Our economy has had more than a rough patch over the last few years and often shelters are hit hard. Shelters here have been filled to capacity due to people who have lost their homes and were forced to give up beloved pets. At a time when shelters could use more money to handle the load, donations can also suffer.
Of course cash is always appreciated, but we've seen some great ideas of things you can do to help animals in need:
- Donate old blankets, or practice your knitting and make some blankies
- Donate or make toys for the kitties to play with
- Donate food or paper goods
- Foster animals or volunteer your time to help where you can
- Adopt from a shelter rather than buying at a pet store
Mommy uses soft towels and sews towel blankets for cages, a lot of times you can get towels at the thrift stores for next to nothing.
ReplyDeleteWe knit cat blankets for our local shelter...they are not fancy but they are warm :-)
ReplyDeleteAnother way is to come to agreement with friends and family to donate rather than exchange presents at Christmas and birthdays.
ReplyDeleteThese have been wonderful posts about helping shelters. We usually donate money to the ones out of town. The ones here we either take money, food, toys or supplies to them. Every penny helps them. The last time we took a bag of kitten food to them, they acted like they were thrilled to get it. We left there feeling very good too. Lots of love, Holly and mom
ReplyDeleteA really lovely post my dear.
ReplyDeleteWe agree completely with supporting shelters. We are rescued cats ourselves.
ReplyDeleteThat was "T"errific Fin, thanks for purrticipating in ShelterAware24, I appreciate you!!!
ReplyDeleteA great post=we buy kitty beds and toys to donate to the shelters here every year (Mom watches for the kitty beds on sale at carealotpets.com)...BTW, we loved your book as well; Mittens is a precious kitty and we just adored the beautiful photos of you and Isabella Mousington together!...We hope you enjoy a fun week ahead, gorgeous Finny...kisses...Calle, Halle, Sukki
ReplyDeleteYep, Fin, there's lots of things the shelter can use and it doesn't involve spending green papers.
ReplyDeleteWe absolutely agree! And we're all shelter kitties ourselves, so we know how important it is.
ReplyDeleteWe are all rescue kitties so we know how welcome any gifts to the shelters are.
ReplyDeleteAlfie was a rescue kitten and we whole-heartedly agree wiv the need for support.
ReplyDeleteGreat post Fin. It is so important to help the shelters any way that we can. Those are some great ideas. Have yourself a fun day.
ReplyDeletethank you for this most important post!
ReplyDeleteWe donated blankets, toys, food, treats etc in December and we are going to try and donate at least quarterly!!! Whenever we can!
xoxo Caren and Cody
Hey Fin, Ya'll can vote everyday for your favorite shelter in The Animal Rescue Site Shelter Challenge. If you don't have a favorite shelter than please vote for Almost Heaven Golden Retriever rescue and Sanctuary in Capon Bridge, WV. Just go to:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.theanimalrescuesite.com/clickToGive/home.faces?siteId=3&link=ctg_ars_home_from_ars_home_sitenav
Or check out our blog for easy directions.
- TBH&K
Those are all good things Finny. I will donate Teddy to any shelter that wants him!
ReplyDeleteSo true. If everyone did one little thing...
ReplyDeletePawsome post, Fin! We volunteer at our shelter every Saturday and Sunday ... we love it. We also take all of our cans and bottles there. Oh, and of course, we have a blog dedicated to the cats at the shelter. :)
ReplyDeleteThese are such great ideas, Fin!!
ReplyDeleteActually, the TNR fundraiser has been rescheduled for Feb 5th. We are having a silent auction, raffle and door prizes. Thanks so much for the offer of your book as a donation. We'd love to add it to our fundraiser items!!! That would be great!! We can send you a tax receipt as well. I'll message you the address.
Lovely blog Fin. We once did a bake sale sort of thing in front of the local shelter. It was partly for awareness and partly to raise funds. Things we generally $1-2 but we just asked people to give what they could. We got the baked goods from a local gocery. Basically you go in, tell management your a non-profit and they run through whatever section of the store you want and give you pretty much anything you need. I think the place we'd get our stuff from did it for free but some may want a tax ID # for tax purposes. Thanks for sharing this, very useful information :)
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