You've heard of Petfinder. Com—a website that helps rescue groups find loving homes for 1 . Maybe you have even found your own pet through the 2 . But do you know Petfinder started as an idea that came on the way to a New Year's dinner?
Back in 1995 Google wasn't a verb and Facebook and QQ didn't 3 The world wide web was more of a wild world. My husband Jared was a doctor and I worked for urban forestry. But we thought that anything was 4 on the web. It wasn't used effectively.
We wanted to create a 5 . The question was, who would 6 a lot from our website? That was what we were discussing in the car that night on the way to meet friends for 7 . We thought about many ideas. "The website would make use of technology for a 8 responsible cause," Jared finally said.
What cause needed our help? 9 , we both thought of animal shelters. Sure, we loved animals and I'd " 10 " them when I was a kid—like the snake I found in the backyard and persuaded(说服)my parents to let me 11 it. But now my 12 was on planting trees and Jared put his heart into 13 the sick. We didn't even have a 14 . Yet I knew every year, millions of abandoned pets—healthy, loving animals who wanted only a home—were killed.
We couldn't wait to tell our friends our 15 . They volunteered to help. After that dinner Jared and I worked on Petfinder. com—that's what we 16 it. We wanted the site to be 17 to potential adopters. That meant all expenses 18 our own pocket. However, we knew if we saved just one life a month, it would be worth it.
Two years later our site went 19 . Today, more than 12,500 animals welfare groups 20 information about animals on Petfinder; 65 percent of animal adoptions in the US come through the site.
