National Animal Shelter Appreciation Week

This week has been designated as National Animal Shelter Appreciation Week 2005 by the Humane Society of the United States. This year, the week of acknowledgement is even more fitting, because of the tremendous response of shelters all over the country to the needs of pets made homeless by Hurricane Katrina and the others in her wake.

You can take part in this observance in several ways:

Download and print a copy of the HSUS Poster and display it proudly.

Adopt a dog or cat from your local shelter.

Consider volunteering at a shelter. Even if you consider yourself unskilled, you can clean cages or socialize with the cats and dogs.

Donate to your favorite shelter. They are always in need of funds to support their efforts.

By the way, check your Sunday newspaper today for the Mutts comic strip, which will feature the winning entry in the recently decided HSUS Super Shelter Stories contest. Patrick McDonnell, the creator of Mutts, also recently auctioned a rare Sunday comic strip celebrating animal shelters, with the $10,600 proceeds going to the HSUS to help with their hurricane rescue relief. McDonnell's long-time support of animal shelters has made his Mutts comic strip a huge favorite among pet lovers.