As you enjoy the Thanksgiving holiday, please be aware of foods harmful to pets. Many foods, such as turkey bones and skin, grapes, raisins, chocolate, and onions, can be dangerous. If you want your dog to be a part of the feasting, consider buying special dog treats or share a small piece of white turkey meat.

We are grateful for you, our volunteers, members and friends.  Thank you for making our Shelter possible.

“Until one has loved an animal a part of one’s soul remains unawakened.”

–Anatole France

A Tale of two Kitties (or three, or four, and more). Holiday kitty special!!!

Right now at the shelter, it is definitely “the best of times, the worst of times”. It is the best of times because we are still getting wonderful support from the community, but things are hard because we have so many wonderful cats and kittens that need loving homes. Many more than we usually have during the holidays, because we have rescued from kill shelters.

“Alice and Amy” are just two of the kittens available. These charming and very cute girl kittens are sisters, and would love to go to a home together. They are very bonded with each other, and spend their time playing and lying in each other’s arms, giving kisses.

To help our little “tame tigers” find the homes they need so badly, we are having special adoption fees for the holidays- a Holiday Kitten and Cat Special. Come in and pick the kitten or cat of your choice, and not only will he or she be available to go to your loving home at a reduced cost, your adoption will enter you in our holiday drawing. The drawing will be December 20, and the three prizes available include 2 nice gift certificates to Sid’s Grocery Store and a yummy turkey! If you win, it would be a win-win situation for all concerned- not only could you have a darling new kitty to love, but you could go home with a prize from the drawing!

Pictures with Santa at Dennis Company

We are offering pictures with Santa at Dennis Company Saturday December 6 from 10am to 2pm. Refreshments will be served (thank you Dennis Company!). and pictures with Santa will be available with a donation to the Humane Society. Bring you pets and kids to this fun event and get a nice holiday picture to add to the family memory book.  [more]

Shelter Wish List

We want to express our sincere gratitude to everyone who has brought us the wonderful donations the past few weeks. We have received Kitten Chow, kitty litter, and dog and cat food- all badly needed and most appreciated.

What we are now  wishing for the most is for the needy pets in our care to find loving homes for the holidays. We have nice dogs and kitties, some of whom have been at the shelter for far too long, that have had their lives put on hold while they wait for someone to love them. Please come in and see if your next best friend is waiting for you!

Here are a brother and sister who adopted from us this week.  They’re bound to have a happy holiday!

There have been emails circulating about the danger of cooking on teflon, specifically the off-gasing being toxic for birds.

We’ve done some online searching and this seems to be a legitimate concern and not a hoax.  For more information, read:

http://www.tuberose.com/Teflon.html
and
http://www.naturalnews.com/021059.html

Hello,

Just wanted you to know that Cameo, formerly Juliette, is doing Great!!!

We love her and she loves us. Especially me, probably because we drove for 4 1/2 hours. But she was supposed to be my dog anyway. She is almost potty trained. Whines at the door or window (because she can see outside) if she needs to go out. She is sitting on command and fetching (almost).

Our Chow Chow had his nose out of joint for a while. But is warming up. I think mainly because Cameo has so much energy. And he is pretty kicked back.

Thank You Again, (all of you who took such good care of her).  I assure you, that she is definitely a treasure to us.

DyAnn

Phase 1

You are listening to jazz — Your first day at work is great. Your coworkers are wonderful, your cubicle is cute, and your boss is the best!

Phase 2

You are listening to pop music — After a while you are so busy that you are not sure if you’re coming or going anymore.

Phase 3

You are listening to heavy metal — This is what you feel like at months end.

Phase 4

You are listening to hip hop — You become bloated due to stress, feel sluggish and suffer from constipation. Your coworkers are too cheerful for your liking and the walls of your cubicle are closing in. You have started thinking ‘WHATEVER’ about your boss.

Phase 5

You are listening to GANGSTA RAP — After more time passes, your eyes start to twitch, you forget what a ‘good hair day’ feels like as you just fall out of bed and load up on caffeine.

Phase 6

You are listening to the voices in your head — You have build a makeshift door on your cubicle to keep people out, You have a dartboard with your bosses picture on it in your cube, You wonder why you are even here in the first place.

Rocky: still a lover-boy in spite of his hard life

This great lab mix is one of those dogs that never cease to amaze us. These dogs sometimes come to the shelter with a history of neglect- in Rocky’s case; he was tied up and ignored by his former owners.

