Tag: homes

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Help your local animal shelter

This time of year there are always a lot of kittens and puppies at the shelter, but there are also a lot of adult cats and dogs being surrendered by owners and many are abandoned or dropped off because of the economy. People are being evicted and having their homes foreclosed and have no way to take care of the pets any more.

This really bothers me – I just don’t see how anyone in good conscience can abandon a pet. What kind of person leaves an animal locked in an empty house and drives off? What kind of person can drive down a road and just toss kittens out of the window into a stranger’s driveway? People who do that and people who beat their dogs or otherwise abuse their animals should be arrested and put into jail.

If you have a shelter in your community, next time you have the urge to take on a pet, I hope you will go to the shelter and adopt an animal from the shelter. And if you have anything you can donate to the shelter, here’s a list of desired items that can be dropped off and will be put into good use:

  • Clean, old newspapers to be used for litter and lining cages
  • Toilet seat covers (cats love to lie on them in their cages)
  • Any type of cat or dog toy (plastic or washable)
  • Old bath towels and blankets
  • Canned cat food, any brand
  • Bagged, dry dog food (particularly desired is Science Diet but other brands accepted)
  • Laundry soap
  • Bleach
  • Heavy ceramic food and water bowls
  • Antibacterial hand soap
  • Candles – citrus or spice
  • Paper towels

Shelters also need volunteers to come and walk dogs and play with the animals for short periods to give them exercise and socialization skills. If you have a good heart, please help the animals in your local shelter.

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Recovering from the Texas Wildfires

With all the drought in Texas this summer and the awful wildfires, you would not think that homeowners who live in the Austin area would have trouble with water and flooding. But when I heard that an entire neighborhood just east of downtown Austin was on fire, I knew that the firemen were having to work hard to put out fires in homes, not just the forests. When they came upon a house on fire, they had to fight that fire with water. So although the firemen saved the house from burning to the ground, the water damage from all that water will require professional cleaning, especially if the houses had wall to wall carpet that got soaked.

My former neighbor, John, moved to Austin about 6 years ago and I called to check on him, wondering if the wildfires were any threat to where he was living. He assured me that he was on the other side of town, but that many co-workers lived East of the city and their homes were at risk. His boss was already faced with finding a water to help with the damages to his family’s home.