The stat monkeys at WordPress just sent us an interesting run-down of blog activities for Tripawds.com so we thought we’d share what’s been going on around here this year.

London Olympic Stadium holds 80,000 people. Jerry’s Tripawds News blog was viewed about 350,000 times in 2011. If it were competing at London Olympic Stadium, it would take about 4 sold-out events for that many people to see it.

In 2011, we published 84 new posts, growing the total blog archive of 602 posts by Jerry. This does not include the Tripawds Featured Blogs or all the Tripawds member Blogs.

For some reason, the busiest day of the year was January 25th with 1,709 views. As usual, the most popular post that day was the Tripawds Forums page. The Tripawds News blog post for that day was Jerry’s list of Tripawds Grief Support Resources.

How did everyone find us?

The top referring sites in 2011 were:

• facebook.com
• simple-press.com
• nutrition.tripawds.com
• pbs.org
• gear.tripawds.com

Some visitors came searching, mostly for tripawds, tripawds forum, bear, three legged dog, and tripawds.com. That “bear” business still perplexes us. We often notice vistors finding Tripawds after searching for “Bear” and we can only assume that Bear the Big Brave Three Legged Dog has lots of friends.

Most visitors came from The United States. Canada & The United Kingdom were not far behind.

Most Popular Tripawds posts of 2011

These are the posts that got the most views in 2011. You can see all of the year’s most-viewed posts in your Site Stats.

• Tripawds Discussion Forums
• Tripawds Blogs Directory
• Tripawds Photo Galleries
• Tripawds News Blog
• Ruff Wear Harness Best for Three Legged Dogs*

*The Ruff Wear dog support harness is now available in the Tripawds Gear Shop.

Many of Jerry’s most popular posts were written before 2011.

Looking Ahead

2012 is sure to be another exciting year here at Tripawds. Our membership continues to grow, as do our vast resources. That Admin guy will be updating the site to the most current WordPress version soon, and we are expecting an important update soon for the Simple:Press plugin that powers our discussion forums which should help improve performance. We are also planning a major server upgrade to meet the demanding needs of our ever-expanding audience and could really use your help. We didn’t hold a fundraising campaign this year and with your assistance we won’t need to have one next year either.

What was your biggest memory from the Tripawds Community this year? And what would you like to see here in the future? Let us know with a comment below or in the forums!

Why Pet Insurance Is A Good Idea

If you are new to the world of pet ownership, you may still be coming to grips with the basics. One essential topic that you should address as quickly as possible is pet insurance. Many cat and dog owners do not realize that it can take a number of days or even weeks for a new insurance policy to become valid and, for this reason, it’s important to select appropriate cover as early as possible.

Young paws have a habit of getting into mischief and one of the major benefits of pet insurance is accident cover. This can help protect your companion and your wallet should your pet sustain an injury in an accident and require veterinary treatment. In some instances, policies can also cover the cost of any damage to another person’s property caused accidentally by your pet.

Competition in the market has driven down cat and dog insurance costs in recent years and has also led to variation in the products available on the market. As a result, there are lots of good deals to be had and you may find you are able to net a discount for buying your insurance online, purchasing cover for more than one pet, or insuring a neutered or chipped pet.

In addition to choosing from an annual or whole of life policy, you are also able to select differing levels of cover; from the most basic and capped accident cover, you can also get policies that will even make provisions for rewards should your pet be lost or stolen.

The type of cover you choose will depend a lot on your individual pet’s needs and your financial circumstances, though if you are a new pet owner and have a young animal to look after it may be sensible to opt for whole-of-life cover. This type of insurance can be more difficult to gain later on in your pet’s life should they be unlucky enough to develop an on-going condition that could also raise the cost of annual insurance. That said, policy providers often place a cap on the amount of money that can be claimed for the treatment of certain illnesses, so, always be sure to check the exact details of any cover you take out.

One final reason to take out pet insurance is that it can often help you as well as your pet. As previously mentioned, many pet insurers now include extras in some of the higher cover policies that can include financial provision for boarding your feline or canine friend in kennels, should you need to go into the hospital for a few days. In this way, pet insurance can provide peace of mind for both you and your pet whatever circumstances should arise.

The member wondered if we do amputate, aren’t we still in a no-win situation?

At the time, Dr. Lucroy didn’t have the study on hand, so we followed up with him recently and here’s what he said:

“I think your member is thinking about a study done several years ago (Pirie-Shepherd SR, Coffman KT, Resnick D, et al. The role of angiostatin in the spontaneous bone and prostate cancers of pet dogs. Biochem Biophys Res Commun 2002 292(4):886-91.) as a collaboration between researchers in Boston and Purdue University.

The researchers were studying angiostatin, which is a potent inhibitor of angiogenesis (development of new blood vessels). Because cancer requires nutrition to grow, it must recruit the growth of new blood vessels in order to grow beyond a handful of cells. The researchers discovered that the urine of dogs with osteosarcoma contained angiostatin fragments. Once the primary tumor was completely removed (by amputation) the angiostatin fragments were no longer detectable.