In spite of this, rocky still loves everyone, and hasn’t given up on us humans. He knows in his heart that someone will come along who will love him and take him into their hearts and home.

Rocky delights in being with people, adults and kids alike. His gentle heart also makes him good with other dogs, and cats. He has very good manners, and is eager to please and to learn new things.

So why, you might ask, is this very nice dog still lingering at the shelter? Rocky is mixed with another breed, perhaps Border Collie, and this has given him some white coloring on his muzzle.This seems to make him look older than his 5 years.

Potential adopters often look at him, only to say “this looks like an older dog- we want a young dog”. But, Rocky is truly a young dog, not yet even in the prime of his life. You can see the disappointment on his face when people just look at him and pass him by…

If Rocky could talk, he would say: “I have years left to bring you love and companionship. I just need a chance”.

Special needs kitty needs a special person to love her

This beautiful young kitty is “Snowball”. Snowball, like some cats white cats that have blue eyes, was born deaf. She lives in a silent world, but like some people who are born deaf, she has learned to rely on her other senses and is very bright and alert- she doesn’t miss anything!

Snowball loves people, but is very frightened of other pets and needs to be an only kitty. She is very healthy, and loves to play with her toys and be with people.

She has been at the shelter for far too long, waiting for her special person. Surely there is someone for this beautiful kitty. Her “special needs” just means she needs a special someone to love her.

Shelter wish list

Because we have had so many cats and kittens lately to care for, we have found our need for kitty litter skyrocketing. We would be very grateful to receive donations of non-scoopable, traditional clay-type litter, such as Johnny Cat or Tidy Cat.

Curious kittens will sometimes nibble on scoopable litter, and because it is designed to clump with moisture, the clumpable type can be dangerous for the little guys if they ingest it.

Thank you for caring and for your loyal support. We couldn’t do it without you!

pblahtpblahtpblahtpblaht…pblahtpblahtpblahtpblaht…pblahtpblahtpblahtpblaht… This little guy has quite the motor!

Mary and her husband Jim had a dog named ‘Lucky.’ Lucky was a real character. Whenever Mary and Jim had company come for a weekend visit they would warn their friends to not leave their luggage open because Lucky would help himself to whatever struck his fancy. Inevitably, someone would forget and something would come up missing.

Mary or Jim would go to Lucky’s toy box in the basement and there the treasure would be, amid all of Lucky’s other favorite toys. Lucky always stashed his finds in his toy box and he was very particular that his toys stay in the box.

It happened that Mary found out she had breast cancer. Something told her she was going to die of this disease….in fact , she was just sure it was fatal.

She scheduled the double mastectomy, fear riding her shoulders.. The night before she was to go to the hospital she cuddled with Lucky. A thought struck her…what would happen to Lucky? Although the three-year-old dog liked Jim, he was Mary’s dog through and through. If I die, Lucky will be abandoned, Mary thought. He won’t understand that I didn’t want to leave him. The thought made her sadder than thinking of her own death.

The double mastectomy was harder on Mary than her doctors had anticipated and Mary was hospitalized for over two weeks. Jim took Lucky for his evening walk faithfully, but the little dog just drooped, whining and miserable.

Finally the day came for Mary to leave the hospital. When she arrived home, Mary was so exhausted she couldn’t even make it up the steps to her bedroom. Jim made his wife comfortable on the couch and left her to nap. Lucky stood watching Mary but he didn’t come to her when she called. It made Mary sad but sleep soon overcame her and she dozed.

When Mary woke for a second she couldn’t understand what was wrong.  She couldn’t move her head and her body felt heavy and hot. But panic soon gave way to laughter when Mary realized the problem. She was covered, literally blanketed, with every treasure Lucky owned! While she had slept, the sorrowing dog had made trip after trip to the basement bringing his beloved mistress all his favorite things in life. He had covered her with his love.

Mary forgot about dying. Instead she and Lucky began living again, walking further and further together every day. It’s been 12 years now and Mary is still cancer-free. Lucky? He still steals treasures and stashes them in his toy box but Mary remains his greatest treasure.

Welcome a dog into your life.  You won’t regret it.

What a sweet little calico!  When I look at this picture, I immediatly see a speech bubble above her head.  What do you think would go in it?