped him "lighten" the load!...snicker...A grand time was had by all who came. It was also the premiere of the Flicka da Cookie Cafe, @sadlovelyheart's and my new cookie stop. All the cookies had beer and bacon in them. The shelter charity was Harvest Hills and I'm sure they appreciate The Dudes!

The November pawpawty ~

The official November pawpawty was a very special one, our own @Hanseebundee and @poppy_dog's wedding! It was  a very fun weekend to pawty before the wedding.

Everyone got their formal outfits together early, and for the full week before you saw dogs, cats, rabbits, birds and stuffed teddies trying on formal wear! The pawpawty looked like the anipals had done this a thousand times before, and were quite the pawpawty planners!

                                

  The Planner part is right! This is what almost a year of working out the little details looks like. The DJs keep the tunes moving with Fergus organizing, Dougal has the quizmasters on an amazing schedule of a quiz every half hour. Snick and Shawnee have Sekurity trained to handle any problems. Java and Bassie have the Barktenders shined and polished to serve incredible noms and drinks(very, very formal and fancy for a formal wedding after all!) CookieMan and I had fun once again with serving very fancy cookies and wedding favors

 Once again the pawpawty was a great success for all who came and all involved, and most of all for our shelter charity, Sunny Harbour Cat and Kitten Rescue in Scotland!

The December pawpawties! ~

❆❆ ¸.•*´¯) ¸.•*´¯) ❆ (¯`*•.(¯`*•.¸ ❆❆

  The entire month of December was one Giant pawpawty! First at Thanksgiving(for us US folks!) Dougal,BabyPatches and YourDailyCute announced the start of the Santa Paws Drive! To help six shelters with toys and treats for their animals' Christmas, and with money to help the shelters operate thru the year. I lost track of how many toys and treats folks donated, but there was over $4000 donated for the shelters. One of the shelters was AWL in Queensland Australia. That is where @PepiSmartDog's mom had found him almost 9 years before! Pepi's outfit changes during the #pepipawty were just short of incredible!

The Christmas outfits the anipals wore in December were fantastic! Some were photoshop, and some were photos! All were so much fun to see!

                            

 There were then several little minipawties with the @SantaPawsDrive crew and the help of the Furminator company and the Greenies corp among others.

Then ,the "official" pawpawty was The Howlidays.Once again, it was a great pawty and an incredible way to end our year!(Thanks to GeorgetheDuck and CheshireK I'm able to add that our charity was Catering to Cats and Dogs!)

 For those of us who have been involved from its humble beginnings, the pawpawties have taken on an almost unbelievable life of their own.

Thanks to the @trailerparkdogs for doing this wonderful PawWall

 And then there was @GeorgetheDuck and the Hotties #catmaseve pawty! What a great time we all had! The shelter charity was the Black Cat Rescue. Java again handled the tasty holiday noms and The Flicka da Cookie cafe was open for the night. @marshallsheldon was kind enough to help me hand out the cookies!

 Not only have so many been able to help shelter animals because of the pawpawties,but now the anipals are branching out to help shelter animals on their own. Many have blogs where they write about how they help with their own local shelters. Some now foster shelter animals, so they don't have to spend their lives in cages. Some sponsor animals at shelters, and some have helped rescue animals from kill shelters.

                              

 Even a few anipals are brave enough to try their paws at making videos, like this one Frugaldougal made for us ~

    (and yeah, see we are STILL learning! I don't know why there are two!)

 

  All because one little dog and one little cat wanted to help others less fortunate than they were.

So Happy 2010 to all of us! An incredible group of friends, who have grown so much together during 2009. You will always have a special warm spot in my heart.

♥~•*☼♥♫~ ♥~•*☼♥♫~♥

And since the New Year is a time of remembering I'd like to leave you with this poem dedicated to all of our friends who went to the Rainbow Bridge this year, and their humans who had such a sad burden put on them.

✫ . ★ ゜ ゛ ✩ ː˚˛• ☆ ˙˚˛★ 。゜ ✫

The Last Battle

If it should be I grow frail and weak

And pain prevents my peaceful sleep.

Then you must do what must be done

When this last battle can’t be won.

You will be sad, I understand.

Selfishness might stay your hand.

But on this day, more than the rest,

Your love and friendship take the test.

We’ve had so many happy years

That what’s to come can hold no fears.

You’d not want me to suffer. So,

When the time comes, please let me go.

Take me where my needs they’ll tend.

Only — stay with me until the end.

Hold me firm and speak to me.

Until my eyes no longer see.

I know, in time, you, too, will see

It is a kindness that you do for me.

Although my tail its last has waved,

From pain and suffering I’ve been saved.

Do not grieve it should be you.

Who must decide this thing to do.

We’ve been so close, we two, these years……

Don’t let your heart hold any tears.

~~Author Unknown~~

A very special thanks to the anipals that lent me pics and links. I wish I could name all of you here, as so many have done so much for so many animals this past year. But I'm afraid this post may blow up Blogger! @MizzBassie helped me with proofreading, but any mistakes or mis-spellings are all my own. Please forgive me if I have mis-spelled anyone's name.

Happy New Years!

Love always, Dolly and family