My Fire Hydrant

OAHS

Here’s the press release!

Mike Arms/Iams Hero Award Given to Austin Humane Society

On Monday, October 10, the Iams Company and Mike Arms, president of Helen Woodward Animal Center and founder of the Iams Home 4 the Holidays pet adoption program, will present the first annual Mike Arms/Iams Hero Award in recognition of Austin Humane Society’s extraordinary relief effort in the Austin/Bastrop wildfires in September, 2011.

Austin Humane Society took the lead in coordinating the disaster relief efforts for the animals displaced in the Austin/Bastrop counties as a result of the recent Texas wildfires. This widespread disaster destroyed over 1,400 homes in the Central Texas area. The Austin Humane Society helped create a temporary triage unit in the Austin and Bastrop areas providing food, and refuge, and medical care for the displaced animals. We are grateful for their dedicated service to enhancing the quality of life for animals and their families.

Iams gives out the Mike Arms/Iams Hero Award to a person or animal organization that exemplifies the commitment and passion for the lives of orphaned animals similar to what Mike Arms has been doing for so many years.

For the past 12 years, Iams has joined forces with Mike Arms and the Helen Woodward Animal Center for the annual adoption campaign to help raise awareness of orphaned animals in shelters and rescues around the world. The program has created new ways to increase public awareness about orphaned animals, increase the number of pet adoptions, lower euthanasia rates, and set records for the number of people that are receiving humane education.

I am so please that the Austin Humane Society has been recognized in this way!

We established the Mike Arms/Iams Hero Award last year, when we presented Mike with the “Iams Lifetime Hero Achievement Award” in recognition of his commitment and extraordinary contributions to enhancing the lives of homeless animals for more than 30 years. In his honor, we created the annual “Mike Arms/Iams Hero Award.”

Mike Arms is a Lifetime Hero!

For the past few years, we’ve used the same PSAs with a new voice-over at the end to advertise Iams Home 4 the Holidays–and frankly, these PSAs are classics! Unlike other TV ads that make you cry because they’re so sad, these PSAs make you cry because they’re so happy! It has become a tradition for me to celebrate these ads. Please grab a tissue and watch how the real reward in adopting a pet, is when the pet adopts you!

Ah! and now I’m misty-eyed! I love happy endings!

\~

My little, skinny sweetheart! Newly adopted last June from Small Paws Rescue.

If you’re a regular reader of my blog, you’ll know that I work in Consumer Relations at Iams. October 1 starts my favorite time of year: Iams Home 4 the Holidays!!

This adoption event is the heart and soul of our company. We partner with Mike Arms and the Helen Woodward Animal Center along with over 3,500 shelters and rescues world-wide to get orphaned pets adopted into furever homes. We’ve done this since 1999, and over the years we’ve helped over 5.8 million orphaned pets get adopted. This year’s goal is 1.5 million!

Not everyone can adopt a pet, so this is our second year for the Bags 4 Bowls program. We will be donating up to 5 million meals to animals in need, but the number of meals depends on “audience participation” (this means YOU). This blog post is an example of audience participation. It’s part of a blog hop. For every blog that joins the blog hop, we will donate 100 bowls of food!

Over the next 3 months, we’re going to be doing all kinds of fun projects that will result in food donations. If you can’t adopt, here are some ways that YOU can also participate:

• Become a fan of the Iams Facebook page, and use our Petmail to send a customized adoption announcement or a seasonal greeting to your friends and family. For every card created, we will donate meals to shelters in need.
• Now that your a fan of the Iams Facebook page, look at the photos, videos, and wall posts and “like” the ones that appeal to you.  For every “like” we will donate meals to shelters in need.
• When you shop for Iams food, look for specially-marked bags that mention Iams Home 4 the Holidays. For every bag purchased, we will donate meals to shelters in need.

So what are you waiting for? Get out there and generate some food donations!!

The Saucy Pooch, one year after adoption.

~

Remember where you were on September 11, 2001?

I was at work. Ten years ago, it was a typical day in Iams Consumer Care. The phones were ringing, we were busy talking with consumers, and I was responding to emails. We happened to hear about a plane crashing in NYC because someone was listening to talk radio while they stuffed letters into envelopes. Someone else pushed a TV cart into our department and switched on the news. We were able to see what was actually happening.

