My Fire Hydrant

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!!

 

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I’m in New York City today so that I can attend the Bideawee Gala tonight!

We (Iams) will receive the “Bideawee Corporate Award” in recognition of our corporate contributions to foster the health and well being of pets (The Bideawee Gala and  A Short History of Bideawee).

Also receiving an award this evening is Mr. Joseph Garrison. Joe has had a huge involvement as a member of Bideawee’s Board of Directors. But the thing I like most about him is devotion to his dog. Joe adopted Austin – his gentle and beloved Wheaten Terrier – from Bideawee. They have been inseparable since! Joe and Austin were regular participants at Bideawee’s management and Board meetings, fundraising events and community outreach activities. He is being honored for his exceptional leadership and unwavering commitment to Bideawee’s values and mission of promoting and supporting safe, loving, long-term relationships between people and companion animals.

Joe was first elected to the Bideawee Board of Directors in December 1994 and served as Officer of the Board in the positions of Vice Chair (2004-2007), Secretary (2008) and Treasurer (2007 and 2009). As a Board Officer, Joe served regularly in the Executive Management Committee (2004-2008). He also served and chaired several standing Board Committees, including Nominating (2005, 2006 and 2008), Finance (1998, 2003, 2006, Chair 2007 and 2009), Compensation (2007, 2009), Audit (Chair, 2008). Last but not least, Joe also served in ad hoc Board committees including the Oversight Committee (1996-2001) and the Senior Advisory Committee (2009). Joe retired from active Board membership at the end of 2009 and joined our Board Emeritus group in January 2010.

A very active 16-year tenure on the Board of Directors, and he continues to serve in the Board Emeritus group. Now that’s devotion to a cause!

(Also of interest: Bidawee’s commitment to Organizational Excellence)

I’ve been writing the past couple of days about Bideawee in New York City, and I thought I should mention that I got to visit Bideawee last year. While I was there I learned that on average, pets stay with the Center around 32 days before being adopted by their forever family. They usually have around 100 animals available, with more cats than dogs (25-30 dogs/70-75 cats). Bideawee does its best to set the pet up for successful adoption—and they succeed! The national average for pet returns is 15-20%. Bidawee’s returns is only 5%! People come from all over the country to find their match at Bideawee. And the pets come from all over too! While I was there, I got to meet some Chihuahuas from California (where there has been an outbreak of “purse” dogs) and some puppies from Tennessee.

Unlike other adoption centers I’ve visited, Bideawee Manhattan is more horizontal than vertical. Instead of being laid out on one level, Bideawee has four floors to accommodate all its services and facilities. And every available space is used with economy and efficiency.

When Fiora D’Auby Kibbe founded Bideawee in 1903, she had a revolutionary idea: shelter unwanted pets until they could be placed in good homes instead of destroying them. Mrs. Kibbe was inspired to do this work after visiting Paris (France) where she had seen the Barrone d”Herpents Dog Refuge at Gennevilliers. This small French humane group sent its dog ambulance all over Paris to pick up unwanted and stray dogs. What was unique was that instead of destroying the dogs—as was the custom of the time—the group kept the dogs until new homes could be found.

Mrs. Kibbe’s humane efforts were not limited to unwanted pets. At the turn of the century, horses were the main mode of transportation. Through the efforts of Bideawee, fresh-water troughs were placed and maintained throughout the city—some of them still exist to this day.

Initially, Bideawee (“stay a while”) was located in a small building on Lexington Avenue, near Mrs. Kibbe’s home. But by 1909 there were nearly 200 dogs crammed into the makeshift space—in a very elegant residential area. The neighbors were very unhappy with the incessant barking, and Mrs. Kibbe was forced to move her shelter to Harrington, New Jersey. In 1912, after several moves, Bideawee found its own home (formerly a garage) on 38^th Street, near the East River. This was a premium location for their work because at that time people brought unwanted pets to the river to drown them.

By 1915, Bideawee was overflowing and needed more space. A property in Wantagh, Long Island was purchased. And by 1916, the spacious grounds around the Wantagh Country Home also included a beautiful Pet Memorial Park.

