In a miraculous journey, Porsche the cat, who went missing during Hurricane Sandy last October, found his way back home to his family.

Uranie Roberts and her daughter Carol Baumann were stunned to hear Porsche meowing on their back deck last week. They hadn’t seen the black cat since October.

According to WCAU-TV in Philadelphia, the family had evacuated their Toms River, NJ home by boat during Hurricane Sandy. They took their beloved Porsche and went 8 miles inland to ride out the storm and its aftermath with relatives.

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The project’s creator, acclaimed filmmaker Steven Latham, wants to engage the public in finding solutions to put a stop to the nearly four million dogs and cats euthanized every year in the United States.

Actress and animal advocate Jane Lynch is hosting this episode of the one-hour, emotionally charged television special.

“Shelter Me: Let’s Go Home” features stories about shelter pets that went from rescued to rescuer. The episode follows individuals who have adopted shelter dogs and are now volunteering at a hospital.

Shelter Me also shares the dramatic rescue of homeless puppies, an innovative mobile spay/neuter clinic and a family adopting a beautiful cat at an animal shelter. Finally, the film also tells the amazing story about our hero firefighters who train shelter dogs for search-and-rescue.

“SHELTER ME: Let’s Go Home” will air in the following cities this week:

Columbus: WOSU
Sunday, May 19 at 5 p.m

Kentucky Educational Television
Monday, May 20 at 10 p.m.

Milwaukee: WMVT (channel 36.1)
Wednesday, May 21 at 9 p.m.

San Diego: KPBS
Wednesday, May 22 at 10 p.m.

OETA – The Oklahoma Network
Thursday, May 23 at 10 p.m.

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SHELTER ME, episode 2, is currently airing on PBS throughout the country. Here’s the schedule: 2013 Schedule – Episode 2

Angela McGhee, president of S.A.V.E. Rescue Coalition in Houston, Texas, knew Scotch, a gentle pit bull-lab mix she had in her care, would be a perfect family dog. She also knew that finding homes for pit bulls in Texas was not an easy thing to do. However, as she always does, she worked hard to find Scotch his forever home through a variety of channels, including Facebook.

She was surprised to receive a query from a woman in Bono, Arkansas. Melanie Leon was looking for a wonderful dog for her 11-year-old son, Gabe, who had undergone a heart transplant a year ago.

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“I can’t believe I have 19 million followers. If we all held hands, it would be really nice.”

Boy, that would be nice to hold hands with all 19 million followers!

In addition, Ellen also reached 10 million “Likes” on her Facebook page. Here’s what she had to say:

“Thank you to all of my 10 MILLION Facebook fans! It’s incredible. I appreciate each and everyone one of you so much. Especially my favorite. You know who you are.”

Ellen users her amazing social power for good and we are honored to participate in her posts about animal advocacy such as Redbox donating proceeds from “Shelter Me” rentals to the Halo Pet Foundation.

Make sure to get Ellen’s Twitter updates by following @TheEllenShow and “liking” her fan page at Facebook.com/EllenTV.

My book The Dog Bible explains why we have to consider kibble as only a part of our dog’s daily diet. If you are feeding dry food only, it’s important for your dog’s overall health and weight to reduce the amount of carbohydrates in their bowl and replace it with a protein source and some form of vegetables.

We know for ourselves that a balanced meal with a variety of items on our plate is healthier because we then get our nutrients from different sources. Eating in this balanced way can also keep us slimmer, rather than eating a diet that is carb-heavy. Dogs also need variety in their diet from a variety of sources..

If you take kibble as a foundation, then you can add whole, less-processed foods including protein and veggies. A great way to do that is to feed about half the amount of kibble you usually feed and then add some protein like meat, fish, cottage cheese or eggs – and a variety of cooked or raw vegetables, too. Halo’s Spot’s Stew in a can is a perfect way to do this because you can rotate different proteins and all the recipes include whole cooked vegetables just the way a stew for people would – and you don’t have to worry about supplementing the diet to make it balanced.

What I have done for years is to use Halo kibble as the foundation of my dogs’ dinner, rotating proteins so I serve a different one with each new bag. Many friends and radio listeners who have switched to Halo because of its superior recipes, have also discovered that they need to feed smaller quantities because it is made from such nutritious ingredients that you need less of it to satisfy hunger. This means they are lowering their dog’s “carbo paw print” and in so doing are reducing one of the possible causes of obesity.

Less carbs overall means less kibble. Feeding a “grain free” kibble does not solve the problem because all kibble is carb-heavy by its very nature. All kibble has to begin as a dough of some kind, before it can become the kibbled shape.

Just as people gain weight from eating foods that are heavy in carbs, so does a dog pack on the pounds when his diet does not have enough quality protein to balance the carbohydrate load. Many of the successful diets for humans depend on reducing carbohydrates and increasing protein – to lower that “carbo pawprint” for your dog, give the High Protein idea a test run on your dog. I’ll bet you’ll be trying it soon on yourself!

