Foster a Lonely Pet for the Holidays

Allie: Hi all! I asked Mother if we could blog about Petfinder's "Foster a Lonely Pet for the Holidays" because it's very personal to me. You see, that's how I found my Forever Family.

And Mother was excited to do it because she knows - and works with - the people who were instrumental in making this a great new national tradition.

It all began many years ago when a lawyer in a suburban Kansas City town (Olathe, KS) wrote a bedtime story for his kids.

It was about a developmentally disabled boy named Todd who heard his hometown shelter needed to find temporary homes for its animals over the holidays. Through persistence and persuasion, Todd motivates an entire town to extend their peace and goodwill to animals that year, too.

That man's name is Greg Kincaid, and his story, "A Dog Named Christmas," was first published 4 years ago this month.

Someone gave a copy of Mr. Kincaid's book to a really nice man that Mother works with - Brad Moore, president of the Hallmark Hall of Fame. He fell in love with it, not only because it's an awesome story but also because it's a story written by a local writer and Hallmark has always been hugely supportive of hometown talent (they're really nice like that).

Greg's book became Hallmark's 2009 Holiday Hall of Fame movie (and if you never got a chance to see it, set your recorders for next Sunday December 16, because at 10 PM EST/ 9 PM Central, it's playing again on the Hallmark Channel).

But that's just the beginning of the story. Hallmark then partnered with CBS and Petfinder.com to launch a new program that winter, based on the concept in Greg's story: the idea to foster a lonely pet for the holidays.

This is a wonderful idea for several reasons. Not only would this make it easier for shelter workers to have a holiday of their own (fewer pets in the shelter = less time they need to work), but it also gives animals a few weeks away from the stresses of a shelter environment.

Did you know that there is such a thing as shelter stress and that it can weaken an animal's immune system?

Veterinary News wrote about shelter stress and its affects on cats in particular in an article last year.

They quoted Dr. Michael Moyer, President of the American Animal Hospital Association (AAHA), as saying that a shelter environment "means stress, and stress means relapse of latent viruses ... [and] supportive care for weeks in order to convalesce."

snoozing with da

Please consider participating in this year's Petfinder's Foster a Lonely Pet for the Holidays program.

You'll be giving a wonderful animal a few weeks' reprieve, lightening the load for your local shelter, and - who knows?

You just might discover your foster friend is someone you just can't part with.
(It can happen - just look at me!)

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