About YorkiePhiles.com
I hope that you will bear with the initial few paragraphs here, because I want
you to know what motivated this site. It DOES apply to the site's overall vision.
:)
My mother has always had Yorkies for as long as I can remember (Marmaduke was
the first). Many many moons ago my mother gave me one of her Yorkies; Dinky
Dog. Dinky, then 8 years old, was a very tiny dog.
She was stubborn, cranky and had many health problems that go with such small-bred
dogs like poor knees, an oversized heart, etc. But she was VERY loved, both
by my mother and then by Randy and I.
Sadly, we lost Dinky at 16 years old last June. She had a long long life, and
we enjoyed sharing the last 8 with her.
We decided to get a Yorkie pup, as we had never had a Yorkie pup. We already
have a Cocker Spaniel (Sammy) who is now 9 years old. So the search went on
for a new Yorkie.
We did all the wrong
things!
We didn't want to just step into a pet store. Even though we had gotten Sammy
from a "mall pet shop" 9 years before, and Sammy is a LOVELY doggie,
we've heard too many bad things about puppy mills. So we looked at the animal
shelters, we searched "rescue sites" and we even searched up for los
angeles breeders. We couldn't find anything fast. And that's the mistake. Don't
be in such a hurry!
So we ended up going to a pet shop that came recommended as a store that did
NOT get their dogs from puppy mills but rather direct from breeders. We went,
the puppies were cute, and the pricing certainly indicated "breeder prices".
We saw a little boy Yorkie and he was a BUNDLE of energy. We saw a little girl
Yorkie and she was SHY and had a face that just was so cute you got teary-eyes.
So long story short, dontcha know we ended up bringing BOTH doggies home!
Of course it turned out that they BOTH came from puppy mills (they saw us coming)
and Max has had some scarey health problems that we're dealing with RIGHT NOW
(it may be Liver Shunt).
So the purpose of this
story and how that relates to this site?
Well I searched on the web to find out what Max's problems could be. I found
SO MANY wonderful websites, list-servs and other Internet resources and got
answers, found friends and was very heartened that there were others out there
that could share that experience with me and offer great advice!
I'm in the "online community development" business, and I never realized
that there was such tight community out there! Being in that business (I'm a
geek, basically), I wanted to provide a website that could help fill in any
technology gaps. The websites out there for Yorkies are many and valuable, but
you gotta really "put the english" on Google just to find them.
I want this site to be a place the accomplishes the following:
- LINKS and describes all those Yorkie Sites, Lists & Resources out there
- Contains a searchable Knowledgebase and Articles section of Yorkie issues
(of course, contributed by members).
- Gives Yorkie lovers a place to put their homepage so they can show off
their joys.
- Provide a great email address for Yorkie lovers (member@yorkiephiles.com)
- Help match up those looking for Yorkies with Yorkie breeders and Yorkie
rescues.
- ...and whatever we all in the community can dream up!
- NEVER COSTS A DIME TO ANY MEMBER
- Doesn't compete with other sites, but rather enhances the overall community
of Yorkie lovers
- Does not have any commercial motive of ANY kind. No fees, no ulterior motives,
no shenanigans, no bull.
Here's what the site has NOW; ready for ya'll to utilize:
- Message Boards
- Member Homepages
- User Profiles
- Chat
- Member Submitted Articles database
- Member Submitted Knowledgebase database
- Surveys
- Polls
- Calendar
- a Graffiti Wall (yeah, cutsie, but it's there!)
- Classifieds
- Member Email
- Newsletter subscription system
- List-Servs available!
And here's what I am going to program, but would like some feedback on how
these items can best be built:
- A Yorkie RESCUE database where you can "register" into the database
to be notified by email broadcast of any yorkies who need rescuing. Members
can submit the details, and then the information blasts out by email to those
who are looking for such an opportunity (filtered by zipcode or state, or
whatever).
- A Yorkie BREEDER database where breeders can post information about available
puppies and members can be "screened" by the breeders (and possibly
breeders have a rating system for members to trust?). I'm pretty sure I need
some good feedback about this one.
- Anything the members say they need!
I should mention that I am by NO MEANS a Yorkie expert. In fact, I'd say I'm
a Yorkie beginner. But I can tell you that I'm pretty much an Internet expert,
and I adore my Yorkies and know that I am only on the beginning of a wonderful
journey with them.
About Me
I am Gregory Gooden. I've been in the Internet business since January of 1992
when I started my first Bulletin Board Service, the Annex BBS. I am 37 years
old and I live in Los Angeles, California with my partner Randy.
I am the CEO of Annex Technologies,
a web software development company (we developed the Ecobuilder
software that operates this website). In addition to 2 Yorkie puppies (Max
& Cassie) and a Cocker Spaniel, (Samantha), I have 2 cats (Church &
Daphne) and 8 Fishtanks (yup, another obsession!). In fact, I ALSO run another
community website for aquarium enthusiasts (www.myfishbox.com).
I am very active in the aquarium/internet community, most notably with a defense
fund site to help some internet consumers who are being sued for relating
their experiences with an online pet store. Many are being sued just for helping
the defendants DEFEND (including myself! grin).
My PERSONAL website: http://www.luftmensch.com.
It's where I get silly. It's one of those BLOGS that everyone seems to be playing
with these days.
So there ya go! This is really YOUR community and it will ultimately be what
ya'll make of it! If you need something, you ask me and I'll provide! :)
Gregory (ggooden@annex.net, ggooden@yorkiephiles.com)
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