We're ringing in 2012 with 12 ways you can make a difference for homeless pets. Whether you resolve to do one throughout the year, or try a different one each month, you'll be sure to spread a little joy to homeless pets with these New Year's resolutions:

1. Get yourself new sheets and towels -- then donate the old ones to a shelter or rescue group. You'll be recycling, helping homeless pets stay warm and comfy and getting new linens. Want to beat that? Ask your friends and neighbors to do the same!

2. Print out and post adoptable pet profiles at your office, dog park or grocery store. Does your local dog run, your office or your grocery store have a place for fliers? Ask if you can post a new adoptable pet's profile there each week. Simply click the print icon on a pet's Petfinder profile to get a printable page with all the pet's info!

3. Give a list of local shelters to your vet's office. Vets are often the first place pet parents go for recommendations on anything pet-related -- including where to find a specific kind of pet. Give your vet's office a list of local shelters and rescue groups and help get the word out to people who may not otherwise adopt. View shelters and rescue groups by state to get started!

Maria is a senior citizen in Florida. The government maintains that she lives alone. Maria begs to differ. She says she lives with her best friend, who just happens to be a Chihuahua.

One of Maria's many challenges is getting outside. Her dog is litterbox trained. However, buying pet food isn't easy for Maria -- she has to depend on others to do the shopping. Moreover, she has trouble paying for the food.

"There's no question that this dog has in so many ways changed Maria's life, so being able to provide proper pet food for Maria has made an enormous difference," says Enid Borden, president and CEO of the Meals on Wheels Association of America.

Learn more about the program, how you can help and how to get help if you can't afford your pet's food after the jump.

Last week we asked our Facebook community to vote on the topic of our next live Q&A -- and you wanted to learn more about helping pets during the holidays. So on Tuesday, Dec. 13 from 3-4 p.m. ET, Petfinder shelter outreach director Sara Kent will be answering your questions live.

But if you want to start helping pets NOW, don't wait. Find an adoption group near you that's participating in our Foster a Lonely Pet for the Holidays program and sign up to get an adoptable pet out of a shelter. (Not sure you're ready? Check out our gallery of pets in need of foster homes and you may change your mind!)

But don't forget to log in to Facebook (and make sure you've "liked" Petfinder's Facebook page) and join us on Tuesday, Dec. 13 from 3-4 p.m. ET so we can answer your questions.

PS: Here are 13 more easy ways to help homeless pets!

There are many ways you can help homeless pets this holiday season -- some of which require only your time. Read on for easy ways you can help shelters and rescue groups through the Petfinder.com Foundation, which exists solely to support the 13,500+ organizations that post their adoptable pets on Petfinder.

• Give a Gift of Hope. When you make a donation to the Petfinder.com Foundation in the name of a loved one, he or she will receive a holiday card with an acknowledgment of your gift. And if you give a gift of $30 or more, your loved one will be acknowledged as a Supporting Member of the Petfinder.com Foundation for 2012! 


• Fill out surveys. Sign up to take surveys at SurveyMonkey.com and the Petfinder.com Foundation will receive $0.50 for every survey you complete.
  


• Buy a t-shirt. Purchase a We Add Up "Rescue" shirt for yourself -- and one for your dog! Every "Rescue" shirt purchased will trigger a $3 donation to the Petfinder.com Foundation. Every We Add Up shirt is hand-printed with a unique number -- your position in the global count of people adding up to make a better world. We Add Up is already up to 22,000 people!

Today we're kicking off our Foster a Lonely Pet for the Holidays program. Each year, we encourage you to help pets in need by taking in a foster pet during the holiday season. (Find out how the program started here.)

Why is fostering so important -- especially during the holidays?

By taking in a foster pet, you'll be:

1. Giving shelters and rescue groups extra help during a time of year when they are usually short-staffed.


2. Giving other foster parents a chance to travel or just take a break.


3. Freeing up a spot so the shelter or rescue group can take in another pet.


4. Giving your foster pet the time he or she needs to be ready for adoption. (Learn common reasons pets need foster homes.)
   

November is Adopt-A-Senior-Pet Month. I share my home with a cat who is 9 and another who's 13, so seniors are close to my heart. But in a Petfinder survey, 30% of shelters and rescue groups said older pets are the hardest to find homes for. And with more than 14,700 senior pets currently listed on Petfinder, they deserve some extra attention.

So make a commitment to help: Take our Stand Up for Senior Pets Pledge and promise to tell at least one person why seniors make great pets. (Find 10 reasons senior pets rule here.)

As a bonus, by pledging you'll be entered for a chance to win a Lift-Off® Deep Cleaning System for yourself and one for the Petfinder.com shelter or rescue group of your choice, both courtesy of our partner BISSELL.

So take the pledge now, and check back here all month for senior-pet Happy Tails, tips on adopting and caring for a senior pet, ways to help seniors find homes and more!

Tell us: Why does your senior pet rule?

National Feral Cat Day is this Sunday, Oct. 16, and Petfinder is joining with Alley Cat Allies to raise awareness about feral cats, promote Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR), and recognize feral-cat caretakers.

