Addie's Gifts

There is no denying that I love animals. We've naturally paired down our four legged friends from the 2 dogs, 3 cats, 2 rabbits, and uncountable number of gerbils we once had to a mere 1 dog and 2 cats. Then again, we've added 3 two legged children to that mix in the process!

But our love of animals has already been passed onto our girls. They each have a slight obsession with pets and wild animals alike. A few months ago, we visited the Elmore County Humane Shelter to drop off some food after they'd shared a need for on the news. They let the girls pet a few kittens, and I avoided eye contact with any an all 4 legged creatures, lest we come home with one! But it made a tremendous impact on Addie. She knew we went to a shelter to get Finn, that he didn't have a home until we adopted him, and that there were many, many other animals needing homes. She doesn't know the rest of the story, and I don't plan on telling her that anytime soon; but we are committed to teaching about why we spay and neuter our animals, because that's the only way we can save so many of these already in the shelters!

So when we created Addie's birthday party invitation, she agreed to let me include this on the back:

I'll admit, she kinda got cold feet after I'd mailed them; but when I assured her that she could hold a kitten when we delivered the food, it was all better!

I wasn't entirely sure how Addie's friends would react to it though, if people would just not bring a gift or bring dog/cat food; and the response was utterly overwhelming:

After a Walmart run, we had (approximately) 3 ginormous, 6 huge, 6 medium, 7 small, and 8 tiny bags of cat & dog food, 8 cans, 2 bags of treats, 5 jugs of clorox, and 3 very happy little girls!

 It took quite a while to load the car, but I had the best help around!

We were so happy to have DiDi, Tyler, Ellie, Bri, Ms. Anna, Thomas, and Kennedy meet us at the shelter to deliver everything, which filled up half of the lobby area!

Of course my girls went straight for the kittens!

And Ms. Rea let Addie hold a special sweet one.

Look at that precious face!

We walked around a gave the dogs and kitties in the back a little love until my heart could take it no more. So many puppies. So many sad eyes. So many animals needing homes!

Since the little girl's birthday party theme is going to be kitties and puppies, we're planning to ask people to bring canned cat and dog food. Ms. Rea said they start to have so many entire litters of kittens and puppies show up, only days or weeks old; and they need soft food for those babies!

Happy girls!