In an RV on the streets of Monrovia, California lives a 90-pound dog named Jack and his owner, Brian Blundell, who always made sure his pup was fed, either by sharing his food or finding some dog food at the 99 cent store. In the three years he’s been homeless, Blundell never imagined life without Jack.

“You can’t give up your dog,” said Blundell, 54, who was in the window covering business for 30 years before a variety of circumstances left him homeless three years ago. “I wasn’t going to give up what I don’t have to.”

Blundell, who works one day a week, began receiving weekly food from the Foothill Unity Center, a busy food pantry. In March, Foothill began distributing dog and cat food to its clients with pets, some who had to give their dog or cat to a shelter because they couldn’t afford to feed them.

When animal lover and Halo co-owner Ellen DeGeneres visited the center on April 19th as part of a segment for American Idol’s ‘Idol Gives Back,’ “she said, ‘Oh, we need to get them a donation from Halo,’” recalls Joan Whitenack, Foothill’s executive director.

In May, Halo sent 5,000 meals for clients’ cats and dogs; Jack is one of the lucky recipients. “Yeah, he does like the Halo, he eats that right up,” says Blundell. “(The donation) really helped me out.”

Last year, Foothill distributed 4 million pounds of food to 4,000 different families. “Many of our families have lost their jobs, are going through foreclosures,” says Whitenack. “We became aware that the pet shelters were literally overflowing because people couldn’t feed their pets. The pet food bank is a beautiful thing because families are now not having to make a choice between spending the little bit of money they have on utilities or feeding their kids or feeding their pets.”

The Halo food is being distributed at the centers’ two sites, in Pasadena and Monrovia. “Our motto is serving people with love and dignity,” says Whitenack, “and allowing people to be able to feed their pets and keep their pets.”

A calico cat named Calico and a dark chocolate kitty named Meeko owned by Ellen Cotacachi, 48, are enjoying their Halo. “Having the cat food available has been a huge help,” says Cotacachi, 48, a married mother of three. The food she bought from the 99 cent store made one of her cats sick, so she cut back on other items to buy better quality cat food. “I would not give my cats up,” she says. “We would just buy it and struggle.”

But thanks to the pet food bank, that worry no longer exists. “We couldn’t do anything nicer for them,” says Whitenack. “People are thrilled with it, they’re very grateful. Where else can people go who are low income to get help to feed their animals? I see it as something that is very special.”

Click here to see the American Idol segment with Ellen and the Foothill Unity Center.

by Beth Zimmerman
Executive Director, Pets for Patriots

As anyone who has ever owned a dog or cat will tell you, pets have amazing impacts on our lives. They comfort us when we’re feeling down, make us smile with their playful antics, and even upset us sometimes when we think they’re misbehaving. Think of your favorite pair of shoes that, to your dog, looks like the perfect chew toy; how would he know they cost a month’s worth of kibble?

For most of us, pets add meaning to our lives. But for others, a pet can deliver a greater sense of purpose and provide a real lifeline to someone in need.

Pets for Patriots is a 501(c)(3) charity build around the simple premise that in one single act we could save two lives. We connect hard-to-adopt shelter animals that are otherwise destined to die – adult dogs and cats, large dogs and special needs pets – with veterans, soldiers in transition and wounded soldiers who would benefit from a companion animal. But we don’t stop there.

To help ensure that these adoptions are sustainable and that, once adopted, these new best friends aren’t sent back to a shelter, we provide access to reduced cost care for the life of the adopted dog or cat. It is in this spirit that we value our partnership with HALO for Pets, which is providing generous, ongoing pet food discounts to veterans who join our free program. Coupled with access to reduced cost veterinary care, we believe we’re building a strong foundation towards our ultimate goal of ending animal homelessness through military pet adoptions.

Today there are over 23 million veterans at various ages and stages of their lives. For many returning Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), traumatic brain injury and other psychological illness often accompany their more visible physical wounds. Incidents of alcoholism, substance abuse and even domestic violence are not uncommon in soldiers who are trying to cope with the realities of war. Veterans of prior conflicts aren’t immune to these challenges, either, although the sheer number of newly returning veterans with significant disabilities is daunting.

These issues, and the more typical feelings of isolation that often mark a soldier’s return to civilian life can make re-integrating to society very difficult. There is help available – and it has four paws, whiskers and a tail.

The benefits of companion pets are real and proven. People feel less lonely and depressed in the company of an animal, and many pet owners say they feel as close to their dog or cat as they do to the human members of their family. Pets have great physical benefits, too. They boost our general activity and motility, reduce cholesterol, blood pressure and triglyceride levels, and even help heart attack victims recovery more quickly.

