A simple way to help

Regular readers have seen me mention Turtle Gardens Animal Rescue many times and know that I support the work they do in whatever way I can. Turtle Gardens is the only safe haven for dogs in a 250 km area in northern BC, and has been in operation since 1988. You can read more about it from my earlier blog entry here, or by visiting their blog here.

Unlike shelters and rescues in more populated areas, Turtle Gardens is too remote to be able to attract many volunteers or local donations or media attention - yet Yvette and Dave and family plug along giving their all to help dogs who have no other place to go, and to educate the local communities on the importance of spay and neuter. The dogs in their care are spayed/neutered, taught to be part of a family, and placed in carefully screened homes. And Yvette and Dave do it on a shoe string budget, assisted by whatever donations or funds they can raise. It is not an easy life, and I am in awe of their work.

And now there is a very simple way to help them get some much needed funds. GreaterGood.com and Petfinder.com have launched a "Shelter Challenge", with cash prizes to the shelters that get the most votes. And all you need to do is go to a certain webpage every day until July 26th and vote. Top prize is $20,000 with weekly and regional prices in smaller amounts. Turtle Gardens is currently number 6 in Canada and number 2 in BC! Let's give them the boost to the top!

So...here's the instructions:

Go to this site

Along the right hand side (okay, I'm left/right challenged - it is on the side aligned with my right hand as I sit at the computer keyboard) you will see some purple tabs. Click on the tab which says "Shelter Challenge."

Scroll down. You will see a box that says "Search and Vote for a shelter".

In the country part, click on Canada in the country menu. The page will refresh. You'll see the same box. Type in Turtle Gardens, and choose BC on the drop down province. Click Search.

It will come up with Turtle Gardens, and there will be a "vote" button after the name. Click the vote button.

It will show you a picture of an animal and ask you to type in the animal's name, for verification that you are a real person.

Do that, and then it will thank you for your vote.

And so will Turtle Gardens.

And.....to remember to vote every single day, go back to the first page and there is a box whereby you can get a daily email reminder and a link to the page. I started doing this a week or so ago, and it only takes a moment out of my morning. At first the process seems tedious, but once you've done it for a few mornings in a row, it becomes second nature.

Please help Turtle Gardens. They could really use the funds. The dogs are counting on you.