Can you take a few minutes to tweet, Instagram, Facebook, or email this press release about the PootiePaddalooza?
Our beloved Pootie Padders SaraR and winglion have launched an amazing Kickstarter project that’s going to take their magnificent pet creations to a whole new level. They aim to purchase materials in bulk to reduce overall costs, hire and train people to help create Pootie Pads (as well as Pootie Pads for Pooches and Pootie Pads for People), get their website professionally redesigned, and expand awareness of the benefits and beneficial effects of these miniature quilts stuffed with organic herbs such as catnip for kittehz, lavender and thyme for pooches, and calming lavendar for lap throws for people.
We’re putting our friends’ social-media skillz to the task of going viral with the news. If you have a minute today, please share the heck out of our press release! Use Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, or old-timey email. Tag your friends or even celebrities whom you know love pets!
A viral storm can bring these fantastic mini-quilts-o’-magic to the attention of so many folks and pets who’ll benefit.
- Our Twitter twitness: @PootiePads
- We’re creating an Instagram account today named PootiePads. If you’d like to help populate it, feel free!
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact Sara Reed or Ann Reed at 503-775-1897 (home office) or pootiepads.com
Portland OR Quilt Artistans Launch Kickstarter Project to Deliver Handmade Herb-Filled Quilts to Pets and People
Portland, Oregon, sisters Sara and Ann Reed started creating miniature organic catnip-stuffed Pootie Pads for an online community of pet lovers who blog daily about their kitties, whom the bloggers called “pooties” after the name of one member’s cat. Initially, the women thought they had designed a simple catnip toy. The “simple catnip toy” moniker was soon laid to rest by the blog articles and blasts of enthusiastic feedback by Pootie Pad customers.
It turns out that Pootie Pads are much more than a mere plaything. Story after story rolled in about how the little quilts helped improve the behavior of cats as well as give them a fascinating plaything and a nap mat of their very own.
Among the comments from those early customers:
Aggressive cats tend to chill out when blissed by our catnip
Shy cats become approachable and learn to accept petting
Cats who are anxious about car trips to the vet or “coming home” from adoption calm down when a Pootie Pad is put in their carrier
Clingy cats will settle wherever the Pootie Pad is placed
Older cats who spend time on a Pootie Pad feel more comfortable and playful (we think our catnip may soothe aches and pains)
“We even heard that a Pootie Pad in a humane trap worked to entice a lost cat when food in the trap had failed to do so,” says Pootie Pad creator Sara Reed.
The full potential of Pootie Pads was brought to the Reeds’ attention when they heard from a gentleman who lived on a boat with his wife, who was in an advanced stage of Alzheimer’s. Their family included white cat, whom the wife loved dearly, but who was suffering from the stress of his family. The day their first Pootie Pat arrived, the man’s wife laughed as she had not laughed in a long time, just to see the cat play on the pad. It was, the husband said, “a happy little boat that day.” And not just that day! The pad proved especially useful when the gentleman received respite care for his wife and left the boat to attend to other things. Previously, the cat would go berserk with anxiety when he left – but he learned to soothe the cat by putting the Pootie Pad on his berth. The kitty would quietly lie down on the pad and sleep contently until his return. And his wife benefited from the cat’s improved ability to bring everyday happiness and comfort to her life.
“My sister Ann and I were bowled over when we first heard about this couple,” says Sara Reed. “It was a very sensitive situation because the wife was so ill. The couple and their kitty received noticeable relief at a difficult time in their lives. Our Pootie Pads made enough of a difference that the husband reached out to share his story and explain how this one little quilt didn’t just give some fun to his kitty but gave peace, comfort, and healing to the entire family.”
Soon enough, dog owners inspired by the delights of Pootie Pads asked the Reed sisters if they could create a similar pad for dogs. Working with a professional trainer, the Reeds stuffed their handstitched quilted pads for dogs with a mix of organic lavender and thyme. It worked! The first “Pootie Pads for Pooches” customers quickly reported that dogs with anxiety were drawn to the pads and, over time, calmed considerably. For many, the pads became a remedy for separation anxiety – and are a nice, fragrant addition and cushion for a dog crate.
Soon pet owners expressed wishes for a calming pad for themselves. Because the sisters knew that lavender is the aromatic soother of choice for many people, they added organic lavender into pads. They added a pads to a lap throw -- a Pootie Pad for People!
“We were surprised to learn that not only people but some cats are soothed by lavender, too. Who knew?” laughs Sara Reed.
The sisters’ line of beautiful, individually hand-crafted, and proven beneficial mini-quilts has been well received so far. And making Pootie Pads has helped two mature women on a budget squeak by in a down economy.
But they are currently unable to scale up production and revamp their website. So they worked with a handful of blogger friends to create and launch a Kickstarter project to fund expansion, fund their costs and labor, and create new jobs.
“We aim to bring our project to the next level where it will provide a living for us as well as create job opportunities for others,” says Sara Reed. “As we launch this Kickstarter project, we expect it will help us professionally redesign our website, provide funds for advertising and marketing, allow us to purchase materials in bulk so our stock will address increased demand, and give us a means to cover our labor and make a living for ourselves and others interested in making Pootie Pads.”
For more information about Sara and Ann’s artisan efforts to expand the reach of their Pootie Pads, Pootie Pads for Pooches, and Pootie Pads for People, contact Sara Reed or Ann Reed at 503-775-1897 or pootiepads.com. You can also visit their Kickstarter web page at kck.st/....
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