Posted: May 28, 2010, 3 a.m. EST
Gracey is now the cat model on Bissell's Pet Hair Eraser Corded Hand Vacuum. |
Thanks to Fudge’s eternal quest to find the tunnel that leads to Australia that she is convinced starts at the bottom of her litterbox, I am always cleaning. So I am very well acquainted with certain clean-up assistants such as Bissell’s Pet Hair Eraser vacuum and my other BFFs, the enzyme-action and oxygen-activated stain and odor removers, cleverly packaged in purple so that they are easy to see and grab.
But the one thing that always brings a smile to my face when I am cleaning (again) is that the cats featured on the company’s product packaging are someone’s special pet, not paid models from a talent agency. They are all so gorgeous!
Every year, Bissell Homecare Inc. holds their MVP Most Valued Pet Competition and the public is invited to enter their pet’s photographs for the honor of being featured on product packaging plus the chance of winning the grand prize of $10,000 for the pet cause of their choice. The runners-up are also awarded $8,000 each to benefit their pets' favorite causes.
This year’s winner, a feline named Gracey who lives in Lexington, Ohio, and her pet parents, Joanne McGonagle and Paul Dusenberry, are planning to donate the prize to the PurrEver Ranch Sanctuary, in Somerville, Tenn., a nonprofit hospice that rescues senior and special-needs cats from shelter euthanization so that, in the words of the Rita Wood, the shelter’s founder “ they can live the rest of their lives blanketed in love.”
For Rita, the money couldn’t have come at a better time as the ranch is in jeopardy because the building housing the cats has been sold and they need to find new permanent premises.
If you are reading this, please forward it to everyone pet lover you know so that we can let it go viral and really help with donations and try to match Bissell’s check. Even if we can donate $5 for every cat we own, collectively we can make it happen.
The MVP competition is held every year. This year there were 50,000 entries. So put it on your cat’s “to do” list. Gracey will be featured on the Pet Hair Eraser Corded Hand Vacuum that will be coming to a home-care product aisle near you!
Read more of my blogs at Catastrophes and Other Tails.
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