In praise of enthusiasm

I love being able to do up my seed orders online.  Its comfy and easy.  Being able to check the totals as I go along is a great reminder not to bite off more than I can chew.   Best of all, I know immediately if seeds aren't in stock and so can tweak the other orders accordingly.  THAT isn't just convenient ... it can save the extra shipping and/ or handling charges down the road.
I'm a middle aged grandmother ... so I tend to treat the net like a teenager.  Its interesting to watch it develop.  If you ask the right questions you can find the information you are looking for.   But you still have to be careful what you 'tell' it if you wish to keep a measure of personal privacy :)
That being said, its lovely to see the net blossom in so many great ways for the animals.   From share buttons on Petfinder and websites right through to twittering for the animals ... social networking is changing outcomes for both owned and homeless pets.
One of the neatest things I've seen yet is the fairly new Nova Scotia Lost Dog Network.   What a brilliant idea!  Its beauty lays in the simplicity of sharing lost dog listings around facebook.
How does it work?  Do the group admins passively wait for lost dog listings?  No sir!  They comb the ads in Kijiji and contact the owners to offer to help.
And it doesn't stop there ... they have fundraised for large traps and crates for transport.    Created posters for dog owners to print and put up everywhere.  
Even better, it provides a central place for sightings to be listed and searches to be coordinated.
Best of all, it has been such a success that similar groups have already been created in BC and beyond!
Now they are building a wonderful website  to reach out to all those folks who might never see the light of Facebook Day. 
Does that mean that all the lost dogs listed on the group are found?  Of course not!   The group provides the resources to help the owners ... but if the owners don't print the posters/ share the information with their friends / etc, odds are less on the side of success, eh?
What time is it?  It is always time to applaud a great idea like this, using social networking in such a proactive way to help owned pets find their way back home.
Nothing was ever achieved without enthusiasm.   Ralph Waldo Emerson