And then our phones stopped ringing.

It was like the phone company shut us down for not paying our bill. Total quiet. The only other time I could remember the phones going quiet was during a power failure. As we watched the Twin Towers come down, the phones remained silent. We were not the only ones watching the tragedy. Open-mouthed, we gaped in disbelief as the unthinkable happened.

After around 50 minutes, the phones started ringing again–but they never recovered to their normal tempo. The rest of that day the phones were slow and we moved through the day slightly hazy, our focus fractured by what we had seen, our brains trying to process the unthinkable.

In our new reality, we found that there were dogs who needed food–not just the SAR dogs immediately mobilized and heading to Manhattan, but also the hundreds of dogs who were now probably orphans. We heard from doggie day-care centers that were in the area of the World Trade Center. People who lost their lives that day left behind dogs in day care, and cats in apartments.

Manhattan was in lock-down and nothing was being allowed in or out. Only official vehicles–like fire trucks.

One of our sales reps in the area–Juan–did everything he could to get dog food into the city. Finally, he was able to hook up with a fire department and they allowed him to load down their fire truck with bags of Premium Performance. That was the afternoon of September 11.

I have an old email that I kept from this time. Here it is:

To: Iams Customer Service Dept.
Here is a Field Sales update on our donation efforts to date for dogs and cats impacted by the tragedy on the East Coast.

– On Tuesday afternoon, Sept. 11, we donated Iams and Eukanuba Dog & Cat Foods to several pet daycare centers in lower Manhattan.

– On Wednesday, Sept. 12, we donated Eukanuba Dog Foods to the New York Bomb Squad working at the three New York City airports.

– Also on Wednesday, the American Kennel Club enlisted our help to feed
dogs and cats whose owners have not come home since the disaster. AKC made a
public appeal to New Yorkers to rescue any pets they believe to be abandoned
by Tuesday’s disaster.

– On Thursday, Sept. 13, we sent additional food to the New York Police Dept. (NYPD) Canine Unit, the team coordinating the search & rescue dogs at the disaster site. Police officials and veterinarians are onsite overseeing the care of the dogs, as well as the distribution of the food.

– On Monday morning, Sept. 17, at the request of the Lieutenant in charge of the NYPD Canine Unit, we will be making another delivery of Eukanuba Premium Performance and Eukanuba Veterinary Diet Low Residue. Our managers in the NY area are working with our local distributor and NY police officials to make sure the food goes to the right place at the right time.

– Our financial support of the American Veterinary Medical Foundation (part of a multi-year charitable contribution that began three years ago) is helping veterinary emergency response teams in New York meet the medical needs of animals in the crisis area.

– We are also in touch with veterinarians in the Washington, DC and Somerset County,
Pennsylvania areas to help working dogs at the other two crash sites.

We were encouraged by an 800# call into Iams Customer Service Dept. on
Saturday morning, Sept. 15, from a NYPD member of the Canine Unit. The officer
said he was working at “ground zero” in Lower Manhattan, and he needed some
advice on feeding guidelines for the donated Eukanuba Premium Performance
product at the disaster site. Our Customer Service associate provided the
information, and the officer thanked her for the advice.

All P&G/Iams employees sincerely appreciate the work of Iams field sales people
and distributors in these areas for their extra efforts to help the dogs. Iams
senior management has been in touch with the Iams team coordinating our donation
efforts, and we will continue to look for opportunities to help out.

I remember this like it was yesterday.

~

I just realized that even though I encouraged everyone to vote, I never made a post about what we ended up naming our new future VP of Canine Communications (he takes over the job in April 2012). By popular vote, his name is

Pawl Griffin

And here are some photos of him in action at a recent event at our office (Take Your Child to Work Day, July 15).

Griffin listens very attentively to one of the children as she discribes her own pooch.

Griffin, up close.

This boy loves his stuffie!...

...and sometimes he looks like a stuffie!

Cast your vote to name this adorable puppy by going to our photo album on Facebook.

