Embrace Pet Insurance Blog

Just when you think you know something...

We have lived in our house for 2 years now and there's been this wall switch in the kitchen I could never work out what it did - nothing as far as I could tell and I did try on and off over that time to work it out.

Today, I was looking up underneath the cabinets in the kitchen to fiddle with my KitchenAid (making pumpkin pie - it's Canadian Thanksgiving this weekend) when I suddenly noticed a flourescent light nestled up there - with an on-off switch on it. I pressed the switch, clicked on the mystery switch on the wall, and lo and behold, the light went on. Don't I feel like the doofus!

Two years - you'd think I would have noticed this beautiful feature before? But no, I just discovered it tonight.

Makes me wonder what else I haven't noticed in my life until I find the right angle to look at it.

Pet-related Small Business Trends - updated for 2008

Every year, I write an article on pet-related small business trends for Anita Campbell over at the Small Business Trends blog. Here's the 2008 Pet-Related Small Business trends article.

Turns out my article is Anita's most popular in the trend category. It just goes to show that there are a lot of people interested in the future of pet-related businesses. I'm sure Anita had no idea this would be the case when she asked me to write my first article over 2 years ago.

In case you missed them the previous two years, here are the links for the all the articles.

Pet Industry Trends in 2008
Pet Industry Trends in 2007
Pet Industry Trends in 2006

Are there an pet-related business trends you've noticed lately?

Competition for bloggers

If you aren't a blogger, you can just skip this message.

And for the bloggers, do I have the biggest and bestest competition for you! Problogger is having it's $54,000 Problogger Birthday Bash competition with all sorts of prizes to be won over the coming week.

Make sure to pop over there to see what's happening - you might even win something awesome.

Let's see some comments folks!

Some bloggers were lamenting that there seem to be fewer people commenting on blogs these days and of course, decided to take some action - hence The Great Mofo Delurk 2007 day. The idea is to stop lurking and show your favorite blogs some love by commenting. What an awesome idea!

So today I'm pledging to comment on ten blogs (meaningful comments, not just "Yo man - what a great entry" or something uninspiring like that) - what are you planning to do?

(and if you are reading this the day after through the email subscription, go comment anyway - it's still the same day for you!)

I'll post the blogs I commented on by the end of the day. Have fun!

Blogs commented on today are:

1. Average Jane
2. Church of the Customer
3. Pet Connection
4. Embrace Pet Community
5. Re:invention
6. Carissa Blog
7. Money Rules, Debt Stinks
8. I Quit for LIJIT
9. The Chocolate Dog Blog
10. Itchmo
11. Hola Isabel (OK, I couldn't stop at 10)
12. Pet Connection (again)

OK, done for the moment. I'm sure I'll add a few more comments as the day progresses. How are your comments coming along?

Pampered Puppy Embraces Pet Insurance

The October edition of the Pampered Puppy's online magazine features an article called Embrace A New Kind of Insurance by Nicole Feliciano discussing Embrace's pet insurance products.

...But as more and more animal lovers face skyrocketing veterinary bills, pet insurance is a topic that shouldn't be ignored. And there's a bit of good news for hardened skeptics: Embrace Pet Insurance is trying to set a new business standard.

I think the message is getting out! 

I love the picture of Storm recovering from his dog attack injuries - don't you just want to fuzzle his head all over? (I know that fuzzle not a real word but it should be, don't you think?)

I covered Storm's vet bills in a claim case study as well and to date, we've paid out just a smidge under $3,000 for that one incident - that's a huge bite out of your finances if you don't have pet insurance.

BTW, the Pampered Puppy website and online magazine is all about luxury lifestyles for dogs. If you want it it's there - from custom ball gowns to organic treats to argyle sweaters. Sounds like a place our Embrace Pet Community folks are at home with.