Spring is upon us, which is always a time of unwanted litters of kittens and puppies. Northside Pet Connection works hard all year to try to reverse this trend by encouraging pet owners to have their dogs and cats neutered or spayed, with little or no cost to the particular owner. Although we hope that you have heard this message before, it does bear repeating.

To arrange to receive a voucher which you take to a local veterinarian, call (209) 732-6194 and leave your contact information. You will then be called by our voucher coordinator, Kathleen, and she will explain the details. The voucher that will be mailed to you will entitle you to free or low-cost spay/neuter for your pet. We now have 30 vouchers to give out each month, an increase from 8 we had a year or so ago, thanks to the generosity of donors.

We have a record of rarely missing a monthly meeting, but we had to cancel our March meeting on the 7th because of illness. Unfortunately, there is no way to get the word out to the community that we are not holding our usual first Monday of the month meeting. We apologize for any inconvenience in case anyone tried to attend the meeting.

We have all along encouraged community members to come to our meetings to learn about our activities and to share their ideas about how we might improve the way we implement our mission, or perhaps expand our mission. We meet at 5 p.m. on the first Monday of every month, at the Coulterville Community Hall, corner of Broadway and Cemetery. For information, call Carmel at (209) 878-3134.

Because of our cancelation of the March meeting, we were unable to formally appoint a new secretary, to round out our 5-member Board of Directors. We are very happy to announce that Kristen Elgen has agreed to serve, and we plan to act to appoint her at our April meeting. Kristen’s family has a history of involvement with NPC, and we are certainly happy to welcome their return.

March is pet poison prevention month, and although you will probably not read this until the April edition of this newspaper, it is nevertheless a very important issue year ‘round. You may wish to take note of the Pet Poison Helpline: 800-213-6680.

Thanks for your support of Northside Pet Connection.

More information can be found on our website: npconnections.org. 

Article by Tom Grave, NPC Vice-President