Hey, fellow pet lovers!

Today is six months since epoch.pet first went live and it is crazy to think how fast the months are going by.

Some of you might remember one of my previous posts from June, Recap on why I started epoch.pet and I wanted to write a similar post recapping on some of the many reasons of starting this blog, my blogging journey so far and my hopes for the future.

Let’s jump straight in and learn a bit more about epoch.pet!

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epoch.pet

If you had told me a few years ago that in 2018 I would be a self-employed blogger and have my own site, I would have told you that you are completely crazy and that is so not me. But here I am and I’m actually really enjoying blogging despite not having any prior experience, just a love of writing and a pure passion for pets.

epoch.pet is for me one of the best things that I have done and I have loved every second of my blogging journey so far. In reality, the things that are the most out of our comfort zone are actually the best things for personal growth and overall happiness.

If I had stuck with my Real Estate BSc degree then this year would have been my graduation and I would have been completing my final exams with the RICS (Royal Institute of Charted Surveyors). Once successfully passed, I then would have gone out into the big wild world to start my career as a qualified Charted Surveyor.

However, I’m glad that I’m not currently a graduate hunting for a job amongst the many and instead, I am taking a gamble and trying to make it on my own. Leaving my degree was one of the hardest decisions I have ever made and I honestly thought by now I would have graduated, but life doesn’t always go as we plan, in fact, most of the time it doesn’t!

Since taking time out and leaving university I have tried very hard to create a vision for epoch.pet and really think about what I want to achieve with the blog. This constantly changes as you can imagine but my core aim and purpose with epoch.pet is

To create an even stronger bond between you and your pet by optimising the time you spend together through play, fitness and nutrition, all whilst pushing the boundaries of the standard of care.

So far I am overwhelmed with the number of pet lovers and pet parents who my posts have helped in some way or another and I hope this continues. Without you guys, it would be pointless and I am so grateful to everyone who keeps coming back every week to read epoch.pet’s content, interact with the blog and help make my core aim a reality.

For anyone coming to the blog for the first time I will briefly recap on a few of the many reasons why I started the blog.

Why I started epoch.pet?

• I love my girls and our amazing furry family!!

As most of you guys will already know I have a lot of pets, two pooches, Nia my Staffordshire Bull Terrier who will turn four in November, Lily my absolutely crazy Border Terrier who will turn three in November and my awesome cat Pooss who is six.

My girls are a massive reason behind epoch.pet and I want to make their little lives as great as possible, just like I want to help you do the same for your four-legged companions.

To learn a bit more about my gorgeous girls then check out some of my previous posts

• What it’s like to have a Staffordshire Bull Terrier?
• What it’s like to have a Border Terrier?
• Caring for an Indoor Cat.

• I want to provide pet owners with great pet information.

Today’s post is my 53rd post and thankfully I’m finding that writing blog posts each week are getting a lot easier. That’s not to say I don’t get writer’s block every now and then, which is a real pain but somehow I manage to get two posts out each week, every Tuesday and Saturday.

Here is a list of some of my personal favourites from the blog so far

• Obesity and our pets, the shocking truth!
• The Canine Estrous Cycle.
• What it’s like to have two dogs?
• National Walk Your Dog Week, 2018.

• Promote raw feeding for our canine and feline friends.

I love it when someone comments on the blog or gets in touch saying they are wanting to start their pet on a raw diet. Being able to help pet parents make the switch is one of my goals with the epoch.pet.

I love raw feeding all three of my girls and wouldn’t have it any other way. I have written a good mix of raw feeding posts to help pet owners learn more about natural feeding methods such as BARF (Biologically Appropriate Raw Feeding or Bones an Raw Food) or Prey Model Raw (PMR) diets.

Check out some of my raw feeding posts that I have done so far if you’re interested in starting your pet on a species appropriate diet or simply just want to know more.

• Biologically Appropriate Raw Feeding.
• Prey Model Raw (PMR).
• Raw Feeding for cats: the basics!
• Raw Feeding for dogs: the basics!
• Benefits of Feeding a BARF or PMR diet.

• Create raw feeding friendly treats.

As well as promoting raw feeding I also want to create a place where raw feeders and non-raw feeders can come and find all-natural pet treat recipes. A lot of mass-produced pet treats are filled with a myriad of nasty ingredients and by making your pet their own treats you can eliminate this problem altogether.

