The holiday season is upon us and so, it’s time to spread some holiday cheer!
The staff at your community animal shelter has been working hard to care for homeless pets all year long. Wouldn’t it be great if we took the time to show our appreciation and help some homeless pets in the process. So, let’s all take a few minutes out of our busy lives and show the staff and animals some kindness!
I first saw that the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) is challenging people to do 12 Kind Acts for the animals and/or staff at the animal shelter(s) of your choice. If one act of kindness can be life changing, think of what 12 can do!
To get you started, we’d like to share a few ideas, but the sky is the limit! Any kind act will do…
- Volunteer during the holidays when the staff is lean.
- Send a letter to the editor of your local newspaper(s) about the good work the shelter is doing.
- Collect towels and blankets from the community and deliver them to the shelter.
- Bring holiday goodies to the staff to say thank you.
- Purchase or make enrichment toys for dogs, cats, and/or other homeless pets at the shelter.
- Create a wish list for the shelter and share in public places.
- Create goodie bags for holiday adopters.
- Help the staff market long-time residents.
- Share posts of pets from the shelter that are available for adoption.
- Become a foster parent if your shelter offers this program.
- Post an article on your social media sites, like Facebook about your local shelter and get your friends to share.
- If you have a special skill, offer to use it for the shelter. As an example, if you’re a photographer, offer to use these skills to take great and unusual pictures of the pets up for adoption for promotion purposes.
See how easy it is to help. Be sure to use #12KINDACTS when you share this idea and let us know what ways you’ve chosen to help your local shelter. Now, get out there and show your local shelter some love!
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Sherry is one of the TriWivesClub and LifeDoneWell co-founders and contributes to multiple blogs. She is a former co-owner of the California Apparel News and had a career in the healthcare industry. Her passions include traveling, real food, the environment, and animal rescue/welfare. She lives a healthy lifestyle and has been a vegetarian since 1987. She and her husband are parents to two rescue pups and reside in Connecticut.
