Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Kindling a flame for the kitties

I love getting good news ... especially when it concerns animals!  So I was delighted last night to get an email from a dear friend of mine who works with the Clarenville SPCA in Nfld.   She had been inspired by SHAID's Home for the Holiday's program to put a similar one on the front door of the shelter website.
How did that go?   Well ... she was over the moon when she emailed me last night:
  • 28 Cats/kittens Adopted
  • 8 Cats/kittens Adoption Pending with most to be adopted before Christmas, along with
  • 15 dogs/ puppies adopted
Their cat rooms were blocked ( at one point they had 40 cats) ... and now soon one room will have three and the other will have four ... which of course opens up more possibilities for ones still in need
As she said in her email, " ... see what can happen when you don't stop adopting during Christmas. "
No wonder she is bursting with excitement.  The Clarenville SPCA does an awesome job ... they are open and transparent and publish their stats online.  I have seen them tirelessly search for out of province rescue slots to save lives.   I've watched them put their site to very good use to fundraise for pets needing special medical or transportation  costs. 
They are a lovely little lodestar and on any given day site visitors can see how often they have saved lives by bringing dogs in from other shelters in their province.
Do they deserve bragging rights for this?  You bet!  In a world where the difference between cats and dogs is more than purely anatomical, its always a great thing when people pull out all the stops for the cats.
What time is it?  Its always time to recognize the need to go the extra mile for the kitties.
Christmas is the season for kindling the fire of hospitality in the hall, the genial flame of charity in the heart.   Washington Irving

2 comments:

Jewel said...

Thank you Janet for your kind words about our shelter. Today one of our adult cats that has been at the shelter since early summer was adopted. A five month old little male kitten was adopted and another adult cat will be adopted on Christmas Eve. The excitement continues to rise for our kitties.

We'll never know if our Home for the Holidays incentive made the difference but one thing for sure, it didn't hurt.
You can't change the world by saving one animal, but for that one animal, you change it's world!

Anonymous said...

NS SPCA is also reporting record adoption numbers since promoting home for the holidays. It really works!

Well done Clarenville!