This week is Be Kind to Animals Week as well as Food Drive for Homeless Animals Week. I realize that crafts won’t feed the animals, but by making some things for them, you could make life just a bit better for some of the animals in your local shelter. Please be certain to check out your local shelter’s website to see what they might have on their wish lists. My Girl Scout troop decided they wanted to help one of our shelters and here’s what we did. Be certain to check with your local shelter to see if they accept the same things that this shelter would.

First, the shelter asked for fleece blankets for the dogs. I stopped by our local fabric store and bought some really cute remnants. The girls helped to cut two pieces of fabric the same size. Next, they cut around the edges, each cut being about six inches long and about one inch wide. Next, they tied the fabric pieces together. The blankets weren’t full sized, but they are big enough for a dog to be able to enjoy some comfort. We were able to make about three of them in about 2 hours. Not bad for a group of nine year olds!

The next thing they made were “cat calming toys”. The shelter’s website gave directions for these. The calming toys were simply regular washcloths with a small amount of fiberfill put into the middle of the washcloth and secured with a rubber hair tie. It looks like a washcloth ghost. The shelter takes these, sprays them with a solution and hangs them in the cats’ cages. The girls managed to make about thirty of these in pretty short order. I simply purchased a large package of inexpensive washcloths in some nice colors. I was able to get a package of the hair ties at a dollar store, and had plenty of ties left to let the girls take home with them.

We did not have much of the fleece left or we would have made some braided toys for the dogs. Again, our local shelter suggested making these from some old bath towels. We did not have those handy. All you would need to do is cut strips from the bath towels, braid three strips together and knot both ends. This is something very simple, but a good way to teach the skill of braiding.

Since we were making these as part of a camping trip, we thought about making homemade dog biscuits and cat treats. Unfortunately, we did not have the time to do that. Again, our local shelter posted recipes on their website that were pretty easy to make. This will probably be something we do at a future meeting since the girls love to cook.

Please stop by the forum to share some ideas you may have to help your local shelter. Have you made any food dishes, dog biscuits or cat treats? Our local shelter also said they would be willing to accept crafts made by my troop, or anyone, to sell at their bake sales and in their store. My troop hasn’t done this yet, but they are trying to come up with some ideas on what to do. If they come up with something, I’ll be sure to post it in the forum Thanks for sharing your ideas!