Gifts given to Green River pets

Pets across Green River in need of help received what their owners wanted them to thanks to community donations.

For the past few years, the Golden Hour Senior Center has participated in the Care For Critters program. This program encourages residents to help seniors and homebound residents by donating pet food, toys, beds and anything else a pet might need.

Irish Kreis, GHSC activities and marketing coordinator, said this year they filled 77 tags with pet requests and all of those requests were granted.

"It was less (people) than last year," Kreis said. "We helped 24 dogs and 13 cats."

They also spent a total of $1,569 on veterinary bills for dogs and cats. Some of the items covered by these donations were vaccinations, teeth cleanings and anything else a pet might need.

"We had a lot of support from the community," she said.

Kreis said when she called the seniors to tell them their pet's veterinary bills would be covered, some of them started to cry. They just had such relief knowing their animals would be taken care of.

"Most of these people live alone and are on a limited income," she said.

According to Kreis, these residents will often go without their own medication in order to purchase food or medication for their pets.

Making the delivery

With all of the pet items placed in boxes, volunteers were quickly coming in to pick them up and make the deliveries. Each area had the volunteer's name and a sheet with a list of items. This list also showed which items needed to be delivered to each resident.

Kendra Gibson and her daughter, Kaelea, said when they dropped off the boxes of goodies, they knew the dogs were excited because they were jumping up and down and licking their faces.

"The residents were very grateful," Kendra said.

She usually delivers some of these same residents home-delivered meals and knew what a difference this would make.

Kaelea said some of the items they delivered included dog food, toys and treats.