A donation of Dr. Elsey's cleanprotein Dry Food to the Great Plains Kitten Shower thanks to #chewyinfluencer

If you remember, I had my April offerings from the Chewy Influencer Program (where they offer me several items to choose from in exchange for an honest review) sent to Kansas while I was at BlogPaws. Stilwell reviewed one product for me and I planned to bring the other to the shelter as a donation. Turns out they were having a kitten shower that weekend, which was even better!

The second item for April I chose was Dr. Elsey's cleanprotein Grain-Free Dry Cat Food. This is not a new food to me, I learned about it a little while ago and have meant to do a review of the canned version of this food for my own cats, but haven't gotten around to it. Knowing that most shelters prefer to feed dry food (because of the convenience) I thought a bag of good food would be helpful even if it was only two pounds.  Dr. Elsey's makes a few claims about this food which is interesting like: •Over 90% of protein is animal-based. •Primary ingredients are among the highest biological value proteins available. •Lower glycemic formula delivers just 4% of energy from carbohydrates.

I have to give kudos to any food that tells you upfront what the carb level is of their food. You also have to love a company that has a bit of humor about things

So, we went to the kitten shower..

The shower was at Great Plains SPCA Animal Shelter. They had a few tables of displays talking about enrichment for the cats while they hang out at the shelter like puzzle toys and laser games. They are also including some Christmas light displays that shoot out pins of light so the cats cat watch them as they sit in the cages. Not see is a table that had "make your own cat toy" out of cut up t-shirts (which I did) and other crafty type things you could do quickly. They encouraged people to give the toys to the shelter cats.

Speaking of cats, they did have one kitten there and somehow I didn't end up with it in my pocket.. Probably because I was being watched very closely. Jenny was there volunteering and knew I was prone to walking away with kittens.

They had a bean bag toss game for kids too, as well as refreshments

Their wishlist was on full display. I am sure more shelters have very similar needs and could use either a bag of food, a case of canned food (always in short supply) or any of the things above.

Thank you to Chewy for the donation and another chance to take photos of shelter cats - which you will see in another upcoming post

Kitten Shower brings in over a ton of supplies for the kitten season

The shelter I foster for held its 13th annual kitten shower this past Saturday. This is an event designed to help bring in supplies to help the shelter care for the 1,000 of expected cat and kittens that will arrive at the shelter in the next few months, aka "kitten season".

This particular event has had some very good years where they received a lot of participation from the community, and some years it has fallen a little flat.  This year seemed to be somewhere in between... not the best year, but not the worst either. The shelter made an announcement that the event brought in 2,000 pounds of supplies, which is nothing to shake a stick at.

They have had some local girl scout troops take on the shelter as one of their fundraisers, and they buy supplies and bring them in. The group or individual who brings in the most donations (by weight) will get a behind the scene tour of the shelter which is a lot of fun for the scouts.

This year, as in years past, I was asked to bring in my foster kittens for the event. The first year we did this shower we had no kittens available and people were very disappointed (we also had a lot of kittens dropped off during the event too which was quite disheartening). There were four sets of fosters, one group that was four weeks, mine that were six weeks, a group that was eight weeks and another group that was ten, which was actually kind of fun, and could have been educational if anyone had noticed and done something about it... but sadly we were just set up in the education room for all of the young kids to come in and look at. They all clamoured to hold the kittens, which I was very uncomfortable with since there was so much chaos and noise - and there was a door that went right outside that kept being open - so I kept my kittens in the cage except for a few times when it was really really slow. The foster family of the younger kittens felt comfortable letting the kids hold their kittens, and it did seem to work out just fine. All of that handling will only help the kittens adjust to life with people, but I was concerned because Sully and The Kraken seemed uncomfortable with all of the noise, and they run fast.

I wish there had been staff in the room to watch over the kittens and answer questions.. not that I can't handle kitten questions *wink* but I would have been more comfortable and could have enjoyed the shower itself, which I couldn't this time because all of the other foster people had to leave for one reason or another and there was no one else to watch over the kittens - and there was more than one time when a young child attempted to get into a cage on their own.

I did take some photos before things started. You can see they had a table of silent auction items, a table of raffle items, a table of food and a table of craft items. The shelter is lucky that they have a number of talented women who craft and raise money from those crafts to buy items for the shelter. The table of food was originally (thirteen years ago) there for people to enjoy, but later on it became a bake sale, but now with new management it was something you could have 'with a donation'. I am not sure how well that did but there was a strong fear that without food sales the income would drop significantly. Personally I liked it better when they gave the food away as I feel it builds goodwill with the community, but no one asked me - nor should they - but to me it just feels grabby when everything at the event is something you have to pay for. Although all that negative being said, it is nice that they do have so much interesting things to do and participate in. I have been to other shelters that had a 'shower' and it was simply a plea for donations. Staff wasn't even participating in anything and there was simply an area for you to drop your donation that was labeled shower.

