Week of 12/20/09 Humane Happenings

This past week-end, the entire Desert Haven Animal Refuge crew of volunteers participated in the Luminaria Beach Walk at the Elephant Butte State Park as representatives of Sierra County’s No-Kill domestic animal sanctuary. While enjoying the festivities around the Desert Haven bonfire, our volunteers offered not only homemade cookies but also fresh homemade apple cider, made especially for the occasion by DHR Animal Care Coordinator Reba Wagner. The hot homemade apple cider was such a huge success that folks kept raving about it. Many of them asked for the recipe. For those who would like the recipe, it is being made available at Paws & Claws thrift shop.
Reba Wagner


The year 2009 is drawing to a close and as we look back on it, local animal loving folks have many reasons to be thankful. Generous local businesses, organizations and local and out-of-state individuals continue to support our animal welfare organization in many ways. Paws & Claws thrift shop is the major income producer for the Sierra County Humane Society & Desert Haven Animal Refuge. Without it, Desert Haven could not operate and the local humane society would not be able to offer either its Spay-Neuter and Spay-a-stray or its Adopt-a-classroom program. Even with our lack of an adequate volunteer crew to keep it running as we would like to, we are very thankful that P&C thrift shop is most certainly one of the busiest shops in town, with good recyclable items being donated on an on-going basis and, as importantly, nice customers patronizing it on a regular basis. It takes a lot of efforts to keep P&C open for business. With over 3600 square feet of store space and boxes full of donations being dropped off all the time, Paws & Claws thrift shop always needs extra manpower, to sort and tag incoming items or to replace sold pieces of furniture by other pieces ready to put on display. If you believe you can help in some way, visit Paws&Claws from Wednesdays through Saturdays, when it is open for business. The floor supervisor on duty at the time will give you the information you need. By the way, did you get a chance to check out the ‘OPEN’ sign for P&C thrift shop? We owe this great looking, new sign to the generosity of Reba and Gene Wagner.

This week, the “Kind Kids” public recognition is due to two local second grade classes. These young folks and their teachers very recently delivered to the domestic animal sanctuary several boxes of doggie and kitty toys and accessories, including many cans and several bags of pet food. It is very heartwarming to know that s in our community, under the capable guidance of dedicated teachers, young students are taught to care about animals they share the earth with. Someday these young folks will have grown up to become caring adults.

Our wish list: canned dog food, wild bird seeds, rabbit pellets, used towels, blankets, bleach and cleaning detergent. We also need a good used chest freezer for Rainbow Bridge Pet Cemetery and also a refrigerator for Birdland.

We also need volunteers to help the DHAR crew with daily animal care and also every Tuesday, in our administrative DHAR office. For more information, contact us at 575-894-2778, or visit our web site at www.DeserthavenAnimalRefuge.com.

Merry Christmas from our animal loving families to yours.