How You Can Help!

• DONATE HERE VIA THE SANCTUARY'S SECURE SERVER .

  
• Become a Provider
• Sponsor an Animal
• Wishlist
• Volunteer Opportunities
• Charlie's Gift
• Food Lion's Shop & Share Program

• SEARCH/SHOP using the Good Search Engine	MORE
  DONATE your CAR, RV, Truck. Boat, Motorcycles, Jet Ski's or Snowmobiles	MORE
  SHOP THE ANIMAL SHELTER STORE - up to 25% of your order amount will go to Caring For Creatures.	MORE

Please donate - Caring For Creatures is a non-profit, charitable organization. Donations are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law.

Sponsorship Program

The Caring for Creatures sanctuary is home to over 200 animals. As a non-profit organization, we support our work entirely through tax-deductible donations from individuals like yourself. Each month we must spend a minimum of \$5,000 to cover the basic expenses involved with caring for these animals: food, veterinary care, housing, litter, part-time helpers, utilities and other administrative costs. That is approximately \$50.00 per animal, per month.

A sponsor is an individual or group of individuals that is willing to financially support one or more of our animals on a monthly basis. Each sponsor receives a Sponsorship Certificate with a photograph of their "adopted" animal along with a brief resume and history about them. We also provide a Sponsorship Coupon Book and return envelopes for sending in the monthly donation. Throughout the year we provide you with regular updates on your new friend. In addition, for IRS purposes, at the end of the year you will receive copies of receipts for the total of that year's tax-deductible donations. If your sponsored animal is adopted, we select another deserving animal for you to sponsor. We also encourage our sponsors to visit the sanctuary and meet their four-legged friend in person!

Becoming a Sponsor is EASY! Click here to open a printable form.

top of page

Provider Program

A Provider is an individual who pledges to financially support one or more “staples of life” each month for the sanctuary dogs and/or cats. These “staples of life” include dog and cat food and cat litter. On average, the monthly expense just for these supplies ranges between \$2,000 - \$2,500, depending on the number of animals in residence. At CFC we choose to purchase as high a quality of food for our animals as we can. Rarely do animals arrive at the sanctuary in robust health; in fact, usually it is just the opposite. It is imperative that we provide them with nutritious meals to first restore their health, and then to maintain it. It is our experience that what we do not spend for healthy food, we will, at some point in time, spend in veterinary care.

Listed below are the “staples of life” we purchase every month along with the quantity needed and our cost for each one.

DOG FOOD (Dry) \$17.00/ 40 lb. bag 20 Bags/month needed Cost: \$340

DOG FOOD (Canned) \$14.00/case (24 cans) 15 Cases/month needed Cost: \$210

CAT FOOD (Dry) \$14.50/18 lb. bag 28 Bags/month needed Cost: \$406

CAT FOOD (Canned) \$11.00/case (12 cans) 60 Cases/month needed Cost: \$660

CAT LITTER \$5.00/30 lb. bag 100 Bags/month needed Cost: \$500

Becoming a Provider is EASY! Click here to download a printable form.

Wish List

Caring For Creatures has an ongoing need for many different types of items - this Wish List will give you an idea of the things we use on a regular basis. Any items that you are able to donate allows us to use those dollars for other expenses!

If you would like to donate one or more of the items on our Wish List, please contact:

352 Sanctuary Lane
Palmyra, VA 22963
(434) 842-2404
or E-Mail us at Mary@CaringforCreatures.com

top of page

Volunteer Jobs Listing

• Animal Care
• Grounds
• Administrative
• Fund Raising
• Volunteer Application (Printable)

Caring for Creatures is constantly growing and changing.

The following are some jobs that are available and projects that we hope to undertake. As with most non-profit organizations, we do not have the funds to hire staff to take all these projects on. That's where you, our volunteers, come in. Please look through the list and see if there is any area that you may be willing to help. Remember that we do not expect you to do it all alone. We have staff members that will help you to help us reach our goals. No matter where you live, near or far, with Internet access, we can find a volunteer job for you.

Animal Care

Water Delivery

This job is better than going to any gym,and we won't charge you to lift our weights! Hauling water buckets for 60 dogs is not an easy task, but it builds great muscles and works the heart and lungs. In the summertime, this job is done twice a day if not more, so if you can't come in the morning,you might want to consider coming in the afternoon and helping to refill buckets and swimming pools.

Dish Washing

Feeding over 200 animals generates a whole lot of dishes. Anyone willing to risk dishpan hands?

Pooper Scooping

This job naturally follows the feeding job. What goes in, must come out! This may sound like a dirty job, O.K. it is, but it can be fun too. You are always greeted enthusiastically by all the dogs, and if you throw a ball and play with them, you'll have a friend for life.

Grooming

Some of our cats and dogs are long-haired and require regular grooming, others are short-haired and just seem to get matted easily or just enjoy a good grooming. We always welcome volunteers who are willing to take the time to sit and groom the animals. Be prepared for lots of kisses and loving, though!

Walking and Exercise

Our pens are spacious, but the dogs do still enjoy walks so they may explore the fields and woods that surround them. We welcome volunteers to come walk dogs during the hours of 10-3 Mon-Sat.

Dog Training

Anyone interested in helping train dogs in order to help make them more adoptable? No experience is necessary. We'll train you to train them.

Cat Socializing

We receive a lot of feral cats or at least very shy cats that need to learn what humans are all about. If you are a real cat lover, this may be the job for you. At first it may mean just sitting in the cattery and reading a book so the cats get used to your presence prior to trying to touch them. This is definitely a job for someone with a lot of patience, but many of our cats could learn to adapt to humans if given the chance.

