Chances are great that all across the United States today, there are cats enjoying the feline delicacy known as Friskies.

The food that those cats chow down on comes from Fort Dodge.

Friskies and Fort Dodge have been connected for 50 years. The food is made in the Nestle Purina PetCare plant at 2400 Fifth Ave. S. that has been in operation since 1975.

A plant that has been in operation that long is kind of a rarity in the pet food business.

This particular plant has a history that mirrors that of the community it is located in. Like Fort Dodge, the plant had a real low point, And like Fort Dodge, it has been steadily growing since overcoming that low point.

Longtime residents may recall when the Gus Glaser meat plant was located roughly where the Nestle Purina PetCare facility is now.

After the meat plant closed, Carnation built a plant there, and cans of Friskies were soon heading out of Fort Dodge to store shelves and eventually to the bowls of hungry kitties across the country.

The low point came in 1995 when Carnation tried to buy Alpo, another pet food maker. The deal required Federal Trade Commission approval. That commission ruled that before it could buy Alpo, Carnation would have to unload part of its wet cat food capacity. The commission ruling did not mention Fort Dodge specifically, but the only way the company could comply would be to close the plant, or sell it, which would almost certainly result in it closing.

This ruling came just a few years after the Fort Dodge community was hit by the twin hammer blows caused by the closing of the George A. Hormel and IBP packing plants. But this time the community fought back.

State and local officials appealed directly to the commission members. Former Gov. Terry Branstad and former Attorney General Tom Miller spoke directly to the commission, arguing on behalf of the community.

Many, many residents signed a huge petition to the commission. This document was literally huge. It was so big that it sat in the lobby of the Trade Commission’s Washington, D.C., building until a place could be found to store it.

All of that paid off.

For the first and, so far as we can tell, the only time in its history, the Federal Trade Commission reversed itself. It allowed the Friskies plant to stay open.

Since the plant came close to shuttering, it has only grown. Now it is in the midst of its largest growth spurt, a $175 million expansion that will enable it to make a second type of wet cat food.

The Fort Dodge community has done the same since 1995.

Major new employers – Valero Renewables, CJ Bio America, and Cargill among them – have come to town. The Corridor of Commerce project has changed the look and business atmosphere of Fifth Avenue South. Corridor Plaza has grown where the Crossroads Mall once stood. And those are just some of the biggest, most eye-catching developments the city has seen recently.

So the next time you think that all is lost, or something is just impossible, take a look at the steel beams going up at the NestlePurina PetCare plant and remember how it and its community survived and now thrive.