all the friendly beasts
This Christmas, while you’re shopping & sending cards & celebrating with your loved ones, I hope you’ll take a moment to remember all of the homeless, neglected, & abused animals out there who spending their holiday cold & hungry & alone.
Now through the end of the year, the ASPCA is running a double-your-donation campaign. Up to $150,000, every donation made will be matched by a gift grant, which means they have the potential to raise $300,000 to help needy animals. How amazing is that?! I’ve already made my donation, & hope you will, too. Even if you can only send $10 or $20, every little bit helps & will be matched dollar-for-dollar!
Also running a dollar-for-dollar donation-doubling fundraiser right now is one of my favorite local organizations, the Hundred Cat Foundation. A nearby business has offered to match donations made between now & the end of the year, up to $3,000.
That is just an amazing donation & would mean so, so much to this wonderful group of volunteers who truly care about animals & about cutting down on the pet overpopulation problem. They run a fantastic Trap-Neuter-Release program, provide food & shelter to entire colonies of feral cats, & hold regular spay/neuter clinics. I’ve been in touch personally with the ladies who run this foundation; have donated books & baked goodies for their annual fundraisers, & have even called on them a time or two when I was in a bit of a pickle. So again, if you could spare $10 or $20—or more!—it will certainly go to good use at HCF. (And, yes, I’ve already made my donation to them, too. :kitty )
But those are just a couple of very worthy suggestions. Please consider donating to your own local animal shelters or animal rescue organizations, as well. The next time you go shopping, pick up an (extra?) bag of dog &/or cat food & drop it off at your local shelter. The same goes for canned food, cat litter, pet toys, or snacks. Knit, crochet, or collect a bunch of blankets & donate them to help keep adoptable animals warm in those cold, lonely cages. Even pick up the phone & ask what they’re most in need of at the moment.
And though most shelters won’t let animals be adopted over the holidays because too many people think it will be a great present, only to end up returning or neglecting the animal later, if you aren’t already the proud guardian of some wonderful adopted pet, consider opening your home to one—or two, or ten *vbg*—after the holidays. I swear, you will never be sorry. :dog
(P.S. “The Friendly Beasts” by Garth Brooks is one of my very favorite Christmas songs…even if it does make me cry every time I hear it. :blinkie )
Comments
11 Comments • Comments Feed
Dee says:
I will do what I can. You have a great heart, Heidi.
On December 13, 2010 at 11:27 am
mary k says:
That’s a great idea. I have been giving to the ASPCA for years and to my local shelter as well. Before I bought the big ratty cage I have now, I had 5 smaller rodent cages that after my lil’ fur kids passed away and I decided to not adopt for a while, I donated all the cages and accessories to the shelter. Then when I was ready to adopt again, I went to the shelter and found 4 of the cutest lil baby rats to adopt.
On December 13, 2010 at 1:42 pm
Heidi says:
My computer keeps crashing, so I am having a very aggravating day. :smash
But thank you, Dee, for your generosity. It just breaks my heart to think about all the homeless dogs & cats out there in this cold & snow, no one to love them, no idea where their next meal will come from. And being in a shelter isn’t always much better…kept in a cage, never knowing when they’ll be put down. All year long, I make sure I donate money & items to the local shelters, but winter is when my concern really kicks in & I figure if folks can afford to buy a Wii for their kids for Xmas, they can afford to give the SPCA a few bucks, right? :winkwink
And that is so awesome, Mary! I’m so glad there are folks like you out there who look to shelters for the small, less adoptable animals, too. I always try to tell folks who are thinking about getting a rabbit or guinea pig or bird to call around to the shelters first! They get them, & those critters need homes, too! Plus, rescued pets make the BEST companions! :dog
On December 13, 2010 at 3:03 pm
mary k says:
I agree. I was only going to adopt 2 rats but they told me they had four of them and they were all so cute, I just decided to adopt all of them. I’ve got a huge cage so they have more than enough space and it’s so much fun having them come out to play. Well, 3 of them come out, one of them, the smallest one I named Brodie, is still very skittish and doesn’t like to be handled. But now he is eating from my hand.
I volunteered at that same shelter when I was 18 for a summer. Your local shelters need all the volunteers they can get. I got to take the dogs for walks, play with the cats and let them ahve free time in the play room. Play with the bunnies, guinea pigs and other small animals as well as clean a lot of cages. But there’s nothing more rewarding knowing that you made a shelter animal a little more comfortable.
As you can tell, this is a passion for me. :gotcha
On December 13, 2010 at 5:43 pm
Laura J. says:
We have rats too Mary!! Two lovely and sweet little girls names Lola and Ruby (along with our chihuahua, Maya and numerous fish). They are really great pets!!
On December 13, 2010 at 9:54 pm
mary k says:
Awww, what adorable names. Mine are, Brodie, Jasper, Hades, and Ares. All four are boys. I think Rats make great pets.
On December 14, 2010 at 9:24 am
Hollie says:
It really breaks my heart to think of all of those little lovies at the shelters!! :cry
I donate when I can…which isnt often..but I like to get the pet food and leave it in the boxes at the front of the grocery store! :kitty
On December 13, 2010 at 5:55 pm
Heidi says:
So great that your stories have shelter donation boxes in them! Ours do that sort of thing once in a great while & I always load them up, too. We also have a local pet supply store that sets up a Xmas tree every year, with ornaments saying what the shelter needs. Then they collect donated items under the tree & deliver them to the SPCA later. I love going in there & making my list, then coming back to dump off all my goodies! :brava I just wish I could go to the shelter & actually bring all the babies home with me. :blinkie
On December 13, 2010 at 11:24 pm
Laura J. says:
The Louisville Metro Animal Shelter just had the grand opening of their new “Animal House” and it’s amazing. One of the best shelters I have seen.
I’ll be sending a donation to help out.
On December 13, 2010 at 9:53 pm
Heidi says:
That is so fab! I wish there were no need for animal shelters at all, but if we must have them, it’s good that they can be nice ones! :kitty
On December 13, 2010 at 11:30 pm
Laura J says:
Their goal was to make it not look like a shelter in hopes people will adopt more. The old place was depressing, this new one is fun. The name of the rooms are cute too…laundrymutt is where they can wash all the bedding. Unfortunately I can’t remember the names of the other rooms.
On December 14, 2010 at 12:01 am