From the February 22, 2023 edition
I have been thinking quite a bit about the Southside Animal Shelter this week. There was a terrible fire at their facility last week. The fire totally destroyed a building that served several of the shelter’s needs.
I learned several feral cats enjoyed staying in that building and it was also the main storage facility for the shelter. It was one of the main hubs for both the staff, volunteers and animals on the property.
Lyn and I have a strong connection with this shelter. About 15 years ago, we adopted our dog, Stuart from them. He very quickly became a strong member of our family. He became the registered therapy dog and held that title for over 14 years. He also had a column in this newspaper where he promoted the Southside Animal Shelter.
About a year ago, we lost Stuart to old age. A couple of months later, we visited the shelter and adopted our newest family member, Simon. He is in training to also be a therapy dog. He is progressing very well.
A few hours after hearing about the fire on the morning news, Simon and I drove over to see what happened at the shelter. There was still quite a bit of fire inspection and insurance inspection going on and visitors were not allowed on the property at that time.
We did find out that the Southside Animal Shelter has a website and it also has a Facebook account. We were told that most of their supplies were destroyed in the fire. A complete up-to-date list of needed items is on the shelter’s website at (www.ssasi.org) and Facebook page. Last Friday, I got a call from Lyn while she was helping out at her favorite food pantry, Anna’s House. She explained to me that they had a couple of top opening freezers that they were not using and asked if I could contact the shelter and see if they might be able to use them. I did check with them and I believe something is going to be worked out. We are looking for a good storage location for them until their new building is constructed.
I have been following their Facebook page and the list of things they could use. I’m really impressed with the responses from folks all over central Indiana. Several businesses are collecting donations and then transporting them. I saw a beauty salon that was offering some eyebrow work and donating the proceeds to the shelter.
I saw where the shelter posted the need for an electrical thing of some sort that was needed to support animals. They said they could use two of them. I looked at the responses from people and it looks like about seven of them have been purchased and are being delivered.
It is so impressive to see how quickly and wonderfully so many families and businesses have come together to make sure all the animals and their human caretakers have the needed things to get back to shelter normal.
I even saw where some folks (both adult and kids) are having birthday parties and collecting things for the shelter.
Lyn, Simon and I are very proud of all the folks helping the shelter. Keep up the wonderful work and the shelter will pull through this tragedy and be stronger.
Last week, Lyn and I decided to go out for dinner. We decided on seafood. I am purposely not naming the restaurant because I don’t want to embarrass our waitress. We arrived and were quickly seated. Our waitress came to our table and took a drink order.
We quickly understood that our waitress enjoyed laughing and having fun while providing very good service. The menu had mostly seafood. That was cool because that was our dinner plan. Just to have fun with our waitress, I ask if there was anything on the menu that resembled a White Castle. She shook her head and said, “No”.
After she delivered our meal and had checked on us several times, we were talking about food with her when she announced that she very much disliked seafood. I was shocked and ask her why would she be working in a place that promotes seafood.
She explained that it works out very well because she never eats anything while she is working. I bet she stops at White Castle on the way home.
That is a very interesting young lady.
Shonk is a 1960 graduate of Southport High School, a ’63 grad of Indiana Central College (now the University of Indianapolis) and a retired bus driver from Beech Grove Schools. He can be reached through email at fdshonk@aol.com.
I have been thinking quite a bit about the Southside Animal Shelter this week. There was a terrible fire at their facility last week. The fire totally destroyed a building that served several of the shelter’s needs.
I learned several feral cats enjoyed staying in that building and it was also the main storage facility for the shelter. It was one of the main hubs for both the staff, volunteers and animals on the property.
Lyn and I have a strong connection with this shelter. About 15 years ago, we adopted our dog, Stuart from them. He very quickly became a strong member of our family. He became the registered therapy dog and held that title for over 14 years. He also had a column in this newspaper where he promoted the Southside Animal Shelter.
About a year ago, we lost Stuart to old age. A couple of months later, we visited the shelter and adopted our newest family member, Simon. He is in training to also be a therapy dog. He is progressing very well.
A few hours after hearing about the fire on the morning news, Simon and I drove over to see what happened at the shelter. There was still quite a bit of fire inspection and insurance inspection going on and visitors were not allowed on the property at that time.
We did find out that the Southside Animal Shelter has a website and it also has a Facebook account. We were told that most of their supplies were destroyed in the fire. A complete up-to-date list of needed items is on the shelter’s website at (www.ssasi.org) and Facebook page. Last Friday, I got a call from Lyn while she was helping out at her favorite food pantry, Anna’s House. She explained to me that they had a couple of top opening freezers that they were not using and asked if I could contact the shelter and see if they might be able to use them. I did check with them and I believe something is going to be worked out. We are looking for a good storage location for them until their new building is constructed.
I have been following their Facebook page and the list of things they could use. I’m really impressed with the responses from folks all over central Indiana. Several businesses are collecting donations and then transporting them. I saw a beauty salon that was offering some eyebrow work and donating the proceeds to the shelter.
I saw where the shelter posted the need for an electrical thing of some sort that was needed to support animals. They said they could use two of them. I looked at the responses from people and it looks like about seven of them have been purchased and are being delivered.
It is so impressive to see how quickly and wonderfully so many families and businesses have come together to make sure all the animals and their human caretakers have the needed things to get back to shelter normal.
I even saw where some folks (both adult and kids) are having birthday parties and collecting things for the shelter.
Lyn, Simon and I are very proud of all the folks helping the shelter. Keep up the wonderful work and the shelter will pull through this tragedy and be stronger.
Last week, Lyn and I decided to go out for dinner. We decided on seafood. I am purposely not naming the restaurant because I don’t want to embarrass our waitress. We arrived and were quickly seated. Our waitress came to our table and took a drink order.
We quickly understood that our waitress enjoyed laughing and having fun while providing very good service. The menu had mostly seafood. That was cool because that was our dinner plan. Just to have fun with our waitress, I ask if there was anything on the menu that resembled a White Castle. She shook her head and said, “No”.
After she delivered our meal and had checked on us several times, we were talking about food with her when she announced that she very much disliked seafood. I was shocked and ask her why would she be working in a place that promotes seafood.
She explained that it works out very well because she never eats anything while she is working. I bet she stops at White Castle on the way home.
That is a very interesting young lady.
Shonk is a 1960 graduate of Southport High School, a ’63 grad of Indiana Central College (now the University of Indianapolis) and a retired bus driver from Beech Grove Schools. He can be reached through email at fdshonk@aol.com.
RSS Feed