Our house came complete with feral cats (also sometimes called community and neighborhood cats) when we moved in, and we have cared for them ever since. (Read about my neighborhood cat colony here.)

In honor of National Feral Cat Day, I'm posting my husband's short video tour of our feral-cat houses, as well as our annual "changing of the straw" to prepare our feral colony for a cold Northeastern winter. After trapping, altering, vaccinating and returning feral cats to their place of origin, maintaining a healthy and safe colony is an important part of our
relationship with neighborhood cats.

Watch our video above and see important tips for keeping a feral-cat colony well-cared-for after the jump.

October is Adopt-A-Shelter-Dog Month. We'll be celebrating all month with adopted-dog Happy Tails, ways to find the perfect dog for you, tips for the first 30 days of dog adoption and more. We hope you proud dog adopters will join in as well. After all, what better way to encourage adoption than to celebrate your adopted dog?

Here are some fun, easy ways to celebrate Adopt-A-Shelter-Dog Month with your dog:

1. Bring dog-themed goodies to your local shelter or rescue group. Thank the staff and volunteers at your local adoption group for all the lifesaving work they do. Bake some cookies in the shape of dog bones (and don't forget to bring some treats for the shelter dogs, too!).


2. Show off your pet-adopter pride. Visit the Petfinder store for a t-shirt,
   or our friends at the Animal Rescue site for a "Rescued and loving it"
   doggie bandana.
   


3. Throw a "Gotcha Day" party. Celebrate the day you "got ya" dog with a party, and ask your guests to bring something to donate to your local shelter or rescue group.


4. Tell others about Adopt-A-Shelter-Dog Month. Promote one adoptable dog a day on Facebook or Twitter, or write an op-ed about dog adoption for your local paper. (Check out 10 ways to help pets for Adopt-A-Shelter-Dog Month for more ideas.)
   


5. Attend an Adopt-A-Shelter-Dog Month dog walk or other event. You can find an event near you in our event calendar.


6. Make a donation to your local shelter or rescue group. Contact your local adoption group and ask what they need, or donate cash in honor of your adopted dog.


7. Sign up as a foster parent or shelter volunteer. Celebrate your adopted dog by helping other homeless dogs find homes. Sign up to walk dogs once a week during lunch, or take on a foster dog whom you can help find a home for.
   
   
8. Photograph local adoptable dogs for their Petfinder profiles. Pictures are worth a thousand words -- and good pet photos can save lives!
   


9. Post a picture of your adopted dog on our Facebook wall. We may pick it as one of our favorite fan photos!
   


10. Adopt another shelter dog! Check out our dog-adoption checklist for tips on finding the perfect pup for your whole family, then search Petfinder for an adoptable dog near you!

Adopt-A-Less-Adoptable-Pet Week (Sept. 17-25) shines a spotlight on the homeless pets  often overlooked by adopters, whether because they have health issues such as FIV or are blind or deaf, a few years past puppy- or kittenhood, shy when meeting new people or just the "wrong" breed or color.

When Petfinder created Adopt-A-Less-Adoptable-Pet Week in 2009, we surveyed our shelter and rescue group members to find out how many of them had pets they were having a hard time placing, and which pets were hardest to get adopted. Here's what they said.

Petfinder's "Less-Adoptable Pet" Survey Results

• 95% of shelters and rescue groups said they had pets whom they were having a very hard time placing in adoptive homes.


• 33% said they had pets who'd been waiting for homes for one to two years, and 27% had pets who'd been waiting more than two years.

Which pets were hardest to place? Here's what our respondents said:

• Senior and older pets: 30%
  
• Pets with medical problems: 15%
• Victims of breed prejudice (such as Pit Bulls): 13%
  
• Shy pets: 10%
  
• Pets who need to be only pets: 10%
  

If you've got a skill -- or even just an idea -- you can use it to help homeless pets. Whether you hold a bake sale fundraiser or create a Facebook page for a shelter or rescue group, you can make a difference! But the key to your success is having a good relationship with the organization (and their blessing on your project) before you start.

Maybe you already volunteer for an adoption group. But if you don't, and you're not sure how to develop a relationship with one, here are some important steps:

Do your research. If you don't know of a group near you, you can search for shelters on Petfinder by state or zip code. Look at an organization's Petfinder homepage to learn about its mission, its structure (are its pets in a shelter or a network of foster homes? Is it run by volunteers or does it have a staff?) and its needs, and to find out how to contact its organizers.

Be patient. Many nonprofits are volunteer-run, and those volunteers usually have full-time jobs during the day, so they make take a while to respond to your inquiry. Don't give up! Contact a few different organizations about your idea. If your idea needs to happen at a specific time (for example, if you want to photograph pets with Santa around Christmastime), get started early so this type of delay won't throw you off schedule.

Talk to the right person. Find out who runs the kind of project you want to do -- it might be the volunteer coordinator, the director of development or, in a small organization, the founder or executive director. Ask for his or her advice and make it clear that you'll use it. Plus, the person's experience and connections might provide some fabulous ways to improve your idea.