It didn't take Rita Sears long to realize Trigger was the dog for her. The Eaton Rapids, MI, woman saw him just one day after he was posted on Petfinder by South Bend Animal Care and Control in Indiana.

"I contacted the shelter on the phone and later that day was on the road to a whole other state to adopt this wonderful guy," she says.

Trigger would call the Sears' family wonderful, too. He had been found in an abandoned house by an animal control officer and weighed a mere 66 pounds, had fleas and hip problems that caused him pain when he walked any distance. The officer turned him over to the shelter so the staff could find him a loving home.

Want expert advice for keeping both you and your pet fit and healthy? Join our live Q&A on Facebook on Wednesday, May 16, from 12-2 p.m. ET. Like us on Facebook for updates and reminders!

Pets can improve our health -- lowering our blood pressure, providing unconditional love and forcing us to get out and get moving. But turn about is fair play. How do we keep our pets fit and healthy? That's the question we posed to you in our April newsletter.

Many of you mentioned walking your pets, making sure they stay active. Kathy, for instance, hits the pavement with her dog twice a day.

Haley also includes walking on her pet-healthy agenda, but also goes to the dog park for some free play and includes backyard Frisbee in her dog's fun time. Jeanette, who says her dog is the love of her life and the beginning and end of her smile, says he is a certified therapy dog and a military working dog. He has allergies, so she makes sure he has grain-free foods to keep him in top shape.

Barrett reports, "My small dog [50 lbs.] is an avid disc golf dog. She is a Border Collie/ Lab mix (we think), and it is her job to find the discs we throw. She plays about a course a weekend, and gets catches with her disc for about 18 holes (usually about a mile)."

Zach, Ginger Niles' cat, needed a buddy, so she started looking at Petfinder. "Who would have ever thought you'd find a pet online?" she says. But she saw Angelo listed by Heaven to Betsy's Rescue in Griffith, IN, and had a hunch that he was the right cat.

Angelo had been waiting for this moment for a long time. Fortunately he was in foster care where he had been placed at birth, and now he was two -- two long years without a forever home.

Jodi Weber and her husband decided the time was right for them to get a dog. They also knew they wanted to adopt rather than buy one, but this seemed to lessen the odds of finding the breed they truly wanted. After all, what chance was there of finding an Alaskan Malamute to adopt in Texas? And in such a huge state, how could they even search? Then Jodi happened onto Petfinder and discovered there was a way to make this dream come true.

"Thanks to the search feature, we found the perfect dog just an hour away from us," she says. Juno was in poor condition when her previous people, who apparently didn't consider her to be part of their family, relinquished her to Texarkana Animal League.

"When I went to get her," Jodi says, "I walked in the kennel and she looked at me like, 'It's about time you showed up. I'm ready to go home.' She had suffered some pretty serious neglect (and possibly abuse), but she has taken to the easy life rather well." The couple is now thinking about adopting a playmate for her.

The Busby family of Belleville, IL, was searching for a companion for their 11-year-old Schnauzer, Mesa, when they learned that she had an incurable lung tumor. They were devastated. They did everything they could to make her last days as comfortable as possible, but after she passed away, their house didn't seem like home, and they decided that going ahead with their plan to adopt another dog would help them recover.

Five-year-old Angel, a miniature Schnauzer, had been listed on Petfinder for a few weeks when the Busbys spotted her and made plans to meet her. She was at Country Acres Rescue in Manchester, MO. It was an instant match, and they adopted her.

Angel helped the Busbys through a tough holiday season. "Her funny faces, opinions and entitled Schnauzer personality brought so much joy to our home again," Mindy Busby says.

"She had a housemate that wasn't on Petfinder yet because she had a litter of new puppies," Mindy says. Two months later, when the puppies had been weaned and their mom was spayed, the Busbys went back to the rescue and adopted her as well. Her name is Sophie.

Steele was part of an unwanted litter of puppies who were put in a box and thrown into a creek to drown. Fortunately, the box floated and was retrieved by a kind person who turned the pups over to the Preston County Animal Shelter in Kingwood, W.V. Soon, all the pups had been adopted except Steele, who was waiting for his forever home in foster care.

Beth Durst of Core, W.V., had been waiting too. In her case, she had been waiting for several years to adopt a dog. Her childhood pet had died, but her parents weren't eager to get another because Beth would be leaving for college in a few years.

After Beth's freshman year in college, her parents relented and said she could get one. She began to look on Petfinder for a German Shepherd to adopt. Steele, a Shepherd mix, won her heart with his big, sad brown eyes. She contacted the shelter and arranged to adopt him.

That was four years ago. Beth says Steele has been her "fuzzy duckling" ever since. "He is an overgrown lapdog and an incurable mama's boy, even as my boyfriend and I have added two more 'happy tails' to our family."

Little Miss Magic's mother was rescued from a puppy mill, and Magic herself was born shortly after, in foster care. In other words, she didn't have a home to call her own from the day she was born. Eleven months passed while she was cared for by Chris' Rescue Angels in Wright City, MO.

She was posted on Petfinder, but she was large for a Yorkie and timid as well. Fortunately, those two facts didn't matter to Pam Vogt of Gladstone, MO, who saw the listing. She adopted Magic and enrolled her in "family manners" classes within a few months of adoption.

After a tornado struck Joplin, MO, where we live, we donated a portable kennel our dog had outgrown to our local shelter, which was taking care of many displaced pets. It started us thinking about cleaning out closets and basements -- spring cleaning, in fact -- to donate other items we no longer needed.

So in our March newsletter, we asked what you shared with your shelter or rescue group. The No. 1 answer was your time. We are always awed that so many of you give so many of your precious hours to help homeless pets.

Dee cleans kennels and donates lap time to kitties. She admits it's hard to get over wanting to take them all home but has resigned herself to the idea that her job "is to help each and every kitty over that hump of losing its home and helping it to feel loved again."

Carol, who says she's mostly a dog person, volunteers once a week at her shelter and says it's the best "job" she has ever had. She also helps out at adoption events and, like others of you, donates things the shelter needs.

Read more responses after the jump!

Lindsey Ahl was determined to adopt a dog, even though her mother had suggested she go to a breeder to buy one. She began to search on Petfinder and one day she found just the right one: Shrek, a 1-year-old black Lab mix.

Mommy and Baby were "strays," found in a box in Delaware. Luckily someone rescued them and took them to Have-A-Heart Guinea Pig Rescue in Burlington, N.J.

Meanwhile, Samantha Falcucci had been looking for a guinea pig for a long time. She had done her research so she knew how to care for them and had learned that she didn't have to go to a pet store to get one: There were plenty of adoptable ones.

When her parents gave her the go-ahead, she began looking on Petfinder and spotted Mommy and Baby.

"The day we adopted them, they came home to a huge clean cage filled with fresh veggies and toys, and most of all, a whole lot of love," she says. "The pair enjoyed breakfasts of grass on the lawn, piano playing in their room and tons of kisses."

Samantha and her sister enjoyed their company for six years. The guinea pigs passed away within two weeks of each other last year, but "they sparked a fire in us that will never go away," Samantha says.