• by Tanya Gazdik , October 31, 2021

Arm & Hammer’s Feline Generous program is launching an effort to recognize staff and volunteers at cat welfare organizations. 

With a program that launched on National Cat Dat (Oct. 29), the winning shelters will receive a total of $30,000. The "unsung heroes" will each receive an award and a year's supply of cat litter.

The hashtag #NationalCatDay has trended worldwide on Twitter for the last several years.

Now through Nov. 20, Feline Generous wants to hear how staff and volunteers have gone above and beyond to care for "purrfectly impurrfect shelter cats who are often overlooked for adoption,” according to the brand, owned by Church & Dwight Co.

The Feline Generous program is an online platform that connects people to a network of local cat shelters across the country to help increase adoption and generate product and monetary donations, with a specific focus on cats who tend to be overlooked due to age, illness, appearance or misunderstood personalities.

A panel of cat experts will select one winner for each category. The $7,500 prize for the compassion category will go to the staff member or volunteer who showed tenderness, patience and extra care to cats to make sure they received specialized comfort and attention.

The $7,500 creativity prize will go the staff member or volunteer who executed the most creative solution to comfort a shelter cat or to find them a forever home.

The $15,000 AdvoCat of the Year award will go to the staff member or volunteer who exemplified both compassion and creativity towards shelter cats and served as an outstanding advocat for this cause beyond their shelter.

Judges include Rhonda Heath, board member and past president of Colonial Capital Humane Society, which was the shelter winner for the 2020 Feline Generous Purrfectly Impurrfect Campaign; Dr. IIona Rodan, a veterinarian and certified feline specialist and cat behavior consultant, director of cat behavior solutions; and Pam Johnson-Bennett, certified cat behavior consultant and author.