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written by 
Mimi from FreeKibble.com
Hello! My name is Mimi Ausland and I started a website called freekibble.com on April 1st 2008, to help feed hungry dogs at our local animal shelter, the HSCO in Bend OR.
To help, you answer a dog-related trivia question and right OR wrong, we donate 10 pieces of kibble, to shelters! I know that 10 pieces does not seem like a lot, but it really adds up! Since freekibble.com was going so well, we created freekibblekat.com, to help feed homeless cats! We are now feeding 13 shelters across the United States, healthy, nutritious, meals – over 1 million meals so far! (Thanks to our kibble sponsor, Castor and Pollux!)
One of the highlights of this past year would be getting the chance to appear on the Ellen DeGeneres show in October. She is a big animal lover, which made it a ton of fun! My mom, dad and grandma all got to be there with me, waiting in the green room (right next to Kid Rock and Eric Dane!) and watch me go on. The best part of that experience would have to be the 20,000 dollars worth of Halo dog and cat food that she kindly donated to freekibble.com to feed the homeless animals!
Another amazing experience is when my dad and I were able to tour the ASPCA shelter in New York. We were in New York because I had received the ASPCA Kid of the Year award and my family and I were going to the luncheon in N.Y.C. I had an amazing time at the luncheon (in the Rainbow Room!) and was so honored to be chosen for the award! After the luncheon the other award winners and I got the chance to have a tour of the ASPCA shelter – one of the best in the U.S.A! The whole trip was an unforgettable experience!
A third highlight of the past year would have to be delivering the kibble to the HSCO. This is very cool because of how you get to see the kibble not just be generated on the computer, but actually be in bowls for the dogs and cats to eat! It is also great to see how the shelves fill up and are no longer low or empty but filled with bags of food.
A fourth highlight would be part of making a new dog cookie treat with Castor & Pollux. I got to help design the box and even choose the flavor – my favorite Mac & Cheese! And what’s really cool is that we can donate another meal to shelter dogs with every box that’s sold!
Last but not least, my fifth favorite part would be getting so many heart-felt emails from people all around the world. We’ve gotten thousands of emails… asking us to please donate food to their shelter, saying great job, asking us questions about the site and how they can get more involved, and so many just sharing their pet stories and pictures. It’s really showed me that there are a lot of people who love their animals and want to help. It is very cool!
Please check it out and help spread the word about freekibble.com and freekibblekat.com, because the more people that play, the more dogs and cats we can feed!
Thank you,
MIMI 
WOW this is totally awesome! Such a great idea!!
This is a wonderful idea & it has been circulating widely on the net & will be a wonderful success I am sure!!
Congratulations on such a wonderful idea & effort for the animals…
Mimi, you’re awesome for doing this!
This is a great story. I remember watching her story on the news and thinking what an amazing job this little girl is doing. Is great to see that she is still going and growing!
I just bookmarked the website so I can go on and combine my love for trivia and helping rescue animals. What a wonderful idea!
What an absolutely awesome kid!!! Thanks 4 sharing the story!!
This is such a good thing. I will do it every day if I can remember to.
What a great story! I love hearing about kids inspiring us adults to think outside the box to help the animals. LOVE THIS!
Way to go, Mimi! You’re a hero in my book!
Just an idea – I usually ignore chain emails w/out a good purpose, but I’m sure your friends won’t hate you if you send them an email saying something like this:
Since most of you go online every day, I thought you might want to take a couple of seconds each day and go to this site http://www.freekibble.com/, answer one trivia question (right or wrong) and by doing that donating 10 pieces of kibble, to shelters! Easy!
It might not seem like a lot, but this incredibly smart and caring little girl (Mimi Ausland, the creator of the site) has been able to provide over 1 million meals to dogs/cats in shelters since April ‘08. Since cats are as awesome as dogs, you might want to do the same for this one too: http://www.freekibblekat.com/
If you want to read about Mimi, she just wrote a great article posted on the PETCO blog: http://www.petcoscoop.com/2009/05/mimis-highlights-from-freekibblecom/
Thanks…and pass the word!
P.S. You might want to bookmark the sites to make it even easier for you to give =)
Great Job Mimi! Thanks for the email Liz!
This is a great site with amazing people running it. I’ve been visiting this site now for nearly a year.
Hi everyone. Thank you so much for the great comments and for spreading the word about freekibble.com! I really appreciate it! It was a ton of fun to write the blog and I am so glad you liked it. Thanks again for supporting freekibble and freekibblekat.com,
MIMI
Mimi, Your site is Dekine! I have been on the Colorado River for over a week and the only thing I missed was my daily injection of FreeKibble. My dog Woody (The Wonder Corgi)just received his first box of ‘Good Buddy’ dog cookies and they are by far the high point of his day. We used to treat him with a single cheerio and go figure now he’ll only wag his rear for Mimi’s Mac and Cheese Good Buddy treats! Keep up the Great Work and Who does your graphics they’re are super cool. Over and out. Jbaja
Good job, Mimi! Saw you on Oprah yesterday. The dog food company I work for is making a large delivery to you next month. We are very happy to help and think you’re a genius! You know what my personal homepage is now. I’ll be there every morning.
Congratulations on the Oprah appearance Mimi. Here is a clip from the show for all of you that missed it. Mimi’s part is toward the end.
http://www.oprah.com/media/20090416-tows-kid-heroes
Because of Mimi, we re getting today 3,000 pound of dog food donated, so we was able to save 34
lives this week what we pulled out of shelters.. we could not have done it, if we did not know, that we got this food coming..
Thank you Mimi and Freekible.com
Margret Nolan
president and founder
Humane Society of Inverness,FL