MUMBAI: Miranda Lambert’s MuttNation Foundation is awarding more than $160,000 in surprise grants to shelters across the country. Every year, MuttNation researches and vets shelters and foster-based rescues nationwide, honoring one outstanding nonprofit in each state. “We don’t tell any of the shelters that they’ve been selected. We just surprise them with a check,” said Bev Lambert, co-founder of MuttNation, who conceived the Mutts across America signature program six years ago. “The hardest part is selecting just one shelter in each state because there are so many doing such great works.”

Miranda chimed in, “Between me and my mom, we have more than 15 shelter dogs, cats and rabbits. We can’t remember a time when we didn’t have rescues living with us,” said the Grammy, CMA and ACM award winning, multi-platinum recording artist. “We both feel such a deep connection with animals and have so much compassion for the ones that need us the most. Mutts across America lets us reward the hard-working shelters and give a ‘paw up’ to their lucky mutts. Our big message is that we encourage everyone to adopt from their local shelter or, if they’re not in the market for a new dog or cat, volunteer at their local rescue.”