LINDA COLON
Linda Colon is the creator and driving force behind "Our Rainbow Friends". The blog was founded in 2012 and has published monthly ever since. Over twenty-five years ago, she contributed to another website where pet owners paid to memorialize their pets, with a portion of the payment supporting rescues and shelters. Many of her own pets rest there, and through that collaboration she found friendships that remain to this day.
Having her own dogs since childhood and understanding the deep impact of loss encouraged her to create this memorial blog, and a blog for her own family of pets.
Though a busy working Mom, she and her husband John also began to foster and rescue and to adopt the "unadoptable" from shelters in their community. Those older, some ill, the ones that often would not find homes in their waning years. They thought this might be brief for a few, caring for the pets until a permanent home could be found. But this was not to be. Linda and John were "foster failures". Each that came, stayed. One year ~ 2004 it was ~ found their home filled with eighteen beautiful "oldsters", each enjoying gentle walks in their sunny yard, each receiving loving attention and the best of care until their time came for crossing of the bridge. And when that time came ~ often another would arrive to fill that now empty place in their home. And so it has been in the many years since.
Passionate and compassionate, Linda also wanted to create a biography of her lifetime of pet companions, and began this work twenty years ago. "All The Dogs In My Life" is a work in progress, featuring hundreds of photos and stories of each and every dog that has passed through her heart and home. Changes in technology, both hardware and software, have made this project challenging and difficult, yet she continues to work on the project with dedication and commitment.
Linda is perhaps best known in the pet blogging community and to friends through Amber and Max, the sweet and rambunctious doxies whose blog "DaWeenies of Florida" was a pet favorite for many years. Silent now, these two pups are Angels, running free in the fields of heaven, never forgotten.
Linda has been a career woman, is a mother,
a grandmother and great grandmother ~
and lives her life dedicated to the betterment of and care of dogs.
She resides in Cape Coral, Florida.
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CAROL MCKENNA
Here, choosing to quote Carol's own words, from her beautiful blog "A Creative Harbor" ~ "I am growing younger every day. I am an amateur photographer, poetess, artist."
Without question, a visitor to Carol's blog, created in 2006, finds truth in all those words. "A Shutterbug Explores" overflows with her artistic energy shown through digital art, soft and gentle watercolors, thought provoking haiku.
A visual delight, her photography of Cape Ann ~ the sky, the ocean at all times of day or night. The natural life there and in all seasons to tease and please viewers who visit this 'shutterbug'.
And then her camera turns toward her love of dogs, for these pups are always part of her blogging story, the sweet part. Now, this day, beside her one will see little Ziggy, a shitzu-maltese mix, who has stolen love from her heart.
The heart where her angels reside, for it has enough love for all ~ Zoe, the dear Yorkie. Angel, her special rescue. And of course, Punky, a big lovable lab and golden mix. It matters not whether small or big, in Carol's words, "I am a shadow with a shadow that is a four legged dearly loved fur person."
Carol is a former psychotherapist and psychology instructor,
a mother, grandmother and great grandmother.
And of course, an artist across all media ~ dog lover, too!
Carol resides waterside in Cape Ann, Massachusetts
With special thanks to Carol for creating all the beautiful artwork
that is now part of the newly designed Our Rainbow Friends blog.
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Ann began blogging in 2007, a Florida resident at the time, with two Himalayan kitties, Maggy and Zoey who didn't like each other very much, but she liked both of them, very very much! It was fun to photograph them, and even to "play" with their photos in an early version of Adobe Photoshop and so Zoolatry was born as a way to show and share all those photos! No visitors, no comments back then, and if she looks back at those years now, well ~ the pictures and posts are a bit embarrassing so probably "good" that no one visited!
So, let's just fast forward to 2023! Life has changed, personally and in so, so many other ways too. No repetitive details, many know "her story".
She will tell you she still loves photography, still loves pets and pet blogging, and a much more complex and challenging Photoshop ~ altering photos, creating photo-art, her own, and even yours (when you let her!)
Zoolatry is an active blog, about the kitty who lives with her now, about her grand pets who are mostly lively dogs, all adorable of course. Often about her pet friends, sometimes about her (super, of course) grand kids, or just whatever she likes to share at any given moment.
In her own words, "I made a personal commitment years ago to creating Memory images for pets we love who cross the bridge, and everything pauses for me when I learn that one should be created, a fluttering of the heart happens. It is also a privilege to assist with the Our Rainbow Bridge blog in a small way. And I'm also pleased that I am able to contribute as Graphics Designer regularly for The Cat Blogosphere. The friendships made over all these years have made my life so full, it is often hard to imagine what it would be like had this never happened ... to quote my favorite song ... 'what a wonderful world' ...".
Ann, retired now but spent most of her working
life in marketing, advertising and local newspaper publishing
in Washington, DC, Michigan and Florida.
A mom and grandma, and a many times pet mom of dogs and cats,
now living in Baltimore, Maryland.
2 comments:
thanks for your work... it is a good place to remember the friends we miss...
Thank you all of you. We come to depend on the memorials that are created when our babies fly away. Thank you over again.
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