And The Winner Of The Iam's Pet Gift Basket Is...!

Who's going to win that bountiful pet products basket from our friends at Iams? Well, as usual, we'll depend on the mysterious Random.org and its Random Sequence Generator to divine the answer. We just plug in the number of entrants (in this case, there were 19 comments/entrants) and see what comes up...

Random Sequence Generator

Here is your sequence:

 6
19
10
 5
13
12
 4
 1
17
18
14
 2
 8
16
11
 3
15
 9
 7

Timestamp: 2012-12-13 02:48:13 UTC

The first number in the sequence is #6 and the person who left Comment #6 is Karla Schmidt! Let's all put our paws together in a round of applause for Karla! And as always, thanks to all those who entered this giveaway-we really appreciate your participation!

P.S. to winner Karla: Please send us your home address as soon as you possibly can, or no later than Friday evening, December 14, or we'll be forced to choose another winner...

And don't forget to enter our latest giveaway from Hartz: Enter to win four, Holiday-themed Angry Bird dog toys! 

But wait, there's more! Check back this Friday to enter to win a special holiday ASPCA gift pack-don't miss it!

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Sunday's "Living With Your Pet Tips"

          Fabulous photo of me by John Clark of Clark Creative

We thought we'd bring you two different pieces of pet information today. First, for all you folks owned by cats out there, check out these cool holiday (or any day) gifts for your feline friend from Found Animals.org. From a scratching post shaped like a dog (heh, heh, heh) , to a plethora of toys and beds, this is a gift list worthy of all good kitties. (Are there any good kitties? Just askin'!)

And wanna know if your city makes the "top ten" of pet friendly cities in the U.S.? Check out this top ten list courtesy of Dog Time Media, and find out what cities (hint: from Austin to Seattle) make the cut and why. Hey, why not get together with your dog-loving friends and discuss what you all can do to elevate your community to a top ten town for dog owners?!

P.S. We wanted to take a minute today and thank all of you who have taken the time to participate in our giveaways. We have one going on right now (a gift basket from Iams!), and have lots more in the works before the end of the year. We politely request that those who choose to enter follow the simple requirements and check back on the date that particular giveaway ends to see if you've won. Most retailers want to ship out your presents ASAP, so the sooner you send us your address, the sooner you'll receive your prize-thanks!

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Iam's Gift Basket Giveaway And Interview With Mike Arms, Founder Of Iam's Home 4 The Holidays!

We're thrilled to bring you both a giveaway of a super-duper gift basket, courtesy of Iams, and to share with you excerpts from a recent conversation that Parental Unit had with Mike Arms, the president of the Helen Woodward Animal Center in San Diego. See details at the end of this post about what fun and useful items are in this basket and how to enter to win. Note: We've changed some of the entry requirements to make it even easier to enter!

Mr. Arms (I'll bet he wouldn't mind if we called him "Mike"), is a longtime advocate and tireless worker on behalf of orphaned animals. He's been the president of the Helen Woodward Animal Center since 1999 and is the creator of both the International Pet Adoptathon and Iams Home 4 the Holidays, now in its 14th year. The Home 4 the Holidays annual campaigns alone have placed more than 7 million pets into loving homes and donated an average of 200,000 tons of Iam's dog and cat food to its partner shelters in the last 13 years! Whew!

If you haven't read Mike's personal story, we encourage you to so so-it's the most inspiring call-to-action you could imagine. He is widely credited "with saving the lives of more orphaned animals than anyone else in the history of the planet," and we think this is, well, stupendous!

Although Parental Unit has had the pleasure of meeting Mike at two of the BlogPaws conferences, she was thrilled to chat with him a few weeks ago about this latest Home 4 the Holidays adoption campaign. Mike stressed that there are two particularly important issues for this year's campaign: The first is that little storm that blew across the East Coast, otherwise known as Hurricane Sandy. As we know, it wreaked havoc on millions of human and animal lives and put many shelters in that area "totally out of commission." So Mike asks us all to think about the huge overflow of pets from that area and what we can do to help these orphaned animals find both temporary shelters and forever loving homes.

And secondly, in addition to spreading the good word about pet adoption to your friends, neighbors, family (and even strangers!), he asks that if you cannot adopt a pet yourself this year, to please consider volunteering at your local shelter or rescue, donating needed items, or putting up the adoption fee for your favorite shelter pet.

The bottom line? This is the time of year that people are most likely to bring a new pet into their home, but unfortunately, so many folks still have the misconception that pets in shelters are somehow sick or "broken" or bad. The more that we take the initiative to educate our fellow pet lovers, the more likely these beautiful orphaned animals will be to find loving forever homes.

Now on to the Iams gift basket giveaway! Here are just some of the items one lucky winner will receive: An Iam's pet food voucher, a pet bed and leash, water bottle, bandanna, toy, and...a Swiffer Sweeper with both wet and dry cloths!

This giveaway will run from today,Thursday November 29 through Wednesday December 12 at 8:00 pm EST, so you and all of your friends will have plenty of time to enter. The one winner will be chosen by computerized random drawing and announced on the evening of December 12.

Here are the requirements to enter:  No anonymous comments, please!

1. Sign up for our e-mail blasts and newsletters-see very top of left sidebar for the sign-up form.

2. Tweet or put on your Facebook page this message about the giveaway: Enter to win an Iam's Pet Gift Basket here:www.boccibeefs.com/2012/11/iams-gift-basket-giveaway-and-interview.html @boccibeefs

  3. Comment on this post and indicate in your ONE comment that you'd like to enter this giveaway.

Note: if you choose to enter, please check back to see if you won-we're having a hard time getting some of your to respond!

                                                               Good Luck!

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Iam's Home 4 The Holiday's 2012 Adoption Campaign!

We're thrilled to help promote an incredible annual adoption campaign: Iam's Home 4 the Holidays! This is Iam's 14th year partnering with the Helen Woodward Animal Center for this three month adoption blitz, which has helped place more than 7 million pets into loving homes and donated an average of 200,000 tons of Iam's dog and cat food to its partner shelters in the last 13 years! Let's all put our paws together in a hearty round of applause for Iam's, the Helen Woodward Animal Center and the founding father of this campaign, Mike Arms, the longtime president of the Helen Woodward Animal Center (and one of Parental Unit's personal heroes)!

But we can't spend too much time resting on our laurels because another holiday season is upon us, and their are still millions of companion animals that are needlessly euthanized each year for only one reason: the lack of a loving home. This year's Home 4 the Holidays campaign runs from October 1, 2012 through January 2, 2013, and believe it or not, has already placed over 100,000 companion animals with their new forever homes! So our job is to help spread the good word about adoption, and the role education plays in finally ending the heartbreaking cycle of not enough homes for an overabundance of companion animals. More on specific ways you can help coming soon!

Meanwhile, here's something new that's been added to the campaign just this year: It's called the Digital Dish Drive and it's an easy way to donate meals to pets in need, right from your laptop or mobile device! Just log to Iam's Facebook page to check out the dogs and cats available for adoption, and during scheduled "feeding times" each day, every "Like" or "Share" will result in a meal donation to a participating shelter. Cool huh?!

We'll look forward to bringing you lots more information about this incredible adoption campaign real soon! As always, thanks for your support.

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