The theory is the primary tumor keeps the metastases in check. Clinically, we observe that very few dogs have metastasis visible on chest x-rays at the time of diagnosis, but if we we examine lung tissue there are osteosarcoma cells detectable under the microscope. After amputation, if nothing else is done, these micrometastases start to develop quickly. The results of this study provide the biological mechanism to explain our clinical observations.

But it is important to note that although we cannot see them with chest x-rays, microscopically the metastatic event has already occurred. So removing the primary tumor does not cause the cancer to metastasize faster, but simply allows the metastatic sites already present to start to grow.

Occasionally we have dog owners who are aware of this research and suggest we simply leave the bone tumor in place. Ethically, however, we cannot do this if we want to relieve suffering. Bone cancer is very painful, and we cannot easily control chronic pain.Therefore we are obligated to either amputate the affected leg or treat the tumor with radiation therapy and pamidronate to relieve the pain.

We now know that by doing this, we are removing the source of angiostatin – which inhibit the growth of the micrometastases. So, enter chemotherapy to slow the growth of these metastatic sites.”

Many thanks to Dr. Lucroy for taking the time to answer this valid question.

Please be sure to complete the Tripawds Treatment Survey Part 1. You will be redirected here to part 2 upon submission.

Once again, Tripawds is holding an incentive drawing for another $10 Café Cash gift certificate. One lucky winner can use it toward anything from the new Tripawds Gift Shop.

To be entered in the drawing, just fill out Part II of the survey below (and Part I if you haven’t already done so), no later than Monday, March 22 at 12 midnight, Pacific Time.

We’ll continue taking responses indefinitely. Stay tuned for our findings from your answers, here in Jerry’s blog and his three legged dog discussion forums. Thanks for taking time out to help us with this impawtant research.

cforms contact form by delicious:days

Be sure to submit a photo of your cancer hero pup – passed or living – along with a paragraph or two about their battle with cancer. The 2Dogs team will be accepting calendar submissions via email with one (1) photograph either in jpeg or gif format and a minimum file size of 300kB to calendar@2dogs2000miles.org.

Be sure to include your pup’s cancer story, but please try and limit it to 1000 characters or less. If you have any questions you can contact erich@2dogs2000miles.org.

A portion of the proceeds from the 2009 Canine Cancer Calendar went to the Morris Animal Foundation (MAF) in support of their Canine Cancer Campaign. This year, the Tufts Veterinary School Harrington Oncology Program and the Texas A&M Veterinary School’s Imaging and Cancer Treatment Center will be recognized for their advancement of companion pet cancer research.

Submit your story and photo today! Then stay tuned for news about the Calendar voting. And don’t miss that last post about the first Canine Cancer Caucus in Washington, DC on September 18.

The Big Dog, Hudson and Murphy are on their way to Washington DC to lead the largest dog walk in history across the Potomac to the National Mall. On September 18th, 2009 they’ll be gathering at the LBJ Grove in the Lady Bird Johnson Park at 10AM. There will be speakers, one one one time with legislators, and best of all … lots of dogs!

The official 2Dogs2000Miles.org Canine Cancer Caucus press release has complete details but here’s a brief video to give you an idea about the magnitude of this special event…

The folks at the Guinness Book have been notified, and we’re hoping this march breaks the world record for the largest dog walk. But we need your help! Please pass along this link or the press release to every pet lover, animal organization, local newspaper, shelter, rescue, or vet clinic you know.

If at all possible, please try to attend. So they know how many potty bags to have on hand, dog walkers are being asked to please register in advance. And if you can’t be there, consider supporting the march with one of the commemorative Canine Cancer Caucus t-shirts for people, or for dogs! And above all, don’t forget to Puppy Up!

My people always try to be available in the chat room most evenings. But often there is no one their to chat with others in their time of need. Now there is a way to schedule your own chats, or just let everyone know when you may be online. Here are some other ideas that would make the Tripawd Chat Room an even better resource for everyone:

• Add a new topic for scheduling breed-specific chats
• Create a topic for scheduled live chats about specific issues
• Announce a schedule of regular times you will be in the chat room
• Update topics with a summary of the chat

Simply add a topic for your scheduled chat(s). Be sure to provide ample notification time for your chat considering some members may check the forums weekly. Optionally, use the Private Messaging (Inbox) system to invite specific members. Then, just be available in the chat room at your specified time and hopefully others will arrive. We’ll certainly try to be there!

After the chat, post a reply to your forum topic with a summary or transcript. If you do not refresh the page during your chat, all comments can be copied from the shout box and pasted into a forum post. Keep in mind, however, that emptying the shout box by reloading the page can improve browser performance during busy chats.

Anyway, we hope this new scheduled chat forum will help members utilize the chat room better. We’ll certainly use it to schedule tripawd chats of our own, so stay tuned!

Being huge Mutts fans, they were excited to hear about the new Mutts Treasury from Patrick McDonnell featuring all our favorite furry friends from the funnies. Hoping it might include this strip, they requested a review copy  from Andrews McMeel publishing who kindly obliged. And guess what? Check out page 40!

