When people think of pet bloggers they usually think of people blogging about dogs and cats, but you can find blogs about every type of pet- rabbits, parrots, guinea pigs, you name it. Erinn writes a blog about ferrets- Mustelamania. She is this year’s winner of the BlogPaws “Nose-to-Nose” Social Media Pet Blogging Award for Best Wiggle Blog. Congrats to Erinn!
Meet Erinn from Mustelamania.
Erinn with one of her ferrets Diesel-Electric
Please share a little bit about yourself and your pets.
I’m 27 and live in Gloucester, Massachusetts. I have four ferrets: Tank, Mudflap, NB’s War Paint (Smudge) and NB’s Under the Radar (Banshee.) Smudge and Banshee are litter mates from a private breeder in Pennsylvania, while Tank and Mudflap are both rescues. Besides my fuzzies, I also share my home with two cats (Elsabet and Quinn,) three tortoises (Penelope, Henry, and Lyra,) a painted turtle (TT,) and my boyfriend, Sal. Right now I am also hand-raising a rescued baby tufted titmouse I stumbled upon in a cemetery.
How did your love of animals start?
I have always loved animals, and growing up I had a variety of pets ranging from dogs, a cat, and many rabbits, hamsters and gerbils, to a lovebird and a box turtle. I was a very shy and socially inept child, so animals were my friends. The one pet I was never allowed to have, however, was a ferret, despite my fascination with them. I didn’t get my first ferret until I was 21. Since then, I’ve had 11 ferrets.
What made you decide to start a pet blog?
I started Mustelamania because I was unemployed and trying to keep myself busy. My boyfriend suggested I start a blog about ferrets, and here we are!
How long have you been blogging?
Specifically about ferrets: not long, I only started Mustelamania in March of this year. However, I’ve always kept a variety of poetry and short story writing blogs.
How would you describe your blog to a first time visitor?Mustelamania
Ferret news, fun, and love!
Mustelamania is pretty straightforward in that it is about ferrets and their wild mustelid cousins, but because I am very interested in pet nutrition, I also write articles occasionally about the pet food industry. I also try to do some reviews of ferret-related items and goods, and post any interesting ferret-related news bits I find.
If a reader could only read 1 post on your blog which post would you recommend?
I guess I’d recommend The Adventure’s of Smudge and Banshee (Dirty Girls!!) It encompasses how rotten my jills can be but how I love them wholeheartedly despite it, or maybe because of it.
What has been the best part and what has been the hardest part about blogging?
This year, I won the BlogPaws Nose-To-Nose Award for Best Wiggle Blog, and that definitely encouraged me to continue writing. I can’t say there has truly been a “hard” part to blogging – I started it for fun and that’s how I always view it. If I don’t want to write, I won’t, so my posts aren’t supremely regular, but I do try to update at least a couple times during the week.
What have you learned from blogging?
Because starting Mustelamania coincided with my late Schooner’s development, diagnosis, and eventual death of a squamous cell carcinoma, I blogged intimately about her and her story. It was a very cathartic process for me, and helped me come to terms with her diagnosis quickly, so that I could truly enjoy her last weeks and give her a sendoff fitting of her. Writing has always been a release for me, so in that way, blogging has been a wonderful way to keep my spirituality and emotions regulated.
What is 1 piece of advice you would give to a new pet blogger?
Don’t write if you don’t feel like writing. That completely goes against anything any writing workshop will tell you, but in my opinion, readers can tell when a writer isn’t feeling it. And why write if the topic isn’t interesting to you as a writer?
Hello from Northeast Pennsylvania or NEPA as we locals call it. I’m Dawn, a cancer registrar by day, internet junkie by any other time with blogging included in that addiction.
While I now work in a human healthcare system doing work I love, I’ve been lucky to spend a lot of my time working with people and their pets. From co-owning/operating a grooming shop to veterinary assistant to customer service in an online pet company, I’ve worked in many aspects of the pet industry. I’ve also done a little bit of showing in dog obedience, the conformation ring and earthdog as well as training for canine freestyle and tracking. I’ve been out of dog sports for awhile due to lack of time (and money) but I’m planning on getting back in. There is so much you can do with your dogs these days and the dogs love it.
I live with what I affectionately call The Zoo Crew.
My dogs include 3 Jack Russells (some people consider me insane)- Ricochet, Havoc and Malarky with Mellie, the English Springer Spaniel being the odd dog out.
Terriers = dirt
The cats include Omar, Pyro, Bitsa, Charm, Minuit and Poughkeepsie.
Bitsa
My ferret busyness (Did you know that’s what a group of ferrets is called?) is down to 2 ferrets, Hijinks and Amblin, from what was once 9.
Anyone see a ferret?
