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Alumni New Years Resolutions For 2016

As we near the end of the year we find ourselves in a pretty enviable position: we don't have a lot of pets. What with our Home For The Holidays and the enormous hearts of Silicon Valley, most of our kids have found permanent homes. We have a bunch of new kids that are getting ready to go up for adoption but this blog finds us with very few adoptable muffins to highlight.

So instead of showing off our adoptable fuzz-nuggets, we decided to ask some of our favorite alumni about this coming year. Now that they've found homes, what are their resolutions? Where do they see themselves going from here?

Fresa: I'm going to bring back the jaunty wink. It was a big thing in the fifties and it's just fallen out of fashion. I'm going to make a wink the new 'hello'. It will be awesome. And it plays to my strengths. Making lemons out of lemonade and all.

The kittens: Destruction. Mischief. Hijinks. We're only young once and when we hit that whole cat-hood phase of life we generally mellow out. So make hay while the sun shines. See if we can set some records on number of curtains decimated, that sort of thing.

The puppies: We're going to try really, really hard not to poop in your shoes. True, it's such a perfect vessel for it. And true, it's an awesome trick to play. But we're going to work on this, really we are.

Copper: I'm going to give Kim Kardashian and Beyonce a run for their money. If 2016 is the year of the Flamboyant Rear View, I've got this one in the bag.

Gidget: I'm going to change the way the world thinks about chihuahuas with just one smile. Yappy? Skittish? Snappy? I think not.

Paul: I'm going to learn to speak a little hooman. Just phrases like "get me my toy",  "I need more wet food" and "if you try to trim my nails again I'll flay you alive". It's always good to learn another language, I think. It's enriching.

Jasmine: I'm going to get to a point in my life where the bear stops hitting me in the head. I'm going to catch the bear. The bear won't just be a thing that happens to me.

Abigail: I'm going to be more honest with how I feel. If I love something, I'm going to let people know I love it. Wait, are those nail clippers?

Linus: Mmph mmmmph errrrrmpppphh ptthhhhhhfff mrrrrrf. Nnd fnnth hermpff.

(Translation: I'm going to hold this toy all year. And find a home.)

To everyone who made our year so special and awesome, thank you. Thank you to our amazing volunteers, our tireless foster parents, our huge-hearted adopters and super-generous supporters. From all of us to all of you, thanks for a wonderful 2015. 

Two things happened:

The cats had a blast.

We won't even tell you what he did with the ball.

We thought wrong.

But then decided to play with a ping pong ball instead.

We gave up.

What's the moral of this story? 


One Small Blanket Changes A Big World.

This is a story about a woman named Donna. We know almost nothing about her. But we know she is a hero.

We've never met Donna. We do know she has a poodle. We don't know what her poodle looks like, just that he's lucky to have a mom like Donna. Since we don't know what her poodle looks like, we'll use a picture of Charro, who just arrived here, instead.

We know that Donna lives in a town in Georgia. We don't really know anything about the town except it that there is a woman with a big heart and wonderful sewing skills who lives there. One day our mail truck showed up with a package addressed to us from Georgia. In the package was several beautiful, hand sewn blankets and note from Donna. She makes these blankets for different shelters and sends her packages full of love across the country to help homeless dogs and cats.

We think Donna is amazing.

So do these bunnies who are recovering from their spay/neuter surgery under her blankets.

This momma and babies that arrived here yesterday think she's pretty awesome too.

They're waiting for their foster family to show up but in the meantime Donna's blanket made a baby's first vet visit a little more comfortable.

Buddy, our newest office kitty, is also a fan of Donna's blankets.

He's hanging out in our admin area until he finds his new home.  We don't think it will take long. He's pretty stinkin' cute.

While the animals who use her special blankets love Donna, we love her too.

There's really no such thing as 'animal work'. Animal work  - and animal issues - are people issues. While we meet so many fantastic animals, we also meet a lot of awesome people. While we get to make animals happy (like Donna did with her blankets) we also get to make people happy. Happy like this little boy was happy when his family adopted their cat:

Because animals make people's lives better.

And people, like Donna, make animals lives better. It's a give and take.

What makes our lives better? Knowing that somewhere in Georgia is a very nice woman busily making blankets to comfort homeless animals. Not because she knows the animals personally but just because she knows they need comfort and wants to help.

Every day we see so many heroic acts: a Facebook group that makes and sends out dog toys to shelters. A guy who is late to work because he found a kitten in the parking lot and wants to make sure it gets to safety. Pretty much each and every one of our volunteers. A woman who drove a homeless family to our facility so they could get their beloved dog vaccinated.

And we see how those acts change lives, both human and animal. We see the wagging tails: But we also see the people, who don't have tails to wag but show us in other ways they're happy. We just wanted to take a minute to thank Donna and thank all the other Donnas who take time out to make a life better. All of you are changing the world.

*Debbie, and her Debbie's Toys For Shelter Dogs group, make us proud to be human. Thank you.
 


What's More Awesome Than The Chance To Get A Sweater Shaver For $4?

Giving Tuesday!

Today is Giving Tuesday - sort of like Black Friday and Cyber Monday except you can actually feel good about it and you're not left with a waffle maker that seemed like a great idea at the time.

Basically Giving Tuesday harnesses the same feeling that is so ubiquitous on those shopping pseudo-holidays - the idea that spending lots of money makes you generous - and actually does something useful with it. You haven't spoken to weird Uncle Al in six years. You don't need to buy him that Snuggie, no matter how much of a good deal it is. You don't need to have the useless-gift-hangover that comes after dropping your hard earned cash on these things. You do, however, love animals and unlike Uncle Al's Snuggie, the animals will use your gifts.

In fact, the animals are going to be ridiculously, absurdly happy with your gifts. Even the ones that don't seem like they'd be a good gig for them at the time. Funding vaccine clinics and medical care might seem the pet equivalent of socks and underwear, gift wise, but the ability to lead a long, healthy life isn't.

Our pets are so ecstatic with their gifts that we asked them why Giving Tuesday was a better deal than that Pedi Egg your coworker is never, ever going to use (even if you saw her feet in sandals once and they were terrifying). As you can see, their responses speak for themselves.

Some of them were funny... Some of them were too adorable for words...

And some of them were tinged with a bit of sad...

But all of them speak to what we're able to do with your help. Which is make lives better.

If you're feeling so inclined, you can donate here.

If you have people on your gift list who are hard to shop for but deserve better than a cheese-cutting set, we have tribute cards.

If you know people that are dying for a pet, we also have gift cards that cover the cost of adoptions.

If you're dying for a pet yourself, come see us. Through December 31st, adoption fees on all pets are just $15.
