Every volunteer or staff member at the New Hampshire SPCA has heard the common refrain, “I could never work at the shelter, it’s too depressing.” Yes, sometimes our faith in humanity is challenged– especially when it involves the victims of cruelty and neglect. But that faith is restored by the support, love and caring from our community. You are the reason that there are many more happy days than sad days here.

Thanks to you, we witness joyful moments like these every day…

Last week, we posted on Facebook about an elderly black lab with terminal cancer in need of a hospice home. In all honesty, we thought it would be a real long shot to find her a family willing to take that on emotionally and financially, but we wanted to do our best for her anyway.
We are continually amazed by the goodness in our community. When we ask for help, you all step forward again and again. Bailey’s post was shared a lot and it took just hours before she was pending adoption.

The animals are truly blessed to live among such kind and generous souls.

We are a safety net for animals in this community and without the New Hampshire SPCA lost animals would have no place to go. One of the best feelings is when we are able to reunite a stray animal with their family. Just recently, we were able to help Church, a big handsome cat, get back to his very worried family. This picture, taken just before they left our parking lot—says it all.

We received this love note from his relieved family:

“Wanted to take a moment to again thank everyone for taking such great care of our cat, Church, when he was taken into the NHSPCA a few weeks back. We are forever grateful to have our Church boy back at home.  Here is a picture of Church and one of his brothers (my son, Joel) reuniting in our car before leaving the NHSPCA parking lot. He snuggled his boys the whole ride home! Church usually hates being in the car and meows the entire time- I never heard a peep from him on that ride home. I think he was also happy to be with his family again. Thank you NHSPCA. ”

If you ever find yourself thinking that an animal shelter is a depressing place, please look again at those smiling faces and joyful animals.  Take comfort in knowing that the happy moments far outnumber the sad, and it’s your kindness and support that makes it all possible!