New Mapping Capabilities from Petswelcome.com
Who says we don't listen (besides our mothers, wives, board of directors, and our cats. Our cats. Can you believe the nerve...)? Anyway, over the past year we've been getting plenty of emails asking us for specific improvements in our Search by Route feature. For example, instead of listing every hotel on your route between your departure and destination, you asked for the ability to search for lodgings a specific number of miles or hours into your trip. Well, we've done it. Or you can find lodgings in specific areas along the route by clicking on the route. Then you can choose a radius of 1 to 20 miles which will show you all the pet-friendly lodgings in that vicinity. More impressively, in our US Lodgings section, we now offer the ability to turn every city into a map so you can see where each pet-friendly hotel is geographically within a given city. Even better, you can now also flip on pet sitters, emergency vets and kennels in the area so that you and your pet can have access to these important services. And then, in each city, we're going to bury a hidden treasure worth millions of dollars which will be marked by an X on the map and which you can dig up and become RICH!!! Well, actually, that last part isn't true, but we promise you'll really appreciate our new mapping features anyway.

Breaking News: Petswelcome Employee on Probation....
On Saturday, November 22nd, Lola, the CFO of petswelcome.com, graduated as a Therapy dog and is now part of a Good Dog Team (which is comprised of Lola, and her people owners). After four weeks of training, she received her diploma (actually a scarf), and starting next month, will begin serving her "probationary" period, visiting with adolescents in a psychiatric facility in Westchester County, NY, and with senior citizens in Wilton, CT. The training was sponsored by The Good Dog Foundation www.thegooddogfoundation.org, and although they are located in the tri-state (NY, NJ, and CT), there are other organizations located throughout the US. The purpose of a therapy dog team (dog and handler) is to provide comfort to patients in hospitals, nursing homes, and other institutions wherever they're needed. Patients can pet or brush the dog, children read to them, and generally take comfort in relating to a loving pet. Dogs should be at least one year old (Lola is 9), and in another few months, if and when he matures a little more, we expect to start working with Charlie (petswelcome's Director of Corporate Investment).

Google Widget for Petswelcome.com
Got your own iGoogle page? If not, you should look into it. Basically, it's a personal way to use Google. You can put lots of widgets and things on it to customize your own search page. So every time you go to do a web search, you can also attend to your own needs, interests, and hobbies. And, if you want to find a hotel for your pet, you can put our handy-dandy little widget on your page and you can search from there. You don't even have to come to petswelcome.com anymore. Think of it: no more suffering through our sophomoric humor. That's reward enough. Of course, we'll miss you terribly. But you could still visit to do more advanced searches. And to win free gear and cool prizes. And to click on our "I BELIEVE IN PETSWELCOME" widget which automatically sucks money out of your savings account and puts it into ours. Actually, we don't have that type of widget, though there were whisperings about "local-level implementation" before our development team left for Tahiti.... TAHITI??!!!

Pet-Friendly Hotels on Your GPS
OK. We've done it. We saved our lunch money and bought a satellite and launched it from our parking lot. (The first one went through our neighbor's bedroom window. The second one took out a water tower. But the third one must have made orbit because it seems to be working.....) Anyway, the whole idea is that now you can download pet-friendly hotels onto your GPS. Pretty clever, eh? We call it our Global Pooch System. Now you'll be able to find all the pet-friendly lodgings on your GPS while you're on the road. We give you hotel names, addresses, phone numbers and--most importantly--pet policies so you can find the perfect place for you and your pet. It's all very Sputnik, don't you think? Check it out on our GPS Download page.

