Be A Leader

It's the end of day 2 at the No More Homeless Pets Conference and my battery is about to die ((forgot my charger in Spokane)) so there's a good chance this post won't be done until Sunday night but I'm going to get as many thoughts down as I can before it dies......

Today was full of AMAZING connections. It started right away in the general session. I noticed the man sitting right behind me ((out of 1400 people)) was from Pet Over Population Prevention in Richland, Washington. For those of you who don't know, that's where I got Missy and Mister. I had to speak up and just thank this complete stranger for everything he does because he ultimately gave me the loves of my life. A gift I can never repay him for. It was so so so great to say thanks again and tell him all about our story. He walked away with a smile and my business card. I told him the dogs and I would be happy to share our story for their org in order to create more happy endings like the Missaroo's.

Then, for the first time possibly ever, there was something more exciting than food at lunch for me. I had the chance to sit and eat and talk to Bill Bruce. He is the man who turned Calgary, a city of 1.1 million people, into a No Kill community. The best part? He's a public administrator working in the name of the government and he did it in a way that fits with my overall message of pet parents over animal owners. We talked government and policy over lunch. AMAZING! I also grabbed his card and warned him I'd be bothering him soon for info for my Master's thesis. This man has become my hero and is now someone I say "hello again" to every couple of hours. This weekend is great!

The last session of the day was a round table discussion on cross-posting on Facebook. I know some ((but all of you should really like the Missaroo)) of you follow my pet page in Missy's name on Facebook and you know I'm not really an annoying cross-poster. At least that's what I hoped I would discover from the workshop. Indeed, at the end of the session I addressed one of the cross-posters and asked her "why don't you just create your own content? That's what I do". I stood up and gave people what was for them a new idea. You can help homeless pets in 10 minutes on Facebook without annoying your local shelter and all of your friends. My comment plugging the Missaroo page happened to be the last one of the talk to which the monitors agreed was a good way to go. Then the most amazing thing happened, people stopped me afterward and asked me questions. How do I do it? How easy was it? Where can they go to add links? Wow! I think of myself as a pretty average Facebooker, but if you don't know anything I guess I know more than you. I had the opportunity to be a leader. Right then and there.

That's the key to this No More Homeless Pets movement isn't it? Be a leader. Right now. However you can. Where ever you are. Right. Now. It starts small, you get inspired, and then together we move mountains.