Posts Tagged ‘spread holiday cheer with cats’

  Love Shared Both Ways

During holiday seasons, many look for ways to give back beyond the everyday.  To share their Holiday Spirit.     Anyone who shares a home  with cats, dogs or other pets has a built-in advantage to spreading love around your    home, family     and community.  You can enjoy a number of ways to spread holiday cheer to people and to cats and pets. We enjoy kisses and cuddles from our little furry family members year round, while we provide special care and a loving home in so many ways to give back to them.  During the holidays, you and your cats and other pets can reach out to others in different ways to spread cheer, love and smiles to those who may go without, while others celebrate their joys and gratitude for many blessings.

How to Spread Holiday Cheer to  Others –  People and Cats (Pets)

Adopt or Foster a Homeless Cat or Other Pet

My first thought is to encourage responsible friends and family to adopt a cat or dog or other   homeless animal from a shelter.  Check to see if the shelter or sanctuary has any ‘urgent need’  furballs you or  your friends and family can adopt

Many shelters have KILL policies…and saving a desperate cat, dog or other pet from their last breath in a sterile institution, never to know love, cuddles  and security, is a loving act that can reward you for a lifetime.  Call your local shelters and ask about those needing homes immediately and rescue them into loving arms.

If you cannot adopt them, then perhaps your can foster them until a home can be found for life.  Or if there is a way to donate to the shelter to keep them off the Kill List…that may be a solution. Of course , anyone who adopts or foster must be able to handle the responsibility with time, finances and healthy, loving  shelter and food and resources — but then you wouldn’t likely be reading here if you weren’t prepared. I must add that, holidays are NOT the best time to bring new pets home.  The hustle and bustle and chaos can be very frightening and disruptive for a precious pet that has no way of understanding what is going on in their new, strange environment. The smells, sounds and shadows and routines may create more problems down the line for your little furball, that is trying to adjust to totally new ‘everything’…including people s(he) does not know to be trustworthy.

If you have an out of the way room where you can put comfortable bedding, dishes, litter boxes and small toys where you new pet or foster pet can ‘chill out’, then by all means…My vote is to take them home and make them as comfortable as possible as soon as possible!  Even during the holidays. Without such a sequestered  ‘safe zone’,  a  new cat or other pet pet can become disoriented, get out a window or door, or get under foot, even act out– like it normally would not– with so much activity and potentially so many people around for the holidays.

You will likely need to set  up a separate space for your new pet for several days or weeks any way so that it can get used to everyone and adjust over time to everything…so keeping it confined away from all the din of domestic holiday bliss is safer for your new cats or other pets as well as for everyone else.  The last thing anyone wants is to trip and fall over a frantic new pet causing injury or worse to both species ….or have to go out searching the neighborhood for your newest family member, who slipped out the door as guests were coming and going.  What a trauma!

 Take in a Cat, Dog or Other Pet of an On-Duty Member  of our Service Corps

   Another wonderful idea is to exchange love with others of both species by taking in a dog or    cat   –  or supporting a boarding accommodation –  for a member of our troops while they are    away    serving us and our country!  See the “RELATED ARTICLE” below.

                                       Continue Reading Below…

I was prepared to create an entire post on this subject…but Dr. Becker of Mercola. com beat me to it…and has posted ten ways to give back and share love with others via her blog …citing her ideas were gained from PetMd.

I couldn’t say it better…so I gladly provide THREE of her posted ideas…with a link to MORE at the end.

 SCROLL DOWN …. BUT!

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RESUME READING HERE…..

By Dr. Becker (Mercola.com) – The following suggestions from PetMD are a phenomenal way for you and your pet to do good deeds (and have fun doing them).

How to Give Back… With Your Pet

• Donate Your Dog or Cat’s Blood

Just as donated blood can save human lives, it can save animal lives too, in cases such as injury, anemia, and much more. Animal blood banks may take blood donations directly, or you might be able to help by fostering a rescued pet that’s acting as a donor until he is adopted into his forever home. The Association of Veterinary Hematology and Transfusion Medicine has a list of veterinary blood banks.

• Pet Craft Night

Do you enjoy crafting? Have a pet crafting party with your friends and create hand-crafted pet toys, beds, and blankets. You can then donate the items to a local shelter.

•  Volunteer as a Pet Therapy Team

Both dogs and cats can act as therapy animals in hospitals, nursing homes, and other rehabilitation centers. Pet Partners (formerly the Delta Society) can screen you and your pet to see if you’d make a good therapy-animal team.¹  For MORE IDEAS, …READ MORE HERE!       

Related articles across the web

• Support our troops by boarding their pets
• Thanksgiving Safety for Pets
• Cats, Dogs and Thanksgiving: How to Keep Pets Calm This Season