Blankets and BBQ

For those of you who live in the Lawrence area, I want to share a couple of very easy ways you can help out my favorite worthy cause--the Lawrence Humane Society.

The first LHS need is probably one you've already heard about. This week there was an article in the Lawrence Journal-World written by one of the shelter board members, as well as an email on the topic that I'm pretty sure was forwarded all over the city (I received it from three different people). In a nutshell, the shelter used to receive 20 to 25 bags of towels and blankets from Goodwill every week. These linens are used as bedding for the animals since they have to sleep on concrete floors. The blankets and towels are changed daily and laundered if possible, but many are contaminated with viruses or destroyed by nervous dogs and teething puppies, so this means the shelter goes through a lot of towels and blankets each week. Unfortunately, Goodwill changed management and now has some arrangement to ship all their linens to somewhere in Texas, so the shelter no longer has a source for their bedding.

So if you have any old blankets, sheets, comforters or towels laying around your house waiting to be taken to Goodwill or some other thrift store, please please please save them for the shelter instead! You know I'll be going there each weekend, so if you want to leave them with me, you don't even have to make a trip to deliver them. The shelter is also in the process of setting up Planet Aid boxes that will be strictly for shelter use and will be labeled as such, so you'll be able to drop your bedding off in several other locations around town as well. I can't tell you how much the animals--especially the dogs--will appreciate this. That concrete is so cold and so uncomfortable! One of our first foster dogs, a Whippet mix named Cheyenne who didn't have much meat on her bones, slept on that concrete floor for almost a year before she came home to live with us. She had huge callouses on her knees and elbows as a result of constant rubbing of concrete on her joints. Please donate your leftover bedding so that the sweet dogs at LHS will be a little more comfortable in an unhappy situation!

The second way you can help out the shelter this week isn't quite as easy as the first. This Sunday, the shelter is having a fundraising event at Abe & Jake's. There will be food catered by Bigg's Barbecue, and entertainment provided by Les Gilliam & the Silver Lake Band, who are apparently "nationally acclaimed western swing entertainers." Let me just say that Chad is extremely unhappy (sighing and groaning next to me as I type) that I've asked him to go to this event with me. He is not a fan of either country music or swing dancing, so this event is pretty much his biggest nightmare. I'm trying to convince him that the $4o ticket (for the two of us) is going towards a good cause, and that he'll get a large meal out of the deal. He's trying to convince me that even free food wouldn't be worth sitting through this music, which will likely make him very cranky. While it's not my ideal evening out either, I'm willing to make the sacrifice to support the shelter, especially since a couple of weeks ago they'd only sold 3 tickets!!

If you're interested in coming to the event with us (or me) to eat some food and keep us (or me) company, please let me know! If not, please pass this along to anyone you know who might be interested. You can download a flier with more information here. Thanks, everyone!