January 6, 2017

Dear Furkids Friends,

Happy 2017 to all of you! 

A few weeks ago, some Furkids family members got together to find an innovative way to help our organization increase adoptions and gain additional support.  The product of this team’s creative efforts is the clever, wildly appealing and funny Kitty Kommercial featuring some of our animals, staff and volunteers. We loved the video (who wouldn’t?) and posted it to our Facebook page on December 24. This past Tuesday, someone shared the clip on Reddit, and almost immediately, the clip went viral.  We had no idea how broadly our message had spread until Wednesday morning, when we woke up to a flood of emails, calls and social media postings unlike anything we had ever experienced in our 15-year history. 

Without a doubt, the attention is far beyond anything our organization could realistically wish for. Furkids has received praise and well wishes from over 9,000 people globally, and the momentum continues to build with every passing hour. As of this writing, our video has had over 3 million views on YouTube alone. We’ve lost count of how many times our Kitty Kommercial story has been featured on TV stations, radio stations, newspapers, and blogs spanning the U.S., Canada, Australia, Europe and the Middle East. The result has been a nice uptick in donations, gifts, volunteer applications, and adoption applications—all of which we need, because it takes a constant stream of donations and support for our hungry Furkids. This morning, our confused UPS driver, who thought the Christmas rush had already ended, delivered dozens of boxes of gifts from Amazon. Our staff and volunteers truly appreciate these supplies, and our cats are thrilled with all the new boxes to explore!  What’s more, some of those cats know they are going to their forever homes. (Watch the kitties opening up their presents here!)

All of this pales in comparison to the torrent of messages we’ve received telling us how deeply this video has inspired and motivated people around the world to adopt, volunteer and support their local animal shelters.  First and always, Furkids is about the animals, and we’re thankful for the countless animals everywhere whose lives are being graced because of this video.

We will be eternally grateful to Paul Preston for his wit, whacky humor, and incredible charm; to his sister (and Furkids volunteer) Helen Preston for coming up with the idea that Paul produce a video for Furkids; to our Adoption Team Manager, Nicole Neill (aka The Wacky Waving Inflatable Arm Flailing Tube Man), to our anonymous friend who posted the video to Reddit; to the Reddit community who catapulted this video to fame (YOU did it Reddit!!!); to the cats in the video who performed so exceptionally, (they told me it takes incredible skill and hours of rehearsal to appear so natural and unrehearsed); and to our Furkids family of staff, volunteers, fosters, donors, supporters and friends. 

Every single one of you has motivated me to look to the future of Furkids with confidence that we can continue to be an unfailing friend to homeless animals everywhere.  Thank you!

With love and gratitude,

Samantha Shelton
CEO & Founder
Furkids Animal Rescue & Shelters

Watch Sam's interview with Sunrise in Australia!