Fire Strikes Ritchie Co. Humane Society Animal Shelter (Harrisville, WV)

This just in from Nancy and the scruffafluffs in Deep River, CT
Westie, Cairn, Scottie and Scruffafluff Rescue
Fuzzy Face Rescue
fuzzyfacerescuect.petfinder.org

The cat building is gone, and we fear all the cats and kittens. It's still too dark to know if any cats escaped. Forgive me if I am missing anyone, but the dogs in there were a mama dog and her puppies, the shelter mascot Momma, Lil Dude, and Chance. I got the call from June at 3 AM, and the fire dept. was still there.

The supply rooms were also in this building. As far as we know, everything is gone: food, medicines, vaccines, transport crates, refrigerators to store medicines, cat kennel cages, ex-pens for puppies, cleaning supplies, trash bags, litter pans, litter, cat food, feeding bowls, newspapers, bedding, etc. June will try to set up a temporary area for cat-intake.

The most immediate need now is to replace the destroyed food.

PayPal is rchumane@zoominternet.net, or link thru the shelter website, http://www.petfinder.com/shelters/WV22.html

Checks can be sent to:

Ritchie County Humane Society
RR 1 BOX 3
Harrisville, WV 26362

If you have items you can donate, please call the shelter to arrange a time to bring them in, or we'll find a way to meet you part way (I'm off work Thur/Fri). The shelter phone is 304-643-4721. At this point, I'd ask you only to call to make arrangements to offer assistance during daytime hours. We'll send out emails and updates to the Petfinder site as soon as we have any information to pass along. It is still too early to know the source of the fire.

We are grateful to the rescues who took in several of the puppies & small dogs from that bldg. in two transports in the last week. And, I'm especially thankful to the rescue that begged us to transport last week when I was planning to wait another week until bad weather conditions cleared up. Those pups owe you their lives even more so now than they before.

Thanks in advance to anything you can do to help us recover from this tragedy.

Take a Minute to Feed a Dog, Help a Rescue

Yesterday my friend Brynann from Beagles of Arizona Rescue Club wrote asking me to please vote for them every day on Petfinder's Animal Rescue Site. They're in the running for top shelter in Arizona, and - like all rescues - could really put the prize money to good use.

So... if you don't have a favorite rescue, please vote for BARC - and if you do have a favorite, go see if they're participating. It would be pretty tough to win the national spot, since Best Friends is in the lead and they have thousands of followers, but you just might put BARC (or your hometown rescue) in top spot for your State.

This is the same site that asks you to come and click every day to help feed a rescued dog... Every time you do, you contribute .6 bowls of food. So you might want to bookmark that page and go back often to click.

Click here to visit the Animal Rescue Site and feed a dog, then Vote for your favorite rescue!

While you're there, look at the unusual items for sale. Some of those might make good ideas for your rescue group, although I don't know where you'd buy paper clips shaped like dog biscuits! You could, however, copy some of the other ideas, such as the paw shaped candies. In any case, looking at their offerings will get your imagination started.