Petfinder Blog

Hunger Games fever is everywhere -- even at your local animal shelter! This weekend, after you've seen the movie, visit Petfinder and think about adopting one of the many adorable homeless pets with names inspired by characters in the popular series.

Meet a sampling of them here:

Gale
Meet all adoptable pets named Gale

Like his best friend Katniss, Gale is a survivor hoping for a better life -- just like the 12 adoptable Gales (nine cats and three dogs) posted on Petfinder today. One of them is pictured at right. His description reads, "I'm Gale Hawthorne, named for the young hunter from the Hunger Games! See me slinking about the bathroom -- I'm just about invisible, aren't I? Well, I am trying to be, but it's hard when you are this handsome!" After the jump: Meet adoptable Katnisses, Peetas and more!

Did you know that all the animals featured on Animal Planet's Puppy Bowl are Petfinder alumni? That means all the puppy players, all the kittens in the kitten halftime show -- and even this year's new piggy pep squad and the bird who will be "tweeting" the action -- came from Petfinder shelters and rescue groups.

Puppy Bowl VIII airs Sunday, Feb. 5 from 3-5 p.m. ET/PT -- but you can visit AnimalPlanet.com for a sneak peek at this year's starting lineup, including Brandy (right).

As we were last year, associate producer Jane Harrell and I were lucky enough to meet all of this year's puppies (check back here on game day for exclusive behind-the-scenes photos).

The puppies are just as cute in person as they are on TV. But the real MVPs are the adoption group staff and volunteers who travel to New York City from as far away as Texas and California to show millions of viewers the adorable pets waiting to meet them at shelters and rescue groups!

After the jump: See all the adoption groups who brought pets to Puppy Bowl.

Don't take it personally if you apply to adopt a dog and the shelter or rescue group requires a home visit. Even George Clooney got one.

The actor tells Esquire he adopted his Cocker Spaniel mix, Einstein, from a shelter a year and a half ago.

So I go online and see Einstein. They had a whole film about him. It was actually really sweet. You see him all beat up and [stuff] in the shelter, and they show how they cleaned him up. God, I love this dog. So I called and said, "I like Einstein!"

The woman goes, "Well, we don't know if Einstein will like you."

"Well, can I meet with Einstein?"

"Yes, we'll bring him to your house, but if he doesn't like you, he can't stay. We have to have good homes for these dogs." She sounded very serious. (Read the full article.)

After the jump: Find out how George won Einstein over, plus: A pic of George with his pup.

Teen superstars Selena Gomez and Justin Bieber recently adopted a dog from a Canadian shelter, PEOPLEPets reports.

The shelter, D'Arcy's A.R.C. (Animal Rescue Center) in Winnipeg, still has 43 adoptable pets posted on Petfinder, including Bradley Cooper (pictured).

Gomez and Bieber are both longtime pet-adoption advocates -- she has five rescued dogs and he has filmed several pro-adoption PSAs for PETA.

Their newest family member is a 10-week-old Husky mix they named Baylor. The couple fell in love with him during a visit to the shelter while Gomez was in Winnipeg for a concert.

"They spent a lot of time with the puppies,"
the organization's CEO, D'Arcy Johnston, told PEOPLE. "I was told that [Gomez] was missing the dogs that she has at home."

Still, Johnston was surprised when the singer decided to adopt Baylor on the spot. Gomez was screened like any other adopter and took the puppy with her that day. (Visit PEOPLEPets.com for a photo of her and Baylor taken in London, Ontario.)

Our friends at Animal Planet are running a contest: Puppies vs. Babies. Voting begins Oct. 22 and in the end, the top puppy and baby will go head-to-head in a battle of the cutest. Submit a photo of your canine or human cutie and you could win $5,000!

While my 11-year-old Pit Bull is no longer a puppy and my 23-month-old daughter is now more toddler than baby, the contest got me thinking back to how being a pet parent was in some ways good practice for having a newborn.

So if you're a pet parent considering having kids, take heart: You're more prepared than you think. Here's why:

You're already responsible for another life. For petless folks, having a baby represents a big loss of freedom -- no more spontaneous weekends in Paris (well, okay, my life was never like that, but it's nice to think someone's is!). But if you have a pet, you're used to thinking about someone else when you make plans.

