Today I launched the first IsLoved contest. Each week features a Dog of the Week and gives away a free tee — my small way of honoring what dogs bring to our lives, and of giving something back to a community that's just beginning to gather. The inaugural star: the lovable, ever-loyal Golden Retriever.
(And yes — I found myself assuring people the giveaway is 100% real, which says something about the internet we've all learned to live in.)
That defensiveness has a source. The unexpected education of these first weeks hasn't been marketing; it's been the scam economy that greets every new store. The moment IsLoved existed publicly, the inbox filled: urgent alerts that aren't urgent, "special service offers" from strangers, phishing dressed as platform notices. Growth is slow. The scammers found me on day one. There's a strange encouragement buried in that — apparently the store looks real enough to be worth impersonating.
So the practice is to shake it off and keep the attention where it belongs: on the people, and pups, who make this worth building — one genuine connection at a time.
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