Savannah's Paw Tracks

Part Three: Operation Save The Royals…

HIYA!!  SAVANNAH HERE!!!

Part Three: Social Media and Pawer of The Paw

I guess you know I have been trying to report on the many lessons learned from the events surrounding Operation Save The Royals…(OSTR)

I started a four part series three weeks ago, and this is Part Three.  I had to get my thoughts together so I made some paw notes first…

….then I got writer’s block…

…so I didn’t get Part Three done in time for post deadline last week…but at least I moved past my writer’s block…thanks to Mom’s head rubs and ear massages…and she also gave me a lot of soft strokes over my heart…to help free it up to speak…

So…I decided to do what Mom suggested…write from my heart…not my head…

…to do that I need to state my disclaimer up front…I had writer’s block ‘cuz I was afraid I would offend someone by not mentioning all they did to help Operation Save The Royals.  My apology up front if I leave anyone or anything out.

Remember…I am writing from my heart…I have lots of feelings about how impawtant the use of social media was in making this Royal Rescue pawsible—specifically…

• Paw Blogs
• Twitter
• Face Book

I said it in Part One—it took a village to make Operation Save The Royals a success.  That village is a global village.  Help in all shapes and forms came from inside and outside the USA because it was pawsible…because of social media.  Sometimes I hear peeps make fun of Paw blogs and Twitter Anipals and Anipal Face Book pages…we are a force to be reckoned with when we set our collective minds to getting something done to save or rescue our furriends around the world.

And because we all use our PAW PAWER!!

I am proud to be a small part of this great ole’ big pawerful community.  If we wanna get something done…we do what the peeps find so hard to do…we collaborate!

How We Used Our Paw Blogs

• ML posted about QM Rose’s passing and the plight of The Royals on her blog, KC & The Giggleman Gang
• ML also posted a memorial for QM Rose on The Royals’ Blog
• So many of us posted on our blogs asking for donations for ML to cover Rose’s burial costs; to help raise funds to provide transportation for The Royals once we found them and in the beginning to help find homes for Marigold, Brutus and Emily.  Sparkle was one of the first to get the word out…click here
• The Cat Blogosphere continuously posted to keep everyone updated on events as they happened…pawsome repurrting for sure!  Click here to read an update provided as this rescue was unfolding.

…I worked on all my blog posts with great care and attention…

How We Used Our Face Book Connections

• A Group was created on Face Book (FB), some time ago, so that our peeps could chat peep to peep…the CWB Group (Cats With Blogs I think it stands for).  Most of the FB communication happened here and it happened lightning fast
• We all “shared” information on our own FB pages once we learned something in this Group
• The transport, Cute Heads, who helped get Marigold and Brutus to their new Mom used FB to plan and stay in touch during transport.  Miss Dorian who coordinates Cute Heads, and writes her own blog Your Daily Cute, always sets up a new “Group” with the names of the kitties being transported.  The drivers all communicate among themselves within this closed Group…very efficient and effective.  Click here to read about the transport that Marigold and Brutus hitched a ride with to reach their new furrever home.
• Miss Dorian set up a Save The Royals Face Book Group and we communicated inside this Group if we were directly involved in raising funds, our transport—and of course the new Moms for The Royals were in this Group too.

…we spent a ton of time messaging back and forth…thank Ceiling Cat using a keyboard can be done one paw pat at a time…heh…heh…tap….tap…tap…tappity…tap…tap

How We Used Twitter

• All of us who have Twitter handles sent out Tweets to share information with other Anipals on Twitter and in hopes of getting “Re-Tweets” of our requests for help in raising funds for this operation
• Miss Dorian sets up a special “Hashtag (#)” for each transport so that the drivers and fosters can all keep in touch on the road and in making plans for hosting the kitties overnight. Click here if you wanna know more about what “hashtags” are used for on Twitter…they are furry impawtant!!
• For any who don’t know Twitter very well…having the ability to “Re-Tweet(RT)” increases getting our message out a hundred fold…whatever we “Tweet” goes to our followers…I only have 550, but Anipals like Cathy Keisha, over 2000 followers,  and Sparkle, almost 6000 followers.  When they RT (meaning they copy my Tweet message and send it out under their own Twitter handle/name) my message, then I have expanded my reach by another 8000 plus…see what I mean???  And these are Anipals from all over the world that care about saving and rescuing animals.

..my paws got tired from so many Tweets…

For me, the lesson learned is how Pawerful all of us are when we use our “Paw Pawer”…meaning all the social media we use every day to share our lives with each other and our humans…our Paw Pawer moves mountains!!!

In case you missed the first two parts of this series…you can read Part One: The Rescue Plan, click here and for Part Two: The Back Story Where It All Started, click here.

Many make light of social media…but paw bloggers and Twitter anipals and Face Book Paw Pagers all know the truth…we are a mighty force.  We are global, we are fast, and we are committed.

Now there should be a Part Four in the series “Operation Save The Royals”…but that part will be shared with you all by The Royals themselves once they are completely settled and all healthy in their new furrever homes.

I know Emily will post when she is up to it, her new family blog is Angel Junior, Orion, Sammy and Emily. Marigold and Brutus will tell their story once they are ready using their new family blog, Heaven Sent Me Cat.

…here are some more recent photos of The Royals with their new siblings…(you can bigify and hold cursor over photo to see captions)

Emily in her scratcher

Emily with the pretty eyes

Marigold next to new brofur Maxie

Brutus and Maxie together

Emily’s new brofurs Orion Sammy

PAWER TO THE PAWS!!!

Paw Pats, Savannah

peeEss Don’t forget to come by tomorrow for my First Blogiversary Pawty!! Find out who won the hand painted Woofie and Cat stones.

peeEssEss  Here are all the other PAWTIES HAPPENING NEXT WEEK THAT I KNOW ABOUT:

Cody, from Cat Chat Caren and Cody is celebrating his birthday on April First…same day as my First Blogiversary…so hop to Cody or back to me…woo hoo…CELEBRATE!!!

Texas, my totally PAWSOME furriend and partner in our VBP Bog Hop is also having a birthday pawty on April FOURTH…

And…Mollie is hosting a pawty for her SECOND birthday…April SECOND …