International Listings
Like Pinky and the Brain, we have come up with a plan TO TAKE OVER THE WORLD. Not by digitally altering old Mr. Rogers shows and turning his eyes into spinning petswelcome logos. Instead, we have greatly expanded our International Listings section so that you can take your pet everywhere--and we can write off visits to countries like Fiji as business expenses. It's our job to make sure it's safe for you to take your pet there. We're particulary interested in investigating Island Nations, not because of the Tiki Bars, babes, beautiful beaches and stunning sunsets, but because there's a lot of water there and, if your dog is not a swimmer, we want to make sure he'll be alright in such an alien environment. How do we do this? We ask the bartenders and waitresses, of course. It's the working people who thoroughly know the surf and turf (medium rare, please, with an extra cup of butter) of their native country and who give us answers to the tough questions we'll be asking. We plan on doing the hard advance footwork so you don't have to. Hey. That's just the kind of company we are.

WatchDog Club
To celebrate our upcoming 10th year anniversary in June, we are featuring our WatchDog Club section, which highlights Fun & Cool & Unusual Places (bars, restaurants, parks, beaches, bowling alleys, etc.) to take your pet while you're on vacation. At petswelcome.com, it's our philosophy that having a fun vacation with your pet entails much more than just finding a pet-friendly lodging, it also involves finding places to take your pet once you arrive. And then there is also the search to find places that serve good martinis. We believe that if you can kill two birds with one stone, even better! And that's what the WatchDog Club is all about. (Our lawyer, a meticulous Doberman named Ch. Whats-In-It-For-Me, advises us to clarify that when we say, "Kill two birds" we don't mean real birds, and that it's a figure of speech and that we love all God's creatures and don't mean to offend bird owners or their attorneys who might sue us for slander, etc....).

And so to celebrate, we have updated all the listings and now have thousands of pet-friendly destinations that our visitors have submitted to us over the years. We have put in new software to make it easier to put your submissions up faster so we can keep this section growing and growing until we can realize our sicko ambition of having EVERY pet rest stop on EVERY highway and EVERY pet-friendly cafe, bar, museum and historic place in the country listed. To this end, we need your help. We are therefore giving away petswelcome T-shirts by randomly drawing 5 names each week from those who submit a Fun and Cool pet-friendly place to the WatchDog Club. Anyone who submits will be eligible for a grand prize in June which will be a weekend stay at one of our more luxurious pet-friendly lodgings. Details will be posted on our site next month--once we figure out how to include petswelcome.com employees and family members in on the contest. In the meantime, submit, submit, submit!

Pet Food Recall
Most likely you've been hearing about the pet food recall that involves a large number of different brands. Even those of us who think we're feeding our pet high-quality brands should check the recall list to make sure that our pets haven't been exposed to the tainted products. One of the brands we use here at petswelcome.com was part of the recall, though, luckily (we think...), the particular date and type and UPC number we used did not seem to be affected.

Basically, the recall involves wet foods that are "cuts or gravy" style that would use wheat gluten as thickeners. Evidently, the affected products have the potential to impact the renal health of an exposed animal. If you use wet food for your dog or cat, please check this Menu Foods Income Fund website that has all the recall information, including the dog and cat food listed by brand, description, size and UPC number.

We kid around here a lot at petswelcome.com and usually stick to pet travel and not get involved with other pet issues. However, this one has hit rather close to home and is, obviously, no laughing matter. Check out the recall site so you can get informed, have peace of mind and, if necessary, act accordingly to maintain your animal's health and well-being.

People & Pets
One of the best things about running petswelcome.com (besides all the groupies...) is that we're always finding out about great programs and organizations that work to benefit both people and pets. While we highly respect organizations that help just pets, we've found that we're really inspired by ones that utilize pets to help people. Maybe it's because we're selfish, but we'd like to believe that it's because these programs highlight the bond between humans and animals and therefore capture the essence of our relationship. It's important to us because that's what traveling with your pet is about--confirming the mutual reliance between the species which reveals pets to as important to us as we are to them.

One of our favorite programs is Angels on a Leash, the Westminster Kennel Club's therapy dog program benefiting the young patients at Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital of New York-Presbyterian. We recommend that you check out this fabulous program and also consider donating in the name of your favorite child and/or pet.

