Sparing time and love
Kitties and puppies and bunnies, oh my!

By Melissa Poortenga · Guest Writer
Published November 22, 2010

Saving Grace is a name that is fairly familiar to Douglas County residents, and yet the benefits of this animal rescue and adoption center as well as its operational needs are not quite as well known.

Saving Grace’s dogs and cats that are available for adoption have all been given up-to-date shots, a de-wormer, are microchipped and have been either spayed or neutered. Considering the health care given to these animals, Saving Grace’s adoption fees are easy to understand. To adopt one of the cats costs $69 to $79 depending on the age of the cat or kitten. Adoption fees for their dogs range in price depending on breed, but usually run between $130 to $170. The shelter also gets a variety of other animals like goats, rabbits and guinea pigs, which are also able to be adopted.

The shelter is constructing a larger, more useful facility directly behind the current one. The larger facility will have better plumbing and more room to house animals until they are adopted out. The current building was built in the 1950’s and is too small for the number of animals the facility processes.

The animal shelter, located only a short drive from the UCC campus, is in constant need of resource assistance. Food supplies like Purina Kitten Chow are always wanted, but they also need generous donations of time and assistance from people who have abilities similar to what students here at UCC possess.

Besides volunteers who can socialize and groom the animals, the shelter is also interested in finding volunteers to do desktop publishing, photography, creative writing and veterinarian work. Of course, simply because volunteers wish to donate time towards something like creative writing doesn’t mean that they can’t also socialize with the shelter’s cats or dogs. In fact, a volunteer can do any number of various tasks at the Saving Grace animal shelter.

To help Saving Grace, UCC students Dominic Rocco, Charlaina Johnson, Melissa Poortenga, Rhain Merrill and Sarah Noonan are donating time to raise funds and to raise awareness of Saving Grace’s continuing need for both supplies and volunteers. The group has posted flyers around campus which list the supplies they are trying to help collect for the shelter, as well as locations where fellow students and staff can drop off the supplies. That same flyer also states what kinds of volunteers Saving Grace currently needs.

The students are also asking the community to remember that animals also need love and time during the holiday season. Additionally, they would like to remind people that Saving Grace is facing special challenges at this point in time because of their building project.

One of the drop off locations is The Mainstream office (Snyder 11) where a box has been provided to drop off supplies until Dec. 1.