Reach out to help animals and people
By Pet Connection Staff
June 16, 2009
Times are tough, and a lot of pet owners could use a hand. Gina Spadafori, Mikkel Becker Shannon and Dr. Marty Becker know that volunteering in shelters is hard, but say that’s no reason not to help in other ways. From this week’s Pet Connection newspaper feature:
[J]ust because you aren’t cut out for shelter volunteering doesn’t mean you can’t help animals in your community. And in these current economic situations, your help has never been more needed.The fact is that every little bit helps. After all, if every one of us animal lovers did one small thing a couple of times a year, the total effort would be grand indeed.
Here are a few suggestions for helping animals:
- Help others take better care of their pets. If you have a friend, neighbor or relative who is having difficulty caring for a pet because of advanced age or illness, offer to help out. Pets are extremely important to those who are cut off from social activities. Helping people keep their pets is a kindness to both pet and pet owner.What can you do? Pick up food or litter, or offer to take the pet to the veterinarian when needed. Many times, people who rely on others for assistance are reluctant to ask for more help on account of a pet. So ask if you can help. After all, if you’re already going to the pet-supply store or veterinarian, is it really that much trouble to pick up some extra supplies or stay for an additional appointment?
More suggestions here.
A reminder to take care of yourself after the loss of a beloved pet, from Dr. Becker:
Taking care of yourself is important when dealing with pet loss. Some people — the “it’s just a pet” crowd — won’t understand the loss and may shrug off grief over a pet’s death as foolish. The company of other animal lovers is very important. Seek them out to share your feelings, and don’t be shy about getting professional help to get you through a difficult time.
Many veterinary schools and colleges offer pet-loss counseling by phone — and the services are free.
Tips on kitten-proofing your home from Susan Tripp, MS, and Rolan Tripp, DVM:
Proper preparation of your home before you get a kitten can get your pet off to a great start.
Start with a litter box that is not too big for a kitten to get into. Make sure window screens are secure and that household cleaning products, houseplants, strings and other potentially dangerous objects are out of your kitten’s reach.
Select the tallest scratching post you can find, preferably with a climbing and resting area on top, so your cat can stretch, groom his claws and perch himself off the ground. Keep all these items and your kitten in one room for a couple of weeks to lower kitten stress, control safety and prevent behaviors you don’t want in an adult cat.
Plus: Popular birds; thunder-phobia even affects police dogs; your pet’s dry skin. All this and more, in our Pet Connection newspaper feature, which you can read right here.
You can also see it exactly the way we send it to our client newspapers here. (PDF)
In my (cough, cough) spare time - at least twice a month, I deliver food boxes to the elderly and those in need. My personal vehicle is a full size van and so I fill up my van with boxes of food that have been donated to a local food bank.
I’m usually asked to deliver the food to the local senior activity centers but sometimes I’m also asked to go to a private home.
If I see a dog or cat in the home, I also drop off dog food, cat food or cat litter. The food bank doesn’t supply this; I do. I don’t tell the recipient that, though! smile…. I don’t tell them anything about it; just drop it off.
If the food bank gets calls about pet foods, they take a message and route it to me.
Our local therapy dog group and my dog training group do fund raisers for the money for the supplies. Our hope is that these seniors can then continue to keep their pets for that much longer.
Comment by Liz Palika — June 18, 2009 @ 11:28 am
And cut all handles off of bags so the cats don’t get caught . . .
Comment by catmom5 — June 18, 2009 @ 2:21 pm
No handles; food is usually delivered in zip lock bags so we can buy in bulk and parcel it out to more people.
And yes, we do buy better quality foods. I would love to supply the foods I feed my pets but so far we can’t afford to do that. But we don’t offer cheap, poor quality, recalled, or other known dangerous foods. We supply the best we can.
Comment by Liz Palika — June 19, 2009 @ 10:22 am