Pet Talk

by Cathy Davis
    I knew it. Every time I make a list of people who helped with a fundraiser, I forget somebody. Last week I listed the folks who helped with Rockin’ the Doghouse but neglected to thank Ken’s Store for the awesome pizza. Kevin was busy at the pizza oven all day long helping us out and we all know he makes a mighty good pizza. We really appreciate Jayne and Kevin and their long time support of the shelter!
    I also forgot to mention Bonnie Stone, Linda Foster and Maxine Morris who baked for us – we love these ladies, they come to every yard sale, every bake sale, they help us all the time, how could I possibly have forgotten them?
    This past weekend we had planned to have a yard sale, weather permitting, and in watching the hour by hour forecast on the internet it appeared it would stop raining by 9 a.m. so we set up under cover hoping to move the tables out into the parking lot, but it never did stop raining, so we still had the sale but it was a bit tight as we tried to keep the tables under the outside overhang, in the entry, and into the office space. It was a great day and we had a lot of fun and earned almost $300.
    What’s amazing about this is that almost all this money was earned on donations from one lovely lady, Gemma Bartley, who donated a truckload of wonderful items, many of them brand new. Gemma also donated the mountain bike that was recently won by Joe Inman.
    So what’s next you ask – one more yard sale – a giant yard sale at the shelter on Oct. 15. We have an entire building full of items that have been donated and everything must go. We want to clean out the building for the winter, so come early for the best bargains. We will probably start at 9 a.m. and pray for good weather so we can have this final sale before it snows.
    After that we will be having our annual meeting on October 18th at the Shelter. This meeting is required by our by-laws to include elections of officers. We would love to have you join us, start to get to know how the shelter operates, meet the board members, and have a tour of the facility. We meet in the conference room at the shelter at 6 p.m. but to be honest, meetings are so full any more we may end up having to move them to a larger space.  We are often short on space and chairs, which is a lovely problem to have, because the more people who join us and participate, the better. Coming to a meeting does not obligate you to anything. It doesn’t mean you have to volunteer for fund raisers, it doesn’t mean you have to attend every meeting if you just can’t, but it’s an opportunity to gain a better understanding of animal rescue work and the people who do it and you might be surprised at how much fun we have in the process. 
    At the Oct. 18 meeting we will begin planning our last fundraiser of the calendar year, “Homes for the Holidays.” This is a gigantic adopt-a-thon, which is often accompanied by a chicken stew luncheon and sometimes a craft and bake sale and it’s usually the same weekend as the Christmas parade and craft fair at the Recreation Center. We always have Santa come visit and many of my favorite photos have come from the visits with Santa. The entire purpose of this event is to place as many animals in new homes before Christmas as we can. We feel very sad for the animals who have to spend any time in cages while waiting for new homes, but over the Christmas holidays it is especially troubling that these beautiful healthy cats and dogs and rabbits don’t have homes.
    Speaking of dogs, I have to tell you how proud I am of our Shelter Director Heather Miller, who has worked so hard with the Connecticut Underhound Railroad. You may not know this, but we have helped find homes for 15 dogs displaced by tornadoes in the south. The south has had a devastating season and many animals are displaced by these weather related disasters. There are just not enough homes in the south so many rescue groups work together to transport dogs to the northeast, where we have a hugely successful adoption rate on dogs. Fifteen of these animals found their way from places like Tennessee to little old Houlton, Maine and are now living wonderful comfortable lives, spoiled rotten in new homes. Heather deserves a real pat on the back for her work with this and other similar groups to help find homes for these animals.
    Right now there are three dogs at the shelter needing new homes, but there are many, many cats, several of which have already had their adoption fee paid and are free to a qualified home. This may be because they are a little harder to adopt. For instance, Tommy is the most gorgeous gray and white tom cat you have ever seen but he doesn’t like other cats and many potential adopters already have other animals so if someone without other cats would like to adopt Tommy, his adoption fee is waived. He is already neutered, very friendly, would make the perfect pet for someone, and he really is beautiful (check him out on our Facebook page or our website.
    Ultimately the yard sales and bake sales and adopt-a-thons are all just for one reason – to help us continue the work so we can place Tommy in a new home and all the other animals just like him, so we can help the victims of tornadoes and hurricanes, so we can help the victims of abuse and neglect. So thank you once again for joining us, thanks to all those who volunteer, and we hope to see you at our next meeting, Oct. 18, 6 p.m. at the shelter.
Cathy Davis is a longtime volunteer for the Houlton Humane Society. She can be reached at houltonanimalshelter@gmail.com or 532-2345.