Campbell shelter seeks more love

By Darrell Laurant

Published: March 5, 2008

(First in a two-part series on national contests and Central Virginia).

Who'd have thought that you'd be able to save cats using a mouse-

It's possible, if you use that mouse to click on the Web site ZooToo and its "Shelter Makeover" contest. The Humane Society of Campbell County would appreciate it.

Right now, the local shelter operates out of a house off U.S. 29 - a house with some leaks and some foundation cracks and no space for wayward dogs.

"It's a cat house, basically," said Susan Janovsky.

So to speak.

The felines are housed in cages, and any dogs that show up are "farmed out" to temporary foster homes or given space at the Campbell County Animal Shelter. And if a horse or a rabbit or a boa constrictor happens to appear on their doorstep, the folks at the Humane Society try to take care of it, too, as best they can.

"We have a good working relationship with the animal shelter," Janovsky said, "but we're two different places."

That's especially important to know now, with the Shelter Makeover contest in full swing.

"They're ranking shelters around the country based on how many people get on the site and vote for them," Janovsky said, "and the winner gets up to a million dollars for a shelter makeover. The problem is, if you go to the 'Zipcode Browser' and type in 24588, the Campbell County Animal Shelter pops up along with ours. And they're not even eligible to win."

The Humane Society is not only eligible, but hungry.

"Even one of the $5,000 prizes would be like money from heaven," said fundraising coordinator Cindy Schott.

And with just 26 days left in the contest, the Humane Society actually has a Schott - er, shot. Right now, out of more than 1,000 shelters, the Campbell County facility is 18th with 382,906 points. That's almost a million points behind the leader, the Washington Area Shelter in Eighty Four, Pa., but with a slender lead over No. 19 (the Jefferson County, N.Y., SPCA) and No. 20 (a shelter in Henderson, Ky.).

That's not bad, considering that Campbell County almost got left at the starting gate.

"We didn't find out about this until December," said Schott, "and it started in October. Susan Janovsky saw something about it on the Ellen (DeGeneres) Show and we decided to go for it.

"Once we got the word out, it took off like wildfire. People are addicted to it. They're having fun with it. Now, we're hoping to have this big March blitz to make sure we don't slip out of the Top 20."

Among the other highly ranked shelters is the Midwest Rabbit Rescue and Re-Home in Plymouth, Mich. (all bunnies, all the time) and Ozone Park, N.Y.-based Bobbi & the Strays, which sounds like a 1950s doo-wop group.

"It's not the size of your shelter," said Lisa Nielson of ZooToo, which is based in Secaucus, N.J., "but the size of your support."

If you set up a ZooToo account (no charge), the shelter of your choice gets 100 points. Filling out the "volunteer profile" gets another 100, while 20 points each are allotted for reviewing a product, reviewing a service or uploading a photo. Upload a video and it's 40 points; review others' comments, and it's five.

"I don't think we're going to win, but we might finish second," Schott said.

Second place will earn $10,000, Nos. 3-20, $5,000 each.

As for the million, it could probably build a pet castle. Maybe we could give our house to our two dogs and two cats and go live in the shelter.

"Besides the voting, we have a panel of three judges who are going to visit all of the top 20 shelters," Nielson said. "Then we'll get together with the winning entry and decide what's needed there."

One of those judges, ZooToo founder Richard Thompson, might be especially welcome at the Campbell County "cat house" - he is the former CEO of Meow Mix.

Sunday: A high-profile national sweepstakes offers a weekend in (really-) Lynchburg.