Catlady711
10-23-2007, 08:25 PM
I appologize ahead of time for how long I think this post will probably end up being. Bear with me please.
Where I work at has been getting these cases of free sample packs of dry food sent by a pet food company. We're supposed to hand these out to clients to get them to buy their product. Problem is the boss man doesn't want us to get into being a pet store and 'pushing' a particular brand on people, and we simply do not have enough storage space for the excess food. After this last shipment, that we didn't ask for, we simply have run out of storage space for it. I asked the boss man if we could just pare it down to a couple cases and donate the rest to our local Humane Society. He agreed to let me do that, if I would sort through it, load it up and take it there myself. NO problem. I called first to make sure they could handle and store that large of a quantity of food, they were exstatic (sp?) said go ahead bring it over.
Our county Humane Society has always been an extremely small, severly under staffed (volunteers only) and poor no kill shelter. They have been trying to raise money for a new builiding for 10 YEARS and still have not gotten enough. Our area isn't a rich one, and the shelter they have now is practically falling apart.
Normally hubby and I buy a bunch of cat toys, some cat food or litter, and some doggie rawhides and donate to the shelter every Christmas. During the rest of the year I take extra cat food/toys/beds we don't need anymore to them also. I'm always suggesting to people that have extra pet items to donate it to the shelter.
So after work tonight I loaded up the car the freebie food and took it over there with the help of my hubby. They sent out a few people to help carry it in and thanked us profusely and told me to thank my boss man.
It's been almost a year since we've been in there and were SHOCKED to death to see how things had changed!!!
I can't say for sure on the dog kennel area changing any,as we weren't allowed to go in there because it was closed/quaranteed because of raging kennel cough.
As for the cat area it was heartbreaking and shocking. I also found one poor cat who was abandon there as a kitten and now 4 YEARS old! He's lived his whole life in a cage!
Previously when we'd been in there the cat room occupied only one wing of large cages and the cats looked well cared for and most of them reasonably healthy. First thing in the door I realized the area that used to be the lobby/reception area has been converted over to cat cages, I mean wall to wall, floor to ceiling, cat cages! Not all big ones either, some were simply oversized carriers!! Each cage had at least 2 cats some had 3-4 if they were littermates or got along well with each other. Their lobby reception area had been moved into what used to be a storage closet. No joke, they were trying to handle paperwork and adoptions out of a storage closet!!! It got worse from there.
Many of the cats had a nasty URI. Cage after cage was full of cats with runny puffy eyes, runny noses, and you couldn't stand very close to some cages or you'd get sneezed on with plenty of mucus! The staff was running around from cage to cage like mad trying to get Clavamox into about a dozen or so cats, and wiping eyes to keep them from getting stuck shut with gunk. This was just in what used to be the lobby area!!
I honestly think their sickest cats were in this room as the regular cat room fared somewhat better with the URI's but they had two diabetic cats they were giving insulin injections to while another staff member was trying to go around with a watering can to refill water bowls while at the same time trying to change litterboxes! I saw one cage where the cat had apparently drown one of it's toy mice in it's waterbowl, the water was the same color as the mouse had been and was not drinkable anymore. Many of the cats had flipped over their food bowls or scattered food into the water or just plain raked litter all over the cage.
While I realize cats just make a mess sometimes but they were in no way, shape or form able to care for so many cats at the same time. No staff member was idle or dawdling. It was total chaos of them running from cage to cage trying to take care of the cats as well as answer phones and normal office stuff.
Even my hubby, who will publicly deny he likes cats (although he really does) was shocked and heartbroken over the conditions there. When we got home he picked up several of the cats (after changing clothes and washing his hands of course), hugged them and told them how lucky they were to have a home with us. Although he'd never admit to doing such a thing.
Anyways the point of this whole heartbreaking post is that hubby and I decided we want to help out the shelter far more than we have in the past. We don't have alot of extra money as 7 cats take up a large portion of the income even with my discounts, and because of our work hours and the shelter's hours it isn't feasable to help out directly as I don't like the thought of exposing my own cats to more diseases than I curently encounter at work. I have to think of my own kitties first.
However...
Hubby and I are both avid photographers and thought maybe we could volunteer to take pictures for their website for adoptions/fundraisers/newsletter. We both could post the shelter's 'want list' up at our workplaces and I'm going to ask the boss man if I can put a bin for donations for food etc. at the hospital and then run that down to the shelter once a week or whatever. My workplace already strongly advocates spay/neuter with our clients.
My mom suggested asking local hotels if they have any old towels they could donate and I could take them down to the shelter for them.
I was wondering if anyone else had some suggestions of small ways we could help out that didn't involve alot of money or caring for the animals directly???
Any suggestions would be appreciated. Hubby and I felt terrible to see how bad things had gotten there and want to help out in ways that we can manage to do. I doubt that we could help out enough to allow them to get their new building but they can use any help they can get right now.
I'm NOT asking for any donations from the PT family. While I realize many of you may want to help out, I'd FAR rather your time, money, effort go to helping your own local shelters out. I hope you all understand. All I'm needing is suggestions of ways hubby and I can help our own little corner of the animal shelter world.
