February 3, 2009

Get Your Votin’ Paws Pounced…

You know us, we love to promote pit bulls. After all, someone’s gotta spread the word about what loving, loyal, delightful, devoted pets they make! This past Sunday, the ASPCA officially launched the year-long ASPCA Adopt-A-Bull Contest—sponsored by the New York-based Animal Farm Foundation—for shelters and pet parents who’ve made successful adoptions of pit bulls using the ASPCA’s Meet Your Match program.

Throughout the year, we’ve introduced you to our quarterly winners—and now it’s time for YOU to cast your vote for your favorite couple. The pet parent-pooch duo who receives the most votes in our online contest will win a photo shoot with a professional photographer and a bronze of their top dog, and the winning shelter will earn a $5,000 grant and a trip to New York City. Cast your vote now!

And the finalists are:

Elizabeth and Wanda
SPCA of Wake County
Elizabeth Bartow—a shelter volunteer at the SPCA of Wake County in Raleigh, NC—met her match with Wanda, a Life of the Party pit and “fetch-playing freak.” Says Elizabeth: “Wanda’s a wild woman, but we’re incredibly in tune. If I’m having a bad day, she sits with me for hours. If I’m having a great day, she butt-tuck boogies all around the yard!”

The McIntosh family and Lola
Humane Society of Silicon Valley (HSSV)
When Lark McIntosh started her search for the perfect family pet, she didn’t know the color orange would lead to Lola—a sweet-faced pit at Santa Clara, CA’s Humane Society of Silicon Valley. Thanks to MYM, Lark knew Lola was “more than just good looks.” She’s a pooch who loves to go on hikes and “help” in the garden. Says Lark: "Lola is my best friend. We’re connected at the hip, and I know I need her as much as she needs me.”

The Torbin family and Elsie
Western PA Humane Society
When Becky Torbin met, matched with and adopted Elsie from the Western Pennsylvania Humane Society, her husband was reluctant. Now it’s safe to say he’s been won over completely by the nine-year-old pit bull, who helped him get through chemotherapy and safely into remission. "She would lie across his chest as he slept on the couch after his treatments," says Torbin. “Elsie was truly the best medicine he could ever ask for.”

Rebecca and Gunther
Humane Society of South Mississippi (HSSM)
Gunther had a bad case of mange when Rebecca met him at Humane Society of South Mississippi, but she couldn’t stop thinking about the pup, who just happened to be deaf. Rebecca decided to adopt when first they were identified as a MYM match, both orange, and later “that week, in a Mutts comic, a white dog was portrayed as saying, ‘I know I'm deaf, but I'd still make a great companion. Just do like I do, listen to your heart.'"

	Tell your local shelter about our Meet Your Match program to help pair the animals in your town with the perfect pet parents!