We’re taking a week on the blog and doing something a little different from what we usually do. This week we are pausing to share Paws With A Cause with you. To make it fun for you…and to give you something different to check out each day I will be sharing some pictures of my own pets and some of their stories here on the blog. But before  I do that, let me fill you in on Paws With A Cause.

About Paws With A Cause

Paws With A Cause® enhances the independence and quality of life for people with disabilities nationally through custom-trained Assistance Dogs.
PAWS® increases awareness of the rights and roles of Assistance Dog teams through education and advocacy. Founded in 1979, Paws With A Cause is dedicated to helping its clients who are challenged by many disabilities, such as Cerebral Palsy, Muscular Dystrophy, Seizure Disorders, and Hearing Disorders to name just some. Each of their dogs are trained to meet the specific needs of their clients. Tasks may include opening and closing doors, picking up objects, pulling a wheelchair, turning lights on and off, and alerting a person to particular sounds like a telephone, doorbell, smoke detector and many others. Trained dogs change lives by enhancing the independence of people. By just opening a door, a dog opens up the world for a person with a disability. During this blog hop the participants will be sharing their own pets and their stories about them, but they will also alerting you to the financial needs of Paws With A Cause and inviting your donation.  You can mail a donation directly to Paws With A Cause at the address below:

Paws With A Cause
4646 South Division
Wayland, MI 49348

The organizers of this blog hop have arranged a special contest for those special people who donate through the link associated with the hop. Unfortunately, in my state it’s illegal to have a drawing where people have to pay to or donate in order to enter a contest so I’m going to leave it to the other blogs to tell you how to enter the contest. You’ll find the entry information at most of the other blogs listed below.

Here on the BVS blog I will be giving away the prizes in envelopes 1-7. I’m not going to tell you what’s in the envelopes. The prizes will be a surprise. To enter the contest here on the blog simply leave me a comment telling me something about your pet or a pet you had as a child. You can also comment on my pet pictures or stories to enter. Though you don’t have to donate to enter the contest here, I do hope you’ll visit https://www.everribbon.com/PawswithaCause and donate. Be sure to check out the entry details on one of the blogs that are run from a state where it is legal to run a raffle without a special license so that your donation can qualify you for entry into the organizer’s drawing. They are giving away 2 $65 gift cards to the bookstore of your choice and a huge box of books and book swag. The book box is available only to residents of the US.

Let Me Tell You About Patch – The BVS Ambassador

Part of the fun of this blog hop is the chance to share pictures of our pets and some of their stories and to hop around and read the stories and see the pictures others have shared. I thought I’d start by telling you about one of our 19 cats. I thought I’d start with Patch because he’s become the unofficial BVS Ambassador.

Patch came to us, like most of our 19, as an abandoned kitty who’d been living on his own for quite a while. When he was on his own he didn’t present as a very nice kitty. He was all tomcat, beating up on the other cats in our colony of abandoned and feral cats, fighting with other males, bullying the females, and running away from us. He had a badly injured eye when we first saw him, but after a while it became clear the eye was not healing well. He was too wild to catch so we caught him in a live trap and hauled him to the vet where he was neutered and his bad eye removed. During his recovery period during which he had to stay inside he became quite the friendly guy, rubbing up against the cage to be petted and even purring. No longer a Tom, he also proved to be nicer to the other cats.

When we moved from Indianapolis to Iowa we moved our colony of abandoned and feral cats with us. (How we did that is a story in itself). They became indoor cats…which oddly enough they all seem to love. NONE of them try to get out or even appear to WANT outside. There is something very nice about climate controlled surroundings, regular meals, water that doesn’t freeze in the winter. None of the pleasures of fine indoor living seem to be lost on these guys.

I’ve titled Patch the unofficial BVS Ambassador because when guests come he passes himself around to be petted and fussed over. No one gets in or out without the obligatory pet.
One of the big pleasures in Patch’s life…aside from getting petted, is SLEEP. We often laugh at him because he seems to crash in the oddest places and sometimes in odd positions. I’ve been quilting more recently and Patch has discovered a real love of quilts and I’ve found it is pretty much impossible to get a picture of a quilt that Patch isn’t in.

After Patch was neutered and started being nicer to the other cats he developed a real fondness for another of the cats in the colony. We think of Jazz and Patch as the old married couple because they spend a lot of time together…sleeping…and because Patch stands up for Jazz. If another cat gets mad at Jazz and spats at her or chases her, Patch jumps into the fray and protects her. Since Patch is our largest cat and he has a reputation left over from his bad boy days the other cats pay attention when he enters an argument on Jazz’s side.

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