Andrea Rosebrock 
As you gather this holiday season to spend time with friends and family and your own beloved furry family members, take just a moment to think of those dogs and cats who sit alone and unwanted, with just the barest of necessities.
Gather up some old blankets and towels, maybe grab an extra bag of treats or food or a few toys when you’re out shopping and take that few extra minutes to drop them at your local shelter. You can do this anytime of the year, but at this special time of love and caring and sharing, please, take just those few extra minutes and make this holiday a little more special for a few lonely shelter animals.
A Christmas Shelter Dog’s Poem
’Tis the night before Christmas and all through the town,
every shelter is full—we are lost, but not found.Our numbers are hung on our kennels so bare,
we hope every minute that someone will care.They’ll come to adopt us and give us the call,
“Come here, Max and Sparkie — come fetch your new ball!”But now we sit here and think of the days
we were treated so fondly — we had cute, baby ways.Once we were little, then we grew and we grew.
Now we’re no longer young and we’re no longer new.So out the back door we were thrown like the trash.
They reacted so quickly — why were they so rash?We “jump on the children,” “don’t come when they call,”
we “bark when they leave us,” “climb over the wall.”We should have been neutered, we should have been spayed,
now we suffer the consequence of the errors THEY made.If only they’d trained us, if only we knew,
we’d have done what they asked us and worshiped them, too.We were left in the backyard, or worse, let to roam.
Now we’re tired and lonely and out of a home.They dropped us off here and they kissed us goodbye…
“Maybe someone else will give you a try.”So now here we are, all confused and alone
in a shelter with others who long for a home.The kind workers come through with a meal and a pat,
with so many to care for, they can’t stay to chat.They move to the next kennel, giving each of us cheer…
we know that they wonder how long we’ll be here.We lay down to sleep and sweet dreams fill our heads
of a home filled with love and our own cozy beds.Then we wake to see sad eyes, brimming with tears –
our friends filled with emptiness, worry, and fear.If you can’t adopt us and there’s no room at the inn –
could you help with the bills and fill our food bin?We count on your kindness each day of the year –
can you give more than hope to everyone here?Please make a donation to pay for the heat…
and help get us something special to eat.The shelter that cares for us wants us to live,
and more of us will, if more people will give.– Author Unknown
And take a minute or two to share this with friends and family, spread the word, spread the message. Every little bit of help counts! Share the love every day but most especially now!
Have plans to go to our local Cast Off store(like a Goodwill) and pick up a blanket or two and get those cookies and toys to them as well. I only wish I could give them more…like a home…..every single one of them. God Bless them all and Merry Christmas to each and every one. Hopefully, come the New Year, your new home will be there.
Jessie, I do the same thing plus rally everyone I know and not just at Xmas. I am always hitting people up to save old towels and blankets and sheets for the local shelter.
I am lucky here where I live in that the shelters most local to me do quite well. they are not 'no-kill' but the euthanasia rates are in the low single digits and then only the sick or unadoptable. They work very hard to home every dog or cat that is adoptable. I wish it were like that everywhere. Maybe one day…