As the years passed, Bideawee changed with the times. The area around Wantagh evolved from rural to densely populated and once again Bideawee needed more space. In 1956 the first kennel was built on 200 acres on Old Country Road in Westhampton. This was quickly followed by a second kennel and then a cattery. By 1966 a new adoption center was opened and a second Pet Memorial Park was established in Westhamption.

Today, Bideawee is one of the oldest and largest humane organizations in the United States. And Mrs. Kibbe is regarded as a pioneer in the “no-kill” movement.

Programs and Services

• Two Adoption Centers: Manhattan and Westhampton, NY; all pets receive a complete medical exam, socialization or basic training, spay/neuter, micro-chip.
• Second Start Program: Bideawee staff visit overwhelmed municipal shelters on a regular basis to rescue pets about to be euthanized due to lack of space/resources giving them a second chance at a new home. .
• Veterinary Medical Services: a fully equipped medical center in both adoption center locations provides affordable, high quality care for the pets living in the centers as well as pets living in the vicinity.
• Veterinary Medical Assistance Fund: gives assistance to private pet clients to offset the high costs associated with emergency treatment, catastrophic illness, or other special medical care when they might not otherwise be able to afford vet care for their pets.
• Three Learning Centers: Located in Manhattan, Westhampton, and Wantagh offer educational programs that promote healthy, positive relationships between people and pets of all ages.
• Reading to Dogs: Reading to a non-judgmental, non-critical, and loving four-footed friend helps children with reading challenges become better readers
• Doga: Yoga for dogs brings dog and owner together for a relaxing session of massage and stretch. Regular sessions are held at both Learning Centers
• Pet Therapy: Bideawee trained pet therapy pairs bring the healing effect of pets to schools, youth centers, homeless shelters, nursing homes and hospitals in the NYC and Long Island regions.
• Pet Behavioral Training: at all three sites; group and private classes as well as “Ask the Trainer” sessions at community events help pet owners better understand and communicate with their pets.
• Humane Education: Trained volunteers help teach responsible pet ownership, pet safety, training, animal health, licensing, and ethical animal treatment.
• Pet Memorial Parks: at Westhampton and Wantagh; two of the oldest (1916) and largest (over 65,000 pets) parks offer a final resting place for cherished animal companions and include the support and guidance of compassionate Bideawee staff and counselors.
• Bereavement Counseling: Pet loss support groups meet on a regular basis to help pet owners deal with their loss.
• Dog Park: located in Westhampton, is “Love Unleashed.”
• Locations & Hours of Operations

2009 Stats

• 1,176 Adoptions
• 645 Second Start Rescues
• 275 Volunteers
• 113 Pet Therapy Pairs
• 28 Reading to Dogs Program Locations
• 13,791 Veterinary, Shelter and Private Pet Patients
• 1,093 Pet Memorial Park Interments and Cremations

I’m going to New York City!

On Monday, June 13, I will be in NYC to attend Bideawee’s June Gala. Bideawee (a Scottish term for “stay a while”) is one of the oldest animal pet adoption and animal welfare organizations in the United States and serves the New York metropolitan area and Long Island communities. I’m going to the Gala because Iams has been named Bideawee’s 2011 Corporate Honoree!

Bideawee is presenting the celebrated “Bideawee Corporate Award” to Iams in recognition of our corporate contributions to foster the health and well being of pets. It makes me so proud to have this incredible organization take notice of our long-standing commitment in promoting responsible pet adoption and our support of animal adoption organizations across the country. Bideawee is part of our Iams Home 4 the Holidays campaign. This past year, you may recall, we helped more than 1.1 million pets to find forever homes and donated 5 million meals to shelter and rescue pets in need. It’s icing on the cake for Bideawee to honor us with this award!

I’ve been featuring some heart-warming Small Paws Rescue stories this month as I nag my readers, my friends and my family into make a contribution to my fund raiser. But I need to take a step away from Small Paws and mention a very wonderful side event of Iams Home 4 the Holidays, the 3-month long adoption event that we (Iams) do with Helen Woodward Animal Center (HWAC) every year. It’s the essay contest.

