Troublesome Toby continues to teach me each and every day.

Meet Toby, a.k.a the Tobes Man, the Tobester, America's Fat Cat and Mr. Man. Toby, my 10-year-old, 15-lb. Maine Coon mix, my problem child, is the reason I'm here at Petfinder.

While I've had the honor of caring for many wonderful pets in my life, it's the one who made things the hardest that turned my life-long passion for animals into a profession.

It all started as my first foray into foster care. I'd recently adopted the sweetest little Domestic Short Hair/Tortie, Kura, and felt the need to help some of the many other homeless cats that I saw at the shelter. So I called the adoption group and arranged to take in a foster for a week: Toby.

Right from the beginning Toby, then one year old, was different. As soon as I got him home he immediately strutted around the house, seeking out people to literally paw for attention. There was no way we could give him up. Thus Toby became my first and only "failed" foster.

It wasn't until about a week after the adoption that the trouble began. I went back to school.

Almost every summer, Carol goes out on the porch of her remote rural home and discovers an unfamiliar feline face. Another cat or kitten has been thoughtlessly abandoned during the night.

Carol is a senior citizen, and all of her own cats are fixed. Her income is fixed as well, and she has no money for vet visits for new cats.

Yet the abandonment continues.

I volunteer with a feral-cat trap/neuter/return group in addition to my job with Petfinder. We helped neuter Carol's outdoor cats in 2002 (all of them were offspring of cats abandoned on her property), so luckily we are there to help when new cats appear in her life. When my phone rang this Sunday, the news was particularly bad: Two female cats and three tiny kittens (pictured) had been left at Carol's door.

Abandonment of domestic animals is illegal. In New York State it is punishable by up to a $1,000 fine or a year in prison. However, it's hard to catch someone who merely slows down and tosses a cat alongside a country road or leaves a box of kittens at a campground.

If you wander outside one day with your morning coffee and are greeted by the forlorn mews of an abandoned cat or kittens, you might be tempted to hope they will just "go away." However, ignoring them will only make the situation worse. A dumped pregnant cat may shortly have kittens beneath your porch. Healthy kittens, abandoned without their mother, will soon starve or become ill or injured.

Gracie and Ann Marie's 2-year-old granddaughter are "instant best friends." Read Ann Marie's story.

Shortly after Ann Marie Gonzales of Espanola, N.M., moved to the country, her two dogs got out of her walled yard while she was at work.

When she arrived home that day, she found her Pit Bull mix Nakita, "the most beautiful, loving, loyal animal you could ever meet," dead, lying beside the wall.

"I think when the neighbors saw her, all they saw was a Pit Bull and they didn't [want to] take a chance that she wasn't there to eat the cows or sheep. They just shot at her and killed her."

Eventually, Ann Marie began browsing on Petfinder, just looking, not sure she was ready to chance such a heartbreaking loss again.

Then one day she was having computer problems, and when she rebooted a picture of a dog came up. "I clicked on it, thinking it was odd that of all the past viewings for my computer to save, it would be one of a dog," Ann Marie says.

On Aug. 12, Petfinder and shelters and rescue groups across the country celebrated Adopt-A-Less-Adoptable-Pet Day, a day we designated to give all those pets who are often overlooked a chance to shine.

Here are just a few ways adoption groups put their extra-special pets in the spotlight -- and found new homes for some of them as well:

Three New Jersey rescue groups, Friends of Homeless Animals in Hawthorne, Here Kitty Kitty! in Paterson and Angels of Animals in Clifton teamed up to do a joint ALAP Day adoption weekend at the PETCO in Clifton. Senior cat Izzy, who'd been waiting for her forever home for way too long, found that home thanks to ALAP Day!

Our friends at The Grey Muzzle Organization, which helps at-risk senior dogs by providing funding and resources to animal shelters, rescue groups, sanctuaries and other non-profits nationwide, added our senior-pet search widget to their Web site, GreyMuzzle.org.

Washington's Seattle Animal Shelter got the story of Adopt-A-Less-Adoptable-Pet Day out to local media and bloggers. As a result, five "less adoptable" pets found new homes, including two Pit Bulls with special needs!

Michael and Alicia Stiteler of La Verne, Calif., wanted to adopt a puppy and they found just the one, an Australian Shepherd mix, on Petfinder, listed by Chihuahua Haven Rescue. It was their dream come true, but it ended abruptly when they got him home.

Brian, as they named him, cried and cried and cried. "The first few nights with a crying puppy ... were pure chaos," Alicia says. "We started regretting our decision and wondering if we had done the right thing. They decided to return him and called the rescue.

"We held each other and sobbed," Alicia says. "We felt guilty for taking on a responsibility we couldn't handle."

And then fate stepped in. It snowed where they were to meet the rescue person, and she asked if they could wait a week. Soon, Alicia says, "we realized that Brian ... was just trying to get used to his new 'digs' ... by the end of the week, we knew Brian wasn't going anywhere."

As you may have heard, convicted dogfighter Michael Vick has signed a two-year deal with the Philadelphia Eagles.

Vick served 23 months in federal prison on charges of conspiracy and running a dogfighting operation. Announcing the deal, Eagles coach Andy Reid told reporters: "I'm a believer that as long as people go through the right process, they deserve a second chance."

While the dogs killed by Vick's dogfighting associates and Vick himself, as several commenters have pointed out will never get their own second chance, many of the Pit Bulls rescued from Bad Newz Kennels have. For some of their stories, check out
the incredible work done by BAD RAP in Oakland, CA.

