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October is Pet Wellness month and we couldn’t think of a better way celebrate all the wonderful animals out there than by giving them the products they need to stay happy and healthy. We’ve already awarded more than $60,000 in Seresto^® product grants to 15 organizations and there’s a lot more where that came from. With giving season on the horizon, we’re excited to provide shelters and rescues with another opportunity to participate in the Seresto^® Circle of Love program, in collaboration with Seresto^®. One end of year recipient will get more than $17,000 worth of Seresto^® product. Stay tuned for more information on the program and how shelters and rescues are putting their grants to good use!

Purina Veterinary Diet®s “Fighting Pet Obesity” Campaign: Help Shelters and Rescue Groups Pay For Veterinary Procedures With Just a Click! Because Purina is so committed to helping homeless pets, they’ve worked with Adopt-a-Pet.com to set up a special fund to help shelters and rescue groups keep homeless pets healthy while defraying veterinary costs. They’re donating $1.00 for each person who clicks “Like” on their Facebook campaign page, Fighting Pet Obesity, up to $50,000! Please help us reach this goal so we can provide the maximum amount of help to shelters and rescue groups. In these hard economic times, shelters need all the help they can get. Please click “Like” on this page now, and encourage your friends to do the same!

The sad truth is an estimated 45% of dogs and 58% of cats in the United States are overweight or obese–that’s an estimated 35 million dogs and 54 million cats. Pet obesity can lead to many other health problems, and Purina Veterinary Diets® wants to help. In addition to the Facebook campaign to raise awareness and funds, they’ve also launched Project: Pet Slim Down ™, a great program with products and tools that may help your pet achieve a healthy weight. We invite you to visit the site and use the Dog and Cat Body Condition System® interactive table to assess if your pet might benefit from a weight management program.

Maria Manco / Stocksy

Can we be totally frank with you? We are so impressed with the amazing things that those pet-loving people at Purina are able to do in the world. They’re constantly coming up with programs and initiatives that allow them to meet their business goals by making the world a better place for needy animals. They are truly an example of doing well by doing good. Take this piece of brilliance, for example: Purina ONE® beyOnd(TM), a brand-new pet food manufactured in an environmentally-friendly way, recently gave away one million dollars to animal welfare charities in a single day, and they gave people on the street the opportunity to choose where the donations were made.

Celebrities and representatives from Purina visited cities around the country and stopped passers-by with an incredible offer: make a $5,000 donation to the pet charity of their choice, totally funded by Purina ONE beyOnd. They also allowed their Facebook friends to choose where some of the grand total of $1 million was donated. You can see a video of celebrity Josh Lucas kicking off the campaign in New York at that link.

Adopt-a-Pet.com was one of the beneficiaries of Purina ONE beyOnd’s amazing day of giving, and we are truly grateful to them, and to the many people who chose us to receive their donations. Thank you!

(photo: Actor Josh Hopkins Kicked off the Campaign)

We are love the amazing things our Adopt-a-Pet.com sponsor Purina does to help homeless pets! Like the $1 Million donated (click to read about it here) at the launch of their new Purina ONE® beyOnd™ brand, and their Pet Welfare Program which donated more than 1,200,000 pounds of food to pets in shelters last year.

Click play below to watch one of the four videos Purina created for the launch of their new campaign!

Story 1 – New Pet Food: Purina ONE® beyOnd™

Thanks to all the pet lovers who entered the petcentric Dog Show by submitting photos of their pets. You helped to raise a generous $8,313 donation to Adopt-a-Pet.com! If you sent in an entry, you raised $1 to help shelter pets find loving homes… hooray for you! And a huge thank-you to the generous folks at Purina petcentric for your continued support of our work, and of homeless pets everywhere! We couldn’t do what we do without you.

We’re so excited about Adopt-a-Pet.com’s new partner site Purina ONE.com! Beginning in a couple of weeks, adoptable pets posted on Adopt-a-Pet.com will be seen by people visiting PurinaONE.com, without any extra effort by the 10,000 shelters and rescue that post their pets on Adopt-a-Pet.com already.

The people at Purina ONE have been committed to supporting shelters and pet adoption for years, and we thank them for helping to get your pets seen and adopted!

If your organization already has  an Adopt-a-Pet.com shelter/rescue account and do not want your pets to be displayed on the PurinaONE.com site, all you have to do is login to your Admin area, visit the “My shelter/rescue info” page and uncheck the box in the “Partners” section. Otherwise, your pets will appear on PurinaONE.com automatically.

