100 Simple Ways You Can Help

1. Sponsor a pet in a  local newspaper

2. Donate a dog/cat bed or towels or other *bedding* type items (Gently used dog/cat equipment is always welcome) blanket, afghan, towel or other soft fuzzy item to use inside a crate

3. Donate Money (collect your change for a week or a month and donate that!)

4. Donate a Kong, Nylabone or Hercules

5. Donate a pet crate or baby gate

6. Donate a food dish or a stainless bucket for a crate

7. Donate a leash or collar

8. Donate some treats or a bag of food

9. Walk a dog

10. Groom a dog or cat

11. Donate some grooming supplies (shampoos, combs, brushes, etc.)

12. Make a few phone calls

13. Mail out newsletters to people who’ve requested them

14. Provide local vet clinics with contact information for educational materials on responsible pet ownership

15. Spread the word about early spay/neuter programs

16. Donate long distance calling cards

17. Donate a scanner or digital camera

18. Donate cases of blank white paper for the copy machine

19. Attend public education days to educate people on responsible pet ownership

20. Donate a gift certificate to a pet store

21. Donate a raffle item if your club is holding a fundraiser

22. Donate flea stuff such as Frontline drops

23. Donate Heartworm pills

24. Donate an animal first aid kit

25. Provide a shoulder to cry on when the rescue person is overwhelmed

26. Pay the fees to care for a dog for a week or two

27. Be a Santi-paws foster to give the foster a break for a few hours or days

28. Sponsor a cat cage or kennel run

29. Bake some homemade doggie biscuits

30. Make book purchases through Amazon via a web site that contributes commissions earned to a rescue group

31. Host rescue photos with an information link on your website

32. Donate time to take good photos of foster dogs for adoption flyers, etc.

33. Help rescue unwanted puppies and kittens and take them to the safety of the shelter

34. Go with rescue person to the vet to help if there is more than one dog or cat

35. Have a yard sale and donate the money to rescue

36. Volunteer to do rescue in your area

37. Take advantage of a promotion on the web or store offering a free ID tag and instead of getting it for your own dog, have the tag inscribed with your rescue’s name and phone # to contact

38. Talk to all your friends about adopting and fostering rescued dogs and cats

39. Donate vet services or can you help by donating a spay or neuter each year or some vaccinations

40. Interview vets to encourage them to offer discounts to rescues

41. Write a column for your local newspaper or club newsletter on dogs currently looking for homes at a shelter.

42. Encourage the local papers to advertise a pet of the week for FREE

43. Maintain web sites listing/showing dogs and cats available, other than the shelters’ own websites

44. Help organize and run fundraising events

45. Help maintain the paperwork files associated with each dog or enter the information into a database

46. Encourage the Tattooing or Microchipping of a rescued dog

47. Loan your carpet steam cleaner to someone who has fostered a dog that was sick or marked in the house

48. Donate a bottle of bleach or other cleaning products

49. Donate or loan a portable dog run to someone who doesn’t have a quarantine area for quarantining a dog that has an unknown vaccination history and has been in a shelter

50. Take a shelter dog to obedience class

51. Use your video camera to film a rescue dog in action

52. Pay the cost of taking a dog to obedience class

53. Be the one to take the dog to its obedience class

54. Go to the shelter once a week to help socialize the dog

55. Help the shelter clean up the yard

56. Offer to test the shelter dog with cats

57. Pay for the dog or cat to be groomed

58. Bring snacks and goodies for the shelter staff

59. Help paint or remodel a shelter

60. Lend your artistic talents to your shelter’s newsletter, fundraising ideas, t-shirt designs

61. Donate printer paper, envelopes and stamps

62. Have logos made up for your shelter

63. Go to local shelters and meet with shelter staff about how to identify your breed or provide photos and breed information showing the different types of that breed may come in and the different color combinations

64. Go to local businesses and solicit donations for the shelters fundraising events

65. Offer to try and help owners be better pet owners by holding a grooming seminar

66. Help pet owners be better pet owners by being available to answer training questions

67. Loan or donate a crate if a dog needs to travel

68. Put together an *Owner’s Manual* for those who adopt rescued dogs/cats of your breed

69. Provide post-adoption follow up or support

70. Donate a coupon for a free car wash or gas or inside cleaning of a vehicle

71. Pay for an ad in your local newspaper to help place rescue dogs

72. Volunteer to screen calls for that ad

73. Get some friends together to build/repair pens for a foster home

74. Microchip your own pups if you are a breeder, and register the chips, so if your dogs ever come into rescue, you can be contacted to take responsibility for your pup

75. Donate a small percentage of the sale of each pup to rescue if you are a breeder

76. Buy two of those really neat dog-items you “have to have” and donate one to the shelter

77. Make financial arrangements in your will to leave some money to the orphans at the shelter

78. Make a bequest in your will to your local or national Rescue

79. Donate your professional services as an accountant or lawyer

80. Donate other services if you run your own business

81. Donate the use of a vehicle if you own a car dealership

82. Donate money for the cell phone (and cover costs for any calls) to a rescue driver

83. Donate your *used* dog dryer when you get a new one

84. Let rescue know when you’ll be flying and that you’d be willing to be a rescued dog’s escort

85. Do something not listed above to help rescue

86. Donate a doggy seatbelt

87. Organize a rescued dog picnic or other event to reunite the rescued dogs that have been placed

88. Donate other types of doggy toys that might be safe for rescued dogs

89. Donate clickers or a video on clicker training

90. Donate materials for a quarantine area

91. Donate sheets of linoleum or other flooring materials

92. Donate an engraving machine to make ID tags for each of the rescued dogs

93. Remember that rescuing a dog involves the effort and time of many people and make yourself available on an emergency basis to do *whatever* is needed

94. Donate frequent flyer points so that rescue can fly a dog from another area to safety

95. Offer to be a rescued dog’s flight escort, especially if your work requires you to travel frequently or you work in the travel industry

96. Do something not listed above to help rescue

97. Offer to take a donation jar for the rescue and put it in your work lunchroom or on your desk

98. Offer to talk to pet stores or pet supply stores about putting a donation jar on their counter

99. Offer to give out flyers or pamphlets on the foster dogs or the rescue organization

100. Offer to give out flyers or pamphlets on the foster dogs or the rescue organization

101. Offer to talk with carpenters about building a dog house or doing work at the shelter

102. Talk to dog trainers in your area about animal rescue

103. Give the rescue a fax machine

104. Talk to dog trainers in your area about helping the rescue assess rescue dogs

105. Help the rescue by talking to pet shops about not selling dogs in their store

106. Offer to write a information package on the breed of dog or cat you are familiar with

107. Sponsor the gas, or tolls expense or both for the transport of a rescue dog ?

108. Spay or neuter your own pet

109. Donate film for taking pictures of the rescue dogs

110. Talk to people about WHY they should adopt vs. buy a pet from a pet store

111. Give your time to research how to get grants

112. Offer to assist with special needs rescue dogs (give shots, medications, special training for deaf dogs)

113. Talk to health food and naturopathic stores about donating items to canine rescue organizations