Holiday Gratitude

Looking for a way to express your gratitude for all the blessings you have experienced this year? Find a way to help in your community this holiday season. With the struggling economy we are experiencing, charities are also feeling the strain on their wallets. This week we visited the local animal shelter to drop off some food to help them feed the many animals they care for daily. Well we dropped off the food and left with 5 foster kittens. Kittens are at risk in the shelter since they are to young to be vaccinated against respiratory diseases and other diseases they may be exposed to in the shelter. We will help by administering the medicines they need, feeding them by hand to help them gain weight, and lots of TLC to make them great candidates for adoption. When they are older they will return to the shelter for their vaccines, be spayed or neutered and will be available for adoption. This is a great idea for families that are considering getting a pet, but aren't sure they are ready for the commitment or if a family member has allergies they may have outgrown - you can find out if the pet will work for you without making a permanent commitment. If you fall in love and find that perfect match for your family - wonderful, if it doesn't work out you have still helped the shelter by reducing the overcrowding they experience and hopefully helped an animal grow strong enough to find their forever family. Contact your local shelter for fostering and volunteering opportunities.

Food Drive to help animals in the local shelter

In order to give back to the community, my shop is co-sponsoring with Pawsatively Dapper a pet food drive to help feed the dogs and cats at the local shelter. The area shelters are taking in a large number of unwanted pets and stray animals, especially kittens. They need the support of the community to help care for all the animals up for adoption. Our family recently fostered a family of young kittens to help ease the overcrowding at the shelter. By raising the kittens at our house until they were old enough to be adopted, the kittens stayed healthier, learned to interact with people, and eased the burden on the shelter to feed the kittens. It was a great experience for our family and when we returned the kittens to be adopted we adopted an older cat for our family. The employees at the shelter have the very difficult job of dealing with all the unwanted animals in our community, but are always friendly and helpful, they are truly amazing individuals. Please help us support the shelter by dropping off pet food donations at the store located at 528 East New Haven in Downtown Melbourne.

Adopt A Shelter Cat Month

Since June is Adopt a Shelter Cat Month, we did our part to help and adopted a wonderful cat from the local animal shelter. Our family cat recently passed away and we were missing the cuddles and purrs that a cat brings to your life. When we first visited the shelter, we were disheartened to see the large number of animals that have ended up without homes. After speaking to a wonderful volunteer we agreed to foster 4 precious kittens until they could be offered for adoption. This was a wonderful experience for our family. When we returned the kittens to the shelter, our family fell in love with an adorable and friendly 8 month old kitten named Shane. Shane had been at the shelter for 3 months and time was running out for him. He is adapting well to our home and is so sweet and loves to cuddle. He is a wonderful addition to our family and is happy to have found his forever home. So please remember - the next time you decide to add a pet to your family, check the local shelter first. If you are unable to adopt a pet you can help the shelter out by fostering animals short term, spaying or neutering your pet, donating food, volunteering your time, or donating money.

Save a life ...

Looking for a new friend for your family? Please check out the great animals available at your local shelter or rescue agencies. When you get an animal from the shelter you save a life - euthanasia is the single greatest cause of death for cats and dogs in the U.S. Each year, 8 to 12 million animals are euthanized or 1 pet every 4 seconds. Our county alone euthanizes over 10,000 animals a year! Also by adopting a cat or dog from the shelter you will be helping to reduce the demand for the puppy and kitty mills where animals are horribly abused. If you are looking for a particular breed of animal check your local shelter, many purebred cats and dogs are also abandoned or check for local purebred rescue agencies. Online resources - www.petfinder.com and www.pet911.com

Want to help, but not ready to commit to a forever friend? There are many ways you can help. We are currently "fostering" 4 abandoned kittens for our local shelter. Baby animals are at risk in the shelter since they are to young to be vaccinated against respiratory diseases and other diseases they may be exposed to in the shelter. Our job is to help them eat well and gain weight and to give them tons of love - not a bad job huh? When they are older they will return to the shelter for their vaccines, be spayed or neutered and will be available for adoption. Animal shelters always need donations of food especially kitten, puppy, and canned food as well as towels, and kitty litter. They also need volunteers to help with the animals and with office work, contact your local shelter for more information.