I love making Nia and Lily their own tasty treats and one day, I would be amazed if I could make some treats that Pooss will actually eat. At epoch.pet I have written a lot of great treat recipes so your furry friend can have their very own homemade treats.

A few of my girl’s favourites are

• Homemade Dehydrated Chicken Hearts, treat recipe.
• Homemade Dehydrated Lamb Treats.
• Homemade Dehydrated Turkey Jerky, treat recipe.

It is so simple to make your pet their own homemade treats so why not give it a go, some of these recipes above require so little effort and time but will benefit your pet massively.

Stick around for some Halloween treat recipes heading your way next week.

• I hope to make a positive change through epoch.pet!

Before I went live with epoch.pet I thought about how much of an impact I could have on pet owners and also the general public to change negative attitudes about Breed Specific Legislation and people’s prejudice towards certain breeds, such as the Staffordshire Bull Terrier.

I plan on writing another post on Breed Specific Legislation (BSL) soon as there has been a lot of talks regarding this bit of legislation so hopefully, we are getting closer to it becoming a thing of the past. If you aren’t aware of this act then check out one of my previous posts after reading this, The Dangerous Dogs Act 1991 and Breed Specific Legislation within the UK.

As well as BSL I would love to write more posts on controversial topics such as the issues regarding vegan cat and dog food, or the dog meat trade across Asia. The dog meat trade is a truly inhumane and barbaric practice and I cannot wait till things like this don’t exist.

I really love the fact that I can turn epoch.pet into a platform where people from all around the world can come and share my posts to help inform people about the many horrors that need to be heard.

• Make being a pet parent easier.

It is a difficult thing to be a great pet parent but another aim of epoch.pet is to help make being a pet parent that little bit easier.

I really hope over the last six months I have managed to help pet owners all across the globe by sharing valuable content about the best diets for our canine and feline friends, great pet products and so much more. Having a pet requires so much financial responsibility, constant commitment and unconditional love and I want to provide you with great blog posts that will save you time and energy and make the job a bit easier.

If you’re not a pet owner but are thinking about getting a furry friend in your life then check out some of my previous posts as they might help you to consider if it is really right for you.

• Questions to ask yourself before getting a pet?
• 10 Benefits of having a Canine Companion.

• Strengthen the bond between you and your pet.

If you have a pet then you will know the unconditional love you feel for them and how much they really mean to you. My girls are my whole world and god forbid if anything bad ever happened to them I would be truly heartbroken.

The truth is that our pets are really only with us for such a short amount of time and every second of that time should be spent in pure happiness if possible. With epoch.pet I want to focus on my core aim and help strengthen the bond between you and your pet in a variety of ways.

I hope to do this by saving you valuable time and effort hunting for great pet products and writing honest reviews so your pet can have the best products on the market and you can spend more time having plenty of fun-filled hours with them.

As well as great pet products I hope to strengthen the bond between you and your pet by giving you informative information so you can decide what the best approach is for your pet in relation to their diet and their fitness regime.

• Promote great pet products that will benefit your canine or feline friend.

Another aim of mine is to help pet owners to find great pet products for their furry friends. This year has been a great year for my girls as they have got a lot of pet products that have positively benefited their little lives.

Here are a few of my favourite posts talking about some great pet products that we have got for the girls this year.

• Xdog Weight and Fitness Vest, product review, with 10% off code!
• PMS Kitticat Sunshine Window Cat Bed, product review.
• Catit water fountain, product review.

Also, head over to epoch.pet’s Great Pet Products Page to find more.

• Create a community of pet lovers!

My hopes with epoch.pet have always been to create a community of pet lovers who have a never-ending love for their fur babies.

I feel like this is actually happening and I am so happy to watch our following grow each month and see other great pet blogs reading and interacting with epoch.pet’s content.

Whether you own a cat or a dog or both like myself you’re welcome to be a part of epoch.pet!

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My blogging Journey So far…

Blogging has not been what I expected and to be honest I wasn’t even 100% sure what to expect. Since going live on the 20th of April a lot has happened in my personal life and this blog has been a constant through it all.

I have loved creating something from nothing and sharing every step of the way with epoch.pet’s followers. At first, I really struggled with sharing my content and felt very unconfident in my ability to write great blog posts. However, as the months have gone on and my writing has improved, I’m feeling a lot better about sharing my blog posts with the world and actually look forward to posting days.

