Above: Volunteers with SOAR and an adoption from this past spring’s first ever Homeless Pets and Combat Vets adoption event.
Palm Desert, CA – A small group of women and friends return to the Coachella Valley Animal Campus on Thursday (Dec. 7) with gifts and holiday songs for the homeless pets.
The annual tradition is the work a Palm Desert-based, nonprofit organization called Society’s OutKasts Animal Rescue, or SOAR.
“We feel it’s important to make all the dogs and cats that end up in the shelter feel loved by the
community,” said Janeen Bahr of SOAR.
Her friend, Katie Burd, of Palm Springs, handles the keyboard playing and caroling to the shelter’s pets.
This year, Ms. Burd will be joined by Carol Kamenis of Rancho Mirage with additional singing. The fun
starts at about 1 p.m. at the shelter, located at 72-050 Pet Land Place, Thousand Palms.
SOAR’s efforts don’t just include the holiday songs. The organization’s volunteers bring fresh blankets for all the dogs. The blankets have been donated by their friends throughout the Coachella Valley. Also, SOAR is also funding an $8,500 agility play yard at the Coachella Valley Animal Campus. That project should be completed sometime in 2018.
“We feel for all the pets, especially the ones that have been purposely abandoned,” Bahr said. “Ending up at the local animal shelter is not the worst thing that can happen to them – but it’s not the place to be at
Christmas.”
Animal Services Director Robert Miller said the efforts by the members of SOAR provide a huge morale
boost for the shelter workers.
“Janeen and her friends truly make our employees feel loved by the community,” Miller said. “And the efforts they put forth for the pets is a great illustration of our community members showing how much they care about homeless pets. They’re raising so much great awareness about these animals that definitely do deserve to be in a real home by Christmas.”
Learn more about SOAR here: http://soaranimalrescue.com/2015/08/soars-partners/
