Giving Back to the Community at Our Local SPCA {#cbias}

“Disclosure – I am a member of the Collective Bias®  Social Fabric® Community.  This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias and its client.”

Some of you already know this, but in case you don’t,  my family and I are big lovers of animals and we try to be kind to all living creatures.  Yes, we are those people who pick up caterpillars and worms from the driveway and put them on the grass, will pick up spiders from the livingroom floor and put them outside and carefully pick slugs from our garden and relocate them to the back of our lot.  Basically, our philosophy is; these creatures have done nothing at all to deserve harsh treatment and are just living their life, so why would we intentionally harm or kill them?

We presently have two (three when our grand-daughter-kitty visits!) rescued kitties in our family and over the years have been fortunate to have had several other rescued animals in our lives.  So naturally, when I was recently given the opportunity to “Give Back” to my community during this holiday season, I was super excited and knew exactly who needed some help.  Our local Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals – Animal Rescue (SPCA- Animal Rescue)

The SPCA is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing rescue, temporary housing, care and assistance to stray and unwanted animals in our community. They actively seek to promote responsible pet ownership and do their best to find loving, caring and responsible homes for all the animals in their care.

Last year, in my community alone, over a thousand animals were adopted and found their Furever Homes through the SPCA Animal Rescue. These included all shapes, sizes and breeds of cats, dogs, rats, guinea pigs, rabbits and more!  They strive towards reaching one specific goal – finding each animal a loving home and reducing the overwhelming population of homeless animals.

I knew our local SPCA had a “wish list” on their website, so the first thing I did when I was given the opportunity of “Giving Back” was to visit their website and print out their “Wish List”.  The  items the animals needed most were:

• Canned Cat Food
• Animal Bedding Pellets – To use for Cat Litter
• Peanut Butter – For the Dogs’ Kongs
• Cheez Whiz- For the Dogs’ Kongs
• Cat Collars
• Leashes
• Martingale Collars
• High Quality Dog Treats

So, a couple of days ago, my daughter, a good friend of ours and I went on a little bit of a pet shopping spree at our local Walmart.

It was fun to browse the pet aisles and find some of the items on the “Wish List”.

Dropping off some items that were on the SPCA “Wish List”.

Some of the beautiful little kittens in the “Kitten Room”.

My daughter visiting with a few of the kitties who were patients in the infirmary.

Thankfully, there were only a few dogs at the shelter on the day we visited, these sweet little guys were two of them.

Some of the handsome men in the Adult Male Cat Room

A couple of the gorgeous girls in the Adult Female Cat Room.

This little guy was outside in an enclosed dog park.  The volunteer who was with him told us this sweet little fellow had been at the SPCA the longest and had a “furever” home adoption pending! Fingers crossed!

It truly does do your heart and soul good to help those less fortunate in any way we can.  I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to purchase some needed items for our local SPCA, but, there are many ways of giving back to your community.

You could choose to give back by:

• Donating what you don’t use (clothing, furniture or food)
• Participating in a fundraising event
• Volunteering your time (at a shelter, soup kitchen, school, seniors home or hospital, Habitat for Humanity)
• Sharing your pet (Your pet makes you feel happy and content, maybe he can make someone else feel that way too.  Consider bringing your pet to a local senior center, school, veteran’s club or hospital)
• Sharing your skills (cooking, sewing,  quilting, accounting, a second language, knitting, carpentry, reading, painting, gardening)
• Inviting an elderly relative or neighbour who is alone to spend the holidays with you and your family.
• Mentoring programs
• When making a meal or baking consider packaging a couple portions for an elderly neighbour to enjoy.

Be it man, women, child, animal or other living creature, we all deserve to be valued and treated with kindness and respect.

Opt to adopt and help save a life!

Wishing you, your family and friends a wonderful holiday filled with kindness, sharing, giving and happiness!

Do you and your family enjoy giving back during the holiday season and throughout the year?

Tell me about the “giving back” or random acts of kindness you enjoy participating in?