The Halo Pet Foundation is dedicated to supporting shelters and rescues and best of all, 100% of foundation funds go to help pets! For more information please visit: “Shelter Me”.

When Andrew Trotto, U.S. Army, 168th Combat Action Battalion, came home from Iraq, he was struggling with anxiety, depression and anger. Over time, his post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) grew to the point that he didn’t know how he’d survive another day. But a sweet rescue dog named Teka changed all that and gave him a reason to live.

Although Trotto was struggling with PTSD, he didn’t know where to turn. “I was a machine,” he says. “It’s hard to ask for help when you’re in that kind of position.”

Click for here to ready the complete story.

We are happy to announce that animal advocate and Halo co-owner Ellen DeGeneres made Yahoo’s recent list of 11 Celebrities Who Speak for Animals. Here’s what they had to say about Ellen:

“DeGeneres is an avid animal lover; she has said she wanted to be a veterinarian when she was a kid. The star is the co-owner of Halo, Purely for Pets, a pet care company that offers a holistic approach to pet products.

Her animal activism has extended to Facebook – in the fall of 2012, the comedian launched a Facebook game called Joy Kingdom where players can choose to donate earned currency to animal charities.”

Other animal-loving celebrities who made the list are Bob Barker, Betty White, Kristen Bell and Sarah McLachlan.

For blog readers, newsletter subscribers, Twitter followers and Facebook fans only, we’re happy to offer this month’s store coupons for Halo products!

Remember, these coupons are only valid at stores where Halo is sold.

For Halo store locations, enter your zip/postal code here. Products sell out fast, so please call ahead to make sure your nearest retailer has what you need (if not, they can usually order it for you quickly).

In a story originally shared by Fox 59 in Indianapolis, four kittens were born on the front porch of a local couple, right before an early spring blizzard brought more than nine inches of snow to the area.

The couple found the kittens on their porch, alone, and brought them inside to care for them. Little did they know it would be their Dachshund, JoJo, who would do much of the caretaking!

Click here to read the complete story.

I have done that ever since I finished writing THE DOG BIBLE and THE CAT BIBLE and then developed my platform as a radio producer and host, first on DOG TALK on NPR, then on CAT CHAT on SiriusXM and now on the wide range of programs I co-host on the Radio Pet Lady Network. I take my position of influence very seriously and am both honored and humbled that people listen and care about what I have to say and the experts I offer to them on the air and on my websites. I view it as a privilege and pleasure to be trusted to educate and inspire pet owners and improve the health and quality of life for their dogs and cats.

I also have a weekly podcast on the website of the Humane Society of the United States which is called HUMANE TALK – which are discussions every week with Wayne Pacelle, the CEO of HSUS, which is an honor in itself that this incredibly passionate and dedicated animal welfare advocate takes the time to create these recorded conversations with me about issues affecting all animals around the planet. In consider myself lucky to be “keeping company” by someone with Wayne’s intelligence, compassion, humor and a lifetime of being true to what he believes and wants to achieve for all creatures on the planet.

There is somebody else who values his ideals and ideas as much as I do – maybe more so – and her name is Ellen DeGeneres. Just last week she invited Wayne back on her wonderful ELLEN show because he reached out and said there as an urgent bill coming up in Washington that would put a stop to cruel practices of “soring” inflicted on Tennessee Walking horses. Ellen made time for him on short notice so that her millions of followers could learn about this pending legislation and call or write their representatives to help get the bill passed.

Ellen’s devotion to animal welfare issues is legendary, and Wayne Pacelle quite rightly called her “the foremost celebrity or public figure speaking up for animal welfare issues.” He also gratefully pointed out it was the fifth time Ellen had invited him on her show – showing that she, too, believes that the company you keep matters and the things that are important always come first.

Ellen went an incredible step further and said that if 25,000 people shared her interview with Wayne from her Facebook page that she would donate $25,000 to the HSUS for this initiative. The minute I read Wayne’s blog about his visit to ELLEN I rushed to her FB page to do as she asked and hope to help make this goal possible – but found that within hours (minutes?) the number had already surpassed 25,000 and to my delight I was just another person happy to be judged by the company I was keeping – with both of them, but also with all the legions of pet lovers around the country who share Wayne Pacelle and Ellen’s dedication.

There’s another “company I keep” and that is HALO. Ellen owns part of it. She gives away a lot of it. She cares about what goes into the food and she cares about the health of everyone’s pets, not just her own menagerie. She’s a truly amazing lady, and this wonderful company she is part of makes me proud to be keeping company with them.

Tracie Hotchner, author of The Dog Bible and The Cat Bible, guest blogs here every Thursday on healthy, natural choices for pets.