Poop City

Taking a step back

Regular readers of this blog have probably noticed a dearth of content over the past few weeks. This is due to several things. One is that my paying workload has increased. This is good for me, but bad for Poop City, as I no longer have the time I once did to post here.

Another factor is the difficulty in cultivating interest and readership for a city-wide blog - something else that takes more effort than I am able to give at the moment.

So rather than leave you to look at Inky's picture indefinitely - cute as he is - I suppose I need to officially place Poop City on hiatus.

However, I am also tinkering with plans to bring it back, either as a stripped down news site with a strict focus on welfare and abuse issues, or as a bigger, more feature-oriented site with additional contributors, a la SuperVegan. To this point I've tried to make Poop City a little of both of these things, and it hasn't worked for me.

Thanks to everyone who has read and supported the site so far, and please cast an eye toward it every now and then to see what direction it eventually takes.

In the meantime, stay tuned to Itchmo for ever-important food recall news.

Headline news

Just wanted to point out that Poop City has a database of recall related news and blog posts on del.icio.us. Readers can browse it anytime by clicking LATEST HEADLINES in the right-hand sidebar. It includes most of the media articles I've seen on the recall, in addition to entries from the bloggers who have covered every angle of this story from day one. There is a LOT of stuff there that I haven't had time to write about, and it's growing constantly, so please visit often.

By the way, the all-headline database is here, and is always accessible through that #$@!% widget I've been wrestling with, also to the right.

poop.il.icio.us

As you may have noticed, there is now a "Headlines" block in the right hand column. In searching for a more efficient way to bookmark stories for future posts, I decided to give del.icio.us a try. I'm still figuring out the best way to use it, but in the interim I stumbled across the link roll feature, which I have fashioned to list every pet related story I bookmark whether I end up blogging about it or not.

The greatest attribute of this list is that stories which might otherwise fall through the cracks will now at least be linked from Poop City for a while - and will remain archived on the Poop City del.icio.us page under the "headlines" tag. It also means a steady stream of fresh content even when there are no new posts.

Now if I can figure out how to tweak the font size and line spacing ...

Welcome to Poop City

New York, New York, is, of course, one of the most populous cities on earth. And among us 17 million-plus humans there lives another population of untold numbers - a population some consider no less important - our companion animals.

Since many New Yorkers value our animal friends as much as - and in some cases more so than - we do other people, our great city needs a comprehensive resource for pet related news, goods and services.

That's where Poop City comes in - or will try to.

Poop City (if you have a pet, the name needs no explanation) stems in part from my frustration in trying to locate a veterinarian for an urgent situation involving my cat, Pig (if you know Pig, the name needs no explanation). As a new resident of the city, I had to rely on the Internet rather than word of mouth, and what little information I could find was scattered and, for my taste, incomplete.

What I hope to establish with this blog is a safe harbor for New York pet guardians - an aggregator of relevant tips and recommendations, so that fewer people will face uncertainties in providing for their animal friends.

Another component of this site will be the reporting, and repeating, of news regarding incidents of cruelty and neglect. Though unpleasant and often hard to take, turning away never helps.

Finally, I will devote as much time and space as possible to the promotion of spay, neuter and adoption efforts across the city.

I will try not to get bogged down by semantics. For example, I will use the terms "pet" and "companion animal" interchangeably. However, there are no "owners" here, only caretakers and guardians.

Other decisions will be made as need be.

And away we go...

Photo: Pig