In January, Rescue U went to Guthrie, OK, to rebuild the City of Guthrie Animal Shelter, which had been destroyed by a tornado in May 2011. Our volunteers repaired the roof and kennels, built new storage and exercise pens, added a meet-and-greet area and more. (Read our online diary from the trip.)

Four months later, what kind of impact has the Rescue U visit had on the shelter? "It has reinforced our community to become more proactive when it comes to the animals," shelter manager and animal control superintendent Suzy Brown tells us. "The news around the [project] really raised public awareness."

The visit also improved morale among shelter staff. "Rescue U has renewed a broken shelter. [It's] given us a bright tomorrow and hope for the future," Brown says. "It is a gift that will continue to give for many years to come, and that is truly exciting. We are truly grateful."

To spread the word about the great impact a handful of dedicated volunteers can have on homeless pets and the people who care for them, the Petfinder Foundation is launching a new webisode series about Rescue U. We're kicking it off with a look back at the Guthrie trip and we'll cover our upcoming projects throughout the year. Check out the first installment after the jump, and stay tuned for more!

Donate to support Rescue U's shelter-rebuilding projects.

In June of 2011, record rainfall in Canada and North Dakota caused the Souris River to rise to unprecedented levels. When water crested over levees in the small town of Minot, ND, a state of emergency was declared and 11,000 people -- and their pets -- were evacuated.

Minot-based Petfinder member Souris Valley Animal Shelter stepped up to the challenge of taking in displaced pets. As staff and volunteers rounded up pets who had become separated from their families, and as people began dropping off pets until they could return to their homes, it quickly became apparent that more staff would be needed. With the number of homeless pets growing to more than 500, volunteers were spread thin.

The Petfinder Foundation is dedicated to helping Petfinder members in times of disaster. With a $5,000 grant from the Petfinder Foundation, RedRover (formerly United Animal Nations) was able to send responders to the scene to help ease the burden on SVAS staff and volunteers. "I was nearly at the point of losing hope," says SVAS director Susan Wagers. "The knowledge and experience each responder brought meant so much."

After the jump: Read an amazing reunion story from the flood.

The Animal Rescue Site, a longtime partner and supporter of the Petfinder.com Foundation, has released its first e-book, 100 Heartwarming Stories From The Animal Rescue Site. The book sold over 1,000 copies in its first week and is getting great reviews.

"We've been collecting stories of rescued pets and their 'fur-ever' homes for many years," says Tim Kunin, CEO of The Animal Rescue Site and GreaterGood Network. "These tales always have been one of the most popular features on the homepage and other electronic media."

The book is available for $0.99 for both Kindle and Nook, and is a guaranteed fun read for animal lovers. Many of the pets featured in the stories were once considered unadoptable, which only strengthens the impact of their stories.

"We hope that others will be encouraged by this e-book to consider adopting not just puppies and kittens, but also older pets, horses, rabbits, ferrets and others," says Greg Hesterberg, president of The Animal Rescue Site and a Petfinder.com Foundation board member.

Last August, 10 Petfinder.com shelters and rescue groups received $1,000 grants from Blue Sky Soda and the Petfinder.com Foundation. Here's another story about how the money is being used to help pets in need.

Save A Pet, a rescue group in Dothan, AL, has a straightforward mission: To promote the adoption of homeless pets and to encourage spay/neuter through education and lifesaving programs. It does not have a physical shelter; rather, Save A Pet transfers pets from the local shelter, finds foster homes, holds adoption events and transports pets to less-crowded shelters.

In August, Save A Pet received a $1,000 grant from the Petfinder.com Foundation and Blue Sky Soda and put the money toward vaccinations and transport. While many pets benefited, one dog in particular stood out.

Deanna, a young Boxer mix, was pulled from the crowded City of Dothan Animal Shelter and vaccinated against bordetella. She was then transported to the Humane Society of Tampa Bay in Florida for its adoption event "Passion for Pets."

Pam Backer, director of shelter operations at HSTB, saw Deanna at the event. "She pranced around and made everyone smile," Backer says. "Everyone wanted to adopt her."

This week the Petfinder.com Foundation's Rescue U volunteers have been hard at work repairing the damage dealt to the City of Guthrie Animal Shelter by an F5 tornado in May 2011. (Watch a video of our first day in Guthrie here.)

As the week comes to an end, the transformation of the shelter is almost complete, but the impact it will have on the community is just beginning.

This week has been an inspiring experience. Working through their holiday break, the student volunteers are in high spirits. Two local news stations picked up the story (News 9 and KFOR) and the community is rallying behind Rescue U: Enormous meals have been donated to keep the students fed, pet food and beds are coming in from local donors, and city employees regularly stop by the site to see the progress and cheer the kids on.

Watch our second video update and see our progress after the jump.

Every year, The Orvis Company selects nonprofit organizations to feature in its catalogs, and encourages customers to donate as part of a $30,000 matching gift campaign. Groups selected also receive free ad placement in Orvis catalogs and on Orvis.com.

