Friday, December 10, 2010

Hope for the Holidays in the Air

I love making fudge.  Old school and definitely not heart smart when it is chock full of butter and sugar and everything yummy.  Its actually a real family tradition because I'm using my own granny's tried and true recipe.
When I first moved out on my own, I had no success making it until I bit the bullet and bought my own candy thermometer.  Why would that be?  Hadn't I made it so many times at home?
Candy making of any sort is a deft art that depends on accurate temperatures for success. Its not like making soup, where one can still come up with something edible by tossing all the ingredients in the pot and hoping for the best.  One has to follow both the recipe and the method for any chance of success.  
The thermometer takes all the guess work out of things and ups the odds that every batch will be a success.  
There is no guess work about the No Kill Equation.  Its not a new concept, even if some folks still think its a radical fantasy.  Then again, I'm old enough to remember when organic gardening was considered to something those 'radical hippies' did and not the mainstream activity its become today.
One of the most effective elements of the No Kill Equation is the concept that it is possible to adopt the way to No Kill.  After all, that was the original idea behind the Home for the Holidays program .... to embrace the concept that the holidays are such a popular time for bringing home a new pet instead of shutting out so many potential adopters.
So how is it doing so far this year?  According to the website, there have been 571,833 adoptions to date.   last year there were a total of 1,363,638 pets adopted as a result and this year they have raised the bar yet again and hope for 1,500,000 adoptions.
Here in Nova Scotia, how are things going? 
Do you remember the post, More Hope for the Holidays, which talked about the fabulous way that SHAID celebrates the program?  (halving the adopting fee for the cats who have been at the shelter the longest time )  How is that working?  There is only ONE cat left still waiting .... a lovely lad named Regal.  All the rest are no doubt purring up a storm as they savour the delights of spending All their days in the comfort of their own homes.
Why did SHAID do this?  Because their own stats showed them what a success it has been to do this in the past.  
The kind hearts at the Yarmouth SPCA realize they are a little off the beaten path and so their way of celebrating Home for the Holidays is to offer two Very Attractive Adoption Incentives of their own:
  • the adoption fee is being halved for all pets that have been with them for over six months
  • the adoption fee is being completely waived for all pets that were at the shelter since last Christmas
  • and ... they realize what a social world this is and have made a special event for their facebook group
What time is it?  Its always time to celebrate and support programs that encourage people to embrace pet adoption.   Every pet that is adopted undercuts the competition of pet stores and the unsavoury sorts peddling their unfortunate 'wares' on the free online ad sites.
It is Christmas in the heart that puts Christmas in the air. ~W.T. Ellis

1 comment:

Hez said...

Atlantic Small Dog Rescue waived Dixie's adoption fee for December. She had been in foster for 6 months. We are SO pleased that Dixie got HER home for the holidays! I think this is a great program. It worked for us :)