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Rachel (far right) with the other Career Week speakersIf you can remember being twelve years old, you'll remember what it felt like to look around you and wonder where on earth you belong (heck, many of us feel this way even as adults!).  As a native Austinite who went from a pet-crazy kid to a professional horseback rider to overseeing the online strategies of one of the world's leading pet travel companies, I feel extremely fortunate to have ended up where I am.

So when I was invited to speak by a local program called GENAustin (which stands for "Girls Empowerment Network") for their ClubGEN Career Week, I was excited to get a chance to help other girls learn about careers in social media and online marketing.  ClubGEN is an innovative after school program for middle school girls led by high school students from surrounding schools.  The program puts an entertaining spin on educating middle school girls about high-risk behaviors like eating disorders, teen pregnancy and juvenile delinquency.  During their Career Week, they bring in other women from the community to talk about their career paths and what they've learned along the way.  ClubGEN is completely elective, so the fact that these girls stick around after school until 5 PM shows that the program is not only working, but also fun for them!

When I arrived at Covington Middle School, the school I was talking at, there were two other women who were also speaking.  One was a product manager at a high tech company who had spent several years traveling the world as an international software sales associate.  Another woman worked with non-profits on their strategies and development.

AUSTIN, Texas - March 11, 2010:  Pet travel company PetRelocation.com has been named the 2009 winner of Rackspace's Fanati Award for Outstanding Customer Service, a contest started in 2007 to recognize a Rackspace customer who has similar values of "fanatical" customer service and support.  The contest was judged on past customer feedback as well as a video entry which can be seen here (http://www.petrelocation.com/our-services/-news/awards).  PetRelocation.com's commitment to customer service when providing worldwide pet travel and pet transport services helped catch the eye of the Rackspace Fanati judges. 

"As the home of Fanatical Support, Rackspace is interested to see how our customers approach customer service in their respective industries," said John Lionato, senior vice president of customer care, Rackspace. "PetRelocation.com is an organization that understands the needs of their customers and delivers on their promises, whatever it takes. It's exciting to see other organizations with enthusiasm and commitment to extraordinary customer service.  We can all learn from PetRelocation."

If you're planning a pet move to Asia, chances are you're feeling a little apprehensive about not only the logistical effort required but also the culture and lifestyle you can expect at your new home overseas. This article, which is featured in the March 2010 edition of Mobility magazine, covers all of the basics on what to expect if you're moving with pets to Asia.

Today PetRelocation.com got some exciting news:  We were named the winner of the 2009 Rackspace Fanati Award for Outstanding Customer Service.  While we've won several awards over the years, this one is pretty special.  Why?  Well, first watch the video and then we'll give you an idea of how much went into it:

First, we had to make a video.  We found out about the award about a week before the deadline, so it required quick-thinking and some serious "fanatical" teamwork on our part to put together something fun that reflected our dedication to customer service.  It just so happened that about a week earlier we received a video one of our customers filmed on their iPhone showing their dog, Dudley, arriving in Hong Kong.  We decided pretty early on that we wanted to make a video that incorporated the clip to show just how important these four-legged clients are and why our customer service has to reflect that.

Last year, we were ranked as one of Inc. Magazine's fastest growing privately owned companies in America.  We're hoping to make the list again this year, and our entry caught the eye of the editors who featured PetRelocation.com as their "Applicant of the Week" this week. Reporter Josh Spiro discussed the rise of pet travel trends with our CEO Kevin O'Brien.

From the write-up:

Kevin O’Brien’s profession might not be the oldest, but it’s up there. “The animal transportation industry has been around since transportation,” he says laughing. That said transporting pets is a much more nascent field, having only taken off in the past five to 10 years. While the company focuses on transporting dogs and cats for corporate employees who relocate for work, its motto is “any pet, anywhere, any time” and so far it hasn’t had to turn down a job.

Last year, Pet Relocation was ranked No. 777 on the Inc. 5000 list and this year, according to O’Brien “we hope to break the 500 barrier.” With a prime domain name and a growing number of people “starting to accept the idea of live animal relocation,” business has never been better.

Read more of the article here.

Last week, we asked our Facebook friends and blog readers to suggest names for our co-founders, Kevin and Angie O'Brien's, new 8 week-old Mastiff puppy!

We got so many great names, it was hard to pick just one winner.  Runner up was Duke, which we tried out for a few days before someone put "-ie" on the end of it and we decided maybe...not.

So what did we finally pick?  Well, it was actually our CEO's mom who came up with the name.  Click "Read More" to find out the puppy's new name! 

Hint: It's Irish.

The new puppy with Bruno and Rocco!

Over the weekend, our co-founders Kevin and Angie O'Brien got a new 8 week old Mastiff puppy.  Since they were having trouble coming up a name for him, we decided to see if any of our pet-loving readers and friends might have an idea.  Leave your name suggestions in the comments below or on our Facebook page!

Can you think of a name for this big pup?

What do a doggie day care, buying domains and a dog named Bandit have in common?

They're all part of the winning combination of PetRelocation.com's worldwide pet travel service, explains the Austin Business Journal in this week's feature about PetRelocation.com co-founders Kevin and Angie O'Brien.

Check out the full article below!

See Spot Move - PetRelocation in the Austin Business Journal

We were lucky enough to get asked to speak at the Austin Social Media Breakfast yesterday on PetRelocation.com's social strategy (in other words, all the fun we get to have chatting with our favorite people - pet lovers!).  Watch our "Be Social" presentation as well as "Why Your Pet is a Social Media Expert" below and let us know what you think!

Also, thanks to Callie Richmond, who took some fantastic photos of the event.  It was great meeting everyone!

"Be Social" - Austin Social Media Breakfast from Pet Relocation on Vimeo.

Kevin O'Brien, CEO of PetRelocation.com, speaking at the Austin Social Media Breakfast, about how his pet travel and relocation business uses social media. January 27, 2010

"Why Your Pet is a Social Media Expert" - Austin Social Media Breakfast from Pet Relocation on Vimeo.

Rachel Farris, director of PR and New Media at PetRelocation.com, speaking about what your pets can teach you about social media.

While we spend most of our time dreaming up ways to help people travel with their pets, we also like to stay on top of current social media trends.  Social media enables us as a company to connect with our clients and their pets.  We love tweeting important notices about pet moving, blogging about our Pet move of the Month (as well as about lobsters) and creating album after album on our Facebook of our happy four-legged clients.  All of these things make our jobs here that much more important -- and remind us of why it is we do what we do!

So we were thrilled to be asked to speak at the Austin Social Media Breakfast, a group that brings together social media experts and newbies alike to eat, meet, share, and learn.  Below are details on tomorrow's event.  It's currently sold out but if you can't make it, be sure to catch the live broadcast on UStream beginning at 8:15 AM CST (GMT -6:00).