Pet Talk

by Cathy Davis
www.houltonanimalshelter.com
    We invite you to join us Tuesday, June 9, for the third annual “Dine-out for the Animals”, a fun and exciting evening where all you have to do is choose your favorite restaurant, have a meal, and a portion of the cost of your meal will be donated by the restaurant to the animal shelter.
    Participating restaurants will have posters in the window and include the Shamrock Café, Grammy’s Country Inn, Elm Tree Diner, the Blue Moose and the Brookside Inn.  The Horn of plenty will be closed on the 9th, however, you may make reservations for any night after they re-open, let them know you’re Dining Out for the Animals and they will donate on your behalf.
    Other businesses may join in, so please watch the shelter website for an updated list, or call 532-2895 and Darlene can let you know who is participating.
    This is one of many fund raisers held throughout the year to help raise money to keep the animal shelter going.  It’s been a tough year, with prices of everything going up but donations understandably light, because times are hard for everybody, not just the animal shelter, and everybody has to pick and choose carefully when it comes to supporting non-profit organizations.
    We appreciate those who support us financially.  We have been operating for 57 years now and each and every day we strive to learn something new that will benefit the animals. 
    I’m very excited to have been invited to serve on the advisory board of the Maine Federation of Humane Societies, it is quite the honor, but for me, it is more than that, it’s an opportunity to learn from other organizations and bring that information home.  We don’t do everything right, it’s near impossible to be perfect, so I’m sure I can bring home a lot of helpful tips that we can implement to make our shelter more efficient.
    Networking is wonderful; we should all do more of it.  I’m very fortunate to have a fantastic working relationship with the Board President of Central Aroostook Humane and we share a lot of information.  She helps me more than I help her, but the bottom line is, none of us can operate in a vacuum, we must lean on each other, we are all in this for one reason and one reason only, the animals.  This isn’t about personalities, or who has a bigger prettier shelter, or who has the most (or least) money, it’s about providing quality care for the animals and working hard to place them in new homes as fast as possible.
    Speaking of networking, this column is my opportunity to get important information out to you and I want to alert you that there has been at least one confirmed case of rabies in the area.  The USDA called to advise us that a dead raccoon had tested positive.  Please do not touch any dead animal that you find, please call your animal control officer for proper handling, and please make sure all your animals have been vaccinated.
    And please, consider adopting a pet from the Shelter, there are so many that need homes.   We have several special needs cases you might want to consider – there is James, a sweet and loving young male who had some health issues and had to have his teeth pulled.  I guarantee he won’t bite!   And Jennifer, who underwent surgery (paid for by a donor) to repair a very serious injury.  Her hair has never grown back over her incision site, so she may be a partial hairless – I guarantee she won’t shed (as much as if she had all her hair anyway).  She is a sweet kitty and ready for a new home.
    There are many, many beautiful healthy animals available, please stop by and fall in love with one of them.