Another different, but novel, example we recently found is at the Native Languages of the Americas website. They are a non-profit organization that is dedicated to the survival of Native American Languages. Now what's that got to do with pets? you might ask. Well, they have a program in which, for a very small donation of money or time, they will help you pick out a Native American name for your new pet. How great it that? You get a wonderful and totally unique name for your pet and, at the same time, you're helping preserve endangered Indian languages. We're not sure if that's pets helping people, or people helping pets, or people helping people through pets... But who cares. It all sounds good to us.

Check them out. Two different approaches. But both inspired examples that highlight the incredible bonds between animals and people.

Petswelcome.com Hits the Road
The reason we started petswelcome.com way-back-when was simply to be able to take our dogs and cats with us wherever we went. Then SUCCESS STRUCK! And the new priority became to get discounted rooms and FREE martinis wherever we went--whether we had our pets with us or not. Eventually, we demanded fresh melon balls and Malpeque oysters in every room of every suite and, well, you know, it went downhill from there. Luckily, we had the sense to commit ourselves into the Betty Ford Clinic for Celebrity Pet Site Owners and now we're on the straight and narrow. No longer do we demand skeleton keys to the mini-bar and happy gas (or whatever it was our dentists used to give us), now we just require PURE pet-friendliness. And so, to celebrate our 1st anniversary free of pillow mints, we're starting a new series that will report first-hand--beyond the listings on our site--on different lodgings, fancy and not so fancy, so you will get a real sense of where your pet will be truly appreciated. First, we're heading to New York, and then will be visiting other popular destinations, to report on their real animal receptivity. Stay tuned...

A SINGLE MALT(ESE)?
Here's a great idea that we can really sink our teeth--or more appropriately, our lips--into. One that we're surprised we didn't think of ourselves. A Canine Cocktail Hour! Brilliant! Ingenious! Sublime! So, who thought of it? The pet-loving people at the Intercontinental Hotel Group. They hold the cocktail hour at one of their coolest properties, the Hotel Indigo in Atlanta, GA. The big question on our mind is, can petswelcome.com employees get in for free? Actually, there's no cover charge so EVERYONE (dogs and humans) can get in for free. This means you can sip on your favorite beverage while your dog enjoys treats and fresh water (and maybe an occasional lap of your Tanqueray...). And not only that, one dollar from every "Indigo" Martini sold, goes to a local dog park. Magnificent! Fantastic! Beautiful! To find out more, check their website for the details.

THIS JUST IN: Due to the popularity of the Canine Cocktail Hour at the Hotel Indigo, the Intercontinental Hotel Group has opened another cocktail hour at the InterContinental Hotel in Buckhead, GA! Since we're currently out of superlatives, we'll just raise a glass and toast the pet-friendly people at Intercontinental....

PET SITTERS RULE!
At petswelcome.com, we TRULY appreciate pet sitters. Why? Because they allow us to take our pets on the road with us and not leave them at home. Wait, you're thinking, that doesn't make sense. The job of a pet sitter is to watch your pet at home while you're away. Nope. Not in our book. We use them almost exclusively when we're on the road. That's because they are an essential part of the safety net you should have in place when you take your dog or cat on a trip. Let's face it, you can't take them everywhere--restaurants (except for cafes) are forbidden by law to allow animals, and most theaters and museums, etc., won't allow them either. So the next best thing is the peace of mind you get knowing that you have a dedicated professional watching your favorite pooch or kitty.

To that end, we're spending the month of February celebrating pet sitters. We now have a prominent place on our home page for them to sign up on our site to make it easier for you to find one while you're away. So, please tell your pet sitter to stop by and sign up with petswelcome.com so we can make their services available to the millions of people who come to our site looking for the vital support necessary when traveling with a pet.

NEW INFO XCHANGE
We never realized how many people relied on, and used, our Info Xchange--that is, until we removed it to upgrade its functionality. Of course, as with everything we do, it took a LITTLE longer than we planned. We usually blame our resident Basset Hound for any delays. But since we feel bad about not taking the blame ourselves--and after numerous complaints (which typically dribbled in) from the BAD (Bassett Anti-Defamation) League-- we will have to admit that it was a Char Pei that was responsible for the delay. Anyway, a few months, a lot of angry emails and a few lost petswelcome.com fans later, we've finally got a new Xchange up and running. So please visit the Info Xchange, register and start sharing your pet-friendly knowledge with other fellow travelers who also love to hit the road with their favorite furry (or feathered, or scaley) friends.

