Perhaps We Should Have Called it Brown Paws ...

The husband and I are dog people. Our house is typically covered in little white fur and our clothing is more often than not marked by mud-covered paw prints. I first wrote about my dogged behavior when I introduced Abe, our then-youngest Jack Russell, and have been quite the bad doggie dad for not introducing our newest fellow, Oscar, who joined the family back in late May.

Oscar (pictured above) is the grandson of Osceola Jack, the scion of our Jack Russell family. Oscar lives in near harmony with his aunt Samantha and the rambunctious Abe and an cattle-dog mix named Beatrice. He's big for a Jack Russell and full of so much energy that I'm pretty sure if we could figure out how to connect him to the power grid, our utility would be paying us. You can see a video of the family below.

Yes, dog ownership is not for the weak of spirit. And owning four Jack Russells and another terrier is only for the truly insane. (We won't talk about the new glasses that Oscar destroyed or the brand new wood flooring he's nibbled upon or the couch he decided to de-stuff. Heck, it was old anyway.)

As you can see from the video, Oscar and his compatriots love nothing more than running. They demand to be taken out frequently to chase a tennis ball (and each other) around the house and through the wooded portions of our property in Bucks County, PA.

These days, as temperatures drop, each of our furry friends is a flea and tick magnet. Whenever they come in after an outdoor romp, we carefully examine them for unwanted critters. When I was younger, I remember having the family pet wrapped in a flea collar, but truthfully I never felt very comfortable with them. They always smelled funny and I hated the idea that our dog literally wore a poison necklace at all times. (For a fresh take on flea prevention, see my colleague Gina Solomon's blog.)

So as you can imagine, I was very happy when NRDC's small-but-exceedingly-hard-working  marketing team proposed taking our SimpleSteps philosophy to pet owners. This morning marks the official launch of "Green Paws," NRDC's newest web property that is designed for pets and their people, an ever-growing segment of the population.

Green Paws is the little brother of BabySteps, another SimpleSteps property designed for moms and families thinking of having children. Each of these sites is designed for people who perhaps do not define themselves as traditional environmentalists but who care deeply about how the environment impacts their families, their children and, yes, their pets.

The broader point, of course, is that for many people, pets are as much a part of the family as children. Green Paws touches those people while Baby Steps is aimed at families with shall we say more traditional children.

Some people chose to have two-legged children; others like us chose four-legged companions. No matter what your choice, though, there are enviromental benefits to living a green live for you, your family and the planet.