One of the most exciting grants that I administered this year was a transport grant from BISSELL. Ten rural shelters received $3,000 each to transport pets to less-crowded regions where they stood a better chance of being adopted. In the process, the shelters built lasting relationships with the transport groups -- meaning more lives will be saved in the future.

The grants went to shelters and rescue groups in California, Colorado, West Virginia, Virginia, Tennessee, Mississippi and South Carolina. The shelters were selected because they have low operating budgets and a high intake of adoptable pets. The shelters all promote adoption locally, but their high intake rates mean some of their adoptable pets are still at risk for euthanasia.

In February, while I was on vacation, I was lucky enough to visit one of these shelters, Clark County Animal Shelter in Kentucky. Shelter Director Beth Bowman introduced me to the pets there, and I quickly fell in love with Ella, a small Pit Bull pup rescued from a Dumpster.

"She was emaciated, extremely dehydrated and couldn't stand without falling over," Bowman told me. "She had very little hope to survive. I got some NutraCal and Dyne [a high-calorie liquid dietary supplement] for her dehydration. After 24 hours, Ella could stand up to drink. I knew at that point she was going to make it."

After the jump: Find out what happened to Ella.

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 Petfinder.com Foundation recently partnered with the Thundershirt company to award 5,000 Thundershirts to Petfinder.com members across the country. Thundershirts' constant, gentle pressure has a dramatic calming effect on most dogs when they are anxious, fearful or overexcited. Thundershirts have already helped hundreds of shelter dogs find forever homes. Hertford County Animal Shelter in Winton, NC, received a Thundershirt grant from the Petfinder.com Foundation. Here is how a Thundershirt helped one of the shelter's dogs, Flo.

Flo was found abandoned in an empty house and has been with Hertford County for about six months. During her first few months at the shelter, staff could barely tell that she had legs -- she always laid with her legs curled under her body, hidden from sight.

She was fearful of people and would cower and hide when the shelter staff went near her to show her affection. Then the Thundershirt grant arrived.

A shirt was placed on Flo right away and, slowly, she warmed up to other dogs at the shelter. Flo began to play in the puppy room and venture outside for some fresh air. But she was still fearful of human interaction.

The dedicated staff and volunteers at Hertford worked patiently with Flo to gain her trust. They kept the Thundershirt on during training sessions and when Flo was in her kennel, hoping it would help her gain some trust. And indeed, her trust in humans grew stronger. She started allowing the shelter staff to come closer.

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."

Karen Owens, CPDT-KA®, is head trainer at Charlotte Mecklenburg Animal Care and Control in Charlotte, NC. Her position is made possible through a Petfinder.com Foundation Train to Adopt grant. Today, she tells us how the program is helping make dogs more adoptable.

Killarney (pictured) is a medium-sized Boxer mix puppy that came to our shelter in late October. Her feet tell me she's going to be a big girl someday. She has a sweet, eager face, big brown eyes and a big personality, but, oh, her jumping! She can launch her muscular little 38-lb. body off me, the walls, the kennel door or anything else within reach.

When I first met Killarney she was, as they say here in the South, a "hot mess." She was beginning to display multiple signs of stress, such as excessive jumping, increasingly high arousal, barking, lunging and spinning. These behaviors were her way of showing me that she wasn't coping well with the stress of shelter life.

When stress-induced behaviors are repeated for any length of time by dogs, they become part of the dog's typical day-to-day behavior, and can continue after a dog leaves the shelter. We knew that, if not treated as an emergency, the negative effect of shelter life would have repercussions in Killarney's behavior for many years to come.

Find out how we helped Killarney and watch a video of her after the jump.

Our friends at KONG have quietly donated hundreds of toys to dogs in the Petfinder.com Foundation's Train to Adopt program. The other day, we got an amazing photo and email from Train to Adopt shelter Charlotte Mecklenburg Animal Care & Control in Charlotte, NC:

"Last night, after giving out the Kongs, I watched our shelter dogs, quiet and happy for a time," wrote volunteer Elizabeth Richardson.

"I thought of the words from 'Silent Night': All is calm/All is bright. Every dog was happy for a little while -- and that is a huge blessing. I used to bring in special treats to the dogs on Christmas Day. Now, thanks to the Petfinder.com Foundation and the KONG Company, I get to deliver special treats every week!"

After the jump: The full photo, plus: Learn more about how Train to Adopt saves lives.

Founded in 2003, the Petfinder.com Foundation has grown significantly over the past eight years. Our first year, we awarded $43,000 in grants to shelters and rescue groups across the U.S. At the end of 2011 we will have awarded more than $10 million in grants to Petfinder.com member shelters and rescue groups.

To say that we are thrilled about this growth is an understatement. As we move forward to the end of the year, we're reviewing some of our success stories and new partnerships and relationships. Here are just a few highlights:

Rescue U
Our Rescue U program grew greatly in 2011. In it, we send student volunteers to shelters in rural areas in need of assistance. The students work with shelter volunteers and members of the community to fix up and build new kennels, cat houses and play areas, bathing areas and more. (Read stories
from past trips here.)

We're now working with universities and shelters to establish Rescue U chapters nationwide. These chapters will focus on their own communities, getting together to help their local shelters. Several times a year, the Petfinder.com Foundation will do larger trips to places that need it most, ensuring that efforts bring a positive change to shelters and homeless pets.

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.

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.