Start your sewing adventure with us.    Join Seamwork

Articles on this site were all published prior to 2017 and this site is no longer updated. Please visit our current Articles, Patterns, and Classes for the most up-to-date content and products.

Let’s save some pets!

My friend Mari emailed me this morning with a picture of this beautiful little gal above. Penny is 9 months old and was sentenced to be killed this morning at an overcrowded shelter. The reason? She has a fractured tail.

As you may know, when animals are taken to a shelter in most cities, they are often killed in a matter of days. Even if an animal is otherwise adoptable, any medical problem, no matter how treatable, can land a cat or dog on death row. The problem is that it is very difficult to get an animal adopted if he or she needs vet care.

Luckily for Penny, Mari found out about her and was able to work with a local rescue to pull Penny from the shelter. Penny is on her way to the vet, and then into Mari’s loving home!

Rescues provide a vital link between animals in need and the people that can love and care for them. They don’t just find homes for these little guys. They literally save innocent lives.

That is why I am so happy to tell you about our newest charity partner here at Colette Patterns: The Pixie Project!

The Pixie Project is a local nonprofit organization that works to remove animals from shelters where they are at risk, get them the vet care they need, and then find homes for them. They also have a spay and neuter program, but their biggest expense is vet care. In the words of Amy from The Pixie Project:

“Vet care is BY FAR our largest expense and especially because we take a good amount of older doggies and kitties from the shelter. We have no trouble adopting them out but they often need dentals etc, which is why they are not adoptable through the shelter and may be up for euthanasia. They are so strapped for resources and really rely on the help of rescues like ours.”

We are proud to be donating a portion of our profits to The Pixie Project. I am also planning a few ideas to help support this great cause even further, so keep an eye out!

Here are some of the wonderful animals currently up for adoption from The Pixie Project:


Crumbles, who looks like Colette!


May Belle


Spice


Blaze

Sarai Mitnick

Founder

Sarai started Colette back in 2009. She believes the primary role of a business should be to help people. She loves good books, sewing with wool, her charming cats, working in her garden, and eating salsa.

Comments

mari

July 7, 2011 #

OMG. Crumbles looks just like Shadow, my mom’s cat that died earlier this year. Fluffy, black and chocolately brown… and what a sweet boy, he deserves a loving home.

And YAY! for you for being so charitable.

Sarai

July 7, 2011 #

Yes, she does look like pictures I’ve seen of Shadow! Crumbles sounds incredibly sweet from her description. I just want to take all of them home!

Amanda

July 7, 2011 #

That’s a great cause! The first one looks just like my sister’s cat, Silvie. Just today I told my mom I wanted to make catnip toys out of scrap fabric for our local cat adoption place.

Sarai

July 7, 2011 #

Heh, it must be a common look for black cats.

Jenelle

July 7, 2011 #

Thanks for sharing this with us! I couldn’t love your patterns more, but now to know that they support such a worthy cause is so amazing.

Sarai

July 7, 2011 #

Wow, thanks Jenelle.

Bethany

July 8, 2011 #

As someone who works at a shelter, please please please make those catnip toys. Not only do they help make life more fun for the cats in the shelter but someone (I think ASPCA?) did a study and found that just having a toy in a cat’s cage improved their chances for a quick adoption. We always try to keep a few different toys in each cage but of course they knock them out or cover them in food so more are Always needed.

Sharonnz

July 7, 2011 #

Awwwww…our old cat was named Pixie (after The Pixies;-)).

Sarai

July 7, 2011 #

That’s so cute. I love The Pixies. Come to think of it, Francis would be a good name for a black cat, in keeping with the Pixies theme.

Lisa

July 7, 2011 #

What a wonderful cause! It gives me another reason to love Colette Patterns. We got our Dachshund from a Rescue earlier this year.

Sarai

July 8, 2011 #

Yay, I love love love dachshunds! Such sweet, silly little guys.

Christine

July 7, 2011 #

all 3 of my rescue kitties thank you for being so kind to these adorable pets!!!

Sarai

July 8, 2011 #

Aw, that’s great! Basil and Colette didn’t come from a rescue, but they were strays, born to a feral mother in our backyard in LA.

Christine

July 8, 2011 #

I think that counts as a rescue situation :)
Well done!

Dorien

July 8, 2011 #

I’m a sucker for cats , so everytime I start a new colette-project and read “we support animal welfare”, my heart make a little jump. Yay for you!

Sarai

July 8, 2011 #

Ha, that’s awesome! Everyone that works here is insane for cats. I swear I don’t make “cat person” a screening criteria for working here, but it seems to have worked out that way.

Bethany

July 8, 2011 #

Thank you so much for posting this. Summer is a really rough time in animal shelters so seeing someone call attention to the need for adoption and a rescue that specializes in adults makes me really grateful. I used to foster senior cats and there was something special about a 14 or 15 year old getting adopted because he’d had a chance to calm down in foster care outside the shelter.

I do adoption outreach in DC and this has inspired me to turn my attention to some of the small, local sewing groups in the area to see if they’ll assist with spreading the word, even without giving us funds!

Sarai

July 8, 2011 #

That is great, Bethany. Please let me know if there is anything I can do to help.

Lauren

July 8, 2011 #

aw, sweet kitties! i would love to adopt or even foster more cats that need homes (i always feel bad for the older ones since they are often overlooked in favor of kittens) but my cat is a one-cat-household kinda cat. so i try to help in other ways! i love knowing that y’all donate a portion of your proceeds to animals :) can’t wait to see what else you have planned!

Sarai

July 8, 2011 #

I think my cats might be fine with an adult, but would probably hate having a kitten around. Basil is very jealous of kittens! Many times, I think adopting an adult makes much more sense.

Cathe

July 8, 2011 #

Thank you for having a big and kind heart for our dear four legged friends. And my three pups, Coops, Tag and Stella thank you too. They are all from our local shelter. They are awesome companions that are loved dearly!

Paula

July 8, 2011 #

I love Crumbles AND MayBelle! I would adopt both if we didn’t live in Kansas. All 3 of our current kitties are-in one form or another-rescue kitties. Thank you so much to Colette Patterns for doing this!

Paula

July 8, 2011 #

Oops, I meant Spice-I just love her look!

Barclay

July 9, 2011 #

Thanks for this post. I can’t adopt any more cats – we already have two – but I can donate to them to help defray the vet costs. It kills me to think of animals in need or pain and I’m glad there’s at least something I can do.

Emma

July 10, 2011 #

This is wonderful! I have been thinking about adopting a ca r, and if I was in your area, I would check out The Pixie Project1

Christina

July 11, 2011 #

What a wonderful charity to support. They sound like they have big hearts indeed. :)

Gayle Mann

August 16, 2011 #

Thank you all for help in saving these animals. It’s so good to know you are there
thinking of other things important in the world showing this kindness. Not only do I enjoy everything about Colette you do, I truly respect you all as real caring people!

Tracey Wirth

November 24, 2011 #

You guys are an inspiration, that IS what it is all about!!
xoxo
Happy Thanksgiving!