The Dog Days Are Over

As I mentioned here, I decided to participate in the Dog Days of Summer challenge, put on by Be the Change for Pets. Well I've completed the challenge so the next step is to share my experience!

When I first heard about this challenge, I was so excited and inspired by it, that I sent a notice out to some friends and family to see if I could get some extra support. My mom and sister, as well as two friends donated a whole load of supplies which increased my donation three-fold! I was blown away by how much they contributed, I really wasn't expecting it!

Check out how much I ended up with!

How awesome is that?! I realize this challenge was technically focused on food donations, but Bide Awhile is lucky in that their food is provided by Royal Canin. However, they are obviously in need of many supplies aside from food, so I still wanted to participate for that reason. We used the Wish List on the Bide Awhile website for reference. Honestly I didn't think to take "inventory" of everything before delivering it but our donation included the following supplies: cleaning products (bleach, sprays, dish soap, hand sanitizer, paper towel), food/water bowls, collars with leashes/harnesses, cat and dog toys, tennis balls, doggie doo bags, a cat condo/scratching post (thanks Maike!), garbage bags (various sizes), gloves (latex and rubber), pieces of fleece for blankets, etc. I was excited to do the donation regardless, but thanks to the help from a few people I was able to donate so much more, and I was even more excited to drop it off.

I had a little visit with the kitties (duh!) while I was there. I wanted to take like 5 of them home! This is a dangerous place for me to visit - so many beautiful kitties. Observe:

Black Spot kitty

Contortionist kitty

Contemplative kitty

Halloween kitty

Couch-hog kitty

Ballet kitty

I mean, really. How could you not want to smuggle each one into your handbag?!

This special guy is Trio:

Trio is the resident cat at Bide Awhile - he only has 3 legs (hence the name) and he just turned 22! Clearly he's made of some tough stuff (either that or they just treat him like a king).  

It was so much fun to walk around and check each one out, pet them and hear info about each of their characters. When I was bent over petting the Contortionist kitty (pictured above) a grey fluffy beauty jumped right onto my back from the floor! Dug the claws right in! It caught me off guard, but ultimately I thought it was funny; she LOVES people so much, she kept trying to climb me and the girl showing me around. (Didn't get a photo though unfortunately because, well it's a bit awkward to take a photo of something on your back, plus I was sort of distracted by the claws in my flesh.)

There are two dogs there currently, but I couldn't be taken down to visit them because they are recovering and one is quite jumpy around people. Just served to highlight the important work that shelters such as Bide Awhile do every day.

Anyway, it was a great experience. I think I may put together another donation in a few months and drop it off again, perhaps for Christmas. Good excuse to drop in and pet the animals! I will be involved with their Board in the Fall though so I'm sure this isn't the last I'll see of the kitty-cats.

Thank you again to friends Maike and Beth, plus my mom and sister for contributing such awesome supplies to this donation! Nice to know there are folks you can count on to help you out whenever you need it (Maike is also watching my cat, Nutty, when I'm on vacation next week so she's extra generous).

To learn more about Bide Awhile visit http://www.bideawhile.org/ and to learn more about Be the Change for Pets visit their Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/bethechangeforpets

I am the change; and so are you.