Going To The Dogs

There are a lot of things broken in this world besides my hopes for my personal future.  I've been thinking about my situation and I've also been thinking about all the situations other people are in that are just as bad or much worse.  The democratic party called me last week to ask for a monetary contribution.  I told the green sounding bright hopeful on the other end of the phone that my kid was getting an abscessed cavity filled that day that we couldn't afford and that we were flat broke, so no, I can't give the Democratic party any money.

The dude then asked me if I could make a smaller donation of merely $25 and I had to stop myself from yelling into the phone that he's a cotton-headed douche-bag.  I reminded him that I just told him that I'm broke as hell and worse now that I had to take care of my son's infected tooth, and added that I wasn't sure if there was going to be enough money for the mortgage, so no, I cannot make a single dollar contribution to a party that has ideals I stand in line with but lacks the balls to kick anyone's political ass.

Since then I have been wondering what I can do to contribute to others in worse situations than myself without using money, which I don't have enough of myself.  If times were simpler and Americans were less litigious it would be easy and inexpensive enough for me to make huge batches of food and then split it with the food bank.  The food bank doesn't accept home made food from individuals.  They accept packaged food.  I can't afford to buy packaged food for the food bank.

Then my good friend Laurie was telling me about how she donated a bag of dog food to our local Animal Control shelter.  Laurie is not a person with a great deal of excess income so this really impressed me.  We got to talking and she told me that the shelter really needs towels and dog blankets too.  I've been thinking about this for a couple of days and talked with Max about it and we've decided to gather up a few older towels and a couple of polar fleece blankets we don't use and take them down to the shelter on our bicycles.

Today I called them and I found out they need some other things too and I'm so happy I called and asked because they need fabric softener sheets and it just so happens that I have about 20 or 30 boxes of them that I used to have in the retail store.  I don't use fabric softener sheets much at all.  These are Mrs. Meyers too and are made from vegetable fibers so they biodegrade much faster than the synthetic kinds and even better than that they're nontoxic which means the dogs won't get sick from them.

If you're really strapped for money but would like to do something to help animal shelters or people who live in shelters here are some ideas of things you might be able to donate from around your house or make from supplies you already have.  The ideas from the animal shelter list is combined from what my shelter needs and some suggestions made by Bad Rap*, the pit bull rescue group in Berkeley who had great suggestions for things that dog shelters (especially ones that rescue pit bulls) always need.

For Animal Shelters:

• Chew toys - don't need to buy them, you could make them or collect old small stuffed animals to donate.

• Laundry Soap - I'm sure a shelter would take whatever you give them but how awesome if you could give them a natural kind?

• Fabric Softener

• Fabric Softener Sheets

• Towels - I have a ton of old towels and though I actually use them for washing my own dog and crafts and canning, I can easily let go of several and still have plenty for my own use.

• Food - I can't afford this donation right now but Max and I plan to make dog biscuits ourselves to give to the shelter.  There are lots of recipes and they're cheap to make.

• Kong Balls/Toys - especially needed for high energy dogs who need to chew in order to release some of their nervous energy which is heightened by life in a shelter with little exercise.

• Blankets - scruffy old ones you don't use might be just the comfort a sad lonely dog needs.

Note:  A brilliant craft tip from Robin is to save all your thread and scraps from sewing to stuff into dog beds.  I accumulate a ton of this while sewing that is too small to use for other projects and I THROW it out.  It kills me that I just threw a giant bag of scraps from my sewing room this week that would have been enough for at least a small dog bed.  So I will not have a special box to collect these bits in.

People Shelters:  Thanks to Alison, Tonia, Dawn, Robin, and Belinda I have added a bunch more items to think about donating that they came up with from their own experience. 

• Feminine Hygiene Products
  

• Socks
  

• Toothbrushes and Toothpaste

• Razors

• Bus Tickets

• Wool Hats and Gloves

• Nail Files and Clippers

• Combs

• Black Women's hair care products

• Diapers (all sizes)

• Food

• Pillows and Sheets

• Soaps - shelters have to provide a lot of things for their recipients to use.  Soap is one of them.  Bar soaps, laundry soap, and shampoos that haven't been used or opened yet must be of use to a shelter.

• Toys - toys are frivolous things to those children who have a lot of them but for kids who are staying in a shelter toys aren't frivolous at all.  Kids need something to play with, to hold onto during frightening times in their lives.  I can't buy toys for anyone but I can sure as hell make some stuffies!  I have tons of fabric and stuffing isn't very expensive.  This is something all crafty people can make and I've read of many crafty people making and donating stuffed toys to children in need, I'd like to be one of them.

• Blankets - quilting takes me forever but I don't see why I couldn't make a couple of simple blankets that are tied off.

OK, I'm terribly short on ideas for shelters for people.  Please tell me your own ideas that I can add to my list.  Many of you are more experienced helping people in need out and I'd like to hear what you know.

Added Note:  Some of the items added by my wonderful blog friends can be made but it occurred to me that although I can't go on a shopping spree for the shelter- for those items that would obviously be indispensable (like diapers and pads and tampons) I will keep my eyes open for 2 for 1 deals at stores because though I don't usually take advantage of those, it would be worth it if it meant getting what I need and what someone else might need at the same time.  I refuse to dive into coupon world (I have a pathological phobia of coupons...I kid you not!) but I see deals on things that normally I think "well, that's fine if you have a huge family...but just for me it's not worth it..." now perhaps I'll remember to take advantage when I have the chance.

The worse my situation gets the more upset I get when people tell me how lucky I should feel anyway but conversely the more my situation deteriorates the more I wish I could help people much worse off than myself.  I know I'm not on the streets and after several years living in San Francisco I am intimately acquainted with what life on the streets is like and I knew enough runaway teens working Polk Street to know what price those kids paid to NOT be living in the alley.

I'm starting to feel that the less I have the greater a connection and empathy I feel for people who have so much less.  If there's any time to try and help I think it's now, while I'm down, while it means the most to me personally.  Any rich person can have a fancy benefit and those are needed, to be sure, but on a spiritual level I don't know how close rich people really feel to the people they're helping.  For my own self I really believe that finding a way to give when I'm so close to the ground myself is healing.

I know I'm going to cry when I see all the dogs tomorrow.  To be perfectly truthful, I like dogs a lot better than I like people and I've been hearing that people are dumping their pets at an alarming rate as the depression in this country deepens and people are losing jobs and can't pay to keep their pets. 

(While I write this Chick is giving Penny a little bath.  My pets are insufferably cute!)

Tomorrow is the last day of the year and it will make me feel really good to spend it with my family bringing needed goods to our shelter to help take care of the huge number of dogs they have right now.

Plus beer!

Plus dinner at our close friends' house!

If you detect a lightening of spirits it's all because of the snow day.



* An incredible nonprofit pit bull rescue organization that helped rescue Michael Vick's** abused dogs. 

**In case any of you didn't already know this:  MICHAEL VICK IS STILL A SOCIOPATHIC EVIL "HUMAN BEING" AND DESERVES TO GO TO JAIL FOR TORTURING AND KILLING HIS DOGS. *** 

Bad Rap and a few other wonderful rescue centers have rehabilitated most of Vick's dogs and many of them have found loving homes and if you spend some time on the Bad Rap site you can find links to some of the really positive happy endings that came from that horrible situation.  One of Michael Vick's most scarred up beefy pit bulls even got a therapy license which is only awarded to dogs with the most even and BEST temperaments.  His name is Hector and if you watch the video in this news story you will love him too.  I choke up every time I see it because it makes me so happy.

***He didn't serve any time for the abuse of his dogs, he served a sentence for racketeering.