HURRICANE KATRINA
We've been hearing from a lot of people who have been in the path of Katrina and Rita and so we've set up a separate page for hurricane updates. This page is designed to give you updates on lodgings and shelters in New Orleans and the Gulf region, as well as a bulletin board for people to try to find out information or to contact others.

Monthly Advice...
Since we started petswelcome.com (many, many years ago), we've seen numerous pleasant trends develop in the lodging industry. One of these trends is that many of the larger hotel chains have taken an active interest in promoting their properties to people traveling with pets. For example, one of the chains, Motel 6, is now offering a monthly feature on their website by animal expert Jack Hanna, telling stories of his adventures and offering traveling tips for pet owners. Click here to find out more....

Location. Location. Location.
Who says we don't listen to your requests? For a long time now, many of you have been asking that we put a location icon next to each listing to show where the lodging is in relationship to the city it's listed under. Right now we have driving directions for each lodging, but that information can be found in our Search by Route section. So, to avoid redundancies and to respond in kind to all the people who've been emailing us, we're going to (in the next week or so) be putting location maps next to each listing so that you have a better idea where each lodging resides in each city. After that project is complete, we're going to invent a shampoo bottle that will prevent you from washing your hair more than three times during one shower. It has nothing to do with pets, but we think MJSS (Multiple Jet Stupor Syndrome) is a growing and insidious problem and needs to be addressed.

Pet-Friendly Survey Says!
In case you hadn't noticed, we are on a mission to implement a new level of pet-friendliness in hotels, inns and b&bs across the country. To that end we are now conducting an official (and mercifully short) survey to find out what you actually look for in a pet-friendly lodging. Take our survey and let your voice be heard. We will then forward the results to lodgings listed on our site and, in the next few months, feature the ones that actually implemented your suggestions.

Schussing with Your Schnauzer
Get ready. This Fall we're going to focus on pet-friendly ski resorts. Not that you really can ski with your dog but at least you'll be able to bring him to a nearby pet-friendly lodging while you hit the slopes. Just think, he'll be able to greet you with your crutches when you come back from a particulary rough day. Also, we're going to research cross-country skiing places where your pet can actually run along while you impress her with your speed, balance and ability to hail a Medivac helicopter in the remote woods. Stay tuned....

Head North With Confidence
So you've always wanted to enter your 200 miniature dachshunds in the annual "Go Nowhere Fast" sled dog race that is held on a large zinc bar in a tavern in the Yukon Territory. The only problem was you didn't know how to get there with all those dachshunds in tow. Where would you stay? Well, as usual, petswelcome.com has answered your prayers.... We've now included Canada in our Search by Route capability. Now you can drive from Miami to Manitoba and get driving directions with a list of pet-friendly lodgings along the way. No more burrowing into snowdrifts on the side of the road. From now on, you can actually stay in warm, clean, comfortable lodgings that love pets! Oh yeah, and don't forget to tell Pierre, the bartender, that petswelcome is expecting the Jaegermeister delivery any day now.....

Can a Major Motion Picture be Far Off?
Next to playing bass on the live version of James Brown's "Sex Machine," our biggest dream was to write a book that would win an award so that we could impress women and drink heavily without always having to "explain" ourselves. Well, we've done it! The Portable Petswelcome.com has been voted Best Reference Book of the year by the Dog Writers Association of America, a very distinguished, fun and dedicated group of writers with obvious good taste. We attended their gala event on February 10th which kicked off the Westminster Dog Show and were duly humbled and, of course, turned into insufferable egotists for having won against such fine competition. We're thinking of joining the Association to push through a new by-law that allows past winners of the award to drink for free during the cocktail hour while other members must be made to pay. No, we're just kidding....they should get pretzels or something.

