Thursday, May 29, 2008

Iowa City, Part I

Over Memorial Day weekend, we went to Iowa City, IA - basically for the sole purpose of eating at a few of the places my husband loved from college. So, I could go on and on about how wonderful those places were (and I will), but before I do that, I'm going to write about something completely non-food-related: a pet store. Odd choice, I know, but you'd understand if you had any inkling how much I love my cats.

We were walking around the area near the university and came across a store that had some cats playing in the window. They were cute, so I had to go in. On the way in, I noticed a "stop puppy mills" sign. I was intrigued, but admittedly a little confused why a pet store would be anti-puppy mill. Turns out, this was definitely not your traditional pet store.

This place rescues animals from kill shelters and other bad situations, and people can bring in abandoned animals or those found in parking lots, dumpsters, etc. It takes care of them, nurses them back to health (if necesssary) and puts them up for adoption. It appeared that they focus on cats, dogs, and rabbits, though I wouldn't be surprised if that's just what they had recently rescued. I mostly went around and played with the cats. They all had spacious living areas, toys, and a companion or two.

They had pictures of every animal they've adopted out, with its new owner, lining the walls - I think the number was over 1200, and the store has only been open a couple years. I wish I could've taken a couple home with me to make room for them to take in more animals. I encourage all of you to support places like this in your area and consider adopting pets - they improve your life in more ways than you can imagine.

2 comments:

annie said...

That sounds like an awesome pet store!! I would love to find a place like that.

Jen said...

That's really cool. Even better to hear that it's in the land of my beloved Hawkeyes. Very cool. :)