Editor:
We greatly appreciate the efforts and generosity of the citizens of Burns Lake and the surrounding area.
Once again, the community has been very generous to our Mother Millie fundraising efforts.. The Mother Millie fund has now completed its eighth year of fundraising for the care and support of stray cats, kittens and other animals needing medical help.
Despite the economic outlook for the area, we have surpassed any and all expectations in our fundraising. We raised $10,014 this year with our Mother Millie garage sale and silent auction, due to the support of the people who attend the sale and as importantly, the people who give so generously to the sale, including many businesses in the area and the surrounding areas of Houston, Vanderhoof, the Southside, Fraser Lake and Granisle.
Such a generous and caring community that we call home.
We have again this year spayed and neutered, vaccinated and treated over 123 cats and kittens, including 26 cats from one location on the Southside that were rescued in December.
This rescue was coordinated by Brandie Baker and her very supportive friends who rounded up these cats, most of them semi-feral, in one afternoon and also found foster homes for many of them once they were spayed and neutered.
Brandie does all of the coordinating and advertising for our shelter and the strays and keeps up a page on Facebook under the Burns Lake Vet Clinic.
You do not have to belong to Facebook to access our page and see what is happening with our shelter and the cats and kittens that are up for adoption.
We also have Denise Stewart, our very own photographer who takes the pictures that appear on Facebook but who also posts pictures of the available strays in locations around town. Feel free to call the clinic as well if you would like to know what is available for adoption.
We should be so proud of our community and the generosity and compassion that everyone shows to our cause. We are the envy of the surrounding communities including Smithers and Prince George because of the generosity of our community.
This also includes the Village of Burns Lake who are very progressive in subsidizing the spaying and neutering and re-homing of their pound dogs which is not something that most municipalities do.
No one that we talk to in the vet profession or animal rescue world can believe that one small community in an economically challenged area can 'do the right thing' and look after its stray animal population like the community that we call home.
Lois Martin
Burns Lake Vet Clinic