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Palm Beach Pet Lovers
Brings Information and Cheer
to Pet Lovers Everywhere;
Beacon to Collaborate |
WEST PALM BEACH -- Did you ever hear of a website for pet lovers? Well, there is one. It’s called Palm Beach Pet Lovers, and The Beacon’s graphic artist, Martha Blumel, is the founder. She has been a lifelong animal lover with a passion for animal welfare and rescue. In addition to being a local small business owner, she is also the mother of a teenage daughter and three wonderful cats.
In 2004-05, Martha and her daughter, Megan, fostered several sets of kittens for Peggy Adams Rescue League. When she was no longer able to commit the time to fostering, she knew she had to continue doing something for homeless animals. It was then that the idea for a pet lovers' website came to mind.
Due to her commitments as owner of Envision Graphic Design, Inc. she was unable to immediately make this dream come to fruition, but in the summer of 2009 she realized it was time to commit and the concept of Palm Beach Pet Lovers was born.
Palm Beach Pet Lovers is a local resource for pet lovers and the animal welfare community. “Our mission is to serve as a central source of information, services and education for Palm Beach County pet guardians and animal lovers, and to promote the humane treatment of animals,” Martha explained. The only local website of its kind, Palm Beach Pet Lovers combines eye-catching design with professionally written editorial content in a format that is fun and easy to navigate.
“We offer the best resources for keeping your animal companions healthy and happy, while highlighting local pet-related companies, news and events, adoptable pets, animal welfare news and more. We are a grassroots effort that is deeply committed to making a positive difference for the animals of Palm Beach County by empowering our readers through informative, engaging and intelligent editorial as well as by providing trustworthy resources and active networking opportunities.”
Martha works on the PBPL website with help from
her assistant Tiger (Sitting on the monitor). |
Virtually, the website concept could be described as an extension of The Beacon’s Pet Ponderings section, which appears every month. Yet, it is so much more animated. But, The Beacon will collaborate with Palm Beach Pet Lovers insofar as pointing out special items on the website from time to time, and we will run some of the photos sent. (See Pet Ponderings on page 22 for related photo and article.) In kind, PBPL will point out some of The Beacon’s information, exchange photos, etc. Hopefully, we will involve video as time goes by.
In addition to PBPL online presence, Blumel intends to be active in the pet community by participating in and hosting a variety of pet-friendly events and fundraisers throughout the year. She actively supports animal rescue, adoption and spay/neuter efforts.
The concept of a pet lovers website had an interesting beginning. Blumel explained: “After my beloved cat, Hon, passed away at 20 years old, I did not think that I was ready to "replace" her. So, I took my daughter, who was eight-years-old at the time, to Peggy Adams Animal Rescue League to look into fostering kittens. After filling out an application and going through an interview process I was presented with a small box, covered by a wash cloth. Inside were three of the tiniest kittens I had ever seen! They were only a couple of days old, at most. The entire time we raised them I insisted that we were not keeping them. Famous last words! ... Although one of the kittens did not make it, Hunter and Tiger grew up and became part of our family. We fostered two more sets of kittens over the next year. It was a lot of work, but very rewarding.”
After that. Martha said her work schedule no longer allowed her to foster, but her heart was still with all the animals that needed a home. That is when the initial thought of a pet website and/or magazine came to her mind. She explained, “Due to my busy schedule with Envision Graphic Design, I was unable to pursue this dream. Several years passed and this dream never left me; it kept getting stronger. It seemed like a natural fit. I knew of a couple color pet magazines in South Florida, but none that were strictly dedicated to Palm Beach County. My initial thought was to do a printed color magazine, but realized the capital needed would be more than I had on hand ... way more! I then decided to make it an online magazine and adopted the name Palm Beach Pet Lovers Magazine. After about six months, I dropped the "Magazine" from the name and it became known as Palm Beach Pet Lovers, because I envisioned the website being so much more than just a magazine.
Martha Blumel, Palm Beach Pet Lovers founder and creator,
with a neighborhood cat, Mio.
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In her spare time, Martha built the website. It was a slow learning process and nothing at all like the print graphic design she was accustomed to. In the summer of 2009. she started a facebook page and was surprised by the amount of friends accumulated in a short time. “I don't know why it was such a surprise because people love their pets” she said. “Although the site was far from being completed we held our first Photo Contest in March 2010 on our Facebook page and that is when the page started to take off. I had a blast meeting new Facebook friends and seeing all the adorable pets everyone was posting; that page kept me very busy and I recruited the help of my friend Tracy Goodhue and my daughter Megan to help maintain the page.”
Some of the sections on the new website include a Pet Directory, an Events Calendar, Ask the Vet column (where you can submit general pet-related questions to a local veterinarian), It's a Pet Thing section that is all about animals. (informative articles, videos, links and resources), Adopt a Pet section that is dedicated to all the Palm Beach County animals that are looking for their "forever homes" (links, articles and a searchable pet finder database), Rescue Stories (about local residents and the pets they adopted), The Wild Side - a section about the "wild side" of Palm Beach County (this section really has nothing to do with pets, but it is true that most pet lovers enjoy wildlife and nature as well), Kid's Korner - a section for kids, articles, videos, games etc. all dedicated to the littlest pet lovers, Rainbow Bridge - a tribute page for the pets we’ve lost, Photo Galleries, Videos, Contests and more.
Blumel’s passion is still with animal rescues. Her website offers free advertising and directory listings for every Palm Beach County shelter and rescue. “The work they do is invaluable,” she said, “and we want to partner with them to educate the public on the need to spay and neuter their pets and to adopt and volunteer.
In March, Blumel attended the South Florida Pet Expo at the south Florida Fair Grounds and had an amazing time meeting local pet lovers. There were over 10,000 people in attendance, and a remarkable number of them visited the Palm Beach Pet Lovers booth.
Become a fan of Palm Beach Pet Lovers on Facebook.
Become a fan of Envision Graphic Design on Facebook.
March 26, 2011 – Martha and Pam D’Addio,
“Dog Rescue Examiner” contributing writer
appear at the South Florida Pet Expo.