What’s this all about? The V.P. of Canine Communications for The Iams Company, Euka, has submitted her letter of resignation effective later this year. We have done a massive search to find her replacement, and this puppy is the one! So now we need to name him, and we asked our Facebook community to help. Did I mention that he’s seriously cute?

Digging? Naw! I'm just having a rest here by this hole that will eventually go under the fence...

Hey! I wasn't the one who left that used tissue sitting on top of the table just waiting for some enterprising young pup to turn it into artificial snow....

Hogging the AC vent

Tyler, at his work station.

This year was Tyler’s first opportunity to participate in Take Your Dog to Work Day, and he had a great time! So many folks brought their dogs into the office at P&G Pet Care’s headquarters in Mason that I wonder [[whisper]] just how much work got done that day? Doesn’t matter though–bonding with our dogs at the office just emphasizes who we really work for.

We had some fund doggie contests in our dog park, located just outside the building. And luckily the weather smiled on us.

The Potato and Spoon Race
This game is run in heats.  Chairs are placed a little way away from the wall at one end of the hall while the handlers and their dogs line up at the other end.  Each handler is given a spoon in which they have to carry a potato.  The spoon can only be carried in the hand that is holding the dog’s lead.  Handlers have to race from to the far end of the hall, go round the chair and back to the start.  If they drop the potato they have to stop while they put it back in the spoon.

Doggie Musical Paws (Musical Chairs)
Dog handlers and dogs walk around in a big circle of white paw prints while music is playing.  When the music stops the dog must sit on one of the white paw prints. The dog without a paw print drops out and a paw print is taken away.  The game continues until you are left with a winner.  This game is just like musical chairs.

We also had a contest for the Best Sit Stay and the Longest Commute to Work. These contest were topped off with a Canine Yappy Hour and Bark-n-Play where Frosty Paws and Iams and Eukanuba biscuits were served (the humans had to find their own treats!), and the pooches spent pack time running and playing in the dog park.

For photos, click Read more…

This is one cute pooch! Please meet our new VP of Canine Communications (in training):

He is a 6 month old Petit Basset Griffon Vendeen (PBGV). And here’s where it gets fun: we’re asking for help naming him! Go to the Iams Facebook wall and tell us what you think we should name him. And in honor of the 4th of July weekend, P&G Pet Care will donate $1 to America’s Vet Dogs (up to $10,000) for each name suggested on our Facebook page.

Pet people are so clever and witty–I know that one of you will come up with a brilliant name!

(In case you want to read the Press Release.)

Euka, and the pup that must be named!

Euka, VP of Canine Communications, is planning on retiring around April 15, 2012.  I posted her letter of retirement a few days ago. Now, a kind of job description has appeared:

Our Company is global, and we have employees and four-legged connoisseurs around the world, taking that into consideration, Euka described some of what her successor will be required to do:

“My successor will be required to: like children and adults, love being an official greeter and have a mastery level knowledge of basic obedience.  He will need to be photogenic and love being videotaped.   He will need to be smaller than I am because he will be making appearances around the globe and will need to travel on an airplane.  Like all of our Vice Presidents, he must carry sufficient credentials.  He must earn his champion title at dog shows, be certified as a Canine Good Citizen and become a certified Therapy Dog.  I will be sure to keep you updated on his progress“

In short, he will need to play well with others as he will attend and participate in many P&G Pet Care Events, such as:

• Take Your Dog to Work Day
• Take Your Child to Work Day
• Career Day at Schools
• On boarding new Pet Care employees
• Attend Company meetings
• Ambassador for IH4TH
• Volunteer at the yearly P&G Pet Care Shelter Makeover Event
• Certified in Canine Good Citizen
• Certified Therapy Dog
• Ringing the Wall Street Bell on Christmas Eve
• Attend Animal Rescue conferences
• Attend (and maybe participate!) events such as Dock Diving and Agility
• Competing in Dog Shows
• Obtain Champion Title at Dog Shows
• Attend AKC Eukanuba National Championship.
• Attend World Dog Show

With that in mind, I wanted to advise everybody to watch the Iams and Eukanuba Facebook pages–because there’s some very exciting news coming up!