3.31.2009

Little Shelter donation: Picture to be auctioned off

I arrived at Little Shelter on Sunday the 29th of March around 1pm, Little Shelter is open 7 days a week to make it accessible to all and was established in 1927 as a no kill shelter. When we arrived I was surprised to see the place was so busy there were no parking places (the girl scouts were doing field work) even though they have a generous amount of parking. We found a safe place on the side of the road and locked our own gang in the truck. When we entered we were greeted right away by a friendly staff, and when I introduced myself they seemed genuinely excited that I was there. After a few minutes, Ms. Jodi Record, the on site manager, came out to great us.(I brought my husband Greg, to take pictures and to make sure our pack of animals didn't grow) Jodi brought us on a tour of the facilities and answered my questions for the next hour and a half. Never once did I feel as though I was taking up her precious time. The facility houses up to 65 dogs, and at the moment has 40. As soon as one leaves, they go to the pound and bring in someone new. The dogs have dots of different colors to indicate their level of friendliness. Little Shelter also houses their dogs in "different levels" meaning, new dogs are housed in a separate area until they are adjusted. Little Shelter is not equipped to house or adopt trouble dogs. On a personal note, I have worked for vets, been in to many shelters to remember and have done surprise visits to kennels for my own dogs, and I'm not sure I've been in a cleaner place. With 40 dogs, you expect some smell however, there was very little to mention. Jody knew the story of each and every dog, and kitty we visited. They have 400 Cats, beautiful Cats. They are housed in an open area of joined rooms with too many litter box's to remember and the cats have the freedom to go out on a large out door porch that was built by a generous doner. There were many kitty climber's and even part of a tree 5 feet high the room was built around. There were a line of kitties waiting for their turn to lie up there. My husband who is not generally fond of kitties disappeared for quite a while playing with said kitties. I almost though he was going to take one home. All those cats and not a fight or grumble did I hear, my cat could learn a few things their. Little Shelter employees 43 staff members and has too many volunteers to count all who were busy walking feeding and generally taking care of the group. They have a yearly budget of 2 million dollars and are dependent on donations. The donations are up a little, but are still 50% off. If you are interested in adoption a pet, you make out an application form. Cats are $100, Dogs 1+yr=$110, puppy's=$160. All of the pets have been examined, spayed or neutered and have been microchiped. A great deal for a life long friend. Little shelter is proud to be the only shelter with a pet food pantry for those in need. again, you are required to fill out a little paper work but how awesome is that. There will be an article on their food pantry in "News Day" next Monday, I believe April the 6th. This was a wonderful experience and the kicker was they treated us like we were royalty visiting. Everyone seemed to know about me, what they didn't seem to realize is what a gift they gave me...
Little Shelter Animal Adoption Center
33 Warner Road, Huntington, NY 11743,
631-368-8770

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

oh, Lori, I'm so proud of you! I think it is wonderful that you can use your talent to help out this amazing shelter. This suits you so perfectly well. I just love looking at all your beautiful paintings. This one, that you've donated is one of my favorites!

Rachel

Michelle said...

This is such a great painting! How wonderful of you to donate it to such a great cause!

Darlene Twitchell said...

I really like your painting! How great that you donated this to help animals! I have an award waiting for you on my blog.

Etsy for Animals

Thing you should check out!


http://efaartistshelpinganimals.org/

Bio

Lori Rowe was raised by a geographically mobile family and considers Mystic, CT her town of origin. In keeping with her heritage, she now lives full time on the road traveling with her husband of seventeen years, 3 marvelous dogs and one pesky cat. She occupies her days as a full time artist. Her impressionistic art works are owned by both fine art collectors and art enthusiasts alike. Her passionate love of animals and children compels her to contribute much of her work to raise funds for worthy causes such as no-kill shelters, Dogs Deserve Better, Guide Dogs of America, Inc., CASA- protecting foster children (of the human variety) and animal hospice shelters.

Lori has recently been published by PAWS For Charity in the 2010 book PAWS For Charity which is donating all sales to The Avon Foundation Breast Cancer Crusade.