• Help our friends at PurrEver Ranch, a “pawspice for senior cats and wayward kittizens” find a Furever Home. Spread the word, make a donation, or even send good thoughts and prayers. Find out more here, visit PurrEver’s website, or fan them on Facebook. If you want to tweet it, use this text: PurrEver Ranch needs a “furever home!” Every dollar & every signal boost helps! FMI: http://bit.ly/QUQ5Y #BTC4Pets
• We’re still raising money for our friends at Blind Cat Rescue & Sanctuary, the only rescue in the US dedicated solely to blind cats. We need your help to reach our ridiculously ambitious goal of $5,000–which will provide food, housing and vet care for all the cats at BCR for six months! Either use the widget in the right column of our website or donate through our FirstGiving page.
• Participate in the Be The Change Dog Days of Summer Challenge: Buy cat and dog food, print a poster (available at the site), and donate it to local shelters.
• Go to FreeKibble and FreeKibbleKat and answer a daily trivia question to donate kibble to shelters in need. Whether you’re right or wrong, the kibble gets donated. You can sign up to get daily reminders by e-mail.
• Go to The Animal Rescue Site and click the big purple button. Every click means a donation of food and money for the care of shelter animals.
• Donate to or help raise awareness about American Humane’s PAWS (Pets And Women’s Shelters) program. Many victims of family violence stay with their abusers because they’re (rightly) afraid of what might happen to their pets if they leave. PAWS is a national program to guide domestic and family violence emergency housing shelters toward permitting residents to bring their pets with them.
• Volunteer at your local animal shelter. You don’t have to work directly with animals if that’s too heart-wrenching for you. Serve on the Board; volunteer your web design, marketing, or other skills; offer to transport animals for vet care; repost, Facebook or Tweet about shelter fund-raisers — or come up with some other cool creative ideas!
• Support the Shelter Pet Project through your blog or website.

There are lots of other wonderful ways you can Be The Change for pets and non-domestic animals. Check out the Be The Change BlogHop by visiting one or more of the sites below and find out what kind of creative things our friends are doing:

Angel (top) and Maggie

Angel was apparently born blind. She was saved by a small rescue in Florida, and from there she found a home. Unfortunately, her new owner was evicted from his apartment because he had seven more cats than his lease allowed — including Angel and Maggie, whose story is below. On the bright side, he did return Angel and Maggie to the rescue, and from there they came to Blind Cat Rescue & Sanctuary. Angel is a very sweet, quiet, gentle soul who loves to be held and petted.

Maggie has had a rough life. Her first owner died and the daughter dumped her at the Humane Society, where she came down with a very bad upper respiratory and eye infection. They did not treat her until she became very ill but then used the wrong kind of medicine in her eyes, which caused her eyes to burst. They were going to put her down at this point. A Humane Society volunteer — who operated the rescue that saved Angel — stopped them from killing Maggie by agreeing to take her home once the society paid to have her eyes removed.

Maggie had a very hard time adjusting when she got to BCR. She does not like other cats, does not like dogs, and would swat first and ask questions later. Who could blame her? In one year she lost her lifetime home, got stuck in a shelter, lost her sight, lost her second home, and then had to adjust to a third home. She’s doing much better now, though; she loves to be petted and is quite the talker.

After he was rescued, he adapted well to his new life in a clean home, but at about 1 year of age, he began having recurring infections in his eyes. The rescuer’s vet removed his eyes — which weren’t working anyway –  and he recovered beautifully.

But shortly after surgery, Alchemy began having seizures, possibly due to the anesthesia used during the procedure. After a short course of treatment with Valium, he was weaned off the drug hasn’t had a seizure in more than two years.

Alchemy gets along really well with other cats, and after he gets over his shyness, he falls in love with people too. Because of his blindness, he does get scared if you touch him without letting you know you’re there. But if you tell him “Hi,” he arches so high on his tiptoes to get petted that he’s actually fallen over.

Cats like Alchemy are why we’re raising money for Blind Cat Rescue & Sanctuary in St. Pauls, North Carolina. BCR is a home of last resort for a lot of the cats in their care, most of whom were in high-kill shelters and would have been put down right away if it hadn’t been for Blind Cat Rescue and the people looking out for these special kitties. Please help us reach our incredibly (or maybe ridiculously) ambitious goal of raising $5,000, six months of care for all the kitties at BCR. Just click on the widget at the right to donate, or visit the Paws and Effect Be The Change Challenge page at FirstGiving.

Blind Cat Rescue & Sanctuary provides a no-kill, cage-free environment for the blind cats they rescue from high-kill shelters and from people who can’t take care of them. We believe blind cats deserve the opportunity to live and get a chance at finding a forever home.

If everybody who reads Paws and Effect gives just $1, we’ll meet–and even exceed–our goal! Click on the Paws and Effect Be The Change Challenge widget in the column to the right or visit our fundraising page at FirstGiving.

If you can’t give, please spread the word. The more people who know about what we’re doing, the more money we can raise for this very worthy organization.

It costs about $800 per month to feed and provide vet care for the cats at Blind Cat Rescue. Our goal is to raise $5,000–six months’ worth of care–to support Blind Cat Rescue’s mission. Thank you for helping us to help them!

Abigail, one of the cats at Blind Cat Rescue's shelter.

To help you learn more about what Blind Cat Rescue is doing, we’ll feature two or three photos and stories of the cats at the shelter each week. Today’s featured kitty is Abigail. Abigail was rescued by a group in Pennsylvania when a woman had 63 cats seized by animal control for neglect. They contacted Blind Cat Rescue for assistance, and two wonderful volunteers  drove eight hours to bring them to Blind Cat Rescue.

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”–Margaret Mead