Last weekend at BlogPaws, I attended a great session by Felissa from Two Little Cavaliers and Neil from Life with Dogs. I’ll be posting a bit more about the session in another post – I have a few more BlogPaws recaps in the queue, after all.
However, at that session we discussed the idea of community – what the word meant and how we as a community could help each other raise awareness and share each other’s causes. From that discussion came the inspiration for today’s Pay if Forward Blog Hop. Today, pet bloggers are sharing one (or more) of the causes that they are passionate about and adding it to the blog hop. Then, those participating in the blog hop or reading through the posts can offer to help out with causes they are interested in or even solicit some guest posts for their blogs. I will definitely be checking out the other causes, and I may approach a few bloggers about doing some guests posts to share their causes with you. I’ve included the list for the blog hop at the end of this post – so I hope you’ll also take a moment to see what everyone is talking about today.
Today, I’m sharing a cause I’ve written about before. I’d like to tell you about a group called Pets of the Homeless. This nonprofit organization provides pet food and veterinary care to the homeless and less fortunate in local communities across the United States and Canada. For my last birthday, I told all of my friends not to buy me gifts. If they absolutely felt the need to bring something, I asked that they bring a bag of dog food instead. I then donated this dog food to Pets of the Homeless. I couldn’t have asked for a better birthday gift – the chance to make a difference for pets (and their people) in need.
Imagine, if you will, that due to circumstances beyond your control, you find yourself homeless. What do you do with your pet? Your pet gets sick. You can’t afford veterinary care. Where do you go? Or, let’s say you are currently homeless and encounter a stray dog who becomes your companion. The nearest homeless shelter doesn’t allow pets. Do you go to the shelter and leave your companion to fend for himself?
These are tough choices. Choices that I hope none of us ever have to make. However, many people do have to make these choices on a regular basis. Pets of the Homeless notes that the National Coalition for the Homeless estimates that as many as 3.5 million Americans are homeless. Between 5 to10 percent of homeless people have dogs or cats – in some areas that number may be as high as 24 percent.
There are many reasons people end up homeless, including foreclosure, poverty, domestic violence, lack of affordable housing, unemployment, and declining public assistance. The demographics of the homeless population show that anyone can be affected – young, old, and in between. The homeless population is not just one ethnicity, gender, or age. Their homes may have been destroyed by a hurricane or a tornado. They are veterans, victims of domestic violence, the unemployed, families with children… and so many others.
Pets of the Homeless aims to help this population in many ways. It has established collection sites to accept donated pet food. This food is distributed through partnerships with homeless shelters, soup
kitchens, and other entities. The organization also makes two types of grants:
one to veterinarians that go to where the homeless congregate and
provide veterinary care such as vaccines, spay/neuter and other needed
treatments; the other to homeless shelters looking for ways to allow
pets sanctuary with their owners.
Want to know how you can help? If there is a collection site near you, donate pet food and supplies. (If there’s no collection site near you, find out how to become one.) Pets of the Homeless also provides a list of other ways that you can donate your time (like volunteering at a distribution site) or money to this worthy cause. You can also help by spreading the word about Pets of the Homeless to bring awareness to this cause.
If you have tissues handy, I urge you to read some of the success stories and view the touching photos on the Pets of the Homeless website. I hope you’ll check out this great organization as well as some of the others being highlighted in today’s blog hop: