Week of 11/21/10

By Eliana Aubin

Every year, Thanksgiving is celebrated at Desert Haven Animal Refuge on the Tuesday before the official Thanksgiving Day. This year again, everyone who volunteers at DHAR and Paws & Claws Thrift Shoppe has been invited to share the traditional meal served pot-luck style at the domestic animal sanctuary. It’s always a very enjoyable time, to “break bread” with folks of kindred spirit and Thanksgiving dinner at Desert Haven continues to be a special event.

The Christmas Season is now under way. With it, many of our readers are already starting to feel the pressure from large organizations from all over, asking them to donate generously to help this or that cause. Fundraising on a grand scale is usually carefully orchestrated, especially at this time of the year. It also effectively reaches out to folks’ generosity and compassion. At this time of the year, it’s not often easy to brush-off carefully presented and well written appeals for help, from any worthwhile national organization. Local organizations more often than not don’t have the luxury of being able to spend any of their hard earned resources on fancy fundraising mailings. Anyone interested in donating to a worthwhile cause should consider a local organization first. When you donate locally, you have the opportunity to experience first-hand the Good that you are doing through your generosity.

Thanks to a great team of animal loving folks involved with the Sierra County Humane Society and Desert Haven Animal Refuge, adoptions continue to make Dog Town a very busy place these days. In fact, this year has seen the greatest number of companion animals being adopted from DHAR. While some of them are adopted locally, the new forever home for most of them is many miles away.

This week’s wish list: canned dog and cat food – catnip -tarps or canvas material - carpet remnants - large clear storage containers with or without lids – plywood & building material. We need extra hands in the Desert Haven office and also helping care for the animals. Paws & Claws Thrift Shoppe needs helpers as well. Interested in visiting Desert Haven? It is open to the public on Tuesdays. Thinking of adopting? Contact us at 575-894-2778 or 740-4100. Visit us at www.DesertHavenAnimalRefuge.com. Write to us at POB 638, Williamsburg, NM 87942. Meet us on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/deserthaven.