What I have found difficult about blogging?

It hasn’t all been easy though and there are a few things I have found difficult about blogging such as

• Having confidence in my blogging abilities.

As I mentioned briefly above this is something I really struggled with when first starting the blog. I have always been quite a quiet person and blogging was fairly difficult for me at first. Thankfully, I’m now a lot more comfortable with posting my content and receiving feedback whatever that may be.

• Creating quality content.

This for me has been the hardest task of all!!

I love writing but struggling to come up with a constant supply of great post ideas is always a fear. I’m on a fair amount of blogging groups on Facebook and some people post daily which I think is insane, as I would really struggle to create good content on a daily basis.

However, sometimes I do get a random idea out of the blue and start writing and this results in a great post. My favourite posts to write are the ones about are my girls, talking about things I love is the easiest for me, rather than writing a more informative post.

• Increasing epoch.pet’s social following.

This has been quite difficult lately as I have put more of my focus into creating quality content and improving the site, rather than increasing epoch.pet’s social following.

At first, I was so bothered about how many likes epoch.pet’s social accounts had but now I have loosened the grip on that obsession and am grateful for every follower I currently have.

• Lastly, sticking to my blogging schedule.

I do have a blogging schedule and plan my posts out for the month but I don’t always follow it which can sometimes be a problem. If I’m not feeling what I am writing and it is a post that I have preplanned, sometimes I will just leave it as a draft and start a completely new one with not a lot of time to work on things.

This is definitely something I need to work on!

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What’s left to do for epoch.pet?

So it has been six months since going live and I still have various things on my to-do list that really should have been sorted before going live. However, the 20th of April was an important date for me and I wanted the blog to go live that day, so I just kind of went for it.

So what’s left on the to-do list?

• Sort out the rest of epoch.pet’s social accounts.

I cannot believe how many social accounts there actually are, I’ve never really been a massive lover of social media but when it comes to blogging you really don’t have a choice, as you need to promote your content somehow.

One of the things that have been on my to-do list for quite a while now is sorting out the rest of epoch.pet’s social accounts and start sharing my weekly posts on all, not just Facebook and Twitter. This is something I want to get done by Christmas as I feel the blog would be able to grow much quicker if I focus on increasing our social following.

• Create a YouTube Channel.

The idea of starting a YouTube channel scares me beyond belief, blogging is one thing but I and cameras aren’t the best of friends. I decided to start blogging because I love how private it is in comparison to posting videos.

However, like I mentioned above when I started blogging I felt so out of my depth and now I don’t, so hopefully the same can be said for starting a YouTube Channel. I think the start of next year will be a good time to go live with epoch.pet’s Youtube Channel as it gives me some much-needed time to get used to the whole idea.

You guys have to hold me accountable though so keep an eye out for epoch.pet’s Youtube Channel heading your way.

• Think about future options for epoch.pet!

I have always had an entrepreneurial spirit and always wanted to start my own business. I would love to turn epoch.pet into a much-loved pet brand and a successful business, but doing what?

This question has been in my head from the get go and I have many potential answers but for now what I want to do is make the blog as great as possible, then create epoch.pet into something bigger. However, I know that whatever it will be is something amazing that will be massively beneficial to pet owners all around the world.

And of course, it will help me to achieve my core aim and mission with epoch.pet which is, to create an even stronger bond between you and your pet by optimising the time you spend together through play, fitness and nutrition, all whilst pushing the boundaries of the standard of care.

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Thanks for reading this post and I am so grateful to everyone who frequently comes to epoch.pet and especially the pet lovers and pet parents who have been here from the start, you guys are AMAZING and my girls and I cannot thank you enough!!

I’m so excited to see where the next 6 months will take epoch.pet and I hope the blog continues to grow into the wonderful pet loving community I’ve always wanted it to be. If you haven’t checked out last Tuesday’s post then head over there now, National Feral Cat Day, 2018.

Also if you enjoyed today’s post then let me know by hitting that like button and giving it a share so other pet parents can learn about epoch.pet and become a part of our pet loving community.

Thanks for checking in and be sure to follow/subscribe to the epoch.pet to never miss a post and follow us on social media, or get in touch with us on Facebook @epoch.pet

Weekly posts every Tuesday and Saturday!