Needless to say, my people were excited to review Stop and Smell the Roses. And they loved it! Here is what they had to say…

McDonnell has an uncanny ability to say it all, in just so many words. An important task for an artistic novelist whose pages are but frames and panels told over time. A task which Patrick executes exquisitely, and consistently. His new Mutts Treasury, Stop and Smell the Roses is a perfect example.

This beautiful keepsake book chronicles a year in the life of Earl and Mooch, our favorite dog – cat duo from the funny pages. And it does so with thought provoking themes throughout the seasons, along with a selection of gallery-worthy title panels.

We have always thought Mutts was a cute feature good for a quick giggle, or warm fuzzy feeling – like another favorite, Pearls Before Swine. But reading this compilation through made us quickly realize it is so much more.

McDonnell offers profound simplicity through the minds of Earl and Mooch. This struck us first with his periodic selections of quotes and proverbs, including one that Jerry himself could have coined: “It’s a beautiful day for it.”  – A Wilbur Cross quote over a single panel with Earl greeting the day with gusto.

He also offers his own short and sweet gems of wisdom, like when Earl and Mooch watch a butterfly flit all about only to say, “I’ve never seen a butterfly in a hurry.” Or some that require no words at all. Like how he captures the amazing intention of dogs simply by showing Earl’s eye on the baseball pitcher, or a blank frame where Earl beats the reader to the punchline.

It was a pleasure to catch up with the Mutts gang after missing out on our daily fix for the two years we’ve been on the road. And of course we were happy to see this collection includes the strip that means so much to us, where Earl proves that dogs always know what time it is: Now.

But best of all, we got to see new segments of the Mutts saga in their entirety. Episodes, if you will, that we never even knew existed. Being big Lewbowski fans for instance, we especially enjoyed Mooch’s “Dude” phase. The cat on the rug really does tie the room together.

Another treat is the selection of to do lists – both deep and sincere in there simplicity – which gives this Mutts treasury it’s title. One of which, Lalla taught us to live by long ago …

To Do List:

1. Stop
2. Smell the Roses

And another is one which Jerry would be proud if we all followed …

To Do List:

1. Seize the Day.

It also hit home to see Earl and Mooch hit the road in a “Kitty Car”. Seeing them enjoy a road trip like we did with Jerry strengthens the connection we feel with Patrick McDonnell’s work. As do his Shelter Stories about the special needs pets, like the deaf dog or one-eyed cat.

There are two things at which McDonnell excels with his work in Mutts. He addresses important topics – like saving the tigers – without being preachy. And he’ll make you laugh when you least expect it.

So if you’re a Mutts fan, or just want a copy of that now famous strip we spoke of on PBS, check out Stop and Smell the Roses – A Mutts Treasury. And if this is the first you’ve heard of Mutts, now is your chance to see what treasures you’ve been missing.

First and foremost, for all of you who have contributed to our current fund-raising campaign, we can’t thank you enough for your generous support. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

My people have now completed our migration of this blog and the Tripawd Discussion Forums to our own dedicated server. This was no easy feat, but the upgrade was necessary due to poor website performance on our old shared hosting account.

As our community grows, so must we. It is our mission to help support those of you facing the difficult decisions of amputation and cancer care for your pups. With your support, we can continue to do so indefinitely.

It has been almost three weeks since we made the big leap to our new box. We believe we have worked out all the kinks. Those who remember all the mysterious Server 500 errors, shouldn’t be seeing them any more. If you do, or encounter any other anomalies, please report the details here.

Now that we have the bandwidth, you can expect more major improvements around here too. Our new random tripawd header images are just the beginning. The forums are finally working well, and our next project will be a better chat room solution. The big news, however, will be when we launch tripawds.net … we don’t want to give away too much about this yet, so stay tuned for some really exciting announcements.

All that’s left to do with this upgrade is pay for it. And thanks to many of you, we are making great progress toward that end. But we have a long way to go. As of this posting, we have raised 30% of our goal to cover the next full year of dedicated hosting and all our operating expenses. Just 20 contributors have made this happen. But consider this: we have more than 500 registered forum members and blog subscribers. If everyone gave just a few dollars, we could call this campaign quits.

If you have given already, please don’t contribute again. Let’s give everyone a chance to help out. If you think Tripawds is run by some big company, we are honored, but you are mistaken. Our campaign announcement includes more details and an itemized expense budget for those interested. And don’t forget Sasha’s generous offer to create custom tripawd poster artwork for every dog who donates.

Please know that we totally understand the costs associated with canine cancer care, and we do not expect everyone to Chip In. If you are not in a position to contribute, please consider helping by placing the widget above on your website or Facebook profile. Just click the <copy> link for details.

Thank you for your continued support.

This slideshow includes Pals 101 through 200. You can check out the first 100 here. These photos continue to provide inspawration for those questioning amputation for their own dogs. But they take up server space, and that costs money.

Please read about our efforts to keep this website up and running at peak performance and consider a small contribution to the Tripawds web server upgrade campaign! Many thanks to those who have already helped, and thank you all for your continued support and participation.