Matter of Trust, a non-profit organization based in San Francisco, takes dog fur and turns it into booms that absorb spilled oil!

These Dog Fur Booms are in action right now in Florida, Alabama and Louisiana!

Check out this video comparing a traditional oil boom to a dog hair oil boom:

Since we do a bit of grooming here at The Grove we signed up to ship our clippings to Matter of Trust to help with Dog Hair Booms!  Visit their How to Help Page for ideas on how you could help save the coast too!

Last July, I attended the American Veterinary Medical Association conference in Seattle and attended a seminar about the use of disinfectants and an overview of new delivery systems.  After searching and considering numerous systems we decided on the Cintas System.  This system dispenses pre-measured, diluted hospital grade, 100% environmentally friendly product directly into the mop bucket or spray bottle.  No more measuring and no more plastic jugs of bleach and pine sol to throw into the landfill !

Along with this system we signed up for their weekly mop exchange!  Each week they take our old mop head and give us a new one, the old mop heads are laundered and recycled.  Previously we bought new mop heads each month and threw our old ones away.

We also added the weekly towel service, I must admit I have a serious paper towel dependency.  I love paper towels and we were using about a case of papertowels a month in the kennel ;(

The smaller stack of towels on the right are simple linen towels, which are meant to use for cleaning glass, wiping counters and replacing many of the things we do with paper towels.  The towel service includes weekly pick up and replacement of all towels, which are laundered by Cintas and re-used.

We took down all our standard, save one in the restroom, paper towel racks which was alittle scary to me, and installed 3 commercial bio degradeable paper towel dispensers.  We went from 6 paper towel racks to 3 !

I am proud of us for making this switch, we will now avoid throwing away at least a dozen plastic jugs a month, 2 mop heads a month and decrease our paper towel use by hopefully 80% !

Besides decreasing our contribution to the landfill, most importantly this system of disinfection is more effective, safer for the animals then the old fashioned bleach and pine sol.

Snack 21 released a new chew which is made from 100% Pacific Salmon, no fillers, no preservatives, no chemicals!  I have never been a fan of raw hides and think this may be a great alternative!

The Honest Kitchen also released a new formula.  Keen is Hormone-free Turkey, Oats, Potatoes, Flax, Carrots, Cabbage, Alfalfa, Kelp, Apples, Honey and Garlic.  I heard about this a few weeks ago and ordered a small 4 pound box, the dogs love it!  I love Honest Kitchen too!  Besides offering a great wholesome, safe food the company has dedicated itself to reducing its products carbon paw print; soy based ink printing, recycled cardboard boxes, and more!  4 Paws up to Honest Kitchen!

A few other products are worth a mention too:

• The DogGone Smart Jacket made by Nano Pet Products uses Active Silver which they claim is to reduce the spread of bacteria that causes odor and infection.  It is also waterproof and stain resistent.
• TropiClean Naturally Green Pet Shampoo made by TropiClean claims their new pet shampoo line is the only 100% biodegradable container available! Bottle and sleeve completely biodegrade within 180 days in a commercial compost landfill.

Hope your day is grand !

Animal Planet made a series of these cartoon type videos called “Animals Save The World”, they are all sooo cute and teach valuable lessons.

Also at Raise a Green Pet they have a great article on how to teach your dog how to turn off the lights !

Check it out: Teach Your Dog Energy Saving Tricks

Have a paw slappin good day !

A few things to paw-nder :

• Canned Food containers – consider switching to Honest Kitchen dehydrated food which can be reconstitued in place of canned food and reducing packaging waste.
• Investigate your dog food companies manufacturing process – Honest Kitchen recently switched to soy based inks !  What is your dog food company doing ?
• Buy treats and bones in bulk to reduce packaging waste.
• Buy the larger bag of dog food, store in roll around air tight container – this could lead to buying alot fewer bags over a years time.
• Grooming products – consider using environmentally friendly products there are many available now!

and of course always remember to pick up and properly dispose of waste when your out and about in our beautiful community !

If you have ideas or suggestions for reducing our pets carbon pawprint let us know !

Have a paw slapping good day !