Rescue News

April 2006

Celebrating 2 Years & More Than 400 Second Chances!

This month marks our second anniversary! Thanks to the help of our adopters, supporters, and foster homes, we've been able to give more than 400 guinea pigs second chances at happy homes, work with shelters and rescues along the upper East Coast to raise awareness about small animal neglect and abandonment, expand our online presence, substantially increase our visibility in the community, work with our veterinarians to save lives that would otherwise have been lost, and so much more.

We have many new plans for the coming year, which we'll be announcing here on the site soon. To accomplish them all, though, we need your help and donations. Working together, we can all continue to make a difference in more little lives!

The Critter Connection Visits The Zoo

For the first time, we participated in the annual Pet Awareness Day at the Beardsley Zoo in Bridgeport, CT. April 15 turned out to be a beautiful warm and sunny day, absolutely perfect for being outside, watching kids with painted faces visit with the adoptable animals brought to the event, and talking to folks about animal rescue and adoption. It was a busy few hours as we chatted with potential adopters and people who just wanted to know more about what we do. By the end of the event, we were nearly out of flyers and completely out of brochures after people offered to hang them on bulletin boards at their churches, offices, and favorite hangouts. Once again, previous adopters came out to see us as well as to visit and support the zoo.

Thank you to everyone who stopped by and offered to help spread the word about The Critter Connection!

Adoption Event At Petco In South Attleboro

On April 9, The Critter Connection headed up to Petco in South Attleboro, MA, to participate in a weekend adoption event that they were sponsoring. A little off the beaten track from our normal area, we and a local rabbit rescue that also participated in the event were able to do our parts to raise peoples' awareness of small animal abandonment in the Northeast.

May 2006

Rescue Receives Federal Non-Profit Status

The Critter Connection, Inc. received word from the IRS that our application for 501(c)(3) status has been approved. While expanding the range of options for financial support that we can receive, this new status also means that contributions made to us are deductible on your federal taxes. Putting an application together for 501(c)(3) status requires an extraordinary amount of work, and could have been even more so had it not been for the help and support of Christopher William Hoyt, Esq., of The Hoyt Law Group, LLC. We and the animals we save — now and in the future — extend him our deepest gratitude.

Introducing...Pig Notes

In response to so many of you who have requested that we find a way to share more of our stories, experiences, and knowledge, The Critter Connection has just launched its blog — Pig Notes. It's our way of creating a new online community with our adopters, donors, volunteers and foster homes, and anyone else who wants to drop in for a visit. Use the Comments link at the bottom of each blog entry to post a public reply, or use the e-mail link on the left side of the page to drop us a private note. The blog will be updated weekly, so visit frequently and comment often!

Find Us On Squidoo

We've expanded our online presence to Squidoo, a new venture that lets people create dynamic pages of links, resources, and more on topics on which they're experts...or simply passionate. It's a cool community, where you can find pages (called "lenses") on everything from starting a home-owned business to programming in Java to finding the perfect tea.

We've started two lenses: Guinea Pigs 101 and How To Spoil Your Guinea Pig. While these pages contain lots of information out of the gate, they're just a start — Squidoo lenses get updated often so visit frequently!

Squidoo lenses are ranked by visitors. To ensure votes are unique (and not artificially driven up), you must use the Sign Up link to obtain a free membership. Membership lets you log in and rank the lenses you visit in the community (there's some cool stuff up there), create a bookmark list for your favorites, and build your own lens if you decide to translate your expertise, passion, or hobby onto the cyber-page.

IGive.com Added To Our Fundraising Mix

The Critter Connection is now on the list of charities at IGive.com, a philanthropic-oriented Web site that helps online shopping dollars go even further.

How it works: When you sign up for a free IGive membership and specify us as your charity, a percentage of your purchase (as much as 25%, depending on the retailer you shop through) will be donated to The Critter Connection, Inc. IGive works with more than 600 online retailers, including Barnes & Noble, Discovery Channel Store, Eddie Bauer, Franklin Covey, Gap, History Channel, Home Depot, Land's End, Overstock.com, PETCO, PETsMART, Staples, and Target. Visit the IGive site for more information.

Remember: Every little bit donated helps the piggies!

June 2006

Open House In Farmington

On Saturday, June 17, The Critter Connection participated in an open house at Advanced Veterinary Care in Farmington, Connecticut. The event gave us a chance to talk with a lot of adults and children about guinea pig rescue and adoption, and we met many caring, compassionate, animal-loving people during our time there.

We were also able to meet up with a variety of other animal rescues operating in the state, including: House Rabbit Connection, the Ferret Association of Connecticut, Inc. (F.A.C.T.), and Lazicki's Bird House & Rescue, Inc. While it was heartwarming to connect with people who are as committed to rescuing ferrets, exotic birds, and rabbits as we are to guinea pigs, it was also heartbreaking to hear their stories of abandoned, neglected, and abused birds and small animals — underscoring, once again, that cruelty is not limited to just a few species.