My flock includes Suerto, a Hahns Macaw, Eco, a Senegal, Roca, a Congo African Grey and new arrival Kijivu, a Congo African Grey.
Kijivu wondering what I’m up to
And last but not least, is my bunny, Glee (aka Ms Glee the diva bunny) an English Lop.
Ms Glee the diva bunny
Can you tell I love pets of all kinds? And that’s what I blog about here on afFURmation. I share posts on different topics about different types of pets. Think you know a lot about pets? Starting back up in September will be the monthly contest Pet Pop Quiz where you get a chance each week to test your pet knowledge and get an entry into the contest. Stop back by or follow my blog doings on Facebook or Twitter for notice of the first Pet Pop Quiz in September.
Thanks for stopping by to say Hi! Please join me in hopping on to meet my fellow pet bloggers.
When you add a dog to the family usually you think about everything you need to teach them. Pamela gets us thinking about what our dogs can teach us on her blog Something Wagging This Way Comes.
Meet Pamela from Something Wagging This Way Comes
Pamela and Honey
Please share a little bit about yourself and your pets.
I’m really nosy about people’s stories so I’m looking forward to reading all these interviews. Thanks, Dawn, for letting me join in the fun.I’m also a wanna-be adventurer with a tolerant husband and a Golden Retriever. My current dream is to move aboard a sailboat. But until we’re ready, today’s adventure is building the confidence of our current foster dog, Chèrie.
How did your love of animals start?
I learned at an early age that dogs were much easier to get along with than people. My first dog provided friendship and a feeling of security in a chaotic and unhappy home.
As an adult, I can’t imagine living in a home with a little bit of furry love.
What made you decide to start a pet blog?
After living for eighteen years with reactive dogs, I decided to get a puppy who would have the best start in life. I began Something Wagging This Way Comes to keep a record of socializing and raising Honey. And I hoped that it would also eventually chronicle the volunteer work we would do as a team.
When we began fostering puppies last year, both Something Wagging and Honey fulfilled their destinies.
Now I’m just too addicted to stop.
How long have you been blogging?
I started Something Wagging the day before we brought Honey home, March 23, 2010.
In January 2011, I became a glutton for punishment and started a second blog, Hands on Home Buyer, the simple, irreverent, and informative guide to buying your first home. After a brief break, I’m planning to relaunch Hands on Home Buyer.
How would you describe your blog to a first time visitor?
Something Wagging This Way Comes is a thinking person’s dog blog. And it’s a feeling person’s dog blog. I believe that the more we understand our dogs, the better humans we become.
It’s also a blog where the commenters are smart and insightful. The comments are often better than the original posts! If a reader could only read 1 post on your blog which post would you recommend?
Wow, that’s tough. I’ve written well over 500 posts.
I guess I’d recommend Telling Stories About Your Rescue Dog. It’s meant to challenge people’s thinking and bring a new perspective to a common experience.
But more importantly, it’s one of those posts where the thoughtful and compassionate comments made a good post so much better.
I love my readers.
What has been the best part and what has been the hardest part about blogging?
I guess I gave that first answer away in the last question. I love the pet lovers community.
I’m thrilled by the honesty, humor, and thoughtfulness of the folks I’ve met through blogging.
Something Wagging This Way Comes
The hardest part of keeping up with Something Wagging is that I have more ideas than I have time to write. And I struggle with the fact that blogging costs money but I’m very reluctant (I think neurotic is the word) to do things that will help my blog pay for itself.
The challenges with Hands on Home Buyer were different–I struggled with working as a housing counselor during the day while blogging on the same subject. It meant that some days I spent 19 hours doing home buying stuff.
But my concerns about earning money from my blogs while maintaining my integrity are the same for both.
What have you learned from blogging?
More computer stuff than I ever imagined. Who’d have thought I’d figure out how to write simple HTML?
On the other side, I’ve also learned that all my character flaws and kooky quirks follow me into the virtual world too. I’d love to be a better person online–conscientious, with good follow through–than I am in real life. But, alas, I’m as bad a housekeeper on my blog as I am in my home.
What is 1 piece of advice you would give to a new pet blogger?
Know why you want to blog and don’t let anyone else’s vision distract you from what’s important.
If you want to tell cute stories about your pets, don’t think you need to do serious posts on health problems. If your passion is animal welfare, don’t listen to people who say you’ll never be successful unless all your posts are less than 500 words and have a catchy headline.
The universe respects a true vision. Hold on to it.
It amazes me how much the pet blogosphere has exploded in the last few years. You can find blogs about dogs, cats, ferrets, parrots, guinea pigs, rabbits, just about every pet possible. I thought it would be it would be fun to meet some of the pet bloggers behind these blogs and learn more about them.
