Arriving Home: Our collective stories of animal welfare triumphs

“Don’t let the cat flap hit you in the ass on the way into house!”

My favorite part of writing about animal welfare is, of course, the stories of animals who are safe and sound. Animal rescue and animal welfare advocacy is necessary because we are trying to make right situations that have gone wrong – like ending animal overpopulation, fighting and preventing cruelty or advocating for the humane and just treatment of animals.

But for every story I write, about adoption groups, problems with selling animals, or advocacy efforts to end industrialized uses of animals, I also hear wonderful stories from readers and friends who tell me how their dog came to live with them, a new law was passed in their city or how the future was changed so no animals need suffer.

I always tell people, “You should write those stories down.” They are great, heart warming stories that help us remember that change for the better can happen, that recovery is possible, and that people and cities can improve the lives of animals in order for us all to be settled, safe and sound at home – whatever and wherever ‘home’ is for each of us.

However, the best part of telling your story is knowing someone will hear or read it, so I’ve decided to dedicate some posts on this blog to ‘Arriving Home’ stories from readers. Readers are welcome to email me their happy animal stories, and I’ll post as many as I can. Please be sure that you are the owner of the story (see FAQ) in that it’s ‘your’ story, and please fill out the information below indicating that you give me permission to post your story. Unfortunately, I won’t be able to post all stories, but I’ll try to pick as many as I can.

So…, do you have a great story about pet adoption or solving an animal welfare issue? Do you know an animal that found just that right place to live? Do you help a foster animal transition to their forever home? If so, and you would like to submit your story to the ‘Arriving Home’ segment, email your story to me with the following information:’

1) Your name(s) as the author(s) of the story. Your name will be posted as the author.

2) Your story text. Please limit text to around 500 words. Your story may be edited for space or grammar.

3) Fill out this statement: ‘I _______, give permission post my story (contained in this email) to the blog called ‘Sniffing Out Home’. I, _________, own this story, and I will be listed as the copyright owner of this story at the end of the blog post.”

Submissions can be emailed to ‘christielagally’ at ‘gmail’ dot ‘com

Frequency Asked Questions:

Q: If I submit my story for posting, will it be edited?

A: Yes, most likely I will check for spelling errors, consistency in capitalization or grammar, but I’ll try not to change the essence of your story. If you don’t like how I have edited the story, we can just take it down from the website. Aren’t blogs great!

Q: Will I receive compensation or payment for my story?

A: No, I cannot provide any compensation for stories because the Sniffing Out Home site does not bring in any income. I post information and stories entirely to support of work of animal welfare reform.

Q: How do I know if I ‘own’ my story?

A: The owner of a story is the person to whom the event occurred. For example, if you adopted a dog and wrote a story about it, than that is your story. However, if your neighbor adopted a dog and told you the story, than that story belongs to your neighbor, not to you. Please only submit stories that you own, unless you have permission from others (see below FAQ). If others are involved in your story, and it’s also their story, please ask them if you can submit the story before sending the story to me.

Q: Can I submit stories that belong to other people if they give permission?

A: Yes, if you get their permission. Not everyone enjoys writing, so if you’d like to write the story that belongs to another person, get their permission first, and then you can write their story. In this case, please let me know that you are the author of the story but the story belongs to another person. Please provide the name of the person to whom the story belongs, and indicate in your email that they have given us permission to post their story.

Q: What happens if I don’t want my story on Sniffing Out Home any longer?

A: Just let me know, and I’ll take it down immediately.

Q: Are there any stories I shouldn’t submit or any rules I should follow?

A: We are focusing on the happy endings here, so please only submit stories of how everything turned out well. While there is a time and place for stories about drama, cruelty and neglect that we need to be aware of to fight such problems, please focus your story on what worked and how an animals ended up coming home for good.

Christie Lagally