“Shelters are one of the saddest places to walk into, but for really lucky people it can be one of the happiest places to walk back out of. Why? For those lucky people, like me, you find a best friend staring back at you from the inside of a cage.”

So writes 14-year-old Alexa Wirfs about finding her cat Chaz, a flame point Siamese, who had lived at SafeHaven Humane Society in Albany, Oregon. Alexa’s moving essay for Freekibble.com’s Kibble Krusaders Kontest made her shelter a winner of $1,000 worth of Halo Dinner Party.

“It feels really good to help the pets at the shelter,” she says. “I don’t know how I would feel day after day waiting to be taken home to a special place.”

Yet Alexa’s motivation to write the essay was not just to help the cats and dogs at SafeHaven. “I want to let other kids know,” she says, “that they can make their own difference in the world with animals.”

This sentiment clearly moved Christiana Gunderson, director of operations at SafeHaven. “It’s a big deal to us for a kid to take it upon herself to do this for the animals,” says Gunderson, whose shelter has over 1,200 dog and cat adoptions annually. “I think that was great.” Gunderson has set aside the Halo gift for “pets who are depressed or whose appetite is down,” she says. “I have a foster dog right now and put it on his food to entice him to eat.”

Alexa, a ninth-grader from Lebanon, Oregon, feels the pain of animals like Gunderson’s foster dog. Despite wanting to volunteer at her shelter, she finds it difficult to visit. “When I see the animals begging at their doors, I want to take them all home,” she says. “I say, ‘Mom, please let me take them home, they all need a home.’

“I don’t like seeing a hurt animal because it hurts me,” continues Alexa, who would love to find a job working with cats that pays well. “I’m a quiet person outward, but inward I want to doalot of things, I just don’t know where to start.”

Her freekibble.com essay, however, is a good start. Its ending — “The friendly staff and volunteers at SafeHaven complete families.” — won the heart of freekibble.com founder Mimi Ausland, 13.

“I love that last sentence, that really touched me and my mom and dad, that the friendly staff complete families, shelters like SafeHaven and other shelters do complete families,” says Mimi. “It makes you want to go to SafeHaven now, and see if you can find your new friend. It is really touching.”

Click here to read Alexa’s entire essay.

At the Homeless Animal Rescue Team shelter in Cumberland, Maine, some of the residents very well may live out their nine lives there. This cat-only, no-kill shelter is a haven for kitties with FIV, a disease that usually makes potential adopters shy away from bringing one home. H.A.R.T. has devoted an entire room for these kitties, who have their food issues. Says Max Christian, a 14-year-old volunteer at HART: “The FIV cats don’t eat alot.”

Max wrote an essay on why his shelter is special for the freekibble.com Kibble Krusaders Kontest, winning H.A.R.T $1000 worth of Halo Dinner Party, a present that immediately helped the picky eaters. “It was great to hear the FIV cats were eating more,” says Max of the felines feasting on their food once the sprinkles were added. “Alot of the cats are squeamish about eating and it was great to help make it more tasty. Even though they don’t know it, it felt good I could make them happy.”

Three years ago, Max, an eighth grader, started volunteering at H.A.R.T. with his dad. In his essay Max writes: “Why is my shelter special to me? Everything about H.A.R.T. is special to me, but there are certain things that can really bring warmth to your heart. For instance, when my Dad and I bent over to scoop litter, one of the cats thanked us by hopping up on our backs and purring.”

It was this image that grabbed the heart of freekibble.com founder Mimi Ausland, who picked five contest winners from almost 500 entries. “It shows he does the more dirty jobs like scooping jobs and I think it’s neat that his dad is volunteering with him, just like my mom and dad volunteer with me,” says Mimi. “Some parents don’t care as much.”

When Max first volunteered, his family had already adopted one cat from H.A.R.T., named Belly. But soon Belly would have company. Max and his family adopted two more kitties, Smitty and Mojo. (Max also has a golden retriever.) His jobs at the shelter include cleaning the rooms where the cats live and washing the furniture. “Afterwards is the best part,” says Max, “you can see the kitties you helped. I feel really good knowing knowing that they have those treats. They need it alot.”

Despite his love of animals, Max does not see a career in the field, instead aspiring to become an author. But he plans on continuing his every-other week volunteering stint at the shelter, helping the over 100 cats as best he can. Sometimes, at the end of his shift, it’s hard to close the door behind on H.A.R.T.’s residents. As Max writes: “I’ve had instances where I wish I could’ve adopted them all.”

November is Adopt-a-Senior Pet Month. Adult and senior pets give all the love and affection of younger pets…but often without the headache of training and accidents! If you, or someone you know, are looking to adopt, check out the ASPCA’s Top 10 reasons to adopt a senior.

Choosing Halo for your senior pet will get them started off on the right foot in their new home. Halo has several natural products and supplements for older pets to help them reach their optimal health level. Check out the Top 10 Secrets to Aging Gracefully and our informative article on aging and how to care for your senior pet.

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).

Eight year old Spencer Paige and his shelter dog Cuddles made the news after the boy’s entry was selected among five winners in the Halo-sponsored Kibble Krusaders Kontest run by Freekibble.com. We think there’s no better news to report than a young person working to help protect animals! His essay secured a $1,000 Halo donation for the Glynn County Animal Services in Florida.

See the whole story from our News page.