If you don’t have a free Adopt-a-Pet.com shelter/rescue account and would like your pets to appear on PurinaOne.com, you can sign up here: http://www.adoptapet.com/signup

This past weekend, at a brand-new event called the Purina Pet Project, the folks at Purina once again showed their enormous commitment to supporting not only homeless animals, but the shelters and rescue organizations that care for them.  I had the pleasure (and it was!) of attending this event, along with Adopt-a-Pet.com’s director of animal shelter outreach, Jennifer Jacobsen.  We were both so impressed with what we saw, and absolutely inspired.

Here’s a little background: every year, Purina employees participate in a day of volunteerism to help St. Louis-area animal shelters, taking part in a variety of projects like assembling dog and cat beds, doing shelter makeovers, and making blankets to keep shelter pets warm .  These projects really make an impact on the animal welfare community in St. Louis.  This year, our friend Caroline Holke at Purina had an amazing, big idea, which began with a simple question: If the employees of Purina could make such a big difference in a single day, how much more could be done if the general public were given the opportunity to volunteer as well?  Caroline’s idea was embraced by her colleagues, and presto! The Purina Pet Project was born.

The event was held on Saturday, October 1st at Purina Farms.  Before the doors opened to the public, we took a look around. More than 30 different projects were waiting to be completed. More than 30 rescue groups and shelters were there with adoptable pets on display.  There were empty troughs waiting to be filled with donated items from a wish list Purina had provided to the public, things that shelters really needs like toys, bleach, and other supplies.  An empty volunteer sign-up sheet sat at a booth dedicated to the biggest project of the year: a complete makeover of the Five Acres Animal Shelter, which was to be completed the following weekend, if enough volunteers could be recruited.  So many opportunities to help…but would anybody show up?

The doors opened, and we got our answer: a resounding YES!  The folks at Purina were really hoping they’d get 1,000 people to come out and help.  Instead, they got about 2,800!  People poured in the door, many carrying items to donate, and all ready and willing to lend a hand.  It was a beautiful thing to behold.  It was especially wonderful to see so many parents and children working together.  Kudos to those parents for teaching their children the spirit of volunteerism (and kudos to the children who taught their parents, of course)!

The results?

15 dog houses were beautifully decorated

200 Kuranda dog beds were assembled

40 Kuranda cat towers were assembled

220 pet blankets were made

600 pet bowls and 550 bandanas were decorated

$2,000 raised from games and raffle tickets –the winner of the 50/50 raffle donated the cash back to the animal shelters

Approximately 20 pets were adopted and MANY other leads were made (most organizations reported receiving at least 4 applications)

12 troughs were heaping with donated items

27 volunteers signed up at the to help with the Five Acres Animal Shelter makeover

Fabulous, in other words.  Thank you, Purina, for caring so much about homeless animals (and the people who take care of them)!

And here are some photos of the event:

We usually cover very serious topics here on our blog, important stuff about helping homeless pets, rescuing dogs, cats and other creatures, ways volunteers and shelters are working hard to save lives… and then… there’s doggie-mail and kittie-mail. Step into the petcentric online gallery here: http://www.petcentric.com/Fun-Games/Doggie-Mail.aspx and you’ll see what we mean! It’s some very silly talking pets that invite you to customize your online message by either choosing one of the three dogs or three cats, or making it even more silly fun, uploading your dog or cat from your computer or Facebook.  Then you choose a painting from the gallery… well, I don’t want to give all the fun away! If you’re looking for a little diversion in your day, or a unique and creative way to add your voice to your pet’s photos and send out a birthday or other greeting to your friends or post a very important message on your Facebook page!

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This is just one of the many reasons why Adopt-a-Pet.com is so extremely proud to work with Purina. They are doing amazing things for the pets affected by Hurricane Sandy. Today they posted a photo of destroyed homes on their Purina ONE Facebook page along with this caption:  “Hurricane Sandy has taken a huge toll on the East Coast. Reports of deaths, extensive power outages and widespread damage are very distressing to hear. Many pets were also displaced as a result of the devastation. At Nestlé Purina, where pets are our passion, we want to do our part to help the four-legged victims of this disaster. As part of this effort, we’ve coordinated several donations of pet food, litter, and Purina Veterinary Diets FortiFlora® to animal welfare organizations, veterinary clinics, and hospitals in the affected areas. Our company is also making a donation of $20,000 to North Shore Animal League America, whose Emergency Response Team was on round-the-clock call throughout the storm with their Mobile Rescue Units to safely evacuate and care for animals in distress. They have organized an Emergency Pet Shelter in New York and are currently caring for more than 150 pets whose owners were directly affected by the devastation of Hurricane Sandy. We will also be making a contribution of $15,000 to PetSmart Charities, which has set up a temporary distribution center to hand out food, litter and supplies to animal welfare organizations across the entire northeastern United States. Many have been voicing their support and sympathy for the victims of this disaster. We appreciate your compassion and caring, and we will keep you posted on all Nestlé Purina PetCare efforts.”