When I moved here 4 years ago, I made a commitment to involving myself in the community as a way of giving thanks in some small way to Mexico for allowing me to live here. I have been fortunate enough to take part in fundraising events for the Bomberos, Angel Notion, and hurricane relief efforts in Majahual.
Most recently, the charity that has been closest to my heart is the Peanut Pet Shelter, which was founded and is operated by my friends, Andy and Jen. The shelter functions solely on their own savings, fundraising events, and through donations from generous animal lovers.
I can’t say enough about the impact Andy and Jen are making in Playa del Carmen. Their no-kill shelter is the first of its kind here. In the one year of the shelter’s existence, Andy and Jen have managed to rescue, heal, and rehome hundreds of stray dogs and cats who would have otherwise lived out their sad, bleak, and short lives with no one to love or care for them. One thing that I will never get used to, living here, is the stray animal situation.
Every dog gets shots and health checkups before being rehomed. If the animal is old enough, they are also spayed or neutered, and one of the conditions of adoption of younger animals is that the owner agrees to spay or neuter (which, I believe, the shelter will also pay for). Andy and Jen’s long-term goals include community outreach in an attempt to help change the way stray animals are viewed and treated, and to increase the likelihood of people spaying and neutering their pets.
Each Saturday, Andy and Jen hold a “dog wash” at their home (which is where these dogs live, too, until the funds are raised to build a proper shelter. Can you imagine having 50 dogs at your house?!). My friend Wayne in Isla Mujeres has twice attended the dog wash and most recently wrote it up here.
Andy and Jen have been feverishly working to raise enough money to build a proper shelter in the lot next door to their home. They came up with the great idea to offer the kennels for sponsorship to businesses, groups, or individuals. Each kennel costs 500 usd to build, and the sponsor will get a plaque affixed to the kennel with his logo or name on it. They’ve done fairly well, but still have 6 kennels left without sponsors.
Unfortunately I am not someone with a lot of cash, so my primary method of helping the Peanut Pet Shelter has been to offer my hands or time to help with fundraising and to care for the dogs. Here and there I have bought raffle tickets or contributed a bag of food, but I have felt very unhappy that I am unable to make any sizable monetary donation.
Today it occurred to me that perhaps we could all get in on this and sponsor a kennel or two together. If we all chip in, I’m sure we could quickly come up with enough cash to put our group’s name on a kennel. All we’d have to do is come up with a great group name and logo (anyone know how to design a logo? Because I sure don’t.), raise the cash, and voila! We’re official sponsors of the Peanut Pet Shelter. I can spare 500 pesos to get the ball rolling (50 bucks).
So who’s with me? Let me know in the comments if you’d like to contribute and what you think our name should be. After all the suggestions for names have come in, I’ll do a poll so we can choose the winning sponsor name.
Below is the button to click to make a donation via PayPal, to my email address. Please be sure to put “Peanut Pet Shelter” in the comments section.
I’ll leave you with some photos from the Peanut Pet Shelter.
My friend, Linda, who visits the shelter every time she is in Playa. She LOVES dogs, and is mommy to three of them!
This is Bambi, look at her ugly little cute face!
All of the dogs Andy and Jen rehome wind up being the sweetest, best dogs…since they are socialized with other dogs and lots of humans each week!
Lovely Lily, who sure didn’t last long at the shelter! She found a home almost immediately!
Dear lord, I love me some puppy belly!
All you need is love.
Wayne the Puppy Whisperer
I think this handsome fellow is called Spud.
Board meeting
Who can take a sunrise, sprinkle it with dew? Why, the Candy Man, of course.
Give me my Romeo.
Heather…this is such a beautiful gesture to get the word out about the Kennel and help to provide roofs over the heads for all the puppies!! I’ve already co-sponsored a kennel, but I’d love to be part of your group if you’ll have me.
By: Vanessa on July 14, 2008
at 1:41 pm
Heather- I just sent Andy $100.00 about 15 minutes ago. If you want to make me a part of your group, just tell Andy that my $100.00 is going towards your group’s kennel. As far as a logo goes, I am a graphic designer in one of my many lives, so I can take care of that for us. The name, is all up to you, but if you all want to make it musical in some way, I have some great art I can use in that way. Lines drawing of animals along with some music art.
