You Never Know Where Your Efforts Will Bloom

The churning rocks you feel in your gut will someday be the soil from which flowers will bloom.
Photo and Quote:  Author Susan Niz 

Today a beautiful example of an unexpected domino effect hit my inbox. Domino 1: It started when Christy Masoner Spence was exerting heroic efforts to rescue two dogs, Ranger and Bonnie; and their chances did not look great.

Domino 2: I am a busybody and control freak, and also a total moosh for animals. When I heard about Ranger and Bonnie, "deep in the heart of Texas" and 1200 miles away from my home in Madison, Wisconsin, there was absolutely nothing useful I could do to help; but I had to do something (see: "busy body" and "control freak" above). So I started a novena and this blog as a deal with God. This from someone non-Catholic and mostly non-religious, and since when did a blog change lives? Yup, those are about the most useless things pretty much anyone could think of in this situation—but it was all I had.

Domino 3: Several days into this venture, I called Phyllis Allison of Sunflower Hill Animal Rescue to get an update on Bonnie, I got that and a lot more. In our conversation, I learned about some of the people who were losing their homes and left with nowhere to keep their pets; and how she has been able to foster some of those pets until their owners got on their feet. It left me thinking, "Wow, how many people are not that lucky to know Phyllis? How many people at the worst economic and emotional time of their lives are also losing their pets because they don't have the resources or home to keep  them?"

Domino 4:  I emailed the director of Dane County Humane Society (DCHS—our local shelter, which is wonderful), asking if we have any kind of foster programs to help people in that situation. She later replied with regret that the resources are not available to administer that type of "owned animal foster program". (She did tell me about the SAAV program to temporarily foster pets for victims of abuse, which led me to do the 3-part Abuse Victims and Their Pets series.)

Domino 5: Today I received an email from the DCHS volunteer coordinator with the subject line "Recruiting: Help Keep Pets in Their Home", stating that they are seeking volunteers as they initiate a program that will provide pet food and supplies to economically stressed families and individuals who might not otherwise be able to keep their pets. I will paste in the email in its entirety at the conclusion of this post. It is not a foster program, but it is a giant first step in keeping pets with their families.

I don't know if my email to DCHS about the plight of economically stressed pet owners and asking what we could do for them made a difference. Maybe this domino is completely independent and would have fallen without any of the others. But the timing of this new program and my desire to be part of making a difference are such that I have to believe there was some connection—even if it was just some synchronistic energy or good juju to help midwife an idea whose time had come.

It is a reminder to do what you can with what you have, bloom where you're planted, and you never know where or how the seeds will turn up in full flower.

-------Forwarded Message -----
From: DCHS Volunteer Coordinator <pzehl@giveshelter.org>
To: Liz Zelandais <lizagna@yahoo.com>
Sent: Sunday, August 14, 2011 11:05 AM
Subject: Recruiting: help keep pets in their home

Dane County Humane Society is currently recruiting volunteers for a new program targeted at keeping pets in their home.  Hard economic times may result in tough choices regarding family pets for households that are struggling to stretch their limited resources.  Do you know of families that when faced with the choice of having to decide between purchasing pet food or providing for their families – made the heartbreaking decision to give up their family pet?  At a time when the unconditional love from their family pet is needed the most – some families are making this tragic decision.  Pets may be given to relatives or friends, surrendered to Dane County Humane Society (DCHS) or sadly in some cases abandoned.

To help families keep their pets at home, DCHS is partnering with Community Action Coalition of South Central WI (CAC) to help supply pet foods and cat litter to Dane County food pantries that participate in the DCHS Pet Food Bank pilot program. CAC will facilitate delivery and pickup of donation food barrels to participating businesses, and at the end of the food drive CAC will deliver them to DCHS.  As the county pet food bank administrator, DCHS will coordinate pet food drives and other business donations, warehouse the items and then deliver to participating food pantries.

In addition to collecting pet food and cat litter in food drives, DCHS is also hoping to enlist businesses that carry pet food and cat litter to contact us to pick up food they don’t want - ones nearing an expiration date, damaged packages and discontinued items.  These items would be transported to the DCHS pet food bank via DCHS volunteers whenever these items are available.

Future program expansion would include recruiting schools, businesses and organizations to host pet food drives to invite their employees or students to donate pet food and cat litter.

DCHS has very limited space for storage of pet food and cat litter, and will need to move the food and litter out as quickly as it comes in.  DCHS volunteers with their personal vehicles will play an integral role in being the transportation system to move the pet food and litter to the food pantries.  DCHS will request donations for pet food and cat litter that are 10 pounds in weight or less to make transport easier, and to reduce the space needed for display at participating food pantries.

Currently Dane County has approximately 50 food pantries that will be invited to enroll in the pilot program, although initial actual participation will be very limited.  Some factors that DCHS will take into consideration when selecting the initial food pantries is the number of clients they serve - their need for pet food and litter, the pantry location and our estimate of what we will collect in the food drives.

Currently to help move this pilot program to the next stage we need DCHS volunteers to contact local businesses to introduce them to our program.  This can be done from your home, and you will be supplied with a list of people/businesses to contact and a phone script.  If you have some spare time, during normal business hours please contact Patty Zehl, DCHS Volunteer Coordinator.

In the future we will need DCHS volunteers to:
  • Sort and shelve contributions in the DCHS garage
  • Pick up donations from local businesses with your personal vehicle
  • Deliver food and litter to participating Dane County food pantries with your personal vehicle
  • Identify and invite businesses and organizations to host employee pet food and cat litter drives

If you would like to participate in this pilot program to help keep pets in their homes, please contact me and let me know what you would like to do.

Patty Zehl
Volunteer Coordinator

Dane County Humane Society
608-838-0413 x 114