Dear Santa,
We know you have lots of children to visit at Christmas and we know that the world is a more difficult place these days. The staff here at the Kingston Humane Society take really good care of us all year but, if you can find a few extra minutes to stop by the shelter and, you can get the reindeer to land safely in our off-leash play area without tripping over all the toys, here’s our wish list.
Rango the Boxer mix has been here since July and what we’d really like is for him to find a home with lots of people and maybe a dog, but definitely no cats. If you can’t find him a home, he’ll settle for a couple of good chew toys shaped like cats. The cats are NOT okay with this by the way, but Rango has seniority so we included his request, despite all the swats and hisses.
Speaking of cats, Goliath has been here since July too. He kinda runs things on the cat side of the building. He used to live at a shelter in Quebec but they couldn’t keep him anymore so our friend Becca who finds space for lots of other cats and dogs in need, made room for Goliath… and he needs a LOT of room. Goliath is a couch potato cat so he’d really like a bunch of pillows for his bed. If you can’t fit pillows onto the sleigh, he loves liver-flavoured treats. Just don’t give him the whole bag at once because he’ll definitely eat them all and then we’ll NEVER get him off the bed.
Our buddy Blaze is coming back from foster for Christmas and he doesn’t seem to handle all the noise. Most of us will do our best to be extra quiet when he arrives, except for Diesel and Big Rig. They bark every time they smell another dog and let’s be honest, dog smell is an occupational hazard here. Anyway, if you could find Blaze a foster home until we can find him a new forever family that would be awesome.
The whole time we’ve been writing this letter, Herb the Australian Cattle dog has been bouncing around trying to get our attention. Excuse us a minute.
“Relax Herb, you’re next”
Herb would really like you to know that he can herd anything; cats, dogs, sheep, ducks, goats and of course, cows. As soon as he gains a bit more weight, Herb would like you to give him a chance to herd the reindeer. Between you and us Santa, we’ll understand if you can’t make that happen. The truth is, he’s got a short attention span and he’ll probably forget that he asked to herd the reindeer before we even finish this letter.
Our two bunnies Caillou and McGonagall – “No Herb, you CANNOT herd the bunnies!”
Sorry Santa.
Anyway… Caillou and McGonagall have been thumping around their foster homes asking if they could have more carrots and lettuce. We think carrots are a little bit of a cliché for rabbits but if you can find room in your sleigh for extra veggies, and a few carrots too, that would make them hoppy…sorry…happy.
One final thing we’d like – and this is for the women and men that care for us every day – we’d like you to tell them that we love them. We try to let them know by wagging our tails and play-bowing or rubbing and purring but we’re not sure they always understand. Sometimes no matter how much we wag or purr, they get really sad. It happens when we get sick and also when they can’t find us a forever home and they have to bring us back to our kennels again and again and again. Santa, we want them to know that they’re doing a fantastic job. They find so many of us new homes and Dr. Geoff and his team make all the hurt go away and give us the energy to run and jump like the puppies and kittens we used to be. We just want our people to understand that no matter what happens; if we get adopted, if we go to foster, or if the time comes for us to cross the rainbow bridge, we know they did their very best.
Thanks Santa, Merry Christmas to you and Mrs. Claus, the Reindeer and all the elves.
With love, from the animals of the Kingston Humane Society.
PS – Herb has forgotten about the reindeer. Now he wants to herd the elves.
