One Percent

What a slow month for pet adoptions .... everyone is bursting at the seams and hopefully all the great potential pet adopters are just on vacation. I had an email from CAPS and they are up to an unprecedented 180 pets. They even discovered that one of their new mother cats was already pregnant again when she came into their care with her litter of kittens! ( the normally sensible suggestion of a pregnant spay is dodgier when the kittens aren't weaned)
To make matters worse, everyday on the dreaded free online ad site, there are countless great pets being passed around like old socks for free. If someone has never had a pet before, that might look like quite a bargain, when the reality is that they often wind up with more than they bargained for.
Really ... why would anyone pay an adoption fee when there are so many 'free to a good home' lovelies out there? Very few of them are vaccinated or altered, mind you, but that's not something that an inexperienced pet owner would consider. Nor would they think about how often the site is used as a dumping ground for eight year old dogs after backyard breeders have burned them out.
Nope .... the word free just dangles out there full of promise. Its almost as tempting as the ease of the No Questions Asked approach to picking a pet.
On the other hand, the good folks who work frontline rescue can wax quite eloquent about the dreaded free online ad site. When undisclosed medical and /or behavior issues arise, they are the ones that wind up picking up the pieces.
Anyone who has ever adopted a pet from a reputable rescue or shelter understands the value of both the application process and the adoption fee. I could have adopted at least four cats with what it cost me to do everything properly for Dora and Oscar.
I know I go on and on like a stuck record ... but there ARE enough good homes out there. Good responsible caring homes that have a proven track record of lifetime commitment.
Pet adoption passes under the radar for most people until somebody they know adopts a pet. The last Stats Can figures place the number of households in Nova Scotia at 350,000. If only one percent of these were to adopt a pet, there would be No More Homeless Pets In Nova Scotia. ( on petfinder tonight there are 478 pets ... and for anyone who is lost without a calculator, one percent is 3,500 )
One Percent! Its enough to make a preacher swear!
So there is a new little thing on the site .... a free downloadable iron on transfer to promote pet adoption. ( Click here for a free iron on transfer to promote pet adoption in NS ) To keep it simple, its black and white, but if you needed white to put on a dark t shirt or bag, just email me and I'll post it.
If anyone else has a design they would like to donate, btw, I would be delighted to post it.
As time permits, between the garden, wood stacking and fence building, I'll try to add a few more.
But for now it is a little something ... there are actually two logos on the page so you could do a t and a canvas bag or a dog scarf.
What time is it? Its time to start waking up that one percent.