As part of our year-end efforts with fundraising for Humane Society of the North Bay, we were featured in the Vallejo Times-Herald on the cover again (see below). Yesterday was the first of two times we are doing this fundraiser in 2022.
Photo credits for some of these are Andrea Rodoni and Manny Furtado.
Here I am as President of GCCA introducing the Board and the speakers that we had from City of Vallejo Landscape Maintenance District and the Red Cross.
The first time Shando and I were in Kauai in 2018 we promised ourselves that we would participate in this when we returned since that trip was full of activities and we didn’t have the time.
This shelter has amazing grounds and a great program to allow tourists on Kauai to take a shelter animal on a field trip. Kawai was a wonderful older female who we enjoyed bringing to an arboretum up a mountain and then to a dog-friendly beach.
Halloween was in the air at the Farmers Market on this day when we tabled for Humane Society of the North Bay, as volunteers and I do about once a month year-round. In hindsight, we REALLY should have had some candy to hand out. Oops.
I tabled for the Humane Society of the North Bay again at the Greater Vallejo Recreational District‘s first Pup-kin Patch Dog Festival. Shando came later with our most ambulatory dogs and he caught the eye of a photojournalist.
As a Board member and current Board Secretary of the Humane Society of the North Bay, I table a lot of events. This one was well-documented. We had a lot of great volunteers there and it was a well-attended event. It was only the second year, too!
As a result of my tabling for LGBTQ Minus Tobacco at the Fiestas Patrias event in Vallejo recently, the organization was asked by James Hogan Middle-High School to table in their quad for National Coming Out Day (October 11). Interestingly I attended James LOGAN High School in Union City.
As a proud Vallejo citizen, I was glad to meet the principal and other staff members who appreciated the information and hand-outs we had for the students who we were glad to see swarm our table when we were there.
We seemed to be well-received, not only by staff, but many of the kids, even if a few of them may have been surprised that we were a queer-focused organization. Staff member Judith Lerner had the kids sign this beautiful banner at the table next to us:
I tabled for the Humane Society of the North Bay again!
Through another set of sad circumstances, Matty (who was thusly named because he was found as a stray in Vallejo and completely matted over) was brought to us for a crisis “foster” from our veterinarian. This dog clung to me as if he knew me his whole life from the minute I picked him up. He has a hugging hold on me (perhaps because he is blind or at least vision impaired like a baby or how I imagine a primate would cling). He definitely knows his name, even though it was only given to him a few months prior when he was found by his previous foster mother. What kind of monster had let a senior, small, blind dog wander around a city with no collar or microchip?
Even more sadly, the woman that found him and had him for a few months had a serious domestic violence attack against her. Her police officer brothers came from another state and moved her back while her partner went to jail. Matty apparently could not go with her.
We were told Matty just wanted to cuddle all day and that is no exaggeration. Here he is (flanking me) with his instant new friend (brother?), who has only been with us a few months himself, Polar.
