Tearing The Fabric Of Space

RABID DOG TERRORIZES SMALL TOWN OF WEST LINN, OREGON. That’s right, CUJO LIVES. Ok, I’m only kidding! That’s just our dog Nero fetching a ball at our local soccer field. I know what you’re thinking though. He looks like a vicious, crazed animal, right? Not his best look, I admit, but check out that foaming mouth, those huge canines and the sheer power of those flexed tendons!

You’re probably wondering where I came up with such a cool title. Full credit must be given to Brian Greene and his book, “The Elegant Universe”. It’s the title of a subchapter in the book and when I read it I felt it was a perfect fit for the photograph.

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The Gentle And Mighty Spirit Of Dog

This is a portrait of our dog, Nero, a black male Labrador Retriever with a beautiful spirit indeed. That’s me holding the lacrosse ball (his favorite) while holding the camera and trying to focus (yes, it was quite difficult). My teenage son, Sam, is in the background, evidently amused by my struggle to take this shot and by Nero’s obsession with pictured ball. Sam has a very special relationship with our dog and while Nero loves everyone in the family equally, these two are especially close.

My New Pet-sitting Website: A Work In Progress

Nero and Ruthie at Mary S. Young Park In West Linn, Oregon

I was so excited about my new pet-sitting website. It took me about two weeks to complete but it really felt like two months. Ok, I admit that I am not the most computer literate person in the world but I am tenacious, so on I stumbled and fumbled, loading pics, formatting text, framing pages and forming cohesive, informative and business-like paragraphs( I hoped).

Initially, I went with a web-hosting company which charged a mere $14.99 per month if you signed up for three months in advance. This also included a free private domain name. Great, saves me the added aggravation and cost of buying one on my own I thought. This particular web-hosting website looked impressive and promised many wonderful templates to choose from. After charging up my credit card I couldn’t wait to get started. Much to my chagrin, the actual number of templates suited for my type of business was very limited. Actually, they were downright amateur and outdated. Right, I cancelled my order, got my money back and started again from scratch. People I knew recommended web-hosting companies and I had also done some research on my own. Still, since this was my first ever web-site and I was nervous about further charges on my credit card that I might possibly regret, I decided to go with a free service this time. After all, what did I have to lose?

So I chose to go with Wix. While creating a website through them is free, hosting of a private domain is not. $140.00 poorer I plowed on and two weeks later http://www.lauragalleypetcare.com was born. Am I totally happy with my site? No. I wish it would load faster( it’s slowness is apparently due to the photographs I uploaded). I also wished it was more full screen and professional looking. Well, at least it’s up and accessible. Or is it?

Now comes the real work. How do I get my published site viewable on search engines? Wix does not help with this in the slightest( unless I’m willing to whip out my credit card of course). I am the creator of my site and so it is up to me to manually apply to the various search engines and submit my site. Some are free, others are not. Then there’s complicated terms like “meta tags”, “site-indexing”, “banner ads vs. tile ads”, “web crawlers”, “xHTML”, “WML”, or “CHTML”, etc.,etc. I just want my new business website to be seen! Is this too much to ask? Uh, apparently.

I believe in the excellent care I give to my clients’ pets and by building a website I hope to make my business and services better known to others. I also believe that in the end, perseverance will indeed prevail. So, with that said, it’s back to my computer and the wonderful web for further research in hopes of answers to my many questions and dilemas.