Planning Skyla's Birthday Bash

Today my mother said the words that always damn me: "Want to stop in the Humane Society?"

Understand that I NEVER go in. Not ever. Because it breaks my heart. Every. Single. Time. Mum will go in once a week and not come home with anything; I turn into a sobbing wreck and can't function for the next several days. I'm cursed with the desire to take home *everything* in sight and love and care for them forever. That isn't remotely feasible, of course, so I find it's better to avoid the cute cuddly things as much as possible.

Well, I caved. I went in. I visited the cats first and their little claws tore into my chest and pulled out my heart because most rushed to the bars of their cages and wanted attention. I made the rounds twice, petting all who came to the door to see me, and barely made it out without tearing up. Then I saw the dogs and any remaining bits of my heart were ripped out by those sad, sad eyes and tentative wagging of tails. And I should never be allowed to look at hound dogs; one look and everything goes slow mo with those huge eyes gazing up at me, and I can all but hear the sad music playing in the background with Sarah Maclachlan's voice over asking me to give a monthly gift that's less than a daily cup of coffee.

I didn't come home with anything, but I barely got out the door before I was crying. And you know, I'm really sick of feeling terrible all the time. Whenever I have a spare few bucks in my PayPal account, I donate to various shelters, but it never feels like enough.

My birthday is coming up. I have made two decisions.

1. I'm adopting another cat. I have two that are older and I'd like a younger adult cat. I'm not a rich person, but honestly, I can afford to feed another tiny mouth and I live in a larger apartment now, so I think it's a good decision. And I know what type of cat would work best in our household, so I'm finding out what shelters will let me bring Sophie in with me to help me choose (since it would be her cat too). Decided this, though: NO KITTENS.

2. I'm having an online birthday party on September 21. It will involve AWESOME prizes. But you have to do something to get an awesome prize, and that something is...donate to your local shelter.

I'm fuzzy on the details at the moment, but I'm thinking a) you can donate via PayPal or whatever and show me your receipt, b) you can drop off food/blankets/etc and take a picture of you at the shelter handing off the goods, or c)...I just came up with this and haven't gotten much further. If you have any ideas, let me know. BUT essentially, you do something good and your name goes in for lots of prizes. What prizes? Haven't decided yet.

And here's where I could use some help.

Do you love animals? Do you love me? You can play along too.

If you would like to donate some swag as prizes, drop me an email (skyladawncameron [at] gmail [dot] com). The fact is, I know awesome writer peeps who write awesome books. If any of you want to join in Skyla's Birthday Bash and throw in a prize, I will love you always. Signed book? Amazon gift certificate? A brand new washer and dryer? S'all cool with me.

I'll work out the details in the coming week and update with a prize list. My birthday is less than two weeks away so I have to pull this off real quick, but I've done crazier things.

Anyone who wants to get involved, email me and we'll talk. Permission granted to forward and spread the word--I want to make this the bestest birthday ever.

UPDATE: Swag list and other stuff here http://skyladawncameron.com/birthdaybash

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*ETA: Other thoughts I had...the day of, blog your adoption story (ie. if you've adopted from a shelter before, tell the story of you and your beloved furbaby). RTing and posting on Facebook can be done too, but it seems, to me, that it's SO easy these days to just join a group or RT a link and feel like "Well, I've done something." It's a lot harder to put our money where our mouths are, so to speak, and that's what I'd like people to do. Take a moment to find your local shelter and give them something--it doesn't have to be money, it doesn't have to be costly. But most have wishlists including basic things like blankets, kitty litter, food...head to the grocery store and drop $5 on a couple tins of food and donate that. Every little thing counts.

My birthday's usually involve something bad happening and this one may be no exception; I may be setting myself up to be sorely disappointed. But, you know, I know AWESOME people. I know people who jumped in last December on Twitter to Save Skyla From Starving. So let's save some more lives and help the helpless for awhile. You'll feel good about it, I promise. :-)