Welcome back to Off Leash, Bark’s Wednesday open thread, your chance to catch up with other Bark readers and our editors and contributors during a real-time chat. Today, we’re focusing on rescue in anticipation of the Maddie’s Matchmaker Adoptathon [3], an enormous cooperative adoption effort in the Bay Area this weekend.

Our special guest is Christie Keith [4], who is in charge of social media for the event. You’ll probably recognize Christie’s name—she’s an editor for PetConnection [5] and writes an online pet-care column for the San Francisco Chronicle/SFGate [6]. She’s also written several pieces for Bark on everything from nutrition [7] and obesity [8] to “no-kill nation [9].”

This open thread is a chance to gather and share new ideas for promoting your animal welfare cause, including building partnerships (something the folks at Maddie’s Fund [10] do very well) and effectively using social media. We want to hear about your worthy shelter or rescue and how you are contributing—from launching your own breed rescue to dog wash fundraisers to big events like this weekend’s Adoptathon. What’s working? What’s not?

With our rescue and adoption theme in mind, we’ll be selecting at random, one open thread participant to donate 25 Bark subscriptions for the rescue or shelter of his or her choice, which could be used as a bonus for new adoptions or some other promotional effort. Be sure to include your email when you register to comment, so we can contact you if you win.

Please note, Christie will be dropping in at different times over the course of the day—so she may not respond to a post immediately. If you don’t hear back, check in at the end of the day to see if she had a chance to reply.

Please note: We let you speak your piece on the open thread without editing but obscene, abusive, offensive or commercial comments will be taken down. We close the thread at 4 p.m. PST.