You understand non-verbal communication. A newborn is a bundle of needs -- for food, sleep, comfort and going to the bathroom -- with no language to express them. Sound familiar? Pet parents have already learned the subtle art of reading body language, a skill that persists regardless of whether that body is furry and four-legged or otherwise.

Trick or (doggy) treat? Enter for a chance to win an adorable Animal Planet costume for your pup just in time for Halloween. One winner will be selected per day through Oct. 21! (Read the official rules.)

Just click this link to enter:
Even if you don't win, you can still purchase these costumes online at DiscoveryStore.com's Halloween Store or PartyCity.com.

Best of all, a portion of proceeds from the sale of the Animal Planet pet costumes benefits Animal Planet's R.O.A.R. (Reach Out. Act. Respond.) program, whose non-profit partners include the Petfinder.com Foundation. So you and your dog can enjoy the Halloween treats and help homeless pets at the same time!

After the jump: See more of the adorable doggie Halloween costumes that Animal Planet is giving away.

All this week we've been talking about the many great less-adoptable pets in shelters and rescue groups. But the truth is, any pet is less-adoptable if potential adopters can't see his or her wonderful qualities.

And the easiest way to show off a pet's sparkling personality is with a great photo. That's why one of the best ways you can volunteer is by taking photos of homeless pets for their Petfinder profiles.

Gizmodo has the story of (and a video about) Teresa Berg, a professional photographer who volunteers with Dallas-Fort Worth Dachshund Rescue Foundation. Berg's photos helped the organization double its adoption rate.

"We would cut foster care from three to six months down to eight weeks," Berg told CBS Dallas-Fort Worth. "That made me feel good." She now trains others in the art of photographing shelter pets.

Pets who especially benefit from thoughtful photographs include cats and black dogs. After the jump: Some of our favorite blog posts with tips on photographing shelter pets.

A cat who went missing from her family's home in Colorado has turned up five years later -- in New York City. And it's all thanks to the lucky cat's microchip.

The cat, a calico named Willow, got out after contractors left a door open during a home renovation. Her family, the Squires, posted signs and an online "lost pet" ad, but eventually assumed she'd been killed by coyotes.

But last week, Willow was found wandering a Manhattan street and brought to Animal Care & Control of NYC, where her microchip was scanned. AC&C staffers called Willow's family immediately.

The Associated Press reports:

[Jamie] Squires and her husband, Chris, were "shocked and astounded" when they got a call Wednesday from Animal Care & Control, which runs New York City's animal rescue and shelter system.

Willow had been found on East 20th Street by a man who took her to a shelter.

"My husband said, 'Don't say anything to the kids yet. We have to make sure,'" Squires said. "But then we saw the picture, and it was Willow. It's been so long."

We'll never know how Willow ended up in New York, but there's no doubt why she'll go home: Because her family had her implanted with a microchip and made sure they registered the chip with their contact information.

British soul singer Joss Stone is in NYC and fostering a senior Pit Bull for local shelter Animal Haven!

"She was looking for a low-key dog that needed out of the shelter but could handle being in the recording studio with her during the day," Animal Haven's Jennifer Bristol tells PEOPLEPets.com.

The dog who fit the bill was Oprah, a 6-year-old Mastiff/Pit Bull mix who's described on her Petfinder profile as "a big, mellow girl with a lot of love to give."

"I thought it would be nice to foster Oprah because she's so, so sweet," Stone says in the YouTube video above. "And I can't take her home because I live so far away, and I have four dogs of my own."

We are thrilled to be featured in a special advertising section in this week's TIME magazine (the Sept. 5 issue with Gaddafi on the cover).

The section, which you can view as a PDF here, talks about Petfinder's history and the recent, incredible post-tornado adoption event in Joplin, MO -- the hometown of Petfinder co-founder Betsy Saul, who is interviewed in the article.

The piece also highlights the two types of pets who are in the greatest crisis in U.S. shelters: cats and Pit Bulls, with our own Kim Saunders pointing out, "They both tend to be prolific breeders and they're both misunderstood in their own ways."

Best of all, the article spotlights our FurKeeps initiative, which is designed to help pet adoptions last a lifetime by supporting pet parents in the areas of behavior (via training resources), pet health-care costs (with discounted pet insurance) and lost-pet recovery (with a microchip registration program).