We had to pleasure of attending a benefit premier in Santa Monica last week for the film Shelter Me.  When I first heard about this film, I was concerned it would leave me feeling sad and hopeless for animals in shelters.  Was I wrong!  

Shelter Me is a show hosted by Katherine Heigl and features positive stories about shelter pets.  We are especially fond of this documentary because it shows how adoptable Pit Bulls can be, regardless of their age and previous history.

The first episode follows the story of 2 Pit Bull type dogs that are found on the streets and end up being placed in 2 awesome homes.  You will learn how animal control finds the dogs and how dogs are assessed by local trainers.

The second storyline focuses on a non- profit organization called Canine Support Teams (CTS).  CTS pulls dogs out of shelters and sends them to a women’s prison where the dogs are trained by inmates from 4-7 months.  These dogs then go to an advanced training where they can help improve the quality of life for people with disabilities.

The show ends by introducing  the method in which shelter pets are being used as Emotional Support/Therapy dogs for returning war veterans dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder.  We were shocked to learn that there are more veterans dying today by suicide then the number of those being killed overseas in combat.

To learn more about Shelter Me, visit http://shelterme.com/ .  They have DVDs for sale and if you are in Southern California, the show will air tonight, June 19^th, on PBS at 7pm.  The website has a schedule of PBS showing on their website if you are not in Southern California.

I hope you enjoy the film as much as we did.