When Spencer Paige was just a toddler, his family adopted a Golden Retriever-Irish Setter mix from their local shelter. The two of them grew up together at their home in Brunswick, Georgia, with the dog– named Cuddles — providing countless hours of playtime with Spencer.

It only seems a given that, as Freekibble.com announced a contest for kids to write an essay about why their local shelter is special, Spencer, now 8, composed a moving essay to thank the Glynn County Animal Services for Cuddles.

“My shelter is special to me because they keep dogs like Cuddles safe and feed them until they get adopted to families like mine,” writes Spencer. “He makes me feel good when I come home from school. I think Cuddles is a lifesaver for me. Sometimes when I come home from school, I feel kinda sad and tired. Cuddles is there to greet me with slobbery kisses and a happy wagging tail.”

Freekibble.com founder Mimi Ausland, 13, was moved by Spencer’s words. “This one I absolutely loved,” says Mimi. “I love the part that Cuddles is a lifesaver to him, and I can relate to the part about being sad and tired after school. His essay makes me want to go over there and give him a hug.”

Mimi picked Spencer’s essay as one of five winners of the Kibble Krusaders Kontest, chosen from almost 500 entries from all over the country, and earning the Glynn County shelter $1000 worth of Halo Dinner Party. Says proud mom Vicki Nixon: “He’s a smart little guy.”

Spencer, a third-grader, lives in a home filled with animals: Cuddles, four rescued cats and a litterbox-trained bunny. A favorite pastime of Spencer and Cuddles is visiting the beach and playing fetch with a tennis ball. “Two years ago you couldn’t say beach around him because he would go nuts,” says Spencer. “He would start running around the house and and he would tell us he was ready to go.”

Spencer frequently visits the home of his aunt, Becky Kryos, who helped him write the essay, a home where he plays with her five rescued cats. And Spencer’s mom notes that when there is a stray in the neighborhood, people know to bring the animal to their home. Naturally, this ethos has rubbed off. As Spencer writes: “Maybe more people need to visit their animal shelter to find a lifesaver like Cuddles. I think shelter animals know they are special and that they can give love and kindness to a person as much as a person can give food and shelter and love to them.”

Are you on Facebook? Then you may be interested in becoming a fan of Halo!

My name is Belkis Cardona-Rivera, a social media associate for Halo. It has been my pleasure to be working on the Facebook Fan Page in the past few months. Our fans have been great and we enjoy connecting on a daily basis. We invite you to join us if you haven’t done so already. Below are just a few things our fans can do on Facebook.

Have questions or comments about our products? Post them on the wall. We’ll answer your questions, or bring in Dr. Donna Spector to help. Just as importantly, other passionate, knowledgeable, devoted pet parents like yourself will chime in with great suggestions too.

Speaking about our wall, keep a look out for our fun interaction post such as polls, quizzes and giveaways. That’s right – giveaways. We will be giving out $25 Halo online gift certificates frequently, so don’t miss out!

Don’t forget to post videos or photos of your pet(s). We definitely love commenting on them!

What else do you want to see on our fan page? Let us know at www.facebook.com/Halopets. See you there!

A few years ago, Keith Webster visited his local shelter. There he found his best friend, a Jack Russell he named Nedley. “When I got him in the car for the very first time he crawled on my lap and he laid his head on my hand for the long trip on the road,” writes Keith in his winning Kibble Krusaders Kontest essay. “I feel so happy that when I went to the Humane society I got to look at two little eyes looking straight back at me.”

Keith, a 12-year-old from Alderton, Washington, found his beloved Nedley at the Humane Society for Tacoma & Pierce County, the largest shelter in the state, which, thanks to the sixth grader’s essay received $1,000 worth of Halo Dinner Party for their more than 100 dogs and 60 cats. “I was just writing,” says Keith, “from my heart.”

That was evident to Mimi Ausland, 13, the founder of freekibble.com who picked Keith’s essay out of almost 500 entries as one of the five winners. “You could tell it came from his heart,” says Mimi. “It was really genuine.” Click here to read Keith’s entire essay.

Marguerite Richmond, development director of the Tacoma Humane Society, agrees. “When I read his essay, it was so genuine,” she says, “and it reminded me how important animals are to kids.”

The homeless dogs and cats at the shelter certainly appreciate Keith’s thoughtful gift. “They seem to like (the treats) alot,” says Richmond. “Any little boost they can get is helpful, it’s a stressful environment in the shelter, and good nutrition is helpful when they are under stress.”

At home, Keith lives not only with Nedley, but a cat and a cockatiel. But Nedley is the center of his world. “I play with Ned every day of my life because I care about him so much,” he writes in his Krusaders essay. “Sometimes I spend all weekend just us together and as I type this I am holding him.”

Keith loves helping animals, and may one day become a veterinarian. “It feels pretty good to win,” he says. “Dogs need care and stuff.”

“There are two types of people in the world, passive and active,” says Jessica Harris, head of adoptions at a Louisiana shelter, “passive who want to know what their community can do for them, and your active people wonder what they can do to better their community.”

Emma Foster, 13, is one of those active people.

Emma, a winner of Freekibble.com’s Kibble Krusaders Kontest, where kids were asked to write why their shelter was special, won $1,000 worth of Halo Dinner Party for Harris’s shelter, the St. Tammany Parish Humane Society in Covington. “I feel like I’ve actually done something that will contribute to the animals that people don’t usually think about,” says Emma, an eighth grader from Abita Springs. “I felt like a guardian angel when I got the email (that she won). They deserved some love, just like people do.”

In her essay to Freekibble.com founder Mimi Ausland, Emma writes of adopting her family dog Peppi — who she calls the “best dog we’ve had” — and how the shelter was inundated with pets following Hurricane Katrina, pets who still — after five years — need a loving home. “Most of the animals lost in Katrina were people’s pets, not strays… because of this, most of them were older, and are no longer wanted,” she writes. “STPHS does their hardest to make these pets feel like they are still loved, even if nobody wants them.” Click here to read Emma’s entire essay.

Emma herself has four dogs including Peppi, a chihuahua-papillon mix. “I don’t think he’s a dog, I think he’s a gremlin,” she says, laughing. “He is really cute.” She also has about seven cats, and plans on volunteering at the STPHS to earn service hours for school. Despite her love of animals, Emma plans on becoming a medical examiner, thanks to the hit TV show C.S.I.

Mimi received almost 500 Kibble Krusader entries, and picked Emma’s for its sincerity. “She put a personal note in there, that she got the best dog ever to her,” Mimi says. “You can tell that she took awhile to write it, and I love the hurricane Katrina part. This one stood out, it was a little more personal and I appreciated that.”

As does Harris. The STPHS has, on average, 100 dogs and 50 cats at a time. Harris says that the shelter pets “absolutely love” the Halo Dinner Party on their food, and she is sure they are grateful to Emma. “To write an essay to help their humane society goes above and beyond,” says Harris, “to put herself out there with the incentive to help the animals, not to help herself but to help the animals.”

Mimi Ausland, the tween rescue star and founder of Freekibble.com wrote about the wonderful Halo-sponsored Kibble Krusader Kontest on Petco’s blog.

Get the Scoop here (you have to read 12-year-old Keith Webster’s winning entry, one of five to win $1,000 worth of Halo Dinner Party for their favorite animal shelter).