Anyone that follows me on Twitter, Facebook, or Google Reader will know that I love sharing heart warming stories about dogs. I grew up with dogs and my black Lab, Cooper, accompanies me everywhere – yes, I’ve even bring her shopping with me.  Screw it, she’s my BFF – she’s coming.  Now that I’m back from SXSW I can focus a bit more on more important topics, like the recent tsunami in Japan.

I wanted to help and wanted it to be an animal-centric cause.  In the hunt for a reputable cause I stumbled across the AKC’s recent post and donated immediately;

I donated $100 on the spot.  The AKC is a well run organization and I trust the funds will be used appropriately.  After making the donation I stumbled across Aaron Strout’s post on how he plans to use his 40,000th tweet for the cause SXSWCares.org and it gave me another idea:

For every retweet of this post before 4/1/11 (up to 150), I will donate an additional $1.00 to the AKC.

• Pete Kuhn is adding $0.25 per tweet up to 150 tweets.
• Karen Kuhn is adding $1.00/tweet up to 150.
• Chris Garby is adding $0.25 per up to 150.
• Michelle Heaney is adding $0.75 per up to 150.
• Robert Solar is adding $0.50 per up to 150.
• Kristen Kramer is adding $1.00 per, up to 150.
• Alexis Kuhn is adding $0.30 per, up to 150.
• Kim Kuhn is adding $0.25 per, up to 150.
• Perry Hewitt is adding $0.30, up to 150.
• Devon Biondi is adding $0.25, up to 150.
• Roy Solomon is adding $0.25, up to 150.

The total per tweet is up to $6.10! Want to join our list of sponsors? Email me [mattsolar-at-gmail.com] or comment below.

We’ll be using the green Tweetmeme button at the top of the blog post to judge the total count.  To retweet, just click on the green “tweet” button (example at left).  You’ll need a Twitter account to retweet, obviously.

Our hope, of course, is for more people to donate to the AKC’s cause.  We understand that budgets are tight but you can always help out by simply retweeting the article.  Whatever number it reads on 4/1 (or when it hits 150 – whichever comes first), will determine how much we’ll be donating.  For example, $0.10 per tweet x 37 tweets equals a total donation of $3.70.

Related articles;

• Japan earthquake: Dog leads rescuers to injured companion
• In a battered Japan, dogs search for human survivors
• Video: Pet makes it through Tsunami
• Updated 4/1: Dog rescued after surviving three weeks on floating debris in Japan.

Thanks for your help & support,

Matt & Cooper