For our veterans, a pet might be their most trusted friend. Dogs and cats are great listeners; with them our soldiers can confidently share stories of their service, secrets they keep from loved ones or unspoken fears. And the commitment required to care for a pet can restore a sense of purpose for a veteran who might have wondered if he or she still has a reason to live.

Pets for Patriots helps these heroes find their new pet friends through partnerships with not-for-profit shelters in their own communities. We provide educational information, access to reduced cost care and products and, in time, we plan to offer discounts for other pet-related resources in veterans’ neighborhoods. We’re all about helping veterans stay connected or even reintegrate with those around them, which is why our community-based model is at the core of our mission.

While it’s important to know what we are, it’s just as important to know what we’re not. Our organization does not provide service animals, and veterans whose needs require a specially trained pet will find that we’re not the right fit for them. But for those men and women who are coping with moderate physical or psychological issues, who are feeling lonely or isolated, who want a pet to help fill the void in their family when they are deployed, or who simply want the unconditional love and companionship of a dog or cat, we stand ready to help. It’s not just our mission, it’s our passion.

Living the first months of his life in squalid conditions, Becker the white Chihuahua wanted for everything. His front paws were grossly deformed, he had pneumonia, incontinence, was skinny and had a bad liver. When she first saw him, Palena Dorsey recalls, “He was a real mess.” At Dorsey’s rescue in Clewiston, Florida — Sanctuary Animal Refuge — Becker began to gain health, so much so that the 10-month-old can now romp with his pal, an Australian Shepherd. “He is doing so well,” says Dorsey, who attributes Becker’s phenomenal turnaround to canned chicken Halo Spot’s Stew, a high-quality food with a low protein concentration that she explained is what Becker needs to eat to manage his liver shunt, a blood vessel that carries blood around the liver rather than through it. “He is not incontinent anymore, he is alert, that is all thanks to Halo. I’ve never seen anything like Halo.”

And the abandoned, oftentimes crippled animals at Sanctuary Animal Refuge have certainly never met a kinder human than Dorsey. “Palena and her efforts have literally saved thousands of animals,” says Kelly Ausland, whose daughter Mimi’s site Freekibble.com supplies the sanctuary its food each month. And it is Dorsey who Halo and Freekibble.com turned to to help distribute 160,000 meals of canned and dry Halo Spot’s Stew and 10,000 jars of Liv-a-Little Beef Sprinkles to over 40 rescues in Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, Florida, and Virginia in 2009 and 2010. (See list below.) Already this year, Halo and Freekibble.com have donated 181,000 meals, many with Palena’s help. “My belief,” says Dorsey, “is that each rescue must support each other.”

Helping began at a young age. At the age of 4, Dorsey found a bird whose nest had fallen. She brought him home, brought him back to health, and thus began a life-long passion. “I was always bringing animals home,” says Dorsey, 58. “I had to walk a mile to get to the school bus and people would dump cats, kittens, dogs. I found a skunk and took it home; the vet deodorized it.”

Nine years ago, Dorsey, a legal secretary, moved to Florida from Virginia, and started her dream of a sanctuary on five acres of land. Within a week, Dorsey went from having five dogs to 40, claiming she had never seen such mistreatment of animals. “I was just appalled.” Dorsey picked up dogs from the road, rescued them from puppy mills. Her special fondness is for pit bulls (she has 78), a breed that is oftentimes misunderstood as vicious and hard to adopt to good homes, and for dogs with special needs.

Through the years, Dorsey recognized that what’s best for the animals is working hand-in-hand with other rescues. “I am nothing but one small grain of sand in a vast ocean of need,” Dorsey says. “All of us who rescue are simply single grains of sand that create the shore for lost souls to wash up on.”

When Dorsey sees a plea from a shelter for help in taking its dogs before they are euthanized, she taps into her vast network of rescue contacts to try and help. What is brought to her doorstep is oftentimes heart-wrenching. There is Brownie, who was shot, poisoned and beaten with a sledge hammer, and in need of surgery due to a bullet in his jaw. Or Slade, a full-grown Doberman who was 56 pounds when Dorsey welcomed him from Georgia around Christmas. His case was more easily solved: Dorsey fed him only Halo, and Slade has grown to 105 pounds. “When I got him,” she says, “he was nothing.”

Several years ago, Dorsey heard about the then fledgling website Freekibble.com that was created by Mimi Ausland, then 11, to help the many shelters facing food shortages. “The ability to have food donated each month is like walking down a dirt road and finding a million dollars,” Dorsey wrote to Mimi two years ago. “Most of the animals we take in are the worst of the worst and stay with us for some time before we can even consider adopting them out. They deserve a chance to find happiness from their lives of abuse and neglect and we give it to them.”

