‘Animal Shelter’ Articles at Sweetnicks

When it came time to plan Madeline’s birthday party to celebrate with her friends, we went through a short list of things she’d like to do. She first requested a dolphin-themed party, and that somehow morphed into a pool party, the water of which would lend itself easily to the dolphin theme she asked for.

While there are several local hotels that allow use of their indoor pool for a children’s birthday party, they require a parent for each child to attend (which is fine, because nobody drops off their kid at parties for this age group), and there is no lifeguard, which means I would responsible for a swarm of five-year-olds who may or may not be able to swim.

To which I said no thank you. I mean, the responsibility factor of managing that? No way. When she’s older, like Nick’s age, fine. Now? No.

So then we turned to her obsession with animals, and after a quick Google search for animal parties, I found out that a local animal shelter does birthday parties.

Could it be any more perfect for her?

I mean, aside from being able to swim with dolphins.

This is very definitely the next best thing.

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Over the years, we have had a number of cats and dogs come into our home. Not all have been complete success stories, as finding the right match for your family dynamic is a challenge, and sometimes hard decisions have to be made, but adopting a pet from a rescue or shelter program, as opposed to a local pet store, is something that is very important to us. All our pets have been rescues, so when Sergeant’s Pet Care asked if we could participate in their newest program, I didn’t hesitate to say yes.

*me with a dog available for adoption from a local rescue group

Over the past six months, I have been working with a local rescue group, doing what I can to make life a little easier for the pups that are waiting to find their new homes. In that time I have also learned that my resolve is not strong enough to subscribe to any “death row animal” e-mail group. Heart too big, house too small. You’ll just have to trust me on this.

Merry, our current resident hound seen above (and a different dog from the first picture), is a dog that we are fostering. Although I brought her into our home under a straight-up foster arrangement a few days before Christmas, it’s been almost two months now and I’m pretty sure that we’ve failed Fostering 101 and she’s become a true member of our family. We recently donated a bunch of leashes to the rescue group, and go on scheduled “pack walks” on available weekends, which is when we take the shelter dogs out for a three mile hike to get them out of the cages and into fresh air and a little bit of exercise.

In point, we do what we can.

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{How To} An Animal-Themed Birthday Party & Cat Cupcakes {Support Your Local Animal Shelter}

emBARK on Pet Health {Sergeant’s Pet Care}