Meet Caren from Cat Chat and Dakota’s Den
Caren has 2 blogs Cat Chat with Caren & Cody where she blogs with her cat Cody about cats and Dakato’s Den where she blogs with her sheltie Dakota about, yep you guessed it, dogs .
Flat Cody and Dakota
How did your love of animals start?
First, thank you for this great new feature and opportunity!! What fun! Now, on to your question: Tough one! Probably when I was about two. We had a Boxer named “Brandy” My mother said she acted like a “Nanny” with me because she was there before I was born. One day my mother heard me laughing my head off but couldn’t find me. She went into the bedroom and saw Brandy’s butt by the bed her head going under the bedskirt….under the BED was ME. She said I was laying there pulling Brandy’s jowls playfully (Brandy let me)….and was just LAUGHING to beat the band! I moved on to Lassie from there, my love of cats didn’t begin until I was 15.
What made you decide to start a pet blog?
I had lost my advertising job (due to downsizing) in 2007. I spent nearly two years incredibly depressed. First, I saw the movie “Julie & Julia” and thought “What FUN!! I can do that!” Then, I had answered an ad for “Citizen Journalists” that my local paper had placed. They wanted me to cover City Council meetings (soooo NOT ME!). I noticed at that time they had very few blogs. I suggested that I do a blog instead. They had me submit topic ideas and I submitted about 5. The first was Cat Chat (because cats were my first passion). That was chosen and I began my blog in October of 2009, my link is sponsored by the newspaper but I am NOT their employee. They own the link, I own all of my content.
Dakota’s blog is completely independent and was begun in the Spring of 2011, it’s a baby!
Cat Chat With Caren & Cody
How long have you been blogging?
Since October 2009.
How would you describe your blog to a first time visitor?
For Cat Chat it would be:Cat Chat is a cozy corner featuring information, stories, book/product reviews, videos and more that are all about CATS! It’s a “Chat” about CATS!
For Dakota’s blog it would be: “Dakota’s Den, the daily doings of a dog named Dakota. Let the barking begin!!”
If a reader could only read 1 post on your blog which post would you recommend?
What has been the best part and what has been the hardest part about blogging?
There are sooo many BEST PARTS! Probably the best part was finding the BlogPaws website/community. When I had discovered them I knew NOTHING about blogging. I was lost. I remember running out of the bedroom shrieking with excitement the day I found them. I had told my husband it was as if my prayers had been answered. It provided so many answers to my questions, gave me guidelines, even helped with my topic selection at the time. Meeting the PEOPLE behind the site and the members of the site both in person and online has been richly rewarding
The hardest part would be now that I have two blogs, coming up with decent content (yep I know I am not the best out there, far from it!) and finding the time to blog. Sometimes the “fun” that it once had for me is sadly lacking due to various pressures that naturally occur when your blogs start to get a decent following.
Dakota’s Den
What have you learned from blogging?
Sooo much! Too much to list here. I am STILL learning and hope to always continue to learn. I have learned things that are technical, I have learned how to write better (I still need huge work on both of those issues!!), I have also learned a lot about people, both fellow bloggers and my readers. Most good, some, not-so-much 🙂
What is 1 piece of advice you would give to a new pet blogger?
Listen to your heart.
Speak as yourself (even if you are speaking through your pet) be true to yourself. Blog because you love it, blog because you love your topic. Let your authentic self shine through your words. Not everyone is going to love you, you can’t please everyone. Don’t give up. Learn to give and take with other bloggers. It isn’t all about YOU. Be supportive. Give other bloggers what you want for yourself, an audience. Don’t just be a “taker.” Be sincere, readers and other bloggers respond to sincerity. Blogging shouldn’t always be self serving. People spot that a mile away and both readers and fellow bloggers will be turned off by it. (Ooops! that was waaay more than one thing!)
Caren was 1 of the first people I met when I attended BlogPaws last year in Virginia. She’s a great person to talk to if you ever get the chance. Thank you for taking the time to time to answer some questions, Caren!!
Would you like to be featured in Meet the Pet Blogger? Just click the pawprint below to email me.
This post is part of the Saturday Pet Bloggers Blog Hop. Take a few minutes to visit some of the other great blogs in the linky below.
Did you know ferrets were illegal to own in some places? I was surprised to find this out when I first began researching them. Fortunately, I was able to keep them where I live. Let’s see what other state you can’t have them in.
Q: Ferrets are illegal to own in 2 states in the US. One of those states is Hawaii. Name the other state.
A: Along with Hawaii, ferrets cannot be kept in California. Along with these 2 states there are cities that make them illegal to own such as New York City and Allentown, PA.
This is the last Pop Quiz for July. The Pet Pop Quiz will go on hiatus for the month of August, but look for it again on the first Monday of September.
