I keep finding more and more information on how people can help the victims of the wildfires. Some of the updates I've posted in a previous blog entry about the tragedy, and now I'm going to start another one so people can find it more easily.
EDIT: Found this on Twitter. 100% of the proceeds of this tee-shirt will go to help victims.
My friend Lauren has her own dog-walking business and is currently looking for people to help donate or take in evacuated pets. Here's the info she posted to her business's Facebook page:
OK it's time for a call to arms Pooch People. Over 30,000 people have
been evacuated due to the Waldo Canyon fire alone. Many of these people
have pets. PLEASE contact Larimer County Humane Society, Boulder Valley
Humane Society or Pike's Peak Humane Society and offer to foster a dog
or cat. If you want to help but you're not sure how, call Dumb Friends
League or check their websites for more info.
We are offering DISCOUNTED walks/visits to anyone who has fosters in the house. Please consider opening your homes.
Boulder Valley: 303-442-4030
Larimer County: 970-226-3647
Pike's Peak: 719-473-1741 extra 8723
Dumb Friends League: 303-751-5772
We will also be accepting donations of food (both human and animal) and
sundries for those in the shelters. Just leave it in your house with a
note that says donate.
Please share/retweet etc. The discounts
are good for new clients as well. Hug your pets, hug your family and
then do something to help.
I stumbled on your blog while trying to find pictures of people's stuffed animal armadillos to see if I could find a picture of my childhood stuffed animal armadillo (named "Armadillo Amigo")...unfortunately, my armadillo appears to no longer exist. (My father bought him for me in the 80s in San Antonio...I wish I had a picture of him). The irony of all this is that that reason I'm looking for a replacement Armadillo Amigo because he was in my parents home when it burned down in the Mountain Shadows area of Colorado Springs...and the first thing I saw was your blog post on the fires! Thank you for posting awareness about what's going on in Colorado. Sometimes it can feel very alone for the victims of the fire...it might sound silly to mourn a house, but people forget that you build a lifetime of memories in a home. Most people in the Colorado Springs area especially feel that way because many of us are products of the military...meaning we are moved around every five years. My parents were in that house since December of 1991...it was a beautiful home with lots of memories and its all really sad to see that gone but we have wonderful neighbors whose homes have shared the same horrible fate and it makes it easier to have someone to talk to. Thanks again!
ReplyDeleteI'm really sorry for your family's loss, first of all. Seeing the pictures of the fires in CO Springs - both during the fires and the aftermath - really stunned me. Being from the East Coast, wildfires aren't something we ever think about. We have floods and hurricanes and humidity and murders to worry about first. I was telling a colleague that wildfires out west VERY rarely made local news, and the only time you'd hear about it on national news is if the area had been declared a federal state of emergency. I have friends from southern California, so I'm aware that wildfires exist, but I had never really grasped the full concept of how all-consuming they are until I moved to Denver.
DeleteEveryone always talks about how "material items can be replaced" when disaster strikes a house. While this is true, think of all the other things that CAN'T be replaced - photos, toys, mementos of childhood, entire lives lived through keepsakes that insurance claims can't replace. My fiance's house burned down when he was a teenager, and his parents lost a portrait of them on their wedding day. He managed to get a smaller copy of the picture from another family member, and he's been hoping for years to get it restored and give it to his parents as an anniversary gift. So many of their photos from before that time were lost along with pretty much everything else they own. To tell someone who's lost everything that "at least you have your lives; you can replace everything else" is, in my opinion, flippant and somewhat insensitive.
Sorry that you lost your armadillo friend. I just tried doing a quick Google search myself, and it seems that Claire is now one of a kind. I bought her for $5 on sale at a Toys R Us that was closing in my neighborhood, but haven't found anything similar to her since. If you'd like, I can check which company made her and let you know. You won't get your original toy back, but you can at least have another armadillo friend. :)