Remember Me Thursday is a day we raise awareness about all the pets waiting in shelters and rescues for their loving forever homes. We all know there are millions of cats and dogs in shelters and rescues around the country, but did you know that other small pets, such as rabbits, turtles, rats, guinea pigs, and birds are also waiting for their forever homes?
One of our largest local animal shelters not only has cats and dogs, but they also have rats, rabbits, and guinea pigs available for adoption. Today, I want to talk about how you can help small animals waiting for their forever homes.
Donate: Rescues and shelters always need financial support. Small animals need food, water bottles, toys, tunnels and other things to hide in, beds, perches (for birds), litter, and litter boxes. Shelters and rescues are also always in need of cleaning products, such as paper towels, dish soap, and laundry detergent.
Many shelters and rescues put together wish lists on Amazon and/or Chewy so that you can send them items they need. Check a shelter’s or rescue’s website and social media pages for their wish lists. If you can’t find one and want to donate items, email or call the organization and ask them what they need. If you want to make a monetary donation, most shelter and rescue sites have a donation form you can use to send a one-time or monthly financial gift.
Foster: Cats and dogs aren’t the only ones who need foster homes. Guinea pigs, rabbits, birds, and other small pets do, too. The nice thing about small pets is that they don’t need a ton of room, so you can foster even if you live in a smaller home.
Help with Fundraisers: Most, if not all, of a non-profit’s funding is gained through fundraisers. Volunteering to help out with a local small animal rescue’s or shelter’s fundraising events will go a long way to helping the pets waiting for their forever homes.
If you can’t help with a local organization’s in-person fundraiser, you can help raise funds for the organization by encouraging your friends and family to purchase merchandise through the organization’s store or using a program like Amazon Smile. Sharing an organization’s fundraiser on social media is also helpful; it encourages people to support the organization and their work.
Volunteer: While researching this article, I ran across all kinds of small animal volunteer opportunities. Depending on the organization you want to volunteer with, they may need help cleaning cages and tanks, transporting animals, help with adoption events, designing merchandise to sell in an online store, hosting fundraisers, taking photos of adoptable animals, writing profiles for adoptable animals, feeding small animals, or building cages.
Adopt: If you have room in your home and heart, consider adopting a small animal or two. When I was very young, my sister and I had a few rabbits. They were fun to have! Though I’ve never had one of my own, guinea pigs, rats, birds, hamsters, gerbils, turtles, and lizards look like they make cool pets, too. All pets deserve a loving forever home.
Encourage Adoption: Encourage others to adopt from their local animal shelters or rescues rather than buying from pet stores. Nearly everyone has a social media account or two these days. Browse your favorite social media platform for adoptable small animals, and share a few with your followers. You never know who might see your post, fall in love with the pet featured, and decide to adopt him or her.
Have you ever adopted a small pet? Please tell us about your experience in the comments.
Don’t forget to light a candle at the official Remember Me Thursday website today.
Sierra M. Koester has been writing in the pet space since 2006. She runs the blog Fur Everywhere. She joined the awesome team at The Cat Blogosphere as Content Manager in June, 2022. She is currently working on editing her upcoming anthology, Purrseverance, a collection of stories about cats who have overcome challenges in their lives from their perspective. Sierra’s home is ruled by her two special needs cats, Carmine and Tylan, who are the center of Sierra’s world.
thank you for all the information, some I was aware of, some not. I can add that if you want to help a shelter its important to find out where to donate and what. If you donate to SPCA or like the shelter we adopt from, Is county run, the money donated goes to pay for what the county thinks is important, that have nothing to do with helping the pets. our county has a Furry Friends of M. County and every single dollar or thing given is 100 percent for the animals, run by volunteers . they have a list, Peanut butter is always needed. that can be ordered and delivered to the place they want it.