Catster Site News and Updates

Scurrying around the Bay Area looking for fun this weekend? Then why not stop by the 3rd Annual Bay Area Pet Fair and Adoptathon in San Rafael! Held at the Marin Center on September 6th and 7th, the fair is the largest dog-friendly event of its kind in Northern California.

This year, Catster is not only a proud supporter of the event, but is a sponsor of The Other Dog Show, a fun, cutting edge, spectacular event that's dog years ahead of its time. Come hang out with us (we promise that they... and we... won't bite) and watch cool adoptable and adopted canines compete for titles such as Most MuttaliciousBest Lap Dog and Best Non-Dog! The Other Dog Show takes place at 1:00 p.m. on both days of the fair.

You'll also enjoy-

A variety of pet-oriented products and services, both in the Exhibit Building and on the Fairgrounds

Multiple venues offering demonstrations, performances and expert presentations, including The Muttley Crew canine athletes; animal nutrition, massage and whole energy wellness; police K-9 demos; small animal care; and many others

A Kids Pavilion with opportunities for youngsters to learn from humane educators, interact with animals and get their faces painted by Popo the Clown

Interactive opportunities for dogs, including bobbing for hot dogs, recall through distractions, tricks and an agility course

The largest multi-agency adoption event in California, with approximately 40 regional agencies bringing adoptable dogs, cats, rabbit, birds, guinea pigs and more!

Super furriendly humans from Catster HQ in San Francisco will be present on both days, so if you're in the area, by all means come by and give us a woof! For more information about the fair, head on over to their website! See you there!

Hi everypaw!

We're so happy with how much money is being raised for thanks to our first-time annual subscription drive in August, we're going to continue it all the way through September. AND from September 1 through September 30th we're also going to donate $2 for each annual subscription renewal. We love our benefactor Feline Outreach and are happy to be writing them a nice check soon. Our big change will be that in September, whether you renew or start an annual Plus subscription, we'll be donating $2 of it. In September funds will go to Morris Animal Foundation whose research protects the animals we love.

Morris Animal Foundation is the world’s largest nonprofit foundation 501(c)(3) dedicated to funding research studies to protect, treat and cure animals. The list of research and life improvements they have made for the cats in our lives in the last 50 years is pawsome.

• » First Vaccine for Feline Leukemia
• » Nutrional Diet to Treat Diabetes
• » Treatment and Monitoring of Heart Disease
• » Promising Treatment for Renal Failure
• » Promising Therapy for Asthma
• » The list goes on and on!

Thanks to every kitty that has been a part of this! We love you right back!

Hi everypaw!

Do you know about our Snuzzy Blog? It's where we post funny, cute and fuzzy animal pictures and stores every day.

Did you know our very own Skeezix the Cat was the guest author all last week. (He killed it! It was pawsome!)

We just redesigned the site with a new look. Check it out! We can now show much bigger pictures, and made it easier to comment and read comments (as they have been great and so much fun seeing everyone having a ball.)

Another new feature is that you can subscribe by email, and we'll send a daily email to you with a digest of all the most recent entries. You can sign up for daily emails now!

If you have any thoughts about the new design, please share them.

Well Catster's own Skeezix the Cat, a long-term membur dat needz no interdukshun will be taking the wheel at Snuzzy for the next week and is already doing an amazin jawb.

Srsly, look at all the adorably cute and funny entries already posted with lots of great comments. Don't miss Skeezix's own catsonal blog which is the cat's meow.

We added some brand new gifts in the Gift Shop.

First, is a Diamond Star. It may look like a Rosette, but it's a Star and last furever, just like a diamond

Then, the Olympics are here and it's time to give out Gold Medals. Now every kitty can go for the GOLD!

Hope everyone is having fun!

Meow, meeeeoooww! I'm very pleased to announce Catster's first Plus Subscription Drive. Subscribing members mean a lot (A LOT!) to us. It confirms to us that you really love and use the site and that we can commit even more fully to making it just how you want it. Each annual subscription goes a long way to covering our server, hosting, office and development team costs.

But we also know that in the end this isn't about Catster, so much as it's about CATS, thus we are happy to announce the launch of a new campaign: for each new annual Plus subscription purchased from today until the end of August, Catster will donate $2 to help save cats.

      

All funds will go to Feline Outreach, a super group that helps defer cat medical costs for cat lovers who can't afford them. The more folks that join Plus during this time period, the more money will be donated to these important causes, and the more we know you are with us for the long haul =).

All very exciting! We hope you also noticed that we recently doubled the number of photos that Plus members can upload and share. Plus members can now post 100 photos for each of their cats and have an updated Photo Book to display them in. We've also been adding a lot of new items to the Gift Shop that you can give to your pals with your free monthly Zealies. And there are now 5 Plus-only Forums dedicated to Plus Catsters.

So pawlease if you love the site, want to enjoy your experience more completely, or just want to help out a couple of amazing organizations, buy a new annual subscription between now and August 31st.

