Being thankful never falls out of season

By Nellie Curtiss …

Whenever anyone goes shopping now at Walmart or any of the BIG BOX stores, the shelves are already refereeing between Halloween gear, retail Thanksgiving and in the wings, retail Christmas.

On Facebook, some posts are about the nonsense of all the early marketing of October, November and December holidays. The post’s sentiment is clearly focusing on a yesteryear’s milder commercial life where the little trick-or-treaters made their own costumes and families gathered at Gradma’s farmhouse for caroling and baking goodies.

We can still capture those feelings. We can bring about calm, less commercialized holidays by holding a grateful heart in our mind.  We can shape how we move forward with our spending habits, for one, and with our expressions of human kindness, for the other. Being thankful never falls out of season.

For example:  Not long ago, Marge Hauer-Brown, board member of Cats Alive! SLV, called for cat food donations for the many feral cat colonies in the Valley.  She hoped for donations of “a high-quality grain-free cat food, and other kibble like Nine Lives whose ingredients include grain.”  In combining these types, a hearty cat food is created for the feral community. AND she was right. A nice stockpile of feed and donations including 9Lives, Friskies, and Purina Complete came in.  Marge says she thanks these people on behalf of the Valley’s community cats who have benefited from their gift:  Vanessa at Dollar General, Dennis, Melissa, Jen and Margaret, Jill, CeCe, Andres and Alice, Glena, Karli, Laura, Barb, Nel and everyone who donated on Facebook.

Another bit of gratefulness to jump up and down about is the SLV Alliance Low Cost/Free Spay/Neuter Clinic. This week, they posted the following: ❤️1000 SURGERIES! ❤️ We’d like to thank Little Dudette for being our 1000th surgery. She was rescued from the streets and is now a complete doll. Her people have done a great job raising her right! From left to right in the picture are Lisa Karst, Puck Noller, Jaimie Lynn, Kristin Rae, and Dr. Linda Behrns. Not pictured, Gladys Richardson. We have a great crew, and it feels amazing to have passed this milestone with them. ** PLEASE SHARE ** and help us celebrate!!!

Early this summer, SLV Spay and Neuter Alliance thanked Valley Humane League on their Facebook page for a “very generous $5000 grant to fix cats of the San Luis Valley. Using their funds, they fixed 100 cats from all over the valley, from KV Estates to Magote and from Del Norte to the plains of Blanca!!! Some were adoptable kittens, some were confirmed street cats, some were colonies whose people just needed a hand stopping the endless growth.”

Did you know that CatsAliveSLV! is a 501 (c)(3) non-profit organization so your contributions to support CatsAlive!slv are tax-deductible to the fullest extent allowed by law. The mission is to reduce the number of feral and abandoned house cats in the San Luis Valley of Colorado through vigorous spay/neuter programs and, when possible, assist finding caring homes for kittens and tame cats.

Did you know that SLVSpayNeuter Alliance is a non-profit and provide this service because of donations. Appointment fees only cover a portion of expenses. They are continually accepting donations, monetary or pet and medical supplies including food, towels and blankets. They work with many rescues and low-income families.

The math works out that this new service managed 900 surgeries in three months for a total of 1000 neutered/spayed felines and canines. That’s 300 each month! What a huge, HUGE deal!  We can all be grateful for these non-profit organizations.

— Nelda Curtiss is a retired college educator and long-time local columnist. Reach her at http://www.columnsbynellie.com or email her at columnsbynellie@gmail.com