Let Us Have a Dog was a personal “pet project” that was created by my husband and I in 2015 when we were still renting and had a deep desire to have a dog in our lives. When we first moved to Portland in 2013, finding a place to rent was difficult to say the least and that meant we had to agree to a no pets policy. But after a year, the absence of a furry friend was weighing heavily on us. After reaching out to our landlord a couple of times proposing the idea – even offering to pay a pet deposit and monthly pet rent – we couldn’t convince her to allow us to adopt a dog.
We decided to channel our frustration, in addition to our respective talents in web development, social media and content writing, into a campaign called Let Us Have a Dog. We created a website with a petition and started an Instagram handle to promote our cause. Our dog-loving journey was intended to not only gain support for us to get a dog, but to spread pet positivity along the way. And yet it turned into so much more than that. We created a mini community surrounding our campaign, helped promote pet adoption and brought awareness to the rampant “no pets” policies in Portland, which oddly enough is one of the most “dog friendly cities in the U.S.”
I wrote all of the copy for the website, the print material and most of our Instagram posts. We surpassed our goal of 1,000 signatures, receiving 1,197 signatures. Lastly, we acquired over 2,200 followers on Instagram, all from scratch.
Update: we bought a house in Portland in 2017 and were finally able to adopt a dog – our rescue pup from Puerto Rico named Zeppelin!
Visit Let Us Have a Dog and our Instagram (now @zeppelinrocksmyworld)
