Vans Loaded With Gifts

Members of Girl Scout Troop 6694 
with just a portion of their gifts 
for the animals at WARL.

A couple of the collection boxes.

Tis the season.   Members of Girl Scout Troop 6694 really got into the spirit of organizing, collecting, and giving. The fourteen girls, hailing from six D.C. schools, decided to help the animals at WARL while earning their Bronze award.  That meant that each girl had to contribute 20 hours to the cause -- and, by the looks of what  they carried into the lobby, they made every minute count.   They didn't  do one project; they spearheaded a myriad of efforts to net three vans full of toys, treats, linens, home-baked goodies and more.  They used the money that they collected in hair salons, offices, schools, and other highly populated spots to purchase things on WARL's  wish list including special requests such as chicken broth and kongs.
Thank you Troop 6694!

Gifts for the Animals and WARL staff!

This the season......We have the greatest adoptions team and kennel staff.  The animals depend on them for their care in the shelter and their ability to find  them the  very best forever homes!   Yesterday, a visitor  came to our lobby with a cake, holiday card and happy pictures of WARL alums, now named Roxie and Bailey.  People who work in shelters do so because they love animals.   And,  cake!  Many thanks kind adopters. 

WARL dogs are getting new tug toys thanks to Ross Elementary School 4th grader, Noemie.   She braided toys for the dogs.  The toys are a bit different than the usual braided tugs, these are stretchy.   Noemie used cast-off leggings.  Leggings with holes are the perfect material for tug toys, Noemie explained.  The spandex in the leggings makes for fun stretchy tugs.  Kozy Girl, WARL alum and regular classroom visitor, checked out one of the toys in the classroom and declared the toys dog-tested, winners.

Homes for the Holidays!

I was listening to holiday music on the radio and Irving Berlin's classic tune, White Christmas, came on; I can't stop singing May your days be merry and bright; And may all your Christmases be white.  And while I was belting it out, I started  looking through recent adoption update photos and saw this picture of Foxy, who has now been in her forever home 5 months and I thought, Foxy is as white as snow and is absolutely going to enjoy a merry and bright holiday season -- she should be featured prominently on a holiday greeting.  So, I'm taking the liberty of sharing her photo to wish everyone, two-legged and four, a very happy, healthy holiday season in hopes that at least part of it -- maybe just a day or two -- is white!

A Microchip Can Be a Ticket Home

A quick injection  places  a microchip under kitty's skin

Ruby getting "wanded".

A loyal warlkids reader reminded me that micro-chipping  saves lives.    A common statistic in the animal-sheltering world is that, out of the  8 million animals who end up in shelters every year, only 15-20% of dogs and less than 2% of cats are ever reunited with their guardians.  Micro-chipping can help  boost the return rate.  Every cat, dog, puppy and kitten adopted from the Washington Animal Rescue League is "chipped". The quick procedure involves inserting a tiny microchip (about the size of a grain of rice) under the animal's skin  through an injection.  The information on the chip is then  registered to the adopter or traced back to WARL.  That way, if the cat or dog  gets lost and is brought  to a shelter or animal hospital, the identification  information stored on the chip can be read and used to contact the animal's person.   The identifying information is read by a scanner/wand.  And then, everyone lives happily-ever-after!