Terre Haute Tribune Star: Volunteer Effort Provides Straw Bedding for Outdoor Pets
Filed under: Uncategorized - November 29, 2008
By Arthur E. Foulkes
Lots of Wabash Valley dogs, cats and other animals will be a little warmer this winter thanks to “Warm Straw for Chilly Paws,” a volunteer effort to provide straw bedding for outdoor pets.
Animal lovers manned three Vigo County locations and gave away free bales of clean, dry straw to people wanting to make life a little better for animals that spend a lot of time outdoors during cold months.
“This is really a worthy cause,” said Dick Smith, owner of Graham Feed Company in Terre Haute, which was one of the pickup locations for the straw giveaways. “This is a tough time on animals,” he said.
More than a dozen people had picked up free straw bales from the Graham Feed location in just the first hour of the giveaway. Other pickup locations included Unity Presbyterian Church on East Springhill Drive and the Helping Hands Thrift Store in West Terre Haute.
Betty Linnabary of Terre Haute, who was picking up a free straw bale, said several stray cats live in her garage. She feeds them and the straw will help them stay warm, she said. “They’ve adopted me. I love them all.”
Students from the Friends of the Animals Club at Rio Grande Elementary School helped distribute fliers and gift dog biscuits to people during the event. The biscuits were each wrapped in colorful ribbons.
“I love animals,” said Bailie Winkle, a fourth-grader at Rio Grande who was working the Graham Feed location along with fellow Rio Grande fourth-grader Taylor Turner. In addition to handing out information and dog biscuits, the fourth-graders also helped collect donations for local animal charities including the Humane Society and the Spay-Neuter League.
Volunteers will be repeating the Warm Straw for Chilly Paws giveaway next Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Graham Feed Company location only, said Angie Bridgewater, an organizer of the event. Graham Feed is at 200 West Voorhees St.
Graham Feed donated 50 bales of straw for the event. Another 100 bales were purchased through donations, Bridgewater said.
Even large pets can be harmed by extended exposure to cold temperatures, according to Pets 911, an animal welfare organization. For some small pets, even a few minutes outdoors in extreme temperatures can cause symptoms of hypothermia, according to the organization’s Web site.
A flier distributed to people picking up straw included some winter pet care tips, including making sure outdoor pets have a warm, insulated house or shelter raised a few inches off the ground. The floor of the shelter should be covered with cedar shavings or straw and when the straw becomes wet it should be replaced, the flier reads.
Pets also require more food in the winter and outdoor water dishes should be checked frequently to make sure the water is not frozen, according to the flier.
The openings of pet shelters also should be turned away from the wind, said Elaine Woolley, a volunteer during the event. It’s not just the cold temperatures that are dangerous for pets, she said, “it’s also the wind-chill.”
Also Saturday, at the Unity Presbyterian Church on East Springhill Drive, several pet owners brought their dogs to a “blessing of the animals” service. Around eight dogs and their owners gathered in the church for the 25 minute service that included hymns, Bible readings and an individual blessing for each pet.
“They were wonderful,” said the Rev. Linda Peters, of the Unity Presbyterian Church, speaking of the dogs that were at the service. There were no cats at the blessing service, but there have been in the past, Peters said.
Kathy Modesitt brought her foster dog Missy to the blessing service. “She’s a very good dog,” Modesitt said of the small Australian Cattle Dog that walked around her legs on a leash after the service. The pets are “part of God’s creation. They need to be blessed, too,” she said.