Every year, Mike Arms and HWAC collect hundreds of stories that detail the adoptions that happen during Iams Home 4 the Holidays. These stories are read and narrowed down to the top four.

I just finished voting for my favorite story on the HWAC site. And you can too–up until Monday March 21 (YIKES! That’s now!)

Go! RUSH! To the HWAC blog where you can read the rest of the details and then read the stories of  Darby, Mama Mia, Fred, and Rose. These stories may at first bring a tear to your eye, but ultimately your heart will indeed be warmed by the happy ending each of these sweet orphans experiences in finding their furever home.

HURRY! WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR!! GO READ! GO VOTE!!

 

You may have noticed that every day this month, I am featuring adoptable Bichons and Bichon Blends who are fostered by Small Paws Rescue.

Small Paws is a community of foster families spread across the country where Small Paws Fluffs are housed until their forever family is found. There is no “brick-and-mortar” facility like your local humane society or SPCA. But you can still view all the Small Paws Fluffs available for adoption. The Small Paws “adoption center” is located online at Petfinder.com.

This month, Petfinder celebrates 15 years of service to pet adoption! Since 1996, Petfinder has helped more than 17 million pets find homes! Now that’s something to celebrate!

On Tuesday March 15, I’m going to help Petfinder ADOPT THE INTERNET–and you can too! Here’s what I’m going to do:

On this blog:

• I’ve already added a badge on the right side of my blog to show my support.

• On Tuesday, I will be posting an article about what pet adoption means to me.

On my Facebook Page:

• On Tuesday I’ll be changing my Facebook profile photo to an adoptable pet from Petfinder for the day.

• I will post a special message of support for Petfinder on my wall.

I’m taking over the Iams Facebook Page: (I have admin rights on the Iams Facebook account.)

• I’ll be changing the Iams Facebook profile to the “Adopt the Internet Day” logo

• And I’ll be encouraging all of the over 165,000 Iams Facebook fans to change their profile photos too!

On Twitter:

• I’m going to tweet about it on Monday and Tuesday and use the hash tag #adopttheinternet

So, is pet adoption important to you? What are you going to do to celebrate and support Petfinder on it’s 15th birthday?

 

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Read more…

Representatives of Iams Home 4 the Holidays rang the closing bell today at the New York Stock Exchange. Oh, I wish I coulda been there!!

Here’s a link to the NYSE video showing today’s closing bell.  It only a couple minutes long—and OH SO CUTE!!

To raise awareness for pet adoption, the folks at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) have invited some of my Home 4 the Holidays buddies to ring today’s closing bell! This is the 5^th year that we’ve participated in the bell ringing—and you can watch it today LIVE on the NYSE web site!  Live steaming will start at 3:59 PM EST.

Representing Iams Home 4 the Holidays on the NYSE podium will be our friends from the Helen Woodward Animal Center and Bideawee. Joining the group will be our Adoption Angel Jack and his pooch Jane (Jack adopted Jane from Bideawee). Rounding out this group are Yeechin and Neelam, two of my teammates from Iams (I am SO jealous that they got to go!)

My good buddy, Nancy Taylor (who runs Bideawee) will also bring some of Bideawee’s adoptable orphans. They’ll be down on the trading floor prior to the bell-ringing looking for perspective pet parents. Last year, all the orphaned dogs and cats that came for the bell ringing were adopted by folks on the trading floor (after going through Bideawee’s standard adoption process, of course). I hope that happens this year, too!

Someone will be taking photos—and I’ll post them here as soon as I get them.

Livestreaming of the closing bell begins TODAY at 3:59 PM EST. The bell gets rung at 4:00 PM EST. Be sure to set whatever alarm you have handy so that you can tune in and see the NYSE go to the dogs (and cats)!

More details are on the press release on the NYSE site.

Oh how I wish I could be there!

[Edited at 3:39 pm to add photo of Jane]

[Edited at 4:34 pm to add this link]

A fabulous video clip on CNBC: Lend a Paw for Pet Adoption!

