Getting back to normal...

This week has felt like a more normal schedule. Back to volunteering again. I took the day off on Thursday to work at Crash's Landing's fall yard sale. It was a very busy day. I was on my feet from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Even though the sale didn't open until 1:00, they still managed to bring in over $2,600 in just six hours! I worked on setting up tables and organizing donated goods for the sale.

This is a huge fundraiser for them. The one they did in May raised over $10,000! That's a lot of junk when you think about how cheap things are priced (and I think today is 1/2 price on most things.) But it all goes to help the Crash's kitties. I am glad that I am now able to put stuff away to donate for these twice a year sales instead of having to put on my own (measily) sale.

Yesterday, I spent a few hours helping C-SNIP to promote spaying/neutering. They had a booth out at the first ever Pooch Party in Wyoming. The purpose of the Pooch Party was to help raise funds for the Wyoming Dog Park. It was a nice time, beautiful day and such a worthwhile cause. It was eye opening to see how many dogs there were not fixed yet! Some people just are unwilling. There seemed to be a definite trend in men not wanting to neuter their male dogs. Hmmm.

But, mostly I think it is a sign of the times, unfortunately, because people need money and want to breed their dogs to try and make money. If you don't believe me, just look at how big the pets for sale section is getting in the classifieds. But who is paying $400, $500 or more for a purebred animal these days, not to mention having to feed and vet it? Wow, you can get such nice animals from shelters for a lot less and actually save a life rather than add to the problem! Not to mention, it is better for the pet's health to be fixed. I think people are just unaware though. They don't realize about 40% of animals in shelters already are purebred and many shelters don't even bother to put out animals that are owner surrendered because they just physically don't have the space. In Michigan, a shelter has to keep a stray for 4-7 days. Yet, people still leave their animals knowing they will be euthanized. It makes no sense to me. God bless C-SNIP--they've done over 43,000 surgeries since 1998. Just think how many offspring that would add up to!

Anyway, there's more educating and awareness to do, not to mention trying to find some extra funds to support them. Donations are obviously down with the economy and people are having to give up their pets because they can't afford them anymore. It's a worst case scenario for many animals these days.

At least one family was at the Pooch Party with an adorable little mix dog that they saved from the pound. Unfortunately, they spent their money on the adoption fee and shots, and could not afford the $250 the vet wanted to fix the dog. So, C-SNIP is going to help them at a cost of only $55--much more reasonable! And if they can't afford that, C-SNIP will let them pay what they can afford. There are bright spots in everything.

Finally, taking time to relax...

We did manage to take a little time out to relax in the backyard with the kitties and enjoy some of the warm weather over the holiday. I didn't get pics of all of them, but here are a few highlights.

Trip to the zoo!

Oh yeah, I also managed to squeeze in a trip to John Ball Zoo while my relatives were here. Yeah, I was an adrenaline junkie--no wonder I've been sick in bed for the last couple of days. Oh well, it was all worth it! Here's some of my favorite pics from the zoo.

My trip to D.C.

My "fake" honeymoon was spent by myself at a work conference just outside of D.C. It was hard to leave so soon after the wedding, but the pain was eased by having my room upgraded to a king size suite--awesome! I made sure to spend adequate time there, but I did manage to get out and see a few sites before I left too. The most surprising site on the river cruise was the National Cathedral which was so beautiful and could be clearly seen, but just not captured on my camera. It was magical. The pentagon was also very cool looking but I couldn't get a pic of it either, though my plane flew right over it when we took off. I was very surprised they allowed that. I'd love to go back and visit again--with my hubby next time, and hopefully take in some of the museums and see more of the city. (oh, the pic of the sculpture was near our hotel on the beach area. It was so cool and enormous!)

A little R & R

While my relatives were still in MI after the wedding, I decided to show them some sights of west MI, so I took them up to Silver Lake to see (and tour) the sand dunes and then we made our way to the beach in Grand Haven--a must see. We had a blast!

Our Big Day