Dog Sitting Company Uses Thousands of Tennis Balls to Help Get Pets Adopted

"For a dog in a shelter, being adopted is as awesome as being able to jump into a pool full of tennis balls."

That's what Daniel Reitman, the owner of Dan's Dog Walking and Pet Sitting, believes. 

When Reitman was inspired by a Bay Area man's Instagram post about losing his dog, he wanted to make allegory a reality. 

View this post on Instagram

On Jan 23 I'll mark 2 years without my best friend. I purchased 100 tennis balls last week. I plan on sending them to anyone who wants one. I hope that all the people who get a ball from me will use it to spend some quality time with their best friend. If you would like a ball please email me your name and address and I will send you one. Direct message on IG works too. If you know someone who might like a ball feel free to tag them. I cover all costs... My email is chubbywater@gmail.com The artwork on the flyer was put together kindly by @steezjuice.. Edit: wow, i am blown away by the requests for tennis balls. Going to have to buy some more now. Thank you to everyone who requested a ball. Ill do my best to make sure everybody gets one. Thank you all. #tennisballsforeverything #dogsofinstagram #dogs #bestfriend #inlovingmemory #Rottweiler #boxer #bulldog #goldenretriever #frenchbulldog #puppy #Doberman #chihuahua #tennis #love #remember #dog #woof

A post shared by Chris (@imso) on Jan 19, 2016 at 8:18pm PST

In 2014, Chris Sontag-Ratti lost his best friend: a dog named Everything. As a way to honor her memory, Reitman said, Sontag-Ratti posted a flyer with a picture of Everything in January, which marked two years since she passed. 

"Please use this tennis ball to spend some time with your best friend. Thank you for helping keep her memory alive."

Sontag-Ratti said that he would send one of the 100 tennis balls he bought to whoever wanted them. When he woke up the next day, he said, he had thousands of emails. 

In November, Sontag-Ratti was contacted by Reitman, of Long Island, with an opportunity to take his generostiy a step further. 

"He sent me a picture of (the thousands of) tennis balls he had," Sontag-Ratti said. "He told me was donating them to shelthers and that went with the theme of what I'm doing."

Reitman explained to Sontag-Ratti that he began collecting up to 4,000 tennis balls since seeing the Instagram post. 

"We wanted to take his concept and apply it to getting dogs rescued from shelters," Rietman told NBC Connecticut.

After getting Sontag-Ratti's photos and videos of Everything, Reitman and his team made their own video to bring attention to shelters and pet adoptions. When someone shares the Facebook posts and tags their favorite animal shelther, Dan's Dog Sitting promises to donate a bag of tennis balls to the named shelter.

For more details on how you can help, check out their website.