Animal Ambassadors: August Calendar Dates

Posted by: Allison Helps Cats on: September 4, 2017

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With almost 80 million households in the United States owning a pet as of 2015, it should come as no surprise that our calendar year is filled with holidays celebrating our animal companions. These holidays might be a little too obscure to grant anyone a day off from work, but they still might give ideas about how to have fun with or honor pets. Last year to help Lincoln Animal Ambassadors visitors keep track of those very special dates, I began posting information about them. Here are links to all of the events you might have missed in August.

National Mutt Day: The need for mutt adopters is so great that, according to DogTime, two days have been set aside to “raise awareness about the plight of mixed breed dogs in shelters, and to remind potential pet parents that it’s the personality and not the pedigree that truly matters”. The goal of this biannual event, observed on July 31 and December 1, is to get 10,000 shelter mutts into the loving forever homes.

Universal Birthday for Shelter Dogs: Many dogs who wind up in shelters can’t be registered for official birthdays. Shelter workers might be able to estimate their age, but they can never know for sure. When these dogs of unknown origins finally find their forever homes, their family assigns them a random date–such as the adoption day itself–as a birthday. To rectify this sad situation, The North Shore Animal League America declared August 1 as Dogust or the universal birthday for all shelter animals whose birthdays are unknown.

National Check the Chip Day: No matter how careful we are, sometimes our pets get lost. And because they can’t tell people their address, the easiest way to get them back is to make sure they have ID. Tags are the traditional way to let people know who your pet belongs to, but it’s not enough. Collars can come off. Fortunately, thanks to modern technology, you can have a microchip implanted under your pet’s skin.

Take Your Cat to the Vet Day: The American Veterinarian Medical Association recommends that every pet have annual veterinary visits for preventive care. Yet less than half of cat owners in the United States take their cats to a veterinarian on a regular basis. In 2009, the company Feline Pine created Take Your Cat to the Vet Day to build awareness of the need for regular veterinary care for cats.

National Dog Day: Do you remember when you adopted your first dog? Pet & Family Lifestyle Expert and Animal Advocate, Colleen Paige created a national pet calendar event in honor of the first dog her family adopted. National Dog Day was founded in 2004 and is celebrated on August 26. Paige is also the founder of National Cat Day, National Puppy Day, and National Mutt Day, all designed to bring attention to the plight of homeless animals and encourage adoption.

Rainbow Bridge Remembrance Day: Rainbow Bridge Remembrance Day was founded by a fellow pet blogger, Deborah Barnes. The author of Zee & Zoey’s Cat Chronicles, Deb created this special day in tribute to her Ragdoll cat, Mr. Jazz, whom she said goodbye to on August 28, 2013. Upon receiving overwhelming support for her book about his death (Purr Prints of the Heart – A Cat’s Tale of Life, Death, and Beyond), Deb decided to create the day in his honor as a way for others to share memories of their own departed pets.

Pet Holistic Day: Holistic Pet Day was started by pet advocate, Colleen Paige, to encourage owners to look at health care for pets. One of those methods is holistic health, wherein a pet’s diet, lifestyle, and environment are recognized as having a potential impact on its overall health. Some believe that holistic treatments will improve nutrition, increase pet energy, and even manage diseases or cure illnesses.

Missing from my roundup is: National Spoil Your Dog Day.

To read more, check out Pet Calendar Dates. There you’ll find details not only about the above, but about pet-related dates that fall throughout the rest of the year.

Tags: Allison's Book Bag, pet calendar dates, reviews of books for young people