Pet Talk

by Cathy Davis
    The holiday season, a time of celebrating, travel, gift giving, sharing and family. A time to reflect on the year past and plan for the new year coming. A time to remember your friends with cards and letters and newsletters of your family’s year and a time to share with those who maybe haven’t had a visit from a family member for a very long time. A time to exchange gifts, bake lots of goodies, have a ton of parties, and drink egg nog and eat fruit cake.  
    At Houlton Humane, we are blessed to be remembered by our friends and supporters over the holiday season. It’s your thoughtful generosity that will get us through the lean months of the winter, when bills are highest because of fuel oil, and income is lowest as adoptions begin to slow down.
    We are often asked what we need most, so every year at this time I bring you a Christmas wish list. If we don’t tell you, you won’t know, so here is what the animal shelter needs the most, if you are so inclined to include us on your Christmas list:
    Financial support — although we try not to ask every single week, your cash donations are what keep us going. When we receive an invoice for our workers compensation insurance and it’s over $1,000, we need assistance with that bill, as well as the light bill, oil bill, salaries, and other necessities. Your donations are tax deductible, so this is the perfect time to make a financial contribution so that you can deduct it from your 2011 taxes.
    Supplies – we can always use cat litter, bleach, laundry detergent, dish detergent, toilet paper, paper towels, window cleaner, and canned dog and cat food.
    Volunteers — maybe you could put us on your calendar to donate an hour or two a week to walk dogs, clean cages, do laundry, dust, or otherwise help at the shelter.
    Special projects — we could always use volunteers to sign up to help with just one project a year. If, for instance, you would like to help with just the Box Lunch, you can call the shelter and let Heather know and your name will be put on a call list.
    We can also use volunteers who put on special projects on their own – perhaps a Scout troop would like to run a bottle drive or collect used ink cartridges, perhaps a first grade class would want to do a penny drive – maybe your sunshine club at work could suggest a “Jean Friday” and select the shelter as the recipient of donations.
    If you own a business, putting a donation can by the cash register would be very helpful, and we appreciate those who already do this for us!
    Old clean towels are always needed at the shelter for bedding and other uses to make the animals comfortable.
    Homes – the most important thing you can do for us is help us find homes for our animals. This doesn’t mean you have to adopt personally, although if you could, that would be great, but let’s say you can’t, let’s say you’re at your limit right now. But what if you’re at work one day and you hear a co-worker mention that they would love to get a kitten for little Sally. Encourage her to adopt from the Shelter, give her our contact information, show her where to look on the Internet for photos of our adoptable cats and dogs. Every one of us can do at least that – pass the word.
    What if you are that lucky person who has “everything” – maybe you could ask your friends to make a donation to the Shelter in your name instead of giving you a gift.  
    There are so many ways that you can be a blessing to these animals this holiday season, and we just want to take a minute to thank you for your support this past year. This has been a year of growth and change for us and sometimes growth can be painful but it is always worth it. This year has been a lot of work but every minute of every day has been worth it, all the work, all the headaches, all worth it. Come visit us at our giant open house on December 10th at noon, help us celebrate the season, enjoy some refreshments, prizes, photo ops with Santa and give some thought to giving a bunny, a kitty, or a dog a new home. What better way to celebrate the holidays than to share your home with a sweet little kitty who has none. Happy Holidays!
    Cathy Davis is a longtime volunteer for the Houlton Humane Society. She can be reached at houltonanimalshelter@gmail.com or 532-2345.