Earlier this year, Melissa Utech felt completely overwhelmed. This founder of Safe Haven Animal Shelter was out of money and out of food for the multitude of abandoned dogs and cats under her care in Scottsboro, Alabama. “I didn’t know what I was going to do,” says Utech. “I just started praying, I said, ‘God, you know I am trying to take care of these animals, I am putting it in your hands.’”

Soon after, Utech received an email from Freekibble.com with the news that Halo, Purely for Pets would be sending her a few rather large donations, 5,300 pounds in all, of dry Spot’s Stew. “As soon as I read it I put my head down and started crying,” says the 41-year-old Utech. “It was a prayer that was answered.”

For many months before the donation, Utech and a friend frequently emailed Freekibble.com founder Mimi Ausland, 13, after reading about Mimi last year in People magazine (authored by me, the author of this story).

Scores of rescues email freekibble.com seeking food, yet Safe Haven stuck out, and not only for persistence. “We realized that Melissa works very hard and does some amazing work,” says Mimi. “Also, she is in an area that is very hard hit with the bad economy and we knew that the food would really be helping her out.”

One of the beneficiaries is Chopper, a boxer mix who was in bad shape when a local vet gave him to Utech. “When he came in he was skin and bones,” says Utech. “He had been running free getting food wherever he could find it.” Utech nursed him from near-starvation to a healthy, vibrant pup by feeding him Halo. Utech shared the donation with her local shelter, and families struggling financially.

The dogs gleefully gobbled it up. “Wouldn’t you rather go to a really nice restaurant and have a nice steak and a real salad versus Burger King?” says Utech. “Wouldn’t you like to give your animals the best? It makes them feel better, it makes their skin and coat better.”

A lifelong animal lover, Utech — owner of eight dogs, and a former limo driver — entered the business of taking care of dogs with her own pet-sitting business. “I hate to see people go on vacation and have a good time while their dogs were in a kennel,” says Utech.

In 2006, she founded Safe Haven after learning of two dogs left at the local shelter and facing imminent euthanasia. Utech borrowed $500 from friends to rescue the dogs; she ended up fostering them for seven months.

The experience forever changed this mom of 16-year-old twins. “Once I went to the shelter and saw how desperate people’s situations are and how desperate the animals are…haven is like heaven, and they’re heaven to me,” she says. “They have unconditional love, like God does. I have seen some animals in horrible situations, no matter how abused there are, how much they are starved, they turn around.”

Utech created a network of foster homes for the many strays so prevalent in her area. She has an agreement with the local shelter that they not euthanize any dog or cat, allowing her to instead find homes for all of the animals.

And there are multitudes: from November 5th to December 8th, for example, she found homes for 78 strays. “I always dread going to the shelter, I know there’s more there and it makes me sick to my stomach seeing beautiful animals thrown away like trash,” she says. “And then when you see they go to a loving family, the dogs go from rags from riches. That keeps me going, that dog becomes a treasure.”

In 2008 alone, Utech found homes for some 2000 cats and dogs while in 2009, over 800 strays found forever families. She speaks to school children about the importance of spaying and neutering, and is working on legislation to limit the outdoor chaining of dogs. And, Utech is working on funding the construction of a shelter of her own on 4.5 acres of donated land. “It’s big now,” says Utech of Safe Haven. “It’s more than I could have ever imagined.”

To donate to Safe Haven via Pay Pal, log on to www.safehavenadoption.com and click on the donate tab at the top of the page. Or, donations can be sent to Safe Haven, P.O. Box 962,Scottsboro, AL 35768.