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I was thinking yesterday morning - and I know it's dangerous. However, I was thinking about what I would do if I suddenly came into a lot of money or were financially able to just spend money however I chose.

I guess I was thinking about it because I had just seen on the news that an Iraq veteran just won $1 million with a scratch off lottery ticket. They asked him what he would do with the money and he said he would be investing and saving it. He's a smart guy.

If I had a lot of money, especially right now, I would have to at least spend some of it to organize some pet adoption drives and help out the shelters. Spring is coming quickly and there will be tons of puppies and kittens that need homes and sadly, won't find them in time.

So that was on my mind. There are many worthy causes that I would probably try to help, but the pet problem was on my mind. I have 10 cats, 3 dogs and an African parrot in my household right now. I'm full, so I can't possibly take in any more animals myself, but I think anyone who is thinking of getting a pet or has the room and the resources to adopt a pet should check out their local animal shelter to find a new friend.

So after having this little thought explosion in my mind, I checked my e-mail. My friend Amy had forwarded an e-mail to me that said that our local animal shelter that has depended fully on Pedigree to feed all of the animals in the shelter for the past 5 years had announced that Pedigree was no longer running that program. Pedigree still offers a free bag of pet food for people who adopt pets from the shelter, but as for the animals in the shelter now and the ones that will be coming in, there is no food coming in for them.

I went to the Pedigree website and sent them an e-mail to try to confirm this information. Then I called them. I was referred to the administrator of the shelter food program, so I called them. The lady was very nice and said that she would look into it and let me know what the situation is.

The e-mail that I received stated that Pedigree is discontinuing the shelter food program for all shelters, not just my local shelter. I am trying to verify that this is true.

In the meantime, my local shelter says that they are desperate for pet food donations. At the Pedigree site you can donate bags of food to the shelters and they will match your donation. I donated 10 22lb bags of dog food and they will be sending it to them directly. It is tax deductible.

I went to Wal-Mart today and bought about 80lbs more cat food and dog food and a bag of treats, because I figure these animals probably don't ever get to have treats, especially now that food is scarce. I met my friend Amy for dinner tonight and handed the food off to her and she will deliver it directly to the shelter for me.

So, here is my challenge to you. I challenge everyone reading this to step up and donate to your local animal shelter. You don't have to give cash, you can buy food or any other supplies that they need and drop them off. Get a receipt so that you can deduct the donation on your taxes.

More specifically, I am challenging every person who is able, to donate an amount of pet food equal to his or her own body weight. It doesn't cost a fortune, there is no tax and no shipping charges and if you do it through the Pedigree site they will match your donation . So in order to participate in the challenge you can buy half your body weight in food and let Pedigree match it to complete this challenge.

This challenge will run for the entire month of March. If you have participated in this challenge, let me know by commenting on this post. I have no way of knowing if you did it, so this part of the contest will have to rely on the honor system.

If you completed the challenge, post here (you don't have to reveal your weight or details of what you bought) and at the end of March I will let my child randomly pick a winner from all who participated and blogged about the contest. I will then send the winner 1000 Entrecard credits. I know that's not a gigantic prize, but hopefully if this challenge gets a good response I will continue running it monthly and increase the prizes and also offer prizes that people who do not use Entrecard can use too.

Update: I've also decided to throw in a month's worth of free advertising for the winner. See that Big Brother banner at the top of this blog? The winner will get to run an ad there FREE for a month and the only restriction is that it is a banner suitable for general audiences, nothing adult oriented will be allowed. The winner can run an affiliate banner or an ad for their own site in that spot.

Also: You can get two entries in this contest if you participate and then write a little post about this on your blog and link back to this post. Just let me know in a comment where your post about this is.

So there you go, I've thrown down the gauntlet. Donate your body weight in pet food and let me know that you did it in order to enter this contest. Again, you do not have to reveal your weight or amount of pet food purchased in order to participate in the challenge. It's the honor system, so you just have to let me know you did it.

Please help your local shelters in any way you can!