The last week of October we had a celebration at the office for Iams Home 4 the Holidays. And omidog did I have a great time!

It started as I was walking from my car to the building. Just outside the door I recognized my first celebrity of the day: Munch! Yes, Munch, that gorgeous Bulldog featured in Iams commercials was just returning from a walk on his way inside to the party. Unfortunately, I didn’t have Tyler with me. However, I had the next best thing—Flat Tyler!

Munch is such a character, and seemed to enjoy meeting Flat Tyler!

Moving into the celebration area, I ran into one of my most favorite people (also my hero), Mike Arms! Mike came to us from his home base at the Helen Woodward Animal Center in San Diego.

I’ve been very lucky these past 2 months to be able to spend some quality time with Mike—first at BlogPaws West, and now at our celebration.

In case you’ve never heard of him, Mike Arms is the founder of Home 4 the Holidays, and a major force in pet adoption. In some respects, he’s turned the traditional shelter upside down by re-thinking how a shelter should be organized and funded. Be sure to check out:

• The ACES workshops where shelter workers and volunteers can learn how to apply business techniques to pet adoptions—for free.
• Club Pet Boarding a great hotel destination for San Diego’s canine, feline and exotic family members.
• The Pet Grooming Salon, for the pampered pet needing a day at the spa!
• AniMeals bringing pet food to the homes of the elderly or disabled.
• Educational programs that teach children and families about animal welfare, and nurture the human-animal bond
• A beautiful Equine Hospital
• And so much more!

But back to our celebration……

Nearly everyone was seated as Munch strutted his stuff down the audience aisle. He got loads of applause!

Everybody wanted to get their photos taken with Munch. But first, Munch had to show his support of pet adoption by putting on an Iams Home 4 the Holidays Adoption Advocate hat.

Munch was first on the list of celebrities at our celebration because he had an appointment at a Bulldog Specialty Show being held to the south of us in Kentucky. He spent quality time with everybody—and lots of photos were taken.

Just before Munch had to leave, Krissie and Ryan Newman arrived! Are you a NASCAR fan? If you’ve never heard of NASCAR all you need to know is that Ryan drives the #39 Chevy for Stewart-Haas Racing and he is awesome on the track! Krissie is vice president of the Ryan Newman Foundation, and one of the Foundation’s interests is animal welfare.

So with all of our celebrities present, it was time to take some photos. Munch seemed to be having a little trouble focusing until we realized that he was looking at Flat Tyler, who was on the seat next to me in the front row. Once we put Flat Tyler behind the photographer’s head, Munch was eager to look at the camera!

After the photos we all settled down to listen to what our visiting friends had to say. First, Michel Brousset said a few words of welcome to our guests, and then introduced Mike Arms.

When Mike was finished, we heard from the Newmans–they have SIX dogs! All of them are shelter/rescue pooches. Ryan and Krissie have been vocal advocates for animal welfare for the past few years. Krissie told us about a recent Foundation fundraiser for spay/neuter, a book titled “Pit Road Pets: NASCAR Stars and Their Pets.” This book is way beyond cute! It’s got all kinds of photos and stories about your favorite NASCAR driver and the pets who share their lives. A second book has also been published titled “The Second Lap” which expands into the pets of the fans, and the behind the scenes folks involved with NASCAR. The second book is also a fund raiser for animal welfare.

Their passion for pets and pet adoptions makes the Newman Foundation a natural fit with Iams Home 4 the Holidays. Krissie told us how Mike Arms had been an inspiration for her and her work with the Foundation. In fact, she told us that Mike has been advising her on her visions and goals for their Foundation.

After the Newmans spoke, our guy Michel got back up and asked Mike Arms to join him.

Mike had no idea that he was about to receive 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 addition, Michel announced the creation of the annual “Mike Arms/Iams Hero Award.”

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

Next, Michel presented a contribution of $50,000 to the Ryan Newman Foundation and announced a partnership between Iams and the Foundation to further animal welfare issues on and off the race track—how cool is that!!!

After the presentations were over we had time for photos and some “meet and greet.” What a perfect way to celebrate Iams Home 4 the Holidays 2010!