The shelter also had a promotion to help try to empty the shelter of kitties, and were offering not only fee-waived adoptions for all adult cats but also a starter kit with food, litter, bowls, toys and a litter box. They had 31 adoptions over the weekend and sent quite a few kitties home with starter kits as I saw them walk by the room I was in, and I smiled every time I saw one.

sidewalk chalk telling people where to go

Silent Auction tables

Raffle and craft items

raffle items. You buy tickets and put them in the bucket of the prize you want to win

I bought all three felted kitties on the right before the shower started

crafts

#anythingisacattoy

someone hollowed out beanie babies and filled them with nip

more crafts

the mug covers were also a hit

goodies

with some people

This woman was so smitten with The Kraken she threatened to smuggle him out

this was a slower moment

Um, we didn't sign up for this

Hey Momma!!

whatcha doin??
Mina was very talkative and attention seeking throughout the entire event.
She didn't care about the other cats around her either.

volunteers setting up kitty starter kits

donation drop off point.

I look forward to next year but I don't think I'll bring foster kittens in again so I can feel comfortable enjoying the event.

Kitten Shower at the shelter

Once again it was time for the shelter's annual kitten shower.  I had forgotten all about it but when I went in to pick up kittens the night before people were asking me if I was going to attend, so I thought I would stop by.

It is still a very fun and cute event, but I liked it so much more in the past when they offered food and goodies to the people who stopped in.  I know it is supposed to be a fundraising event, but there should also be a good will aspect to it.  If you have your hand out asking for money every time people show up... well I would imagine that would put some people off.  Their annual Christmas Open House is more like what the Kitten Shower used to be like, and it still is, and I appreciate that one much more - even knowing this event is designed to support the very function I hold dear..  *shrug*

My day started out with a quick visit to my favorite kitty at the shelter, Gigi..

G recently had a bit of a health scare and was at the vets for a couple of days.  I only found out because I stopped by and she wasn't there.  I'm okay with that since I don't expect them to tell me every time something goes awry with one of my former fosters.. I'm only saying something because I know you are probably wondering what was wrong.. unfortunately they didn't know at the time and I wasn't going to interrupt anyone today to ask as it was very busy. If she hasn't found a home by the next time I go in, I'll ask after her, simply because I care and I'm curious.

She was in an affectionate mood, which was nice, and I got quite a few head buts and a good number of kisses in before she went to lay back down in her basket.  As sweet as she is, I am so very shocked she hasn't found a home yet..

I then went off into the back where they were holding the shower..

crafts for sale. I bought a couple of things

raffle items, behind that they were doing a small bake sale

That "Cat Spool" on the end was really cool and had the most entries.
It was donated by a local artist that sells them on etsy

I bid on one of those items as a possible gift for my sister.. I wonder if I won.. 

then I went to the craft area for the kids.. I had seen a number of girl scouts walking around with hand made cat ears, it was really quite cute.. they made them here.

they even had kittens

The first year we did the kitten shower people thought we wanted them to bring in the kittens and we were swamped with them. This year they had to scrounge for kittens.. talk about your awesome things.  I was talking with another volunteer who told me about the statistics of kittens in our area, and how dramatically the turn in rate has dropped in the past few years.  The shelter's spay/neuter clinic that does low cost neuters is still doing about 20 a day four days a week, it looks like we are finally making a significant dent in the over population!  Hopefully they will continue to import kittens in from areas that still have a high supply of kittens and I will get to continue to foster for years to come.. (either that or I might just have to move ;) )

I did take some photos of the kitties there, so I'll have a "Shooting at the Shelter Series" post coming up soon.. but I know you all want to see more photos of kittens pretty quickly.. and I can't blame you there!

Kitten Shower 2013
Kitten Shower 2012

Kitten Shower 2013

Eons ago (or at least what feels like it) the shelter I volunteer for started a spring fundraiser called a "Kitten Shower"

The first one was thrown together with decorations from a baby shower with kitten heads on it.  Some hors d'oeuvres on some plates and a punch bowl.  It was fun!

They didn't do it again for several years, then someone had the brilliant idea to do it again, but they changed it into a money making opportunity.  Stuff for sale, food for sale, raffles, a silent auction and donations were weighed and whomever bought in the most by weight would win a behind the scene tour of the shelter.  Not a bad fundraiser, but far less of a community outreach / educational opportunity then I feel the original intent was.  *shrug*  I don't run the shelter, if it works for them so be it.

In the past I've attempted to help out, but it is pretty much standard fare at this point so there isn't really much to do, so I've backed out it.  I tend to show up to see the donations (and go shopping for my foster kittens) either end of day or the next day, but this time I had to stop in so I was there for the festivities.

Stuff for sale

Catchalls.. I love these things

Jewelry Pouches

and Jewelry to go in it

Fun crafts - I LOVE those little kittens.. only fifty cents too!!

Raffle prizes:

A flower arrangement with a cat toy

An original painting

more raffles

and more raffles

Cute kitty bed

Catopoly! :) 

There were a few prizes that didn't make it into the shots.  I also didn't take a photo of the silent auction items... one of which was a cat climber very similar to the last one I bought (different color) that I put my name down - but I guess someone out bid me.. if I had won I was going to bring it down to Robin..

When I saw the raffle prizes, I said I totally wanted that cat painting.  I had a couple of dollars on me so I bought two tickets and stuck my name in.  There were a TON of tickets in there, so I figured I'd never win.

Guess who got a phone call  :)

Behind the 'sneeze guard' to keep it safe till we can find a wall to hang it on