KINGSVILLE — His little legs shaking slightly, Kit the puppy had to piddle.
He didn’t try to hide it, and he wasn’t too ashamed when it happened, because puppy pee-pee just seems to happen — and happen often — at the Ashtabula County Animal Protective League shelter.
Nonplused, shelter animal advocate Tammy Dondorfer grabbed some paper towels and a spray bottle of cleanser and took care of Kit’s little accident Sunday afternoon.
“As you can see, we go through a lot of paper towels here,” Dondorfer said. “A lot of paper towels.”
Faced with a large year-end financial deficit and looking at a $30,000 financial goal before the new year, APL shelter officials are asking Ashtabula County residents to step forward and fill the shelter’s pantries with paper towels, cleanser, bleach, toilet paper, laundry detergent, dish soap, all purpose cleaner, basic medical supplies, copy paper, dog and cat toys, towels, hand sanitizer, blankets and most especially, canned dog and cat food.
“We are critically short on canned dog and cat food, especially canned cat food,” Dondorfer said. “It is something that just isn’t in our budget and it is so very important for the sick animals.”
APL board president Diane Carr said the shelter is “running in the red” and is in need of “the most basic of basic supplies” to make ends meet.
“I don’t think people understand how much of our budget goes toward these basic things we need to operate the shelter day-to-day,” she said. “The donation of these items is a tremendous help.”
Carr said she is hoping shoppers will add one or more of these items to their shopping lists as they go bargain hunting for Christmas and holiday gifts.
“It is our hope that when someone is walking down the aisle at the supermarket, they will buy a couple of extra rolls of paper towels or an extra package of toilet paper or some canned dog or cat food,” she said. “A little bit at a time would make a huge difference.”
Carr also said Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts, as well as schools and other organizations have been helpful in collecting items for the shelter.
Along with small grocery store items, the shelter also has some big-ticket wishes for Santa Claus this year, Carr said.
The shelter needs insulation, a commercial washer and dryer and extra large stainless steel cages.
“But we need people with expertise, too,” she said. “We need people to help with the yard work, the cleaning, fundraising, building maintenance and dog walkers. To have someone to call when something breaks would be amazing.”
Carr said the shelter’s dire need of insulation comes with a dire need of someone to install the insulation. The shelter also needs plumbing work and electrical work, she said.
Carr said the shelter’s recent push for dog and cat adoptions was successful, leaving the shelter just four dogs over capacity as of Sunday.
“We are happy to announce that people and rescue shelters came forward and adopted many of our dogs,” Carr said. “It is our goal to keep the population low through adoptions over the holidays in our ‘Home for the Holidays and Always’ drive. We really hope to start out the year with a manageable population.”
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