No one said that a Recycled Retriever had to be a dog! Maisy is our first cat featured on the Recycled Retriever of the week blog. We love this picture of her sitting on the window sill. What a way to spend the day!

Meet Eco-friendly Recycled Retriever Maisy!

We love organic cat nip and we think Maisy would too! We have straight up organic cat nip grown in the USA and a selection of toys made from recycled plastic soda bottles that are stuffed with organic cat nip. Can you believe that you can help divert plastic bottle from landfills while provided your cat with hours of fun! Fantastic!

Thanks for sharing your photos. We love them! Check out all of our Eco-friendly Recycled Retrievers in our pet gallery. Upload your pictures today!

Each Thursday we’ll feature a “Recycled Retriever” of the week. Keep sending us photos of your pets. We love to see them! If you snap them with one of our Eco-friendly products even better.

Mingle With Our Mutts is a dog and cat adoption event that takes place in several locations throughout Ohio. The event brings together different rescue organizations to one location. Visitors can meet experienced shelter staff members and knowledgeable rescue people. Everyone has the same goal– to make the best match between people and pets.

Columbus, Ohio:
Held the 1st & 3rd Sundays of every month, 12-2pm
Franklin County Animal Shelter, 1731 Alum Creek Drive

Delaware County, Ohio:
Held 2nd Sundays of the month through November 2008, 12-2pm
Bark Til Dark Dog Park (a private, 6 acre, fenced, off-leash dog park)
1277 Hills-Miller Road, Delaware

North Central Ohio
No longer active, looking for a new coordinator
Contact Rose at Old Mason Animal Rescure

Dayton, Ohio
Held 2nd Sundays Monthly, 12-2
Montomery County Animal Resource Center
6790 Webster Street, Dayton

If you have an organization that you would like featured on The Recycled Retriever blog, please e-mail us. Thank your for your continued support.

Poop is gross. We all know that, but all good dog owners have gotten over the grossness at least enough to pick up after their dog. I am going to assume that all of you are good dog owners and pick-up after your pet. What are you using to clean up the poo?

Using biodegradable poop bags while attending to the unpleasant chore is a good way to be a little more environmentally friendly. Think about it… Once you pick up your dog’s poop and throw it in the trash bin, it’s not over. Rover’s poo travels on a path to a landfill along with the receptacle in which it’s contained. Information from The Humane Society of the United States website indicated that according to the American Pet Products Manufacturers Association (APPMA) 2007-2008 Survey, there are around 74.8 million owned dogs in the United States. Lets say that each dog poops twice a day that would add up to 149.6 million bags a day or 54.6 trillion bags a year. I know I may have calculated these numbers high because not everyone uses one bag per dog per poo drop. Cut the numbers in half and they are still high, way too high.

Using a biodegradable bag will help shorten the lifespan that the poop and the bag have at the landfill. It’s an easy step to take!

The 2008 Columbus Jazz & Rib Festival was filled with good music, great food and best friends. Every year the Jazz & Rib Festival proves to be a great place to spend a hot summer night and 2008 was no exception. There were a lot of dogs out and about this year, proving that Columbus is a great Bow-Wow Town!

Natural dog toys are an important part of a “green dog’s” life. Look for toys that are made from organic cotton and do not contain harsh dyes. Chemicals used in the cotton growing process can cause allergies and other health problems for your pets.

All the toys featured in this post are dyed with all natural dyes and are made from organic cotton.

Natural Dyes

• Beige: chestnut bur
• Yellow: gardenia seed
• Red: madder root
• Grey: mineral charcoal

If you are looking for Eco-friendly dog toys, please consider these selections from The Recycled Retriever.

SHOP FOR THESE & OTHER ECO-FRIENDLY TOYS!

SHOP FOR THESE & OTHER ECO-FRIENDLY TOYS!

We love pets that love Eco-friendly and natural pet products. We’re all just trying to do a little better by being a little “greener”.

Meet Eco-friendly Recycled Retriever Tobey!

This is Tobey’s baby picture and we hear that he’s a “little larger” now and loves to chew.

Products recommended for Tobey: Hurley, Tux, and Zisc. All theses products are made from Zogoflex: a recyclable and durable material. Each toy has a one time replacement guarantee. Yep, if your dog destroys it, we’ll replace it one time for free! On top of that, any returns are recycled into new toys!

Thanks for sharing your photos. We love them! Check out all of our Eco-friendly Recycled Retrievers in our pet gallery. Upload your pictures today!

Each Thursday we’ll feature a “Recycled Retriever” of the week. Keep sending us photos of your pets. We love seeing them! If you snap them with one of our Eco-friendly products even better.

The Recycled Retriever is dedicated to supporting organizations that work for the health and well being of animals. We encourage you to support organizations through volunteerism and donations.

DogSOSis an animal rescue organization in Columbus, Ohio. Their purpose is best revealed in their own words from their web home page…

DogSOS is a 100% volunteer organization dedicated to saving the lives of abandoned, neglected and abused pets. As a community organization, DogSOS seeks to promote education about spay/neuter, behavior issues and proper re-homing of unwanted pets. Although our focus is primary on rescuing dogs, we also rescue cats, kittens, & other animals.

Every animal in our care is treated like our very own. It is important to us that we place our dogs (and all our rescued animals) in homes that will suit their needs; making sure that adopter and animal are a good match for each other. All adoptions are subject to an adoption application and agreement.

Donate to DogSOS!

If you have an organization that you would like featured on The Recycled Retriever blog, please e-mail us. Thank your for your continued support.

There are many different statistics out there around the impact use of plastic and paper shopping bags have on the environment. Personally, I was concerned. I was just tired of seeing all the “urban tumbleweeds” around me as the wind would move plastic bags from one highway over pass to another. It was unsightly and disturbing.

A few months ago I made the decision to reduce the number of plastic bags that I was using. Time after time I would stand in amazement while I watched grocery store clerks double or triple bag my groceries while only putting one or two items in the bags. I would come home with 25 bags from one quick trip to the store. Enough was enough! I wanted to control my bag consumption. I started using canvas totes for my trips to the grocery store and on my Saturday morning trips to the farmer’s market. It just felt better doing it. With that, I decided that The Recycled Retriever needed a bag!

Forget Paper & Plastic

Use a canvas tote. The Recycled Retriever canvas tote is made from 100% organic cotton and it looks great on your arm.

Take Your Plastic Bags to Dog Parks

Even with my best efforts I continue to have plastic bags show up at my house. Reuse is a good option. According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency, only 1% of plastic bags were recycled in 2000. When one ton of plastic bags are reused as something else other than plastic bags or recycled, the energy equivalent of 11 barrels of oil is saved. Taking your plastic bags to the dog park is a good alternative.

Each Thursday we’ll feature a “Recycled Retriever” of the week. Keep sending us photos of your pets. We love to see them! If you snap them with one of our Eco-friendly products even better.

Meet Eco-friendly Recycled Retriever… Bailey!

Pictured here with our hemp bone.

Check out all of our Eco-friendly Recycled Retrievers in our pet gallery. Upload your pictures today!

July 11-13, 2008

With 10 new wineries opening over the past year, Ohio now has 106 Wineries. Each July in downtown Columbus many of those wineries come to The North Market (www.northmarket.com) to showcase their wines and give visitors the opportunity to pair the wines with the wonderfully diverse food offered by the market’s regular vendors.

Many of the visitors to the Food & Ohio Wine Festival were our four-legged friends!