Jan
By: Jan on July 14, 2008
at 1:50 pm
Our beloved Mr. Dog came from the county pound, and he is urging me to donate some money.We aren’t rich either but this is a cause near and dear to us. How do we get it to you? Can you put a donate button on your blog?
regards,
Theresa
By: Theresa in Mérida on July 14, 2008
at 2:32 pm
Vanessa: You’re incredible, of COURSE I will have you!
Jan: I’ve sent a message to Andy, that’s GREAT about your graphic design talent! Thank you!
Theresa: Please thank Mr. Dog for me, from the bottom of my heart. Tell him I owe him a bone.
I don’t know how to do the donate button on the blog. *blushes* I will send an email with info on how to send the $ via PayPal.
By: heatherinparadise on July 14, 2008
at 2:39 pm
I will donate 50$….do you want it thru you account again?
By: mommy dearest on July 14, 2008
at 5:25 pm
Me too! Me too! Can I join ya, huh, can I, can I? I don’t have any big, great ideas about a name, or logo, or any of that stuff, but I have a couple o’bucks that I can pitch in.
This is such a great idea, Heather. I was just about to send Andy a donation when I saw your post (then your blog. Yeah, I’m one of those lurkers you wrote about a few days ago!). What the heck, I thought…
By: Trish on July 14, 2008
at 5:32 pm
Count me in….$50….can I also HAVE that weim. at the board meeting?? HOW did a weimaraner get to playa?
By: Amy on July 14, 2008
at 6:24 pm
Count us in for $500 pesos! We will donate ours in honor of PPS alum Derby…..what about the Peanut Posse??
Sara, Steve, Foster (aka Fuckface Piggles), Brighton “The Big B”, Gidget, JoJo Templeton, Wink,Little Man “The Killer”, and of course THE DERBY DOG!
By: Sara on July 14, 2008
at 7:13 pm
We’re sending $50 your way. As for a name, how about Bloggers in Mexico?
By: wayne on July 14, 2008
at 8:02 pm
Adam and I would like to donate 100 bucks, but I want to make sure I use the right email address for you.
By: Martina on July 14, 2008
at 8:19 pm
Here’s a thought for the name and logo.
rescáteme for the name, with the dog and cat from the shelter logo I did for the “Give me shelter” T shirts. You have probably seen them Heather. Or art that is similar to that.
By: Jan on July 15, 2008
at 5:49 am
Fab idea! (I tried posting a comment all day yesterday but was shut out, booo). You go girl.
Now, how about “Pooches in Paradise” or “Puppies in Paradise” for a name?
By: CancunCanuck on July 15, 2008
at 10:23 am
Thanks Heather, we sent $100! What a great idea, glad you blogged about it.
By: Martina on July 15, 2008
at 1:38 pm
Momma: Yeah, put it in my account, that way PayPal won’t charge any fees. I’m covering all of the PayPal fees, btw, people.
Trish: THANK YOU we have received your donation via PayPal! So generous!
Amy: Thanks, amiga!! Is it easiest for you to deposit in my US bank account (in W.Harbor) or do you want to pay with PayPal? And that Weimaraner is named Troy and he is a big old lovable dope.
Sara: Yay, the Moen Zoo comes through, as always!
Wayne: Excellent, thank you all!
Martina: Do you and Adam ever get tired of rocking so hard?
To all: great suggestions with the names, keep them coming! I’ll do a blog poll as soon as I figure out how..I’m learning so much the last couple of days, I even found out how to post that donate button!
By: heatherinparadise on July 15, 2008
at 1:51 pm
Heather: What a great idea! The puppies will love you!! Donate button works great.
By: Soo-z on July 15, 2008
at 5:28 pm
Mimi and I want to donate too. We can drop it off to you – and save the paypal fee – if you want or use paypal.
We went by there today for my friend to look for a watch dog. She didn’t find what she was looking for but we loved the place and the pups.
By: Jonna on July 15, 2008
at 11:22 pm
What a great idea and that’s so incredible of you to take time to write up this post, upload all the pics, create a paypal account (and even find how to post the “donate” button!) and do all the followup that it requires… those pups are so lucky to have people like Andy and Jen and you to do all this for them.
Btw, the paypal thing works for donations coming from France as well… I can confirm!
Fned.
By: Fned on July 16, 2008
at 9:17 am
Soo-z: Thank you so much for your generous donation!
Jonna: Whichever is easiest for you guys, just let me know!
Fned: THANK YOU so much, how kind of you!
By: heatherinparadise on July 16, 2008
at 9:29 am