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| © Caroline Golon |
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by Victoria Fisher
We're not sure what's more impressive about Romeo, a rescued Persian cat from Charlotte, N.C.—the fact that he has a blog or that he has a huge following on Twitter.
For those less Web-savvy than Romeo, Twitter is a free service that lets you keep in touch with people through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to the question: "What are you doing?" Users can "follow" others, or receive their "tweets"—the updates on what they're doing.
Romeo has been "twittering" to help other animals find homes and pledged to give 5 cents to The Humane Society of the United States for every new follower he gets until March 15. You can also match Romeo's donations if you'd like. (Did you know The HSUS has a Twitter account, too? Check it out!)
The HSUS recently asked Romeo's owner, Caroline Golon, some questions about her cat's cyber life. Here's what we found out.
| Romeo Update |
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Thank you, Romeo, for your generous donations in March! This Twittering kitty continues to raise money for various animal rescues online.
"The success we've seen through Twitter, Facebook and the www.romeothecat.com blog has been amazing," said Golon.
"We've met so many terrific individual and corporate supporters who have helped us get to this
point. We've raised more than $14,000 and we're working hard to raise more." Great job, Romeo! |
HSUS: Did you think that the blog or the Twitter feed would be as popular as they have been?
Golon: I am pleasantly surprised! I started Romeo's Twitter account, @romeothecat, for fun. Then he started getting a few followers and then more followers. He has human followers, lots of cat followers, some fish, hamsters, guinea pigs, birds, ferrets, and even horses. There's a terrific, fun community of animal lovers on Twitter that I didn't know existed.
It occurred to me to try to leverage Twitter to raise money for animal welfare when I was working on our tax returns and organizing our family's charitable donations for the year. It seemed like an interesting idea and I was curious to see where this could lead.
I let the Twitter community know that Romeo would give 5 cents to the Humane Society for every new follower he got until March 15. The number of followers increased pretty quickly.
Then I asked the followers for matching donations and have received very generous pledges from individuals and companies within this community. Romeo started his blog, www.romeothecat.com, at the request of his Twitter followers and has been getting quite a bit of traffic already. I was also surprised to find that there are a lot of blogging pets out there too.
In addition to our donations and matching donations from individuals, we're very pleased to announce our first official corporate donor, Nature's Earth Products, which makes Feline Pine cat litter. We're thrilled by their generosity! FURminator pet deshedding products are also a sponsor.
HSUS: You have two rescued Persian cats—what drew you to that breed or to rescue cats in general?
Golon: Persians are such a sweet breed! My husband and I adopted Romeo and Pugsley from the Persian Rescue in Marysville, Ohio. We've had Romeo for three years and Pugsley for about a year and a half. Both had health problems when they were brought to the rescue and, thanks to the generosity of local vets, were treated and are now just fine. We're happy to be able to repay Persian Rescue for their efforts by giving Romeo and Pugsley a loving home. Hopefully the money we’re raising can make this possible for other pets too.
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Romeo hard at work in his office.© Caroline Golon |
HSUS: Any advice for others who would like to do what you have done (start a blog and Twitter page for their pets)?
Golon: Do it! As I mentioned above, the Twitter and blogging animal community is so welcoming. It's clear the humans really love their furries and have a lot of fun with it.
HSUS: Do you think you'll meet your goal by March 15?
Golon: I hope so. We set out to raise $2,500 by that date. It's a pretty lofty goal, but we're going to keep working toward it. We'll be happy with whatever we can raise, though.
HSUS: What are your plans for the blog/Twitter feed after March 15?
Golon: There's been so much interest that we’ve decided to continue the program through the end of the year. Each month we will select a new organization to receive the funds we raise. We'll ask our blog visitors to submit their favorite animal welfare organization and then do a random drawing at the end of each month to determine the next month's recipient. We're really excited to be able to help as many organizations as we can.
We are so grateful to the individuals and corporations who have pledged donations so far and hope that more people will contribute to our efforts. Readers can email me with questions or if they'd like to make a donation.
Victoria Fisher is online producer for the Companion Animals department of The HSUS.
