Floods. Earthquakes. Hurricanes. This has been a year filled with natural disasters. Millions of people and pets have been left without shelter and in need. It has warmed my heart to see the efforts people have made to help others. But many animal shelters around the country are underfunded, understaffed, and depend on donations to keep their rescue efforts afloat. If you’ve ever wanted to make a difference in the lives of pets in your area, here are 4 ways to help your animal shelter.
This is a parterned post with Tidy Cats Lightweight. All opinions are my own.
How To Help Your Local Animal Shelter
1. Volunteer- Even if you can’t keep a pet at home, this is a great way to get your pet fix! Many shelters need people to socialize the animals; taking them for walks or play with them. Who doesn’t like to cuddle and snuggle with puppies and kittens? Some shelters need Reading Volunteers to help calm abused or neglected animals or Adoption Counselors to help oversee meetings between animals and prospective adoptive families. If you’re not able to work with animals, shelters can still use your services! Many of them need help maintaining their websites or social media pages. Or, if they don’t have social media, someone who is tech-savvy enough to start social media accounts for them.
2. Foster. Many shelters are overflowing with animals and need people to provide homes for the animals until they can be adopted. Some shelters only require a commitment of a few weeks while the cat is recovering from being spayed or neutered. Others ask for a longer time commitment. Because many shelters have small budgets you might be asked to provide the food, litter, and other basic supplies for the cats. Be sure to write down all your questions and concerns to ask before you foster. Also, remember you will get attached to the animals. It is hard to let them go!
3. Take Pictures. Many shelters have seen an increase in their adoption rates when they begin to make flattering pictures of their pets. If you have photographic skills, offer to take pictures of the animals for the shelter website. Tip: Don’t take the sad-eyed picture of the dog in the cage looking through the bars of the cage! Try to take them outside and take pictures in the sunlight, find a comfy spot indoors, or use a neutral white background.
4. Donate. Sure, animals shelters need funds, but they need other items as well. Many shelters ask for items you might not have considered; old newspapers, towels, blankets, baby blankets for kittens, bleach, dish soap, garbages, paper towels, and office supplies. Of course, there is always a need for cat and dog food and cat litter. You’ve probably heard how much I enjoy the new Tidy Cats with Ammonia Blocker and all their other formulas too! It weighs 50% less than traditional litter, which makes it easy for me to carry to our different litter boxes, and it smells fresh. Plus, the clumping makes for easy cleanup. But I also love their philanthropic endeavors too. Thanks to Tidy Cats, our local Walker County Animal Shelter will be receiving two pallets of Tidy Cats Lightweight just in time for the holidays! This is the animal shelter where we adopted Daisy, Mitzie, and Trix the cats and Rio the dog. My daughter also adopted her cats Zeeba and Monster there, along with her dog, Minnie.
Do you volunteer at your local animal shelter? How have you found ways to help shelter animals in your area? Have you tried the new Tidy Cats Lightweight Litter? Which is your favorite formula?
Animal shelters are one of my favorite places. I go and visit and donate all of the time.
I never helped out at an animal shelter. I know a friend who is a huge animal advocate.
I love that you’re posting about this! I’ve volunteered with local shelters and rescues for many years, and it’s always great to support them as much as we can.
We enjoy volunteering at our local animal shelter. It feels so good to help these animals who have been abandoned! Thank you for sharing this important reminder.
I wish we had a local shelter around here so I could volunteer. I wouldn’t be able to foster because we can’t have pets here except my service dog. But I would volunteer as often as possible.
We are a family of animal overs and we always try to donate as much as we can. I hope more people can read this!
*lovers (Sorry for the missing letter!)
I try to volunteer and take pics for social outreach whenever I can. I enjoy spending time around the fur babies. I loved reading this!
These are really great ideas! This would be a great way to teach my kids to help animal shelters.
We love supporting our local animal shelter! We often go down and help them clean as well as donate food and old clothing and rags.
We volunteer our time with a rescue organization. On Saturdays we go to the local pets store to help find the foster animals new homes.
We donate to our shelter all the time. This is such a great post of the holidays!
These are such good ideas! I’d love to help the animals at the local shelters. They’re probably always in need of supplies.
I think it is important to teach our kids to volunteer. We like to help out at our local animal shelter as often as we can. They are always looking for people to take the dogs for a walk.
Awe so very sweet. what a great way to give back to animals in need.
Tis the season to give back to those in need. I think donating to the shelters is a great Christmas gift!~
Great ideas! I never even thought about taking photos for them! That is a great way to help. We have been talking about fostering a dog. What a great way to remind others to step up and help animals in need.
I have a friend who’s child is allergic to cats and she is missing having them as a pet. I’m going to tell her about the volunteering option — what a great way to still have cats in your life.
I donate our old towels and blankets, glad to see things getting reused at animal shelters.
There are so many ways that we can help shelters out especially since they need so many supplies and food. If I could, I would definitely foster!
These are great ways to help animal shelters. We have a local animal shelter and we are considering adopting a mixed breed. The shelters do such great work at saving animals.
What excellent ideas! We are a family of animal lovers and would be happy to pitch in and help. A volunteer day sounds especially fun.
These are all really easy ways to help an animal shelter. I like to donate old sheets and blankets for the pets need them and it’s an easy enough item to donate! Great tips here, I will be using them this holiday season and all year round to help our local shelters in NH!
I didn’t realize being a foster parent for a kitty or puppy was an option. So glad it is! Some people can’t fully commit to having a pet long-term, but knowing that we can help in some sort of time-frame is reassuring.
Babushka only thought adoption when thinking of shelters. Gracias for showing all the other ways one can help our Bella four footed amigos.
Our local supermarket and pet stores have baskets so you can donate to local shelters, it is so easy to pick up an extra can when you are shopping so I think it’s a great idea!
We donate frequently throughout the year. I think taking photos is a great idea and totally agree about not taking those sad photos! Sharing on social media to local friends is a great idea too.
My family is big on donating to animal shelters with one daughter working for a pet care service. They are always in need of blankets and towels!
Animal shelters have such a special place in my heart – most of our pets have come from one. It’s a great idea to volunteer at one as a family too!
I am a total cat person! We adopted our two cats from shelters. I would like to help shelters out! I have donated before and when my kids are older I hope to volunteer.
Aw I love this! We used to foster years ago and our cat was a rescue we adopted. It’s so awesome to be able to help out little furry babies in need. <3
All my animals are rescue as well, I always think it is better to help an animal in need.
I donate to our animal shelter. There are some fun charity events that I go to as well.
This is the perfect time of the year to donate to local animal shelters. Often, the people who work/volunteer there are unsung heroes. I didn’t realize I could donate blankets, etc. in addition to donating time and money.
I think it’s so important for us to help our local shelters do their good work. They really help so many animals in need, but they can do so much more when we give of ourselves.
I love this so much! There are so many cats and dogs out there that need our help. Shelters do what they can, but as non-profits, they don’t have nearly the funds that they need.
We always donate to our local shelter. We bring old blankets to them and make them homemade treats around the holidays.