Pig Notes

Online Fundraiser

Got a magazine you need to renew soon? Giving someone a gift subscription for Christmas? Looking to add a couple of new additions to your professional reading list as last-minute business expenses to claim on your 2007 taxes? Got a hobby that needs support?

Before you send in that subscription card, or order online, check out the online fundraiser that Joanne Colangelo has set up for the rescue. There are more than 650 publications to choose from, so you're bound to find what you're looking for. The best part? 40% of every purchase will go to the rescue. Anyone can participate, so please pass the link on to friends and family that you think would be interested.

Thanks for the help and hard work, Joanne! I'm off to renew my beading magazine.

A New Way To Shop & Support The Rescue

We get asked a lot about what to buy for guinea pigs in terms of routine care and extra indulgences.

To help people out, we've put together an Amazon aStore that features some of our picks for food, hay, cage accessories, care guides, and toys and treats. We've also included kids' storybooks that feature guinea pigs (without perpetuating misinformation) and some neat little toys, including the Playmobil Guinea Pig playset (pictured here).

A percentage of each purchase initiated through our aStore goes to the rescue, providing much-needed funds for general daily care of the rescue pigs.

Please visit often. We'll be updating the store as more of our favorite products and brands become available in the Amazon Marketplace.

The Rescue Is Full & Needs Your Help!

It's with some mixed feelings that we announce that the rescue is presently full and unable to take in any more guinea pigs until further notice. On the one hand, we're happy to have been able to help so many pigs in need. On the other hand, we worry about the pigs that we can't help until adoptions help restore some space at our facility.

We're asking owners who need to surrender their guinea pigs to check out some of the guinea-pig-friendly Web sites where they can post their own photos and adoption notices. A list of these sites can be found on our Guinea Pigs 101 lens on Squidoo, just look under the heading "The Adoption Option". When we once again have room, we will post an update here, on our main Web site, and on our Petfinder page. In the meantime, we appreciate your understanding.

We will honor contractual promises with Critter Connection adopters in the event that they need to return the guinea pigs they adopted from our care.

The critters need more than your understanding, though. Summertime is a tough time of year: slow adoption rate, slow donation rate, slow recruiting time for new volunteers. This year is no different, and the slow economy in Connecticut has made for leaner times than usual. Additionally, several neglect cases that we took in this spring and summer required extensive medical care (surgeries, antiobiotics, follow-up visits, special diets), and recent emergency surgeries for two boys in our sanctuary program depleted our...well...our emergency reserves.

How can you help?

• Send a donation to The Critter Connection Inc., P.O. Box 371, Durham, CT 06422.
• Drop a donation through the PayPal button on our Web site.
• Start your online purchases through IGive, where a percentage of every purchase will be donated to the rescue at no additional cost to you. With nearly 700 stores in the IGive network, any shopping from DVDs to office supplies to business card printing to school clothes to holiday shopping can help support the rescue. If you don't already have an IGive membership, click here to sign up for your free account.
• Promote guinea pig adoption to family members, friends, and colleagues who are considering bringing a guinea pig or two into their homes.
• Leverage any company matching that may be offered at your job for charitable donations that you make into the community.

No donation is too small to make a big difference. The critters thank you, in advance, for your support and generosity!