#AtoZChallenge Reflections on the #Dog Rescue Series

It’s been 12 days since the last A2Z post went up, and I’m still in full-out PTA2Z (aka post-traumatic A2Z disorder). Even the sporadic like on FB feels like lifting a bag of cement. Twelve days and the house is still a mess. The dogs still need baths. We still haven't returned to our regular treks-and-hikes schedule. Twelve days, and my brain still feels fried. Twelve freakin' days and I still haven't finished replying to comments!!!!

Seeing as this happens every single year, the question’s just begging to be asked: Was it worth it?

One hundred percent. The A2Z Challenge is always worth it—the increased audience, the exciting new blogs we find to follow, the new friendships that bloom and enrich our blogging lives. But, for me, this year, on this blog, the Challenge was particularly special to me. 

 ~ FIRST ~ 

This blog had fallen into abandon. Before the Theme Reveal post, I’d only published twice this year. Twice. And in 2015, I posted only six times. Even at my main blog I post pretty sporadically, but… six times? In one whole year? That hardly qualifies as blogging at all!

It’s never been about having a huge audience here; dogs are a personal thing for me, and when I started this blog back in 2013, I was quite content to keep it low-profile. It's my Life In Dogs, after all, and probably of not much interest to anyone beyond other dog lovers, and then only some of those (I, for instance, don't follow a lot of pet bloggers). 

But, small audience or large, the intention of this blog was always to chronicle life with my dogs, to keep track of their development, and of the learning they bring to me. How each of them has shaped my life. In order to do that, I need to post at least semi-regularly. I need to create the habit. The Challenge helped me not just get back into the groove of dog-writing, but also sparked all sorts of ideas for future posts—and connected me with some truly lovely blogger dog & rescue lovers who have succumbed to my arts of persuasion and will be guest-posting about their own stories here soon. This Sunday, for instance, we'll have Susan Brody of TheArtofNotGettingPublished (I love that title!) with the story of Leo, the rescue dog she adopted during the Challenge—and which serves as perfect illustration of what it's like to bring a rescue dog home. And next week Ann Bennett, of awesome blogs Science Ladybug and So Much to Choose From, is coming by to share a story her dad told her a long time ago, a sort of fable about the rift between animals and humans—and how to breach it.

 ~ SECOND ~ 

I never expected a theme as obscure as Dog Rescue to have the reach it did. Visits to the blog skyrocketed last month, way above visits in April 2014 (the last A2Z Challenge this blog participated in).

Over 6,000 views last month! April 2014, the other, earlier, spike to the left, had only 2,579 views.
(Which back then, seemed like OMG, so many!)

The blog's top five all-time most popular posts—since the beginning of time. All from this April's Challenge.
(Please note No. 5 is Michele Truhlik's guest post for W — congratulations, Michele!!! And THANK YOU!)

And not just visits. I mean, if you signed up for the Challenge, visits to your blog will skyrocket; your link is in the A2Z list, and at least a fifth of participating bloggers will click on it. But commenting… that’s another story. And I’m happy to report that those didn’t just reach all-time highs, but showed a huge increase in repeats. Over 70% of the people who commented once came back to comment again. And over 30% of them became regular visitors (3x a week or more) during April.

I’m… honored beyond what any words can express. Thank you.

 ~ THIRD ~ 

Urged by several of you lovely readers who said (and said again, and again) that this series on dog rescue should be a book, I worked up the courage to mention it, totally nonchalant and as if in passing, to my publisher. I even qualified it with a, “… but it’s probably not your cup of tea, right?” Well, guess what? It is his cup of tea.

Yay!

Therefore, coming soon to your favorite online retailer: The A-to-Z of Dog Rescue, book version.

Well, soon-ish. There's still a lot of work to be done before these posts are print-ready... Edits, expansion on topics, add-ons (thanks, Jeffrey, for the brilliant suggestion about adding rescue stories to illustrate... real-life examples will make a world of difference, I think... and maybe also help the book reach a larger audience).

So, again, thank you—this time for pushing the issue of the book. Never would have happened without you. And I look forward to sharing the progress with you… It’s something you helped to create :)

A huge Thank You from the whole Life In Dogs family.

How about you? Was your April successful? Any powerful lessons you want to share? Join the Reflections hop—and, if you already have, I’ll see you at your blog soon!