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One of my first memories is my mom bandaging the paw of our cat Booger, who had gotten it slammed in the screen door one summer when I was four or five. We always had cats, and then, eventually, we had a dog, Not Spot—we picked her out at the pound when I was ten. And then I fell in love with horses, as so many teenagers do. Later, when I was in graduate school and needed contact with the “real” world, I started volunteering with an animal rescue group. So, animals have always been a part of my life, and, as my mother said, I’m still “just a girl who likes animals better than people.” Duh.
Animal Rescue Links
There are hundreds, maybe thousands of animal rescue groups in the U.S.A., out there trying to assuage human cruelty and irresponsibility toward both domesticated and wild animals. Here are a few of my favorites.
A group I’ve volunteered with here in Orlando:
http://www.petfinder.com/shelters/anewbeginning.html
Petfinder.org also lists animal shelters, rescue, and spay/neuter groups by state:
http://www.petfinder.com/pet.cgi
The first animal rescue organization I knew first-hand, and a fabulous one, in Pennsylvania:
http://www.centrecountypaws.org/
United Animal Nations, a nation-wide organization that rescues animals in dire situations. See their section on the Emergency Animal Rescue Service, which helps during hurricanes and other natural disasters:
http://www.uan.org/
Alley Cat Allies, headquarters for efforts to reduce excess feral cat populations through TNR (trap-neuter-release) techniques:
http://www.alleycat.org/
Then, for pure silliness, there’re Catster and Dogster. Yes, my cats have webpages of their own:
http://www.catster.com/
http://www.dogster.com/
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