Traveler's Choice
What's that, you ask? Traveler's Choice is a new category we've just added to our site to help you find the best place to stay with your pet. It's a list of lodgings that our visitors--traveling pet owners--have nominated for a Pet-Friendly Seal of Approval. A place that they stayed at and loved and recommend. You'll be able to read their comments about the lodging by clicking on our logo next to the listing.

Not only are the lodgings in Traveler's Choice recommended by our visitors, they also all actively promote themselves as pet-friendly and have linked their petswelcome.com listing to their own web site so you can get all the information you'll need to make the right choice. It's the perfect combination of independent pet-owner approval together with lodgings that actually want pets--and care enough about pet owners to actively solicit their business. Check it out.

Big Dogs and (any kind of) Cats
To make life easier for big dog and cat owners we have added two new databases that will allow you to search exclusively for these two categories. Now you don't have to wade through mountains of listings to find out if they'll accept your 125 lb. Rottweiler or your Maine Coon Cat. Check out our Larger Dogs or Cats databases. Hey, you ask, we respond. Could a pot belly pig search be far behind?

IT'S ALIVE! IT'S ALIVE!...
Yes! Yes! After years of hard work, we have finally realized our twisted vision of TAKING PETS EVERYWHERE! Now, they don't have to be left behind in the hotel room. Now you can take them to restaurants, museums, bookstores, law school--you name it. We've just put up our database of Fun and Cool Places to take your pet. It's only the beginning, of course, we have lots more. But we wanted to get it up asap since we've had so many requests for it. And it's a great way to celebrate the beginning of summer! So check it out & don't forget to join the WatchDog Club by telling us about a cool pet-friendly place you know about. Are you thinking what we're thinking, Pinky? YES! It's time to TAKE OVER THE WORLD!

There Is No Movie....So Read The Book!
That's right...we're doing a book! THE PORTABLE PETSWELCOME.COM will be in bookstores soon. June, to be exact. But you can pre-order it now and get a leg up (get it?) on your neighbors. We actually recommend that you pre-order now, because if you wait until it does come out we'll probably be off at book signing events with Stephen King and John Grisham and won't be sober enough--er, we mean have our fulfillment mechanism optimized--to respond at least until the fall.

Look, Up in the Air...
It's a bird, it's a plane, it's PETSWELCOME.COM WIRELESS! Yup! The future is here and it's very cool. Now you can justify that Palm Pilot you bought--the one with only your birthday in the calendar, and nothing else. Now you can put it to good use and beam down our site out of the pet-friendly universe to find a lodging of your choice from wherever you might be.

Be the envy of your friends and co-workers! Gain respect from your dog and cat! Impress strangers! We guarantee you'll feel like a SEX OBJECT as you download our site on to your PDA! Well, okay, maybe we're getting carried away, but click here anyway to get the free download....

Search By Route
You wanted it. You got it. Search by Route capabilities. Now just type in your departure point & destination and you'll get driving directions with all the pet-friendly places in-between. Then, just click on the pet-friendly icon next to the lodging you're interested in and you'll get specific pet policy information about that lodging, and will most likely be able to make a reservation. Call it genius. We call it the yellow-brick road (for a number of obvious reasons). Toto would definitely have approved.....

International Listings
Don't believe that the internet is difficult. We know that there's a lot of companies who would like to convince you otherwise. That's why they spent a fortune to change their perfectly fine names to unpronouncable words beginning with "A," like Accenture and Agilent. What's that about? While we considered changing our name to Assesallofus, we decided against it. We realized that Petswelcome.com has more important things to do--helping you and your pet roam the world together free and unfettered. So, using only a Pomeranian with a Palm Pilot and a bag of Pupperoni, we have just expanded overseas. Really...

International Pet Policies
OK. We're going global. We are now getting request from people all over the world for pet-friendly lodgings and venues. A lot of people are asking about quarantine policies and regulations for foreign countries, so we set our crack research staff (two hyperactive Pomeranians with ADD) to get on it. Those little doggies can really move when they've got a job to do. And they did a hell of a job, too. See the results by going to our new International Listings section and clicking on "International Policies" or simply click here.

