When you make a donation to paws-and-effect.com, we will "tithe" 10 percent of whatever you give with donations to two animal rescue organizations in midcoast Maine, where we live.
The first of these, the Town Line Animal Shelter, located on the Belfast-Searsport line, has been Waldo County's primary animal rescue group for well over 20 years. The woman who runs it does so as a labor of love, and she also operates a horse rescue from her farm. The Town Line Shelter is where Mama adopted her first cat teacher, Iris the cat, and Town Line has a special place in Mama's heart for this and many other reasons, including the fact that it is a no-kill shelter. Read a story about the Town Line Shelter (off-site link).
The second organization, Cats In Crisis, based in Lincolnville, Maine, helps cats that are displaced by natural disasters, fires, domestic violence, or illness/death of pet owners. Like the Town Line Shelter, this group is run by one woman with a big heart, a lot of knowledge about cats and their care, and a very small budget.
Many large animal rescue organizations find it easier to get funding than tiny shelters like these. Run by volunteers in the time they have when they're not working for a living, "micro-rescues" rarely have the time to write grants or secure funding from state or federal budgets because they're doing their job--taking care of animals in need. We believe they are worth supporting, and we hope you will too.
There are many other wonderful animal welfare groups in Maine, including the Camden-Rockport Animal Rescue League in Camden and Humane Society of Knox County in Rockland (both of which are no-kill shelters), Friends of Feral Felines based in Portland, and lots of other animal shelters and breed rescue groups. We don't believe these groups are any less worthy of support than the two we have chosen as the recipients of our donations. But in order to make our donations effective, we have limited our choice to the two we know best and that we know have great need. We've provided links to other Maine-based and national animal welfare organizations, and if you are interested in learning more about them, we encourage you to visit their websites.
If you are able, we hope you will consider making a donation to us and helping us help the Town Line Animal Shelter and Cats In Crisis. At the very least, please consider making a donation of time, money or goods (food, kitty litter, cleaning supplies, etc.) to an animal rescue or rehabilitation group you believe in.
Would you like to support Paws and Effect and the charities we give to? Click the Make a Donation button below to make a secure, fast and easy donation through PayPal. This account also accepts credit card or bank cards with the MasterCard or VISA logo, so you don't need to have a PayPal account yourself in order to help out. Thank you!
