Scaredy Cat and his service dog JJ have been watching the news and reading all of the social media posts about the bushfires in Australia. They both feel very sad about the hoomans and pets who have lost their lives, been badly injured or lost their homes and property. One news report really caught Scaredy’s service dog’s attention though. It mentioned koala dogs locating the injured koalas so that their hooman’s could rescue them.

This week we're going to be talking about the wildfires in Australia with a focus being put on the many rescue efforts to save this amazing place where so many of our hooman and pet friends live. While Scaredy Cat would like to know more about the koala dogs, he also wonders what other heroic service dog stories his friends have? Maybe a story about a dog rescuing someone lost in the snow? Or a story about a military dog, a police dog or a border security dog? Share your thoughts about the rescue efforts in Australia and how service animals can be beneficial there as well as in many other areas in life.

Thank you to our resident Australians, Kris Bowpitt for creating the story and Colleen Rose Lovell for creating the scene to go with the story.

Here's the basics:

*Your submission MUST be related to the theme
*You must submit your art to the PnF art gallery - only entries there will be counted. https://apps.facebook.com/petsnfriends/community.p...
* Put "Saving Australia" in the title or description
* The entry with the most votes will be declared the winner.
* To vote, click the "vote" button - you may vote for as many entries as you want
* Voting will be open immediately
* This challenge will be open from now until around 12:00am GMT January 14th (around 7:00pm Tuesday night in the USA).