Logical Expressions Blog

...and we've got the press release to prove it!

New Book Shares Tips for Raising a Happy and Healthy Shelter-Adopted Cat or Kitten

We have books here and the web site is done too. As I noted before, the book is also available on Amazon.com.

If you are a pet journalist or cat lover and would like a copy of the book for review, please contact us. As a pet-adoption advocate, I'm also available for interviews about humane education or pet care.

As with Happy Hound, we also are offering this book at a substantial discount to shelters and rescue groups who would like to use it as an educational or fundraising tool.

Use Happy Tabby as a Fundraiser or Educational Tool

My mission with both Happy Tabby and Happy Hound is to lower the number of critters returned to animal shelters because of easily solved behavior problems. Producing the books obviously was a lot of work, but if they help keep dogs and cats in their homes and out of shelters, it will ALL be worth it ;-)

As the author of two books on rescued pets (Happy Hound and Happy Tabby) and a person who spent years volunteering at animal shelters, I think the whole Ellen DeGeneres "poochgate" fiasco is depressing. Her weepy actions on TV may have set back the efforts of other rescuers around the country by portraying them in a bad light. Rescuers are not the "bad guys" here and the fact that the rescue group is getting death threats is sickening.

I can see why the Mutts and Moms rescue group have the contract they do. Ellen DeGeneres admitted that she didn't even READ the contract. Had she actually done so, the whole incident could have been handled differently. For example, Ellen might have contacted the rescue and told them that she couldn't keep the dog, but knew of a wonderful home. The hairdresser could have gone through the adoption process, signed the contract, and everything would have been fine.

Rescues have learned that over the years that contracts are required to deal with the legalities surrounding ownership because of liability concerns. Rescue groups and shelters have a return clause, so the dog doesn't wind up back at a shelter, used for medical research, dog fighting, or in any number of other inhumane situations. Or dead. The bottom line is that they are trying to do what they can to look out for the animal's welfare. It also is important to legally transfer ownership for liability reasons. Rescues and shelters have had to pay damages and even been shut down because of dog bite lawsuits.

Instead of vilifying the rescue group, journalists should be asking why Ellen should get special treatment in the first place. (Her world is full of contracts; she'd be upset if someone violated one of the contracts related to her TV show, after all.) I really hope there isn't going to be a permanent effect from this mess because the real losers will be all the animals that don't get adopted through rescue because one self-centered woman had a weepfest on TV.

We just got back from vacation in McCall, Idaho. The aspens were in full color and it was an incredibly relaxing week. We did some hiking along with a lot of eating, reading, and general goofing off.

Before we left, we went to the library and filled an entire suitcase with books. I read a powerful quantity of junk novels. It was great. In any case, we're back and now having blazed through my less serious reading material, I'm trying to get back into gear by reading a few business books.

This week's article in the Publishize newsletter was inspired by some of my business reading. Everyone always says you should do market research, but they don't say how. The article offers a few ideas, which hopefully will lower the market research mystery factor:

Understanding Market Research

Over the weekend, I was quoted in New York Newsday. I found the article online.

I'm quoted on:

Page 2 of the Technobabble Battle

Basically, the article is about dealing with "geek speak." As usual, I <ahem> have an opinion and suggest that people avoid endless jargon. Here's what I said:

"Use simple language that people can understand, says Susan Daffron, president of Logical Expressions Inc., a book and software publishing company in Sandpoint, Idaho.

"Grandpa Joe wants to put photos or videos of his grandkids online so everyone can see them," she wrote in an e-mail. "He doesn't want to hear about jpeg compression or interpolation. He wants the pictures to download quickly so Aunt Bertha, who is still on a dial-up connection, doesn't scream at him about the stupid, slow Web site he has. So talk about making photos smaller, instead of using nerdy words like compression."

To help with such translations, she included a glossary of terms in a book she co-authored, "Web Business Success: The Entrepreneur's Guide to Web Sites That Work" ($29.95)."

Then it includes an excerpt from the Web Business Success glossary.

Although I haven't finished the Happy Tabby web site yet, the book is already available for sale on Amazon.com.

If you click the link below, you'll see our cat Troi sitting smugly on the cover. (What a face!)

Happy Tabby: Develop a Great Relationship with Your Adopted Cat or Kitten

As with Happy Hound, our Happy Tabby book is specifically for those who have adopted from animal shelters. It's all about the special needs of living with a "cat with a past."

It also has various stories about our own tabbies Alia and Troi. Both of whom are currently snoring on a dining room chair upstairs. People always talk about a "dog's life," but really most cats don't exactly have high stress lives either ;-)

In the Publishize Newsletter, I wrote an article that touches on a topic that we seem to discuss a lot. Many people wonder how we managed to move away from "the big city" to the wilds of Idaho.

Setting and Achieving Big Goals

It all starts with an idea. If the idea is powerful enough and it involves something you want bad enough, you start taking steps to make it happen.