EATON — The Humane Society of Preble County opened its doors on Sunday, Dec. 10, for the annual Pet Center Holiday Party. The event invites the community into the shelter to meet the pets and donate food and other gifts.
Not only are community members invited to the shelter for the party, but past shelter residents are welcome so the workers and potential adopters can see the success stories first hand.
According to President of the Board and Shelter Manager Leslie Renner, this is the Humane Society’s 11th year hosting the holiday party.
“This is when people are so generous and give back to the animals, bringing in toys, food, and other donations. It helps a lot,” she explained.
“It brings people in and reminds them that we’re here. A lot of people call around this time of year and they want to bring in gifts for the animals. We really appreciate that and this party gives them that opportunity. We also love to see some of our former dogs. A lot of people will bring them back for us to see, which we love.”
One such attendee was Joyce Ellis, who adopted both of her dogs from the Humane Society of Preble County and brought them to visit during the holiday party.
“We have the oldest and we got her in March, when she was about 16 weeks old. Then this year we adopted the younger one, who is about 18 weeks old now — we got her when she was eight weeks old,” Ellis said. “We saw the oldest dog through the Facebook page when we were looking for a puppy. We had great success with her as a pet, but also through the great relationship we’ve established with the Humane Society. It was logical when we were looking for a second dog to come to the same place.
“We have a great relationship with the Humane Society. They do so much for the pets and we’re glad to be able to come out and give a little something.”
Apparently a lot of people felt the same, because by the end of the day on Sunday, the shelter had gathered a mound of donations from Preble County residents that will help the nonprofit keep running throughout the holiday season and beyond.
“Attendance has been the same every year. We’re pretty steady with customers throughout the day. It is nice seeing everybody. We don’t know how many donations we’ve taken, but there has been a lot,” Renner said.
“We want people to know that we’re here and we try to help the stray, neglected, abused, and abandoned animals. We want people to remember and come down to adopt from us. We have wonderful dogs – a lot of them are just love bugs. We want people to come down and give the dogs their forever homes.”