But they're not the only Pits in need. There are at this moment 11,751 Pit Bull Terriers and 3,851 American Staffordshire Terriers available for adoption on Petfinder.

How can you help?
 

• Adopt a Pit Bull. I am a proud rescued-Pit parent, as are my mother, several coworkers and many of my neighbors. They are devoted, affectionate and joy-inducing pets with as great a range in personality as any other breed. As with dogs of any breed, not every Pit is perfect for every family. Read more about things to think about if you're thinking of adopting a Pit Bull after the jump.
• Volunteer with Pit Bulls. At many city shelters, Pits and Pit mixes make up the overwhelming majority of the canine residents, and because Pits have been bred to bond closely with humans, the isolation of shelter life is particularly hard for them. You can visit the shelter to help exercise and socialize the dogs; open your home to a foster dog; photograph and write bios for local adoptable dogs' Petfinder profiles; start a bedding drive at your office to collect old blankets and towels to donate ... the possibilities are endless. For more ideas, read our article on volunteering or visit BAD RAP's How You Can Help page.
• Educate others about Pit Bulls. Once you've fallen in love with a Pit (and to know one is to love one), you'll start to notice how many offhand Pit-Bull stereotypes people throw around in everyday conversation (and I'm not just talking about Sarah Palin). Learn the facts about Pits and you'll be able to shoot down the myths (no, they do not have locking jaws). Some great resources include Petfinder's book The Adopted Dog Bible (you'll find an excerpt, Pit Bulls: The Myths, the Legends, the Reality, after the jump), as well as BAD RAP's Monster Myths page, Pit Bull Rescue Central's breed info page and Animal Farm Foundation's Fear vs. Fact document. (All three sites are excellent, and I'd encourage you to click around on them.)

A Pit Bull's best friend is the responsible dog owner who allows the well-socialized, happy Pit to be an ambassador for the breed. Unlike Michael Vick, Pit Bulls don't need a multi-million-dollar contract. A loving home, a warm dog bed and plenty of pets are the second chance they need -- and deserve.

Ever wondered who's behind Petfinder and how Petfinder came to be? Check out this article in Guideposts magazine by our founder, Betsy Saul, in which she tells the story of Petfinder's beginnings.

All of us who work here have heard the story many times, but I remember before I got this job, Petfinder and its origins were a huge mystery to me.

Here's my favorite passage:

In those early days, my biggest struggle was hearing heartbreaking stories about abused or abandoned animals. The pup who was left tied to a lamp post in a thunderstorm. The dog who almost ran into traffic trying to escape some mean kids throwing rocks at him. ...

Then a few months into our project, something changed. Somehow my perspective shifted. I started to see the hopeful side of those sad stories, like the woman who chased off the mean kids and coaxed the dog into her car, or the vet who stayed after hours to patch up a street cat who'd been injured, or the family who adopted an abused dog and lovingly taught her to trust again.

Read the full story here.

It's always a privilege to meet with Petfinder shelters and adoption groups to learn about their work. When the Hedgehog Welfare Society invited Petfinder to the Eastern States Hedgehog Show near Albany, NY, I happily whistled my dog Molly into the navigator's seat of my truck and drove up to the beautiful Schoharie Valley to learn about our prickliest pets.

My introduction to hedgehogs came the first night in the relaxation meditation session for hedgehogs and their humans, led by author Dawn Wrobel. Yes, I got to meditate with hedgehogs!

However, when I walked in, there was not a hedgehog to be seen. Everyone was already seated in a circle, and each human participant had a brightly colored cloth bag on their lap. Now and then a bag would give a twitch or a lurch, and I realized these little sacks were the warm, dark and comfortable mode of transportation for well-loved hedgehogs on the go.

We are always looking for new voices to help engage, educate and inform our readers.

We regularly highlight animal-welfare professionals and other guest bloggers who have unique perspectives on pet adoption and care.

What we are looking for:

• Pet-care tips and tricks
• Ideas for pet lovers and advocates
• Top 10 lists
• Inspirational adoption campaigns or news
• Problems solved and how you solved them
• Pet-related pictures and video
• Useful, helpful or engaging information
  
• Content that reflects on a previous Petfinder blog post
  
• The sky's the limit! Just stick to your area of expertise.
  

If you can share your insights with us in 800 words or fewer, please e-mail us at "Jane (at) Petfinder dot-com."

We will follow up with our guidelines for guest posts and how material should be submitted for consideration.

We look forward to hearing from you!

I was in Maryland this past weekend visiting my parents. I hadn't even gotten to their house yet when I saw a collarless stray dog dodging traffic. MAN, people who keep driving really make me mad!

I pulled over and called to the dog. She came running right over, apparently grateful to get out of the traffic. I popped my emergency collar on her and she settled in my air-conditioned car and seemed to wonder where we were going next.

I wondered that myself. My parents are fiercely protective of their spoiled-rotten cats, so taking her there long-term didn't seem like a good idea. Plus, this was going to make me late for dinner, and that always ruins Dad's mood.

I called my friend and colleague, Kim Saunders, back in New Jersey and asked her to e-mail a list of local Petfinder rescue-group members to my phone so I could seek help. In the meantime, I stopped by the local Banfield pet hospital to see if the dog might have a microchip. Thus begins the real adventure.