Offleash Dogs Web Ring History

Offleash Dogs Web Ring: home page What's the history of this ring? Who can be a member of this ring? Who is already in this ring? How can I join? What's the HTMLfragment? How can I edit my site information once my site's in the ring? How can I find a dog park/beach in a specific location or start one of my own? What should I do if I'm at a dog park/beach and my dog gets attacked? For offleash and other dog-themed clothes, gifts, stickers, and more, visit the Mistress' new CafePress shop: I'm Stumped! Read the Mistress' I'm Stumped! blog for the latest rants, commentaries, and suggestions (not necessarily dog-related, but generally practical) Also check out Lucy's Suggestions for books & movies, many about dogs but also covering classics and odd topics, most of which are available through Amazon.com. Go to the "Children's fiction about pets" section there for more details on the upcoming kids' book "At the Dog Park with Sam and Lucy" by Daisy Bix and illustrated by Amelia Hansen.

What's the history of this ring? My husband and I (now-Ring Mistress Arielle) adopted a dog, Lucy, in December 1997. We looked around for places to play with her offleash, but there were very few near us, and no official dog parks within a reasonable drive. I put together a site for Lucy (yes, she's the dog in the logo), and commented there on the need for dog parks. While adding Lucy's site to some web rings (back then, it was with Webring.org, now owned by Yahoo), I looked for dog park sites, but didn't find any. In winter 1998-99, I was contacted by another woman who wanted to start a dog park in our area. Together, we formed the Herndon Area Dog Coalition to spearhead that effort. Around the same time, I joined the Offleash Dogs mailing list, to get ideas for proposing a local dog park. In early June 1999, I looked again for dog park web rings, but still didn't find any. I asked the other members of the Offleash Dogs mailing list whether any of them knew of a web ring for dog parks. The answer seemed to be "no" but there was a lot of interest, so I volunteered to start one. Thus this ring was created... At the end of summer 2000, I was notified via e-mail that Yahoo had bought or taken over WebRing. With the new ring management was a less configurable ring. Worse, Yahoo explicitly states (in its so-called privacy policy) that it does share and track users' info. The ring has been recreated on what seems to be a new site, Ringsurf.com. This site looks almost identical to the original Webring site, in both look and feel and usability. Lucy died in April of 2002, but she is still strongly in our minds. We are not ready for another dog yet. If your site fits in with existing ones and you want to join our ring, we'd love to have you.

How you can help stop animal abuse - even anonomously

Charity link: The Hunger Site - click on the "donate free food" button on their page to have their sponsors pay for the donation of a serving of food to the United Nations World Food Programme. One click per day per user.