This email, from the hundreds of shelters requesting kibble donations, captured the attention of Mimi, now 14, and her dad, Kelly. “It was immediately clear that she was a special person,” says Kelly, “and doing amazing work at Sanctuary Animal Rescue.” That letter led to Freekibble.com becoming the sole provider of food for Sanctuary Animal Rescue’s almost 200 animals. “Palena cares deeply and works tirelessly to save as many animals as she possibly can,” says Kelly. “It truly is her life’s mission.”

Superior Mutts, Orlando, Florida
Second Chance Rescue, Bunnell, Florida
Akita Rescue of Florida, Jacksonville, FL.
Pet Rescue of Jax, Jacksonville, FL
Cocker Rescue of Florida., Ft Laurderdale Florida
Friends of Jackson Humane Jacksonville, FL
Humane Society of Inverness, Inverness FL
Tri-County Humane Society, Boca Raton, FL
Humane Society of Sumpter City, Lake Panasofkkee, FL
Humane Society of Dixie County, Old Town, FL
Sanctuary Animal Refuge, Clewiston, FL
Octavio Foundation, The Grove, FL
Sabbath Rescue, Miami, FL
Susies Animal Protection Rescue, Miami, FL
Lee Morrison Rescue, Miami, FL
Life Line Pet Project, Avondale Estates, GA
Paulding Humane Society, Dallas, GA
Friend to the Forlorn Pitbull , Dallas, GA
Karen and the Ark, Marietta, GA
Angel Dog Rescue, Georgetown, GA
Laurie Montfort Rural Rescue, Cuthbert, GA
Deb Woods Rescue, Marietta, GA
Donna’s House of Foster, Stockbridge, GA
Boston Rescue, E. Tennessee, Carterville, TN
Etowah Humane Society, Carterville, TN
Douglas County Humane, Douglasville, GA
Jennifer’s Rescue, Atlanta, GA
Boston Rescue Atlanta, Atlanta, GA
Furr Kids of Atlanta, Atlanta, GA
Ellen Olander Foster Rescue, Atlanta, GA
Kevin and Jim Foster Rescue, Atlanta, GA
Allysen Fosters of Love, Allysen, SC
Animal Rescue of Pickens County Pickens SC
Dogs and Cats Forever, Port St Lucie, Florida
Clayton County Humane Society, Clayton, GA
Bark and Ride, Rocky Face, GA

It’s the second time Ellen and Halo have been the subject of a Tails cover. The new article, entitled, “Special Delivery,” is written by Tails Editor in Chief Amy Abern, and touts Halo’s philanthropy, Ellen’s commitment to animal welfare, and the new Tails Letters for Pets program.

You can pick up Tails magazine at pet stores throughout Boston, Florida, Chicago, Cincinnati, Denver, Indianapolis, Los Angeles, Louisville, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Portland, San Antonio, San Jose, St. Louis, and Washington, DC.

Click over to our news page to see the whole story.

About 1 1/2 years ago, Halo donated a generous amount of Spot’s Stew to the Pet Adoption League. The dogs had never eaten Spot’s Stew before and were excited over how appetizing the food smelled and tasted. They eagerly awaited their breakfast and dinner every day! The volunteers began to notice a change in the dogs overall appearance and behavior. The dog’s coats looked healthier, and their energy levels dramatically increased. It was a wonderful experience to see the difference that human grade, high quality food can make in an animal’s life! Thank you Halo (and Ellen) for making people aware of all the homeless shelter animals!

Here’s some more about Pet Adoption League.

The Pet Adoption League is a non-profit, completely volunteer animal rescue organization that was established December 1937 and incorporated January 1958. PAL services the Northwest NJ area and beyond. We are not a shelter, but a no-kill rescue group. We always have a variety of dogs and cats in our care, most of which were rescued from pounds. We also assist pet owners in finding homes for pets they can no longer keep. We hold weekly pet adoptions at local establishments and we find homes for all our animals – no matter how long it takes!

PAL is run completely by volunteers; all working together in pursuit of one goal – animal rescue. There are so many ways you can help us to help the animals too! We always need help with baking and staffing our tables at our Bake Sales. Volunteers are also needed for fundraising, public relations, marketing, applying for grants, fostering, and working with the dog and cats! We also need your donations.

Every dollar we take in benefits our animals in some way. All of our expenses go towards veterinary care, boarding, advertising for our adoptions and fundraisers, and the upkeep of our PAL vans. It takes an average of $10 per day to care for an animal in a kennel. When a pet is adopted out through PAL, we ask for a modest donation, which doesn’t come close to offset the veterinary costs and care for the animals. To raise money, we rely upon private donations and fundraisers such as our monthly bake sales, annual Tricky Tray and Yard Sale, and a variety of other special fundraising events.

The PAL volunteers and homeless pets truly appreciate your interest in our league! Your thoughtfulness will help give a brighter future to those dogs and cats in need. We can be found at www.palpets.org.

We can’t do it alone!