Crafting for Charity: Critter Blankets & Toys

I’m returning to an earlier subject, today’s charity is once more the construction of blankets for animals in shelters. Blankets and toys, in fact.

One of my surfing jaunts led me to the “Crafty Critters” section of something call the Best Friends Network – it’s a social media site for folks that love animals to meet and perhaps to do something nice for some needy animals. It’s pretty cool to look around, worth a look if you are an animal person as I am.

While on the charity forum, I ran across an article from Charity Guide on making toys and blankets for animal shelters – a way to give a few hours of your time and help out pets without homes. They had some interesting new information for me

• Blankets & toys aren’t just for the animal’s comfort. A shelter is a strange and frightening place for most animals. Having the comfort of a blanket or toy makes animals more social and friendly, increasing the likelihood of adoption. (Compasssionate Action Institute)

• A number of shelters participate through the Cage Comforter Program. It’s not something centralized, but a program that folks begin to serve shelters in their area. Your local shelter might participate in one.

• You can also donate the fabric or yarn (or the funds) for these projects if making blankets and toys isn’t your cup of tea. These programs run off of donations, and all are appreciated.

Places to go to get connected to these efforts:

• The Snuggles Project (a project of Hugs for Homeless Animals), which has resources, patterns, information, etc.,
• Cage Comforter Program of the Compassionate Action Institute, and
• Lily Pads program that I posted about in November

Know of another? Feel free to add it in the comments.

As a side note, I’m an animal lover due to the quiet, gentle influence of my cat, Caper. Beautiful, sweet Caper, over there on the right, is such a quiet cat that most people don’t know he exists. He has lived in my bedroom for 13 years. He comes out to look around sometimes, but he’s very shy and timid. He and his brother were my first pets, and came to live with me when they were 2. He’s now 15. Caper is very loving to me, very funny, with delicate features that contrast with his oddball behaviors. I know his life wasn’t easy before he came to live with me, but I think his last 13 have been good.

Sadly, as happens often with older cats, Caper’s been diagnosed with kidney failure, and has a year or so left with careful treatment. I’ll be so sad to lose him, it’s hard to say goodbye. So my animal advocacy is really for him in recognition of the love and comfort and joy he’s given me, in hopes that more abused and homeless pets can find good, loving homes and live full, long lives.