Pet Talk

by Cathy Davis
www.houltonanimalshelter.com
    Over the weekend I was talking to a friend about Christmas.  She mentioned that she has asked her children to make a donation to the animal shelter in lieu of gifts this year.   She has everything she wants or needs, and it makes her feel really good to be able to have a donation made in her name.
    I have made a similar request to my children.  When we moved into our new house, I had eight boxes of “stuff” that didn’t fit, because we downsized just a tad and I’m really trying to simplify my life.   I love and cherish every gift ever given to me by my family.  I would not part with a single item, but nothing would please me more than to know that an animal was taken care of and the shelter supported instead of adding something else to my treasure chest of lovely gifts.
    Our web designer, Darlene Kenney, has made up some beautiful gift cards that you can send to your friends or relatives, showing that you have made a donation.  It can be a modest donation or more, the amount is not listed on the card, just the fact that a gift has been made in their honor to the Houlton Humane Society animal shelter.  If you wish to make such a donation, please stop by the Shelter  Monday through Friday from 11 am to 4 pm.  
    If you wish to mail a donation in someone’s honor, we can mail you a gift card. Our address is P.O. Box 548, Houlton, Me 04730.
    This past weekend was a blast, this was our Homes for the Holidays event and we were so excited to adopt out four beautiful cats, one of which had been with us for over two years.  Within the past week, two generous donors contributed money to help us waive the adoption fees and place more animals.  We are prepared to waive the fee on ten cats or kittens, so if you ever wanted to adopt but are maybe retired and on a fixed income and thought you might not be able to afford the fee, now is the time to adopt.  We are well on our way to our goal of 100 adoptions before Christmas but we can’t make it without your help.   Just four adoptions a day will do it, which could be one person taking four cats, two people taking 2 cats, or four people each taking a cat!!   See how easy that is!
    For those of you who cannot take another animal into your home but just love cats or dogs, we are going to try doing a “Virtual Adoption”.  This is an idea that Melissa Fuller came up with and I just love it.  We’ll figure out how much a day it would cost to house and feed a Shelter animal, and then you can adopt that animal or “foster” it, virtually, until we find a new home for it.  We will provide you with photos and you can come visit your kitty or doggie at the shelter if you want, socialize it, walk it, or just follow it’s progress on-line and we’ll put together a kitty blog with updates on it’s progress.   For the age of computers, I love the “virtual” adoption idea and think I already have a kitty in mind that I’ll adopt.  
    We are so grateful to our friends and supporters for all the help we receive and especially at this time of the year.  Just when you think that everybody is too busy buying gifts for their friends and family to think about the shelter just now, a card will come in with a donation in it and a really sweet note thanking us for what we do.  I can’t tell you how much it means to the staff to read some of these messages.  Shelter work is hard, stressful and tiring but it is also extremely rewarding and knowing that we are part of a team, that makes it all the better.
    Thank you for all you do for the animals!