At BarkMagazine.com, we love hearing about pet lovers out there that are giving back to the community.  Here’s how you and your pup can get your local shelter involved. Over 1,000 animal shelters across America participated in the First Annual Zootoo.com Shelter Makeover, which was won by Stray Rescue of St. Louis located in St. Louis, MO.  To become one of the twenty Semifinalists in the Second Annual Zootoo.com Shelter Makeover competition, shelters must ask their supporters to register and earn points by being active on Zootoo.com, contributing reviews of pet products and services, sharing opinions and advice, bringing other pet lovers into the community and more. The twenty shelters that have accumulated the most points by March 13, 2009 will be named Semifinalists.  Zootoo.com and its advisors will then visit all twenty Semifinalist Shelters during the Tour Period and narrow them down to ten Finalists based on criteria established by Zootoo.com and its advisors. Once the ten Finalists have been chosen, pet lovers across America will be able to review the qualifications of the Finalists on Zootoo.com and determine the winner by voting for the shelter they think most deserves the makeover. “Allowing America to vote for the winner of the Shelter Makeover will make this year’s contest really exciting and totally democratic,” said Zootoo.com founder Richard Thompson. “It’ll also be a fun challenge for each of the Finalists to present their case to fellow pet lovers.”  Thompson added, “We learned last year that while twenty shelters got cash awards, every shelter that participated was a winner. According to a survey of the shelters that participated in the first Shelter Makeover Contest, donations increased by 21%, volunteers increased by 28% and adoptions were up 30%, all because of the attention they got from the contest.  It’s exactly what we hoped would happen – bringing shelters and communities together.” “The Zootoo.com Shelter Makeover Contest has been a dream come true for us,” said Randy Grim, founder of Stray Rescue of St. Louis and Winner of the first Shelter Makeover Contest.  “With Zootoo.com’s help, we are building a facility that will not only be a Godsend for the needy animals of St. Louis, but we hope will serve as a model for what’s possible in other communities.”  That makeover is now underway, and progress can be viewed at www.zootoo.com/makeover.