“I and Love and You”

A lot has happened since our our adoption story and the photos of Theo and Beau napping went viral. It’s hard to fathom the scope of the reach of these photos, but based on the lovely messages I continue to receive, there are a lot of sympathetic hearts out there.

Our rescue journey began nearly three years ago, when we adopted our kitten Charlie from the Humane Society in Manhattan. She came home to us teeny, terrified, and likely overwhelmed by her new strange home along with two year old Zoe and three year old Jack. We didn’t know what to expect from her or even what to feed her (she has always been super picky), so we nurtured her based on what she seemed to respond positively to.

Life with Theo started out completely differently. He was, and still is, completely attached to all of us. He’s in our laps whenever he can manage it, is eager and excited about almost everything, and is completely, lovingly connected to our youngest son, Beau. The adoption scenario was quite easy once we met all of the criteria, though I was admittedly a little surprised by the conditions of the Santa Cruz SPCA. The single story, ranch style house that serves as a shelter for at least 60 cats and dogs at a time is hardly what I expected from a community animal shelter. The staff is incredibly loving, diligent and dedicated to finding homes for their adoptees, which made our experience truly stellar.

Finding the right food for them has been challenging, as Charlie has shown a strong distaste for all pate cat food, and refuses to eat anything too fancy. She likes her routine and expects it to be the same every single day-I’ve learned not to mess with it. Theo is not terribly particular about his meals but I knew from the beginning that I wanted to give them good food. Quality in meats and produce for my family isn’t something I skimp on-we budget things down in other areas-and I realized that I feel strongly that our fur babies eat well, too. That means I was looking for a socially and environmentally responsible company as well as a quality product. This is something that I’m going to be buying and supporting for a (hopefully) very long time, so developing trust and a relationship with the right brand is crucial.

Enter Roo Ciambriello, my dear friend whom traveled with me to Guatemala with World Vision. She is an incredibly smart, funny, kind and loving soul that just happens to write the copy for “I and Love and You”, the pet products company. I immediately loved everything about the brand and the food-I’ve all but eaten it myself. How can you resist a brand that’s tagline is “Dogs love chews like moms love clean houses. Like teenagers love angst-y vampire movies. Like Prince loves velvet.”

Well, my Charlie and Theo love the food, the treats, and the supplements. Charlie even scarfed the pate, which blew me right out of the water.

I feel good giving them awesome food. They are also apart of our family and we all need them to be healthy for a very long time.

I’ve been committed to supporting the Santa Cruz SPCA from the beginning of our journey with Theo, and I couldn’t be more thrilled to announce my first partnership in raising awareness and support for them through Momma’s Gone City and I and Love and You.

Today, “I and Love and You” donated 2,000 meals of Nude Food to the shelter for their constantly growing pup population.

That’s a lot of happy bellies for a long time.

Not only do I love this brand, their philosophy and the products, but it is really, really neat that they reached out to me immediately to help the Santa Cruz SPCA.

My family and I are big fans, and not just because their brand name happens to be one of our favorite Avett Brothers songs.

To donate to the Santa Cruz SPCA, please go here.

I received some product for purpose of this post. All opinions are my own.