All Catster Plus members will now enjoy getting to post and share 100 photos for their pets at no extra cost, effective immediately =)

We've also enhanced the Photo Book pages to make it easier to see and share photos. If you are not Plus, you can subscribe now.

More news for people considering joining Plus will be posted here Monday!

Important Alert Notice! Please Read!

Uh-oh! The air conditioning went on the friskies here at Catster HQ, and we've gone a little bonkers.

We made a bunch of silly hats, mad hatters you could even purr... inspired by some really cr8zy canine cousins of ours.

We've added them to the Gift Shop for a limited time.

As always if you have any suggestions for what you'd like to see in the Gift Shop. Meow a comment and let us nose!

Hi Everypaw,

It's Ted here. If you don't know me, I'm the guilty party who started this whole crazy furtastic thing. (Maybe you've purred with my dog Sparky?)

I wanted to personally write you, the amazing pawple who make this whole thing great, with an update about a small change, but significant changes coming soon, that will affect the header section of this site. The purpose is to offer search functionality on every page in addition to displaying a 728x90 (pixel) ad instead of the 468x60 (pixel) ads we currently show.

Please know a lot of thought and consideration of alternatives went into this decision as we balance keeping the sites great and making sure we can still afford to do that. I've posted some screenshot links below so you'll be able to see exactly what I'm talking about. Long story short, the header section of our site will become 15 pixels taller (roughly 3/8th inch.) The top ad will also be bigger (see details for why we have to do this below), and to account for this the login form will now be accessible via a link on the left instead of an already visible box on the right. To account for the moved login box we removed the 'Home' link (as most people know the big logo in the top left is the link to the homepage). Finally we're making the search functionality appear on every page for all visitors.

The reason we're switching from a 468x60-sized ad to a 728x90 one is that the 728 ad size has become the default for the online advertising industry. Most of our advertisers don't even make 468 versions anymore. We've dragged our paws on this for a couple years, but we're no longer able to get advertisers to work with the outdated banner format. Most every advertising-supported site made this move long ago (for example see ABC, NBC, iVillage, BabyCenter, WebMd, ESPN). In fact, you may have noticed most ads we serve in that slot are self-promotional because no one will buy the outdated inventory.

If this sounds like a decision made to make more money, I'll humbly share that yes, it is. Plus subscriptions and Zealie purchases are GREAT, and they really help us stay afloat, but only account for about 20% of our monthly expenses. Some months we even spend more money than we earn, and as much as we love doing this, we can't afford to lose money dong it.

The reason we're adding search at the top of every page is that it's really, really popular, but it's currently not easy to find unless you are logged in, so it's hidden to our customers who don't have an account. Since this new search bar only takes up 20 pixels (about 1/4 of an inch) we thought the change was well worth it. Please also know that making search more functional is high on our list. We'll soon have search results pages that show keyword hits from forums, groups, photos, videos, answers, local listings, pet pages and diaries all at once. So if you ever want to go back to something or learn something new we'll do the hard work for you.

Finally, the login box will only be visible on the homepage if you are logged out. Instead there will be a link on all pages beneath the big logo in the upper left that opens right on the page with an interface to login. We're bummed it'll be one extra click, but you won't have to wait for the page to reload so it'll just take a millisecond longer. Of course if you use autologin, you'll very rarely need to login.

Since this site is as much yours as ours, we wanted to give you a heads up. Below you'll find links to screenshots of the changes. We've also made a special group where you can share with us what you think about the changes. We'll be hanging out in there constantly during the change as we want this to be an easy as possible for everyone.

As always, we're working hard to make Catster & Dogster the best pet sites ever, and we know we aren't alone. We appreciate all of the time you spend with us making friends, creating groups and taking advantage of the exciting content found in forums, answers, breed pages, and pet manuals, just to name a few. Cat and dog lovers just like you are what make this place special.

Many meows!

Ted "Top Dog" Rheingold & the whole gang at HQ

Here's the Group we created where we'll be hanging out to hear what you think.

(Click each image to see full size.)

LOGGED IN MEMBER on GROUPS PAGE

LOGGED OUT VISITOR on GROUPS PAGE

LOGGING IN MEMBER on GROUPS PAGE

Feel free to leave comments here or join the discussion at the Group we created.

Furever Summer Beach Ball: What kittie wouldn't want this beach ball. It spins endlessly and when your nails sink in it just right your hunting work is over and victory is yours. Get that dang beach ball and show it who's boss!

I Heart Dad!: Father's Day is Sunday June 15th! This one is for all those kittie daddies othat change the litter box, take you to the overnight vet and groom you when your tongue is tired! Gotta show the love!

Magical Boo Boo Band Aid:This special band-aid is quite magical. It makes any hurt feel better.Whether recovering from an accident or illness or just having a bad time or a hard time of it. This cure all wraps the recipient in a hug of love so they know they are not alone and that it will get better! It will certainly get better!