A Nanaimo woman is looking for help knitting blankets for cats and other animals at the Nanaimo B.C. SPCA shelter.
Dale Burke said she found out about Comfort For Critters, a non-profit that sees volunteers donating hand-made blankets for pets up for adoption, while reading a magazine article. Linda Kastiel Kozlowski founded the organization after adopting a cat and feeling a desire to help other pets at the shelter. It had been recommended that Kozlowski donate old towels, but she was inspired to do something a different.
“Basically, she went to the SPCA one day and these little cats were sitting in cages and they were cold and hard and she felt sorry for them, so she decided that she would knit some blankets to fit the cages…” said Burke. “So she started donating them to her local SPCA on the condition that they go home with the cat or the kitten so it has something familiar.”
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Burke said she and her sister knitted 20 of the 20-by-20-inch blankets while on a six-month road trip in 2017. She contacted Comfort for Critters, who contacted Nanaimo B.C. SPCA and had it registered to accept blankets, and when her sister returned for a visit in September, they donated the blankets. Burke wants other people to know they can do the same.
“I know there’s a lot of people that knit and I know there’s a lot of seniors’ groups that knit and they might pick it up,” she said.
And while Burke said she isn’t able to have cats due to rules at her apartment, she does have a love of felines.
“I love cats, but I’m not the crazy cat lady with 10 cats at my house … I just thought it was a good cause. I mean I like animals, so I just thought it was a good cause to help animals,” said Burke.
Knitted blankets can be dropped off at the B.C. SPCA shelter in Nanaimo at 154 Westwood Rd. Burke asks that after people donate blankets, they go to the Comfort for Critters website and fill out a form, noting how many blankets were donated.
For more information, go to www.comfortforcritters.org. Nanaimo’s SPCA branch can be contacted at 250-741-0778.
reporter@nanaimobulletin.com
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