Creative PAW: Creative Professionals for Animal Welfare

We have an animal welfare organization — Lauren’s Zoo — that needs creative help on many fronts. Here’s the message from founder Lauren Steinhauer:

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We are a young married couple that has devoted our lives to special needs animals in an area (Gulf Coast) that desperately needs our help. We specialize in dogs with serious medical and psychological problems stemming from anything from bad genes to severe abuse and neglect. We have been on petfinder for about a year and nine months and have successfully found great forever homes for over two hundred animals! We are very very selective when it comes to placement of our animals as we devote all of our time and money into them. We both work full time, go to college, and take care of our animals. We are very excited to be a part of creativePAW, we could use help in these areas by these pros:

• graphic designers - although our webpage is functional, it lacks what makes a webpage inspiring. I would love some cool new graphics to incorporate into a webpage.
• marketing professionals - we are looking for ways to fundraise on the internet. Locally we are unable to do much in the way of fundraising because of several reasons.
• photographers - some animals always look like they are being cornered by Hitler; I would love to see our animals get a true pro to snap our dogs.
• PR professionals - we need a spokesperson for Lauren’s Zoo. We need representation on a national level.
• videographers - we would like to utilize youtube to show the personality of our dogs on video. If i provide video, I need someone who can edit it and add the aesthetic qualities it needs, put some catchy music behind the vid, make people fall in love with the animal. Its much easier to fall in love with a one minute video than a picture of a crazy scared looking dog in one picture.
• web designers - although our webpage is functional, it lacks what makes a webpage inspiring.
• writers - when we have a “not so adoptable” it is imperative that they have a “good story” to help aid in the adoption. Check out Mr. Peabody in our Happy Tails section on Laurenszoo.com to see what im talking about. If anyone has grant writing experience, we desperately need help finding the funds and applying for them.

I hope that we can find some help. I realize we need alot of help, but any is much appreciated. Many thanks! Please check out www.LaurensZoo.com.
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If you can help in any way, please e-mail Lauren Steinhauer at laurenszoo@yahoo.com. Thank you!

Several months ago my husband Eric and I were cleaning cat cages at the local shelter, and we noticed that some of the cats had little beds, while others were lying on folded towels or fabric scraps. I decided to use my not-so-great sewing skills to make beds for the cats. I bought some fleece and batting sheets and experimented with designs, finally coming up with a simple rectangular pillow that was quilted with three straight lines across the pillow to keep the batting in place.

When I told a boardgame friend Brooke about the beds, she was very into it, and she recruited her 80-year-old mom. Brooke got the local fabric store and her coworkers to donate a ton of fleece and batting, and between the three of us we made about 70 cat beds. (Though most of the credit goes to Brooke’s mom, who is a fast and good seamstress.) Now whenever I go into the shelter I feel great that the kitties are all cuddled up on their comfy beds.

If you have a sewing machine and some time, cat beds are a great, not-too-difficult project. If you’re smart like Brooke, you can get your local fabric store to donate materials. Every kitty needs something soft to lie on!