For my Dogster/Catster pals 07/17/14

Hi pals,  Marilynn here - Coco Rose and Puff Darby's mom...

The following was written right after Dogster/Catster announced that they were closing the Community pages of their site and Coco was still alive and appeared to be quite healthy.  I posted this entry and photo this morning and as predicted, Coco's pages have been removed (I haven't tried Puffy's pages but I suspect his has been removed also).  Anyhow, I hope you enjoy it.

Good-Bye Dogster/Catster

Tap...Tap...Tap...”Snort, coughs, snorts...”

Puffy runs up to Coco and yanks the cookie out of her mouth and runs off with it.

Tap...Tap...Tap...”Testing, One, two, three”

A loud squeal occurs and Coco drops the microphone which causes a deafening noise.

Flicker walks over and whispers in Coco's ear “Girlfriend, you need to talk without food in your mouth and please, don't ever drop the microphone again – okay?”

“Okay, sorry.”

Coco picks up the microphone and walks to the edge of the platform.

“Puffy! I'm going to get you after my speech so you better find a real good place to hide and MY cookie better not be in your stomach.”

Coco looks out into the crowd and is surprised to see so many pups and kitties  from all different areas standing around to give their tributes to Dogster/Catster/

“Pals, we are gathered here today to pay our final respects to our friends Dogster/Catster. Coco lowers her head in silent respect. The crowd stops barking and does the same. After a moment, she again starts talking.

“I would like to keep this on a more or less happy note and let everyone who has something to say come up here an bark after I am through. My fondest memories here at Dogster was my FREE Gizmo (and Luke) campaign. It was one of my proudest events as I was able to spread the word and gather pups from all over the site to point out that poor Ms. Gizmo was stuck in the Dog of the Week spot and Luke in the Cat of the Week spots for well over one month. One voice wasn't enough on this campaign and it took many to finally get them free. My campaign started in earnest on September 7^th , 2011 with many pups barking the FREE GIZMO (and Luke) slogan to Headquarters. It ended on September 22, 2011, when Dogster released GIZMO put ME in the Dog of the Week spot (Luke was also released)! I wasn't out to get nominated to take over Gizmo spot as fame and fortune are not my thing. A nice box of milk bones would have been enough. And speaking of Milk Bones, Puffy you better bring my cookie back!”

Coco clears her throat and drinks from the water bowl on the platform...

“There have been many good times at this site and now with the changes that SAY Media is incorporating, we have found ourselves homeless, tossed out like yesterday's garbage. Luckily, we are a group of resourceful pups and kitties and we were not scattered to the wind. Instead we held fast and spoke among ourselves on different options that we could look into.

Some pals chose to go to Facebook where other Dogster/Catster members had already gone once fleas and ticks started popping up on the Dogster/Catster pages. Others discovered that they could do their own BLOG and invite their pals to follow along. Within days, Fizzy and Rudy set up a forum page where us abandoned pups/kitties could share our thoughts and continue on as before. Pals were in a hurry to secure private emails, phone numbers, Facebook names and even BLOG and Forum sites so that they could stay in contact with one another.

During this whole desertion, we discovered there were many smart pups/kitties among us. Abby and Buddy's daddy wrote a wonderful set of instructions telling us how to copy our Dogster/Catster pages so we would not loose our photos and diaries. I hear that he also has a set of instructions on how to copy the videos but as of yet I have not tired them.

Finley and Whitley proved to be power dogs when it came to doing the BLOGS. They stopped everything they were doing to help many pals through the process. I know for a fact that they had to walk my momma through some of the steps because, well, what can I say, poor momma is technically challenged. Finley and Whitley you girls are much more than pool ball players, you're really smart.

Flicker helped momma find a program that she had lost when her computer crashed. Momma had searched and searched but the exact program wasn't to be had. Within minutes, Flicker knew exactly what momma was looking for and sent the link to her. Thank you again Flicker! Momma now has it safely downloaded onto two computers so she won't loose it again.

Hershey, also was instrumental on helping momma find a lost set of instructions that she needed. Does this prove how inept my momma can be? Thank you Hershey for always being there for us.

Zoe our pal from Idaho is another computer smart pup who has had the luck, or bad fortune, to have to walk momma through some of the computer stuff. Thank you Zoe for everything you have done, not only for us, but for other pups as well.

Before I turn over the microphone for you to share your own memories, I would also like to remind recall one more of my own Dogster memory - the bumper stickers Dogster/Catster gave away. Surely you all remember them...they were quite small and it was the Dogster/Catster logo with the paw print on it. Well, we did send out for a couple but never used any of them. Heck, they were quite small and we were in the process of moving from California to New Mexico. Somehow they got “lost” except for one that momma had tried to BLING out by putting rhinestones for the paw print. She was going to put this bumper sticker on our Pupmobile, but with everything else going on, it just never happened.”

“We waited to see pictures of what other pups and kitties did with their bumper sticker and can only guess many, like momma, never sent in photos of having used them because although Dogster/Catster said they would publish the photos we never saw any.”

“With Dogster/Catster's closing of everything except for the magazine, I would like to say that I have finally found the appropriate place to put my BLINGED out Dogster bumper sticker and I have SAY Media to thank for this.”

Coco hops off the platform and runs over to the over head projector and throws a switch. There for everyone to see on the stadium sized screen was the bumper sticker. The crowd starts howling and meowing as they see where Coco has put it.

“Now pals, I must quickly ask any of you to make your comments and then stand back because I' pretty certain I will be thrown off of Dogster.” – BOL, BOL

“I love you all and hope we will stay in touch. Dogster it has been a pleasure to play at your site for all these years but the site as we know it is gone. Good luck to the Watchdog and Techno dog and hope Say Media treats you better than they did us.”

Coco puts down the microphone and goes off looking for Puffy...