If you’ve been thinking about adopting a shelter pet, there’s no time like the present. In honor of May’s National Pet Month, the nonprofit Bissell Pet Foundation’s Empty the Shelters event is offering reduced adoption fees of $70 or less at over 380 animal shelters in 43 U.S. states from May 1-15 — with every dog or cat spayed or neutered, vaccinated and microchipped.

It’s all because of a shelter dog named Bear.

Cathy Bissell, founder of Bissell Pet Foundation, didn’t step foot into an animal shelter until her late 40s because she assumed it would be too sad.

“I was so nervous because I loved animals so much,” she says. “I just didn’t think my heart could handle seeing animals in the shelter.”

But while hosting a fundraiser for a local Michigan animal shelter, her veterinarian introduced her to a “regal, well-behaved” black Labrador retriever named Bear. His former owners had surrendered the 6-year-old Lab to a shelter for digging in their backyard.

.

.

.

READ FULL ARTICLE HERE