If your heart could talk, what would it say? As animal lovers, our hearts would no doubt scream from the mountain tops, calling for greater compassion for all animals! Our hearts would talk about how filled up they get from the joy our own furry
kids bring us. Our hearts would also speak about the breaking – the pain we carry for homeless pets, knowing so many still languish in shelters. This kind of immense love we hold in our hearts for animals allows us to help them in many ways.
HeARTs Speak is an organization comprised of animal lovers who use their creative talents to help homeless pets. By connecting artists with animal shelters and rescues groups, HeARTs Speak focuses on promoting pet adoption. They encourage artists to use their skills to help animals in need by taking compelling photographs which often result in lives being saved! Through beautiful, heartfelt photography and artwork, HeARTs artists and photographers are assisting shelters so that they can better market their pets to potential adopters. These artistic efforts can lead to increased adoptions and reduced euthanasia, making HeARTs Speak artists true life-changers! We at Adopt-a-Pet.com see it all the time: a good snapshot of a pet can better reach a potential adopter and help a furry friend go from shelter to home.
HeARTs Speak members believe in the power of collaboration. They also believe in the power of education and communication, as they strive to inspire people to adopt their next pet and treat all animals with kindness. Their beautiful art helps dispel the notion that shelter animals are inferior or damaged, and HeARTs Speak also advocates for a more positive and accurate image of Pitbulls! This year they partnered up with The Unexpected Pitbull to create a gorgeous 2012 calendar full of incredible Pittie photos depicting them as the loving, loyal and wonderful dogs they are.
By providing an online community for its artist members and by giving them resources to develop their skills and businesses, HeARTs Speak makes it possible for artists to give back to their communities. They even help find grants for artists who spend time in shelters using their gifts to feature adoptable pets in a more flattering light. They offer financial support and programs to support these artists, keeping them able to help pets in need.
Working together and combining forces — that is what HeARTs Speak is all about. They believe that in coming together through our collective love of animals and using our own skills to help them, we can make a more significant impact. Whether through your creativity or other gifts you possess, we can all do our part to help homeless pets. HeARTs Speak puts heart into action, and they use the power of art to effect social change. Now that’s something that can make all our hearts sing.
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Home. Some cats and dogs never have one to call their own. 
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Dear Adopt-a-Pet.com, I used your listings and finally found and adopted a Miniature Schnauzer, at the 
We’ve been loving all the Best Welcome Home Ever video submissions! For example, have you ever seen a Pittie mix talk? Well, here’s your chance! 
Who wakes you in the morning with a silly wide-eyed grin and greets you upon arriving back home? You know who! And it’s a wonderful feeling isn’t it? The stress and angst of the day quickly melt away when greeted by your canine friend. You change your clothes and escape together for some play time. I cannot imagine not having an animal companion in my life. In my mind, a home is simply not a home without one. Having animals in my life has changed me – in every way “humanely” possible. I have learned to truly open my heart to the shared unconditional love. Our relationships with animals bring us so much – unconditional love, being present and in the moment, caring for another being, feeling safe and protected. We have so much to learn from them, if we pay attention to all they show us about life and ourselves.
This article was written by Cheryl Hiebert. Cheryl is a Personal Wellness Coach with a mind body spirit approach to wellness. Her goal is to help you feel empowered on your individual path and help you jump out of bed every day loving your life. To help you create a life where you feel happy, full of energy and first on your list. You are worth it! Cheryl also wrks with people and their animal companions, such as offering Pet Loss & Bereavement counseling. To see how you can get more support from Cheryl, make sure to 
The image you see at right of a pale blue plastic ball caught in a barbed wire fence might not make sense to you, unless you’ve seen the powerful video PSA created by Cesar Millan to promote the importance of spay and neuter. To me, it makes a lump rise in my throat. Somehow in 1 minute and 1 second video with it’s abstract imagery is stronger than almost any other video PSA I’ve seen about spay neuter, and I’ve seen a lot of them! Before you think “oh I can’t watch it” because sad images of sad dogs or cats make you cry, there is only one live dog in the first few seconds and she’s in a loving home. But wow with it putting your imagination to work, it really works! You can watch Cesar Millans PSA below, and below that you can use the icons to share this video with your friends, family, neighbors, on your Facebook, Twitter… everywhere!
We love hearing stories of triumph! We love it when an underdog – literally – proves not only to be different than assumed, but to go above and beyond expectations. I’m sure we’ve all heard many stories of Pitbulls who overcome stereotypes and victoriously prove their goodness. This breed that gets so much put up on them, so much false baggage which they must carry around like a heavy weight, bearing it anyway so they can show you their love. What will it take for more people to believe that Pitbulls are wonderful? We at Adopt-a-Pet.com never get tired of hearing another tale that tears down the misconceptions of Pitbulls! 
Many adopted pets settle right in to their new home without even turning around three times to lie down! But others need a little more time and help from us to get adjusted. Highly sensitive dogs and cats can be deeply affected by having been abandoned by their previous owner, and the stresses of living on the street or in a shelter. That kind of anxiety can manifest in some pretty bizarre behaviors! The good news is that there’s a lot you can do to help reassure your new pooch or feline, and get them on track to becoming your happy family pet. As animal shelter and rescue volunteers (and with our professional trainer Katya), we here at Adopt-a-Pet.com staff have a lot of first- and second-hand experience with helping newly adopted and fostered dogs and cats! We’ll be sharing some of our stories here, and what we’ve discovered works. We hope you’ll be inspired and possibly find some solutions if you’re struggling with a new pet’s adjustment. Nothing replaces the hand-on help and experience of a professional behaviorist, who can visit with you and your pet in your home and help you fast track a program to get you chugging off in the right direction. But sometimes you can’t get an appointment immediately, and are searching the internet for some ideas for things you can try right away to help… so that’s what these articles are here for! For this first article, let’s meet Dolly the dog and her adopter Tony.