Pet Sitters International names 2016 Pet Adoption Advocate of the Year

PSI Certified Professional Pet Sitter Nikki Timberlake, owner of Pawsotively Purrfect Inc., in Fort Myers, Fla., has been named Pet Sitters International’s 2016 Pet Adoption Advocate of the Year.

Pet Sitters International (PSI) is the world’s largest educational association for professional pet sitters and has actively promoted pet adoption through its annual Take Your Dog To Work Day® campaign since the event was created in 1999. To further this mission, PSI created the Pet Adoption Advocate of the Year Award in 2012 to honor one PSI member each year who has gone above and beyond to promote local pet adoptions. 

“PSI’s desire is that every pet would be a wanted pet with a professional pet sitter to care for him or her and as a whole, PSI members are passionate pet lovers with a desire to help,” explains PSI President Patti Moran. “Selecting just one member to receive the 2016 award and $500 donation to a local shelter or pet-rescue group was no easy task, but Nikki’s innovative ideas to support pet adoptions caught the attention of the selection committee.”

Timberlake, who joined PSI in 2010, serves as vice president of A Roof for Roofus Rescue (R3), a 501(c)(3) all-volunteer, nonprofit rescue that visits kill shelters throughout Florida to rescue pets on death row to place them in foster homes until they are adopted. She has selected A Roof for Roofus Rescue to receive the $500 donation from PSI in her honor.

After becoming a board member, Timberlake suggested a metal recycling program to raise funds to offset the rescue’s expenses. R3 has distributed fliers and promoted this program to the local community and picks up donated old washing machines, hot water heaters, aluminum cans and other types of scrap metal. R3 volunteers then sort the metal donations before redeeming at a local recycling center and use the money earned through these efforts to support all aspects of the rescue.

"We have been able to save the lives of many animals ‘one can at a time’ through the efforts of our supporters and our recycling program,” explains Timberlake.

When Timberlake first joined the R3 board, there were only three members. Through the board’s recruitment efforts, there are now five board members and multiple volunteers who oversee the group’s Facebook page, monthly adoption events, create marketing materials and write grants.

R3’s most immediate need is to raise funds to purchase a trailer to carry their tables, crates, banners, tents and  other materials to events  instead of having all of their equipment stored at board members’ homes.  

To learn more about Nikki Timberlake and Pawsotively Purrfect Inc., visit www.pawsotivelypurrfect.com. To learn more about A Roof for Roofus Rescue, visit www.aroofforroofusrescue.org/. Visit www.petsit.com to learn more about PSI and its Pet Adoption Advocate of the Year Award.