Pet Talk

    I love public suppers, raffles, bake sales, and the like. It’s a great way for an organization to raise money and for the folks who support those organizations or causes to have a little fun, potentially win a little prize (or big prize) or have a great meal. This past weekend we attended the spaghetti supper for Greater Houlton Christian Academy and every time I attend an event like this I get goose bumps because so many wonderful people come out to cook and clean up, wait tables, and just sit and enjoy a great meal. It’s one of the million things I love about living in Aroostook County, and especially the greater Houlton area. We sometimes forget how fortunate we are to live in an area where there are no strangers, only friends we haven’t met yet, and where all our friends come together to help those in need.
    Coming up this weekend, Feb. 19, the Houlton Humane Society is going to have a fundraiser. We will be located at Shiretown Video and Variety on Market Square and I want to thank the owners for allowing us to invade their space. We will be selling most everything you need for a traditional Maine Saturday night supper, home made baked beans, chili, potato salad, rolls, and desserts. I’m not trying to embarrass anybody, but our bean bakers are the best, in fact my father so loves Cara’s beans that he’s already put in an order for several containers, so you’ll want to get to the Shiretown early to make sure you get your beans. And Wendy’s potato salad is famous all over Houlton, not to mention Courtney’s beans and then there’s my famous chili.  Ok, I won’t go down in history for having the best chili, but it’s not bad, honest!
Contributed photo
TO BE RAFFLED — Houlton Humane Society is selling raffle tickets on a brand new ice shack, 4×6 in size, frame construction, metal siding, two fold down benches and a table, four windows, with retail value $695. Only 100 tickets will be sold at $10 each. For more information, see the shelter’s website at www.houltonhumanesociety.org or call 532-2345. The drawing will be held Saturday, Feb. 19.
    We will be setting up at 11:30 am so if you are contributing any items for the sale, could you either call the shelter at 532-2862 and let them know if your item needs to be picked up, or drop your food off at 11:30. Pre-packaged would be good. The sale starts at noon and ends at 3 p.m. This should give you time in between all the other Moosestompers activities to run down and pick up your supper.
    This promises to be an awesome weekend, a lot to do around town, and then when you’re all tired from being outdoors all day, you won’t even have to cook, just go home and warm up your beans and/or chili, smear some Houlton Farms Dairy butter on your home made rolls or bread, dish out a scoop of potato salad and sit back and enjoy.
    Also, this week, and just this week, we are selling tickets for a great item – this is a 4×6 building constructed by Cedar Ideas in Oakfield. It was made to be an ice shack but has many uses. The building has metal siding, a metal roof, is virtually maintenance free, and inside has two benches, a fold down table and two holes in the floor for ice fishing. We are only selling 100 tickets so your chances of winning are huge.  The tickets are $10 each. I’ve already bought several tickets because I need a storage shed at camp to put my life jackets, boat paddles, rakes and shovels and other items. All I need to do to convert this to a shed is put a piece of plywood on the floor to cover the ice fishing holes and I’m good to go. Others might wish to purchase a ticket and hope to win this building as a play house for your children.
    Just think of the potential, you could finish off the inside, hang some curtains, put little shutters on the windows and make it sweet and adorable for your little girl and all her friends or you could butch it up a little and make it a great place for your boys to hang out. I can picture it now, a big sign on the outside saying “no girls allows” and the boys inside solving the problems of the world. Oh, wait, that’s how the big boys will use it as an ice shack! But the little boys could fold the table down and do all their clay models in there, or have a sand table where the rain won’t get the sand wet, and run their trucks in the sand and build great piles. 
    You can tell I’m a kid at heart; I would have loved something like this when I was little. This is a very exciting raffle for us as you rarely see an ice shack, tool shed, play house raffle, and we are very grateful to Cedar Ideas for helping us with this raffle. This item has a $695 retail value and you can purchase tickets Saturday until 3 pm at which time we will be drawing the winner. 
    Up until Saturday you may purchase tickets in several ways.  Stop by the animal shelter or the Varney Agency for tickets, email me at houltonanimal shelter@gmail.com to reserve your ticket and then just mail your check, visit Houlton Humane Society on Facebook and reserve a ticket there by simply posting a comment with your name and telephone number and note that you’d like a ticket.
    Maybe you have absolutely no use for a shed, play house or ice shack but you know someone who does.  If you would go on Facebook and share our post about this raffle with your friends, that is also very helpful. I have sold a bunch of tickets simply by sharing the information with friends via email!
    All of this money goes to help the animals. It pays the Vet bills, for cat litter, food and shelter.  We are so excited that our adoption rate is way up, but every day more animals come in than go home, the need is great, and your help and friendship are greatly appreciated!  See you Saturday!