Until Nov. 10, you can vote to make the Petfinder.com Foundation a 2012 Orvis charity. Not only will this opportunity raise money for homeless pets, it will allow the Petfinder.com Foundation to run adoption-themed ads in Orvis catalogs and include an adoptable-pet search on its website for all of 2012.

All money raised through our proposed Orvis campaign will go directly to programs that vaccinate, transport, spay/neuter, and promote adoption of homeless dogs.
 
How to vote:

1. "Like" the Orvis Dogs Facebook page
   
2. Select the Petfinder.com Foundation
   
3. Fill out the required fields, then click "Submit"
   
4. Invite your friends to vote.

This is a great opportunity to raise awareness for shelter dogs and money for the Petfinder.com Foundation programs that support them. Help us reach the hearts of thousands of people who don't already know what we do. Together we can show them why pet adoption should be the only option -- VOTE TODAY!

Ten Petfinder.com shelters and rescue groups recently received $1,000 grants from Blue Sky Soda and the Petfinder.com Foundation. In honor of National Feral Cat Day, we're spotlighting one grant recipient, Neighborhood Cats, Inc., a Brooklyn, NY-based rescue group using its grant to provide foster and veterinary care for community cats in need, such as formerly stray kittens Watson, Simon and Holmes.

This summer, Neighborhood Cats went to Williamsburg, Brooklyn to begin a trap-neuter-return program on a group of cats living in an alley. Within the group were three kittens: two tabbies and their tuxedo brother.

"At seven weeks old, all three were pint-sized tough-guys-in-training," says Susan Richmond, executive director of Neighborhood Cats. "With no humans to look after them, they had to be street-tough just to survive."

The adults and older kittens in the group had grown up outdoors and were too wild to be adopted. They were spayed and neutered, given exams and rabies vaccines, then returned to their home in the alley where feeding stations and snug, all-weather shelters had been set up.

The young kittens -- now named Watson, Simon and Holmes -- were fearful of people too, but still young enough to tame, so Neighborhood Cats arranged for a foster home for them. Then they began the slow process of socializing the cats.

Josh Clark and Chuck Bryant know a lot of stuff, and they want to make sure you know it too. Their popular Stuff You Should Know podcast features the senior writers for HowStuffWorks.com holding forth on everything from zombies to quicksand. 

And now, Josh and Chuck have added the Petfinder.com Foundation to their ever-growing list of stuff you should know about.

Both huge pet lovers, Josh and Chuck decided to make a special video for the Petfinder.com Foundation to raise awareness about the work the Foundation does and what people can do to help. (Watch it after the jump.) The video features Chuck's dog Buckley and focuses on the Foundation's programs and simple things everyone can do to help find a forever home for every adoptable pet.

Please take a moment to watch the video
and share it with your friends and family --
you can help spread awareness and save the lives of homeless pets everywhere.

Ten Petfinder.com shelters and rescue groups recently received $1,000 grants from Blue Sky Soda and the Petfinder.com Foundation. Here's the first in a series of stories about how the money is being used to help pets in need.

Violet is a sweet Boxer and the new mother of a litter of puppies. Found dangerously thin, the dogs were taken from their home as a cruelty case by animal control officers in Phillipsburg, NJ. S&L Animal Rescue, also in Phillipsburg, took Violet and her puppies in to nurse them back to health and find them homes.

"They were so infested with worms, we didn't know if they would make it," says S&L cofounder Lisa Diacik. They did. Thanks in part to the grant from Blue Sky Soda and the Petfinder.com Foundation, the rescue group was able to put Violet and her pups on high-nutrient food and milk supplements.

"We only have one puppy left, who is now 10 weeks old. The others were adopted last weekend," Lisa says. "They will all have happy endings now." (Visit Violet's Petfinder page, and her still-adoptable puppy Pippa's.) But Violet and her puppies aren't the only ones benefiting from the grant.

Hundreds of displaced pets are without homes and in need of temporary care due to the 34,000-acre wildfire in Bastrop County, TX. Although the blaze is now about 50 percent contained, more than 1,500 homes have been lost. In addition, stray dogs and cats and those in shelters remain at risk.

Bastrop County Animal Control's shelter was directly in the path of the fires and was evacuated, and some area residents were evacuated so quickly that their pets were left behind -- and now have been without care for nearly a week.

The Austin Humane Society (AHS) has rescued more than 100 dogs, cats, kittens and puppies from the fires, including evacuated pets from animal control, and is still working in the area to save strays and pets who were left behind.

This heroic effort is possible in part thanks to a $3,000 disaster grant from the Petfinder.com Foundation that AHS will put toward the cost of medical care for the affected pets.

The rescue efforts continue daily. Thanks to the disaster grant, AHS will be able to continue its critical work while dealing with the influx of pets in need.

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To help further in this time of disaster, donate to the Petfinder.com Foundation Disaster Fund.