Margie Kiser knows not all animals are young and perfect; but all need a home, which her ads help them find.

By WENDY VICTORA, Daily News Staff Writer

Heidi the too-skinny schnauzer cries pitifully when she's put back in the run. For 13 years, she lived in the same home, with the same owner. Now, she's competing for the next home with dogs that are younger and cuter. Margie Kiser is just trying to even the playing field by highlighting animals like Heidi in regular television and newspaper ads for the real estate agency she and her husband own. Most of the dogs and cats she's featured over the past 20 years have needed that little extra push.

"They've always run animals that have been hit by cars or dogs with three legs, something that makes it not as adoptable as the others," said Dee Thompson, executive director of PAWS. "Just getting that picture out there, it makes a difference."

Kiser started running the ads after her daughter found a stray dog on her way home from Okaloosa-Walton Community College. For days, she walked that dog, which they named Patsy, through the neighborhoods near where she was found. No one ever claimed her. Finally, Mrs. Kiser took Patsy to the Panhandle Animal Welfare Society. "I saw what a desperate situation it was to find homes," she recalls. "How many animals there were and how few adoptions." She and her husband also felt that although their business benefited by the area's high turnover, the local animal population often suffered. This was their way of doing something to help them.

Sundance Agency started profiling pets and they started finding homes. Mrs. Kiser also became a PAWS patron in other ways. In addition to volunteering at the shelter's dog washes, she kept her eye on animals that needed a little extra love. "I used to, when we had skinny ones, I'd bring chicken soup over," she says. And, of course, she adopted several animals that were still homeless, even after they were profiled.

Her daughter, Becky Kiser, handles advertising for the agency and takes the photos that appear in the ads. Her job is not always easy. Next week's canine is a prime example. The positively pudgy terrier mix was found living under some bushes, her fur so matted with sticks, leaves and burrs that her skin tore when she moved. Shelter workers finally decided to shave her, leaving only sparse tufts on her upright little ears and snout. Now, she shares a run with Heidi, complacently waddling around and spending a fair amount of time contemplating the food dish.

"She's terribly fat," Mrs. Kiser said, surveying the friendly dog with an animal lover's eye. "She looks like she needs a little roller skate under her belly. She probably needs to be put on a diet and grow some hair and get some love," she added.

Though it's hard to imagine the animal lover with arms big enough to embrace this pink-skinned pooch, Mrs. Kiser is optimistic that the or she is out there. "That one might surprise us," she says. "It may get adopted right away. Someone might come along with a big heart."

Click here for latest pet photos >