The petswelcome.com WatchDog Club
Just what you need...another lousy T-shirt. And not even the good kind, the Beefy T. This is the model that accepts every stain, accentuates your beer belly, and will acquire more holes than the Albert Hall. But don't worry, you probably won't win it anyway. All you have to do is tell us about a nifty off-beat pet-friendly place that you love, and you'll get entered into a drawing for the T-shirt. It's a long shot to say the least. But, hey, you'll be a member in good standing of the WatchDog Club and your place will get listed on our site and in our upcoming book. So become a member and you'll feel pretty good about yourself. And if you don't show up at the meetings, don't worry....there aren't any!

And the Winner of the "Name Our Dog" Contest Is....
Okay. You've all been very patient & we thank you for that. Unfortunately, we picked two Bassett Hounds and a Black & Tan Coonhound to be on the Judging Committee, and they kept falling asleep on top of all the entries. We spent most of our time waking them up and telling them to get on with it. Well, they finally did and we finally have a winner....

Can't Happen to You?
That's what most people think. That's why we're not prepared when an emergency strikes. Most of us have no plans with regard to our pets when the unexpected happens. Well, now, thanks to the Disaster Response Team of the Humane Society of the United States, there is now a plan of action you can follow. They have been kind enough to let us post it on our site. So make sure you read it and are not caught by surprise.

When It Comes To Chains, Petswelcome.com Sets You Free!
OK. You wanted it. You got it--general pet policy information for major hotel chains. It's not an easy task, for reasons explained in our new section. But we're working on it and will have much more information for you shortly. It also gives us the chance to UNLEASH (get it?) a whole new barrage of corny, unclever puns. But that's what we live for..... Anyway, to see what we've got so far, click here, and choose "Hotel Chains" from the lefthand menu. You're bound (heh, heh) to love it.

Mo' Info, Mo' Info!
Who says we don't respond to visitors requests? For years now, we've been asked to list the lodgings' pet policies on our database so that pet owners can make more informed decisions. Well, now, thanks to our speedy data input team --2 Jack Russell Terriers and a Miniature Doberman (whoa! those little guys can hunt & peck like you wouldn't believe...), we are now starting to offer each lodging's pet policy--including fees and size restrictions. We've just completed New York City (our favorite town....), so check out New York, NY, in our listings section to see the future. We'll be adding more and more policies in the next few months. And if you want to help us out, just contact us with the pet policy of any lodging you've stayed at and we'll post it immediately.

We Can't Do it Without You
We get thousands of letters from our visitors who help us keep our listings updated, weeding out the not pet-friendly, telling us great stories about good experiences they've had at particular lodgings that are very pet friendly. While our lodgings cover the gamut, from lodgings that "tolerate" pets to those that actually love them, we've decided that it's time to make a distinction.

Our experience tells us that you know best, and we want you to help us create a universal standard for pet-friendliness. This means that we want you--the pet-owning public--to pick lodgings and establishments for a "Pet Friendly Seal of Approval" that will let everyone know that the particular establishment meets the needs of pet owners and can be truly trusted by people who travel with their pets. If you see the Seal, then you'll know you'll get first-class treatment and not be relegated to sub-standard accommodations. Click here to find out more.

WHOOPIE! FUN! FUN! FUN!
OK. We're doing original research here...Pet-Friendly Amusement Parks!. That's right. Now you can go on the Flaming Flume to Hell with your best friend. Well, not exactly, but in many cases, you can at least take him to the park with you. Primarily, we're listing pet-friendly lodgings near major amusement parks--but when a park has kennel facilities, we've listed that too.

Keep Us Posted!
We're always looking for news, so feel free to send us whatever you think would be of interest to the rest of us. And if you have any interesting "Travel with Pets" stories, we'd love to hear from you so please contact us. There's a book in the works and you can be part of it.