Featured Visitor: Laughter is the Best...Fundraiser!
Sometimes people that are serious animal lovers get stuck in a pattern of thinking – they feel the only way to truly help the animals is to start a sanctuary. Well, there are a LOT of other ways to help!
Marlene and Bill Barnes, from Maryland were in that initial thought pattern. Then Marlene read
the book on Best Friends by Samantha Glen, and started to question whether or not they could handle seeing animal abuse first-hand. The brain storming began. What were things they were good at, that they enjoyed, that they could turn into a way of helping animals? Photography, humor, and a love of dogs.
Dogonfunny.com was born. Well, at least the seed was sown! Marlene and Bill use four of their own rescued dogs and eight guest models so far to dress up and ‘pose’, Marlene does the photography, and the two of them come up with the captions on the cards. Each card has a bio on the back of how each dog was rescued.
Not only do they avidly promote shelter animals, they also believe strongly in giving to the animal welfare community. Marlene wrote “Most businesses specify that a portion of their profits are given to charity, but we wanted to demonstrate our sincerity and commitment by donating a percentage of every sale to animal welfare groups. Our products haven’t been in the marketplace long enough to even have profits because of the large initial investment, so at this point we are donating because we believe in what we are doing.”
As if they’re not already doing enough – you can find a ton of helpful information on their website – tips on what you can do to help the animals, answers to puzzling canine behavior, and of course – references to the Best Friends website!
To give you a taste of their cards – Marlene described one to me. Their dog, Ollie, is dressed as a teacher in a realistic and quite detailed ‘classroom.’ The caption on the front is: “What do you MEAN your dog ate your homework?!”
Many thanks to Marlene and Bill for thinking outside the box, and coming up with a wonderful way to help educate people about animals, and for helping out the animals monetarily!
Written by Jennifer Johnson
Photos submitted by Marlene