National Animal Shelter Appreciation Week

Drop a note in the mail or shoot an email to your local shelter and let them know how much you appreciate all they do for animals.

If you can, sweeten your thank you by adding an item from the shelter's wish list, a check or a gift card from a pet supply store.

Write your local newspaper, Letters to Editor, tell them about this special week and some of the ways people might show their support. Publicly thank your local shelters, acknowledging their importance to your community.

No shelter dog should have to sleep on a cold, concrete floor while waiting for a forever home, but providing bedding for the millions of homeless animals in our nation's animal shelters can add up to thousands of dollars each year - not to mention loads of laundry.

Help a dog in need by donating a durable, shelter-tested bed to a shelter of your choice through the Kuranda shelter donation program. The beds can increase the overall physical and mental well-being of a shelter's doggie residents.

Spaying or neutering your pet or offering to help fund a spay/neuter surgery for a friend, family member or neighbor's pet will save animals' lives by helping to lower the number of unwanted animals in your community and reduce the strain on your local shelter's resources.

Encourage your town to network with other agencies and vet clinics to offer a low cost or free spay-neuter clinic.

Make a donation to assist with the care of the many animals in need that our shelters help every day. Many are non-profit charitable organizations that rely on the generosity of animal lovers to support their important work, but it's not always about money, read on.

I included a few donation modules at the bottom of the page you may wish to consider. By making a donation to these groups from this page, you are sending money directly to that organization, in whatever amount you want. Squidoo doesn't touch it, they don't even see it. The author of this page (that's me) doesn't either. And if you made it this far, thanks for caring.

Your local shelter and animal control officers depend on the community's help to reach animals in need.

Learn everything you need to know to take action, from how to put together a first aid kit to which community phone numbers you need to know.

For example, I asked our town for a copy of our disaster plan. I noticed they included farm animals in their plan, but had nothing to include family pets. I sent them information I felt they needed (you can get this from the information and resources included in the lens below).

Consider adopting or fostering a homeless animal. They have wonderful furpals available for adoption that are just waiting for a second chance.

Whether you decide to bring home a new companion or foster one until they find a forever family, you'll be giving a critter a safe and caring home while making room for another homeless pet in your community's animal shelter, where space is limited.

Whether you end up walking pooches, helping at special events or lending your expertise as a newsletter editor, your shelter can match your schedule and talents to their needs.

Not only will you be helping animals in your community, but you also will be building knowledge and skills. Call your local shelter and find out how to start volunteering.

Your pet should never go naked - that is, without a collar and ID tags. It's the number one way that lost pets are returned to their owners. Without it a Good Samaritan or animal shelter will likely have no idea how to contact you.

Even if your pet is microchipped or your cat never goes outdoors, always err on the safe side and make a collar and tag permanent - your pet's life could depend on it.

Once I was a lonely dog, just looking for a home.
I had no place to go, no one to call my own.
I wandered up and down the streets, in rain in heat and snow.
I ate whatever I could find, I was always on the go.

My skin would itch, my feet were sore, My body ached with pain.
And no one stopped to give a pat or to gently say my name.
I never saw a loving glance, I was always on the run.
For people thought that hurting me was really lots of fun.

And then one day I heard a voice so gentle, kind and sweet,
And arms so soft reached down to me and took me off my feet.
"No one again will hurt you was whispered in my ear."
"You'll have a home to call your own where you will know no fear."

"You will be dry, you will be warm, you'll have enough to eat."
"And rest assured that when you sleep, your dreams will all be sweet."
I was afraid I must admit, I've lived so long in fear.
I can't remember when I let a human came so near.

And as she tended to my wounds and bathed and brushed my fur,
She told me about the rescue group and what it meant to her.
She said, "We are a circle, a line that never ends".
"And in the center there is you protected by new friends".

"And all around you are the ones that check the pounds,
And those that share their home after you've been found".
"And all the other folk are searching near and far.
"To find the perfect home for you, where you can be a star".

She said, "There is a family, that's waiting patiently,
And pretty soon we'll find them, just you wait and see".
"And then they'll join our circle they'll help to make it grow,
So there'll be room for more like you, who have no place to go".

I waited very patiently, the days they came and went.
Today's the day I thought, my family will be sent.
Then just when I began to think it wasn't meant to be,
There were people standing there just gazing down at me.

I knew them in a heartbeat, I could tell they felt it too.
They said, "We have been waiting for a special dog like you".
Now every night I say a prayer to all the gods that be.
"Thank you for the life I live and all you've given me.

But most of all protect the dogs in the pound and on the street.
And send a Rescue Person to lift them off their feet".