Sorry about the lack of updates and replies folks – I’ve had a busy (and rough) couple of weeks, and I’ve been writing but it’s just not flowing (but it’ll be great when I get the stuff I started finished, I promise!)

Particularly rough is that over the weekend I went to the Humane Society to volunteer and found out my favourite cat, Nestle, had gotten quite ill and was euthanized on advice of the vet. I was planning on adopting her if she was still there come this fall.

I feel particularly bad, because her story is sad from start to finish. She was removed, along with several other cats, from a home where she was not properly socialized. Not feral but very fearful and anxious. She never really got over her timidness the entire time she was at the shelter (almost 2 years) and was in and out of foster care to no great improvement.

She did not show well in the shelter. She spent most of her time in her cage in her little house, burrowed under blankets, so half the time you couldn’t even tell that there was a cat there at all. Yet, despite her shyness, she was an extremely sweet, nice cat, who loved being pet and cuddled (as long as you didn’t pick her up.) She was tiny and a beautiful chocolate brown. She had a small growth on her ear that I’m sure further hindered her chances at adoption, but that just further endeared her to me.

I know it’s a bad idea to get attached to animals in a shelter, but I did – she was going to be my baby, and this hurts. At the same time, I’m also glad that she was loved by at least one person during her difficult, too short life. I hope she’s at peace now.

ncmarksman25 recently adopted Dark, a rescue cat and surprisingly, also an artist. ncmarksman25 says:

We recently adopted our wonderful cat named Dark… he was rescued from a house fire in North Carolina and was in need of a new home.. so we answered his call! Dark is a very loving cat and my wife and I are very happy to have him in our home… if it wasn’t for our rescue Dark would have most likely been euthanized and wouldn’t have been able to enjoy our love and affection that we share with him… needless to say he’s doing great and very happy to be in a new home!

Just the other day my wife was painting a picture and Dark had stepped in the paint and jumped all over her canvas on our coffee table… he seemed to really enjoy it so we both thought why not have Dark paint on his own canvas’s and sell them on Ebay as a way to give back to the Humane Society and help other animals in need, and thats exactly what we did!

You can see Dark’s painting on eBay and 50% of the proceeds will be donated to the Humane Society of the United States, through eBay Giving Works.

I think this is a great idea to raise money for animals charities and have your rescued cat involved in saving other cats.

What are your creative ideas for helping animal welfare organizations?