Are you in for the cause?

When we first came to the country, one of the things which impressed me was the fact that I didn't see malnourished cats and dogs roaming around the streets looking for food, quite literally close to none. I've asked around and learned that here in US spay and neuter is supported and it is at work to control population of homeless animals. Most of home pets are fixed, and there are various TNR and rescue programs, cat shelters, doctors and volunteers working to help animals in need.

Various animal shelters run various programs in addition to assisting in adoptions of rescued animals. They help with Trap-Neuter-Return for ferals, low-cost vaccination and spay/neuter for pets. Education is a bit portion of it as well.

A help from community comes from various sources: people volunteer their time; donate money, food or non-food items; foster animals in need or simply feed feral animals.

Most adoption centers are happy to receive donations of cat food, cat litter, cleaning supplies, towels, cat toys, cat furniture. Many of them have wish lists. Some of them also keep an eye on discounts and local ads and alert their supporter about these.

My cats are very picky with what they eat, few of attempts to change their food resulted in generous donation of not-eaten items to a cat shelter close by.

Alternative ways to support

During the time we live here, I've also learner of few alternative ways to support the animal cause. These require almost no time or/and no money commitment besides of what you already do in day to day. They are not advertised that much, but they do exist.

For example for Cozy Cat Cottage Adoption Center (Powell, Ohio) one can collect and donate empty cans (cat/dog/people food cans, soda, whatever else). So all you need to do is collect cans and bring them to the place once in few months. Cans, that you would throw away otherwise anyway. Easy? Yep!

Another inventive way to support a charity you like if they participate AmazonSmile Fundation program. I've selected local Colony Cats (&dogs) (Dublin, Ohio) as my charity and now every time I buy something via https://smile.amazon.com/, AmazonSmile fundation donates a 0.5% to Colony Cats (&dogs). That comes at no extra cost at all, just need to remember to start you shopping at the AmazonSmile address. I do a lot of day-to-day shopping at Amazon, I bet you do to...

There are million of registered 501(c)(3) public charitable organizations which participate this program and can be selected for donations.

If you know of more ways to contribute and wish to share with others, please let me know below.