Manicurist Wanted

Anyone good at doing nails? O.K. maybe not pretty nail polish designs, but more in the line of clipping. Some of our dogs and cats need to keep their manicure neat and tidy.

Grounds

Yards

The coming of spring and summer also means the coming of grass. With 160 acres of land, we sure do have plenty of it. Anyone interested in hopping on that riding mower and mowing the general grounds or using the push mower and weed trimmers in the pens, please, please, please give us a call. For those of you who are more the landscaping kind of gardeners, it sure would be nice to have some flowers and things to spruce up the place, but we need someone willing to keep it up on a regular basis.

Maintenance

And we thought FORD stood for "Fix or repair daily," (no offense to you Ford owners). We sure do have an endless list of things to be fixed around here. There are tables for the dogs to jump on in every pen, many of which need fixing or rebuilding. There is everything from pen gates to dog house porches, cat scratches to cattery floors that need repair or building. Some of the jobs don't take talent, just a little brawn, such as using gravel to fill in holes dug by dogs.

Administrative

Grants

We are trying to get more grant money coming into CFC. Each grant proposal takes quite a bit of time to write and then there are all the copies to be made prior to sending them. Fortunately, we have already received a grant this year to help with the new education program. What we really want to do is try to get some operational expense grants. We've gotten a list of foundations that we might qualify for, now all we need is someone willing to take the time to get the grant applications and find out what the guidelines are. The CFC staff can write the actual proposals (unless of course there is someone willing to take that on as well) if someone will make the copies and do the actual mailings.

Coordinator for Non CFC Animals

We keep records of animals looking for homes that do not come into CFC but remain in the owner's home. These records need to be updated and follow-up calls need to be made to find out if the animals are still available. This could be a job for someone who wants to come in but only has a few times a month that they can devote. Some of the phone calls could be made from home.

Fund Raising

Fund Raiser Manager

We would like to increase the amount of fundraisers that we do each year, but we need someone willing to comeup with ideas and then spearhead them. Any takers? This person would have a brigade of volunteers to help them pull it off. Of course, we could always have a manager per fund raiser. That would work well too if you think you would like to just manage one fundraiser a year that would be considered your baby.

Fund Raiser Brigade

If you are interested in helping out at a fund raiser, but don't want to be the brains of the operation, that's great too. The more the merrier. There are always helpers needed to run booths, answer questions, or keep an eye on animals attending the fund raiser. The aftermath of every fund raiser includes letter writing and money counting if that is more up your alley.

Yard Sale Proceeds

For those of you who want to get involved but live too far away, perhaps you could hold a yard sale and advertise that the proceeds are going to CFC. Not only would this help raise money for animal care, but it would help get more recognition for Caring for Creatures.

top of page

Charlie's Gift

Charlie's Gift is a special reserve fund that is used to cover emergency medical expenses for homeless, abandoned, and/or abused animals. Providing prompt medical care to a dog or cat that has been hit by a car or otherwise injured usually involves treatment for shock, x-rays, expensive surgery to repair broken bones, reconstructive surgery, and a rehabilitation period that also includes an overall rebuilding of the animal's total state of health as a majority of these creatures are suffering from varying forms of neglect. Paying for these medical expenses can be devastating to an already stretched budget. To assist in these situations, Caring For Creatures has formed this special fund in memory of a former CFC canine-Charlie.

Charlie, a black Lab mix, was brought to CFC in March 1990 at 8 weeks of age, after being hit by a car. He was rushed to the emergency vet and diagnosed with a broken front leg. The vet had indicated that Charlie was very lucky to be alive. Several days after arriving at the sanctuary with his leg in a cast, it became evident that Charlie was also suffering from mange as well. Needless to say, Charlie was miserable.

But Charlie was a tough little puppy-his leg mended and we treated the mange. At age 7 months, Charlie was adopted. A year later he returned to CFC when his family was forced to relocate and could not take him along. Everyone at the sanctuary welcomed Charlie back with open arms. He matured into 112 pounds of pure love! Charlie's exuberance and zest for life was contagious and his sweet, smiling face brightened our days. In fact upon his return, Charlie went into training as "official greeter" at the sanctuary.

A year later Charlie began experiencing seizures. Initially we were able to control them with medication. But in the end, the seizures worsened and would not respond to increase medication. Charlie was only 3 years old when we made the difficult, but necessary decision to euthanize him.

Charlie's spirit lives on here at Caring For Creatures and in his memory we created the fund, "Charlie's Gift" - a gift of life for other animals in need of emergency care.

This special reserve fund is used only for emergency medical expenses for homeless, abandoned and/or abused animals. Our goal is to maintain a minimum balance of \$1,000 in this fund.

Funds will be used to cover costs such as: Emergency vet calls, X-rays, Surgery, Medication, Rehabilitation expenses You can be a part of Charlie's Gift by making a tax-deductible donation to this special fund. Your gift will save an animal that has no one but us to help it. Your sharing will make a difference.

To donate online, click the DONATE button BELOW!

Caring For Creatures is a non-profit, charitable organization. All donations are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law.

Food Lion's Shop & Share Program

Most likely you visit a grocery store at least one a week, and if you shop at Food Lion, you can help Caring For Creatures at the same time.

Each time you shop at Food Lion and use your MVP card, a portion of your total grocery purchase will be donated to CFC if you designate us as your charity in the Shop & Share Program.

Here's how you sign up:
Call the Food Lion Customer Relations line at (800) 210-9569 or visit the website. You will need to provide your Food Lion 12-digit MVP#, name and address, and the charity you would like to support.

Caring For Creatures has registered as one of the program's charitable organizations. Please take a few moments to register with this wonderful program. Just think, whenever you buy groceries for your family, you can help CFC buy groceries for the animals at the sanctuary. Sign up today!!

top of page