Thank you in advance and for bearing with my overly wordy post! :)
Where I work at has been getting these cases of free sample packs of dry food sent by a pet food company. We're supposed to hand these out to clients to get them to buy their product. Problem is the boss man doesn't want us to get into being a pet store and 'pushing' a particular brand on people, and we simply do not have enough storage space for the excess food. After this last shipment, that we didn't ask for, we simply have run out of storage space for it. I asked the boss man if we could just pare it down to a couple cases and donate the rest to our local Humane Society. He agreed to let me do that, if I would sort through it, load it up and take it there myself. NO problem. I called first to make sure they could handle and store that large of a quantity of food, they were exstatic (sp?) said go ahead bring it over.
Our county Humane Society has always been an extremely small, severly under staffed (volunteers only) and poor no kill shelter. They have been trying to raise money for a new builiding for 10 YEARS and still have not gotten enough. Our area isn't a rich one, and the shelter they have now is practically falling apart.
Normally hubby and I buy a bunch of cat toys, some cat food or litter, and some doggie rawhides and donate to the shelter every Christmas. During the rest of the year I take extra cat food/toys/beds we don't need anymore to them also. I'm always suggesting to people that have extra pet items to donate it to the shelter.
So after work tonight I loaded up the car the freebie food and took it over there with the help of my hubby. They sent out a few people to help carry it in and thanked us profusely and told me to thank my boss man.
It's been almost a year since we've been in there and were SHOCKED to death to see how things had changed!!!
I can't say for sure on the dog kennel area changing any,as we weren't allowed to go in there because it was closed/quaranteed because of raging kennel cough.
As for the cat area it was heartbreaking and shocking. I also found one poor cat who was abandon there as a kitten and now 4 YEARS old! He's lived his whole life in a cage!
Previously when we'd been in there the cat room occupied only one wing of large cages and the cats looked well cared for and most of them reasonably healthy. First thing in the door I realized the area that used to be the lobby/reception area has been converted over to cat cages, I mean wall to wall, floor to ceiling, cat cages! Not all big ones either, some were simply oversized carriers!! Each cage had at least 2 cats some had 3-4 if they were littermates or got along well with each other. Their lobby reception area had been moved into what used to be a storage closet. No joke, they were trying to handle paperwork and adoptions out of a storage closet!!! It got worse from there.
Many of the cats had a nasty URI. Cage after cage was full of cats with runny puffy eyes, runny noses, and you couldn't stand very close to some cages or you'd get sneezed on with plenty of mucus! The staff was running around from cage to cage like mad trying to get Clavamox into about a dozen or so cats, and wiping eyes to keep them from getting stuck shut with gunk. This was just in what used to be the lobby area!!
I honestly think their sickest cats were in this room as the regular cat room fared somewhat better with the URI's but they had two diabetic cats they were giving insulin injections to while another staff member was trying to go around with a watering can to refill water bowls while at the same time trying to change litterboxes! I saw one cage where the cat had apparently drown one of it's toy mice in it's waterbowl, the water was the same color as the mouse had been and was not drinkable anymore. Many of the cats had flipped over their food bowls or scattered food into the water or just plain raked litter all over the cage.
While I realize cats just make a mess sometimes but they were in no way, shape or form able to care for so many cats at the same time. No staff member was idle or dawdling. It was total chaos of them running from cage to cage trying to take care of the cats as well as answer phones and normal office stuff.
Even my hubby, who will publicly deny he likes cats (although he really does) was shocked and heartbroken over the conditions there. When we got home he picked up several of the cats (after changing clothes and washing his hands of course), hugged them and told them how lucky they were to have a home with us. Although he'd never admit to doing such a thing.
Anyways the point of this whole heartbreaking post is that hubby and I decided we want to help out the shelter far more than we have in the past. We don't have alot of extra money as 7 cats take up a large portion of the income even with my discounts, and because of our work hours and the shelter's hours it isn't feasable to help out directly as I don't like the thought of exposing my own cats to more diseases than I curently encounter at work. I have to think of my own kitties first.
However...
Hubby and I are both avid photographers and thought maybe we could volunteer to take pictures for their website for adoptions/fundraisers/newsletter. We both could post the shelter's 'want list' up at our workplaces and I'm going to ask the boss man if I can put a bin for donations for food etc. at the hospital and then run that down to the shelter once a week or whatever. My workplace already strongly advocates spay/neuter with our clients.
My mom suggested asking local hotels if they have any old towels they could donate and I could take them down to the shelter for them.
I was wondering if anyone else had some suggestions of small ways we could help out that didn't involve alot of money or caring for the animals directly???
Any suggestions would be appreciated. Hubby and I felt terrible to see how bad things had gotten there and want to help out in ways that we can manage to do. I doubt that we could help out enough to allow them to get their new building but they can use any help they can get right now.
I'm NOT asking for any donations from the PT family. While I realize many of you may want to help out, I'd FAR rather your time, money, effort go to helping your own local shelters out. I hope you all understand. All I'm needing is suggestions of ways hubby and I can help our own little corner of the animal shelter world.
Thank you in advance and for bearing with my overly wordy post! :)