Chris Sontag-Ratti’s dog, Everything, had passed away in 2014 and he wanted to do something special in her memory. So, the Hayward, CA resident took to social media to try and get people to spend more time with their dogs in Everything’s honor.
The way he would do this is to send people tennis balls so they could have playtime with their furry best friends.
Each ball was sent with a little flyer that read:
“This tennis ball has a memory attached to it; the memory of my best friend. Her name was “Everything.” She left the world on January 23, 2014. Please use this tennis ball to spend some quality time with your best friend. Thank you for helping keep her memory alive.”
He promised to send a ball free of charge l to anyone who sent him an email or Direct Message with their address.
“I purchased 100 tennis balls last week. I plan on sending them to anyone who wants one,” he wrote on Instagram. “I hope that all the people who get a ball from me will use it to spend some quality time with their best friend.”
Chris’ post got more than 8,000 like in one day.
He had requests for balls coming in from all over the world.
“Yesterday I was thinking I wasn’t going to be able to get rid of all the balls I purchase,” he told ABC News. “Today I’m trying to figure out how I can afford to buy some more. The response has been amazing and overwhelmingly positive. I’m blown away really. I haven’t really made a list of where I’ll be shipping to but I have seen Australia and Ireland, Japan, I didn’t expect this and will do my best to accommodate all requests for a ball.”
New York-based company Dan’s Dog Walking and Pet Sitting caught wind of Chris’ efforts and jumped in and decided to help him honor Everything’s memory by collecting balls and raising awareness for 3.9 million dogs they say enter the animal shelter system each year.
“We were so inspired by Chris’ amazing idea that it made us start thinking…how can we help get homes for dogs in shelters so they can start creating their own memories with their new families? Then it his us! For a dog in a shelter being as adopted is as awesome as being able to jump into a pool full of tennis balls.”
So they set out to collect more than 4,000 tennis balls. They adopted two golden retrievers and let them go nuts in a pool full of tennis balls.
They contacted Chris to do a promotional video for their ball collection in Everything’s memory. Everyone who tagged their favorite animal shelter in their post would get a bag of tennis balls sent to them courtesy Dan’s Dog Walking and Pet Sitting.
In addition, they also asked for participants to adopt a dog or donate to a shelter in Everything’s honor.
“The main purpose of this video is to help create awareness and raise money for the local shelters across the country,” the company writes on their website. “We wanted to capture the idea of how great it is for a dog to be adopted and figured what better way to do it than to show you! It is our hope that if you are looking to bring home a dog that you head over to your local shelter because you might just end up meeting your new best friend.”
You can learn more about their efforts and nominate your local shelter here. Watch their awesome video below.
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