This is a wonderful idea to help animals in Rescue Shelters to have a happy Christmas.
I saw it on the ‘Ark on the Edge’ facebook page and followed the link to ‘The Santa Paws Foundation’ page which has 332 likes so far.
They say:
’Shoebox appeal for animals.
Decorate a shoebox and fill it with gifts before dropping it off to your favourite animal charity.
The Santa Paws Foundation – A special gift for pets at Christmas.
There are pets that are less fortunate and are without a home.
Anyone can fill a shoebox with toys for pets and stick a label on it stating what pet it’s for before sending it off to their favourite rescue centre’
There are 97 days to Christmas which gives us time to gather some boxes, buy a few extra tins of food along with our own pets food, some toys and some treats and not only help the animals but help the Rescue Shelters financially too with our gifts.
We do this every year for Children in Distress in the third world so why not do it for animals too? It’s a lovely feeling filling up a box and thinking of how excited the child will be opening it and findin lots of little surprises.
I think cats or dogs in care won’t mind sharing a box, we could get a bigger size box than a shoebox and put enough in for those unwanted animals to share.
We can all do this no matter where in the world we live, so come on ….let’s make it a very HAPPY CHRISTMAS this year not only for people but for animals too.
Go that extra mile.. It is Christmas after all. The most wonderful time of the year!
The Santa Paws Foundation aims to give homeless animals a better Christmas.
All you have to do is get a shoebox or any box really and decorate it in anyway you like, get creative. Then, fill it with gifts like treats and toys aimed at one species of animal e.g. cat, dog, rabbit, guinea pig etc. Next, save and print a label (available to save from this page) and write what animal type its for. Finally, drop the box off to your local animal shelter, or your favourite animal organisation.
This is the label idea from The Santa Paws page for anyone who wants to use it on their boxes, or we could all get creative and design our own.
This is great – and very sweet. I am always giving my cats gifts but I have never done something like this for other cats.
Fantastic idea and fantastic poster by Barbara it’s really eye catching.
I can’t wait to get some boxes and get started I don’t do as much rescuing now as being on my own I have to work and look after my kids and cats so this is spot on how I can still help in some way.
Thank you whoever thought of it and thank you for sharing it Ruth.
What a great idea, and what a huge difference this should make for cats, dogs, and other homeless animals at Christmas time. Not to mention the fact that this will draw people into shelters, and will hopefully increase adoptions. Love the poster, I hope it catches a few people’s eyes, and inspires them to think about animals at Christmas. Christmas can be such a stressful time of year, animals often get forgotten.
Good point Maggie. Christmas can be stressful for cats and probably a time that leads to abandonments. I am thinking of people buying a new kitten for the kids or something like that and it goes wrong. It is nice to do something for cats at this time.
I LOVE this, Ruth. Thank you so much for such a great idea!
I don’t have a lot of shoe boxes, but I can find some suitable ones and will begin filling tomorrow. I love going to Goodwill and picking up stuffed animal for 10 or 15 cents. I bring them home, wash them, cut a small slit in them, and fill them with catnip.
Ruth AKA, I hope I tell you enough how much I admire you (and Babz). I am so excited to start with these boxes and focus on something so positive. Thank you again. Tomorrow will be a much better day for me, I’m sure.
Babz is doing posters now. I just added her first effort 😉
Sorry. I got confused by the signature. It’s a nice poster, Babz.
Babz makes beautiful posters for her office window to appeal for food and bedding for our local animal rescues, like me she enjoys doing it but doesn’t have as much free time as I do to make them otherwise, I’m so lucky to be retired.
I liked this one she made so much to put in her window now too, I’m sure it will catch peoples eyes as they walk past and we hope the idea will take root and lots of people will do it.
The Santa Paws Foundation person who thought up this idea must be a very kind and very resourceful person!
I’d love to know who you are and if we know you?
I’m the official poster doer for our local offices at work, they all know I enjoy making them and just pick up their phones and tell me what they want on them. Don’t often do them for POC as my dear sis Ruth does such a good job and also enjoys creating them, but she took a fancy to this one for some reason :-)I think it’s a brilliant idea, I hope it spreads all around the world.
Nice poster. You’ll have to go on the PoC payroll 😉
Honoured!
Thanks Dee and what a good idea. We usually find some suitable material and cut out mouse or fish shapes (it’s a good job cats don’t mind our efforts at that lol) and Babz sews them round and I stuff them with cut up bits and catnip and she sews them up. How much easier your idea will be for us!
We made fifty one Christmas lol we were dreaming about making them by we’d finished. We love rooting around charity shops too.
Are you alright? I hope today is better for you.
Yes it’s good to have something positive and helpful others to focus on, it’s got us through some sad and bad times.
xx
Dee that is also a brilliant idea to buy little stuffed animals and replace the stuffing with cat nip, it’s not only helping rescue cats but also the charity who’s shop you buy them from, I’m going to copy off you and have a look for some little creatures at the weekend.
Thanks for writing about this great idea that is easy to do. I am going to look around for a suitable cat rescue centre and have a go.
Good on you Michael 🙂