Navan Animal Rescue

Amanda with four-week-old puppies.

Michelle lost her home in a fire a couple years back and is rebuilding. Throughout the process, she has remained dedicated to running the Navan Animal Rescue, which is critical to the region.

Heather and Balou

Navan is just a few minutes east of Ottawa and the rescue operation takes in mostly small dogs. There is a fabulous group of volunteers that support the shelter activities, including dog walking, clean-up and so much more.

I went out to the shelter with a group of friends one Saturday to help out. We spent the day cleaning up the yard, tarping a roof, tiling a floor and organizing a storage area.

It wasn’t all work. Playing with the four-week old puppies and their sweet mother, Star, put grins on our faces. Balou, the Bernese mountain dog mix, spent the day outside with us and collapsed at our feet for snuggles whenever he got a chance. Pumpkin danced on her back paws when we walked past her enclosure.

They were such good dogs and we wondered who possibly could have given them all up. We wanted to take them all home.

Newly tiled floor in a room to shelter rescued dogs waiting for adoption.

Do you volunteer? There are so many ways you can help in and around Ottawa. Volunteer Ottawa has a website and really helpful staff that can meet with you to help figure out which volunteer opportunity is right for you.

900 christmas trees will arrive in Ottawa, fresh from Nova Scotia, on Saturday, December 3. They are sold as part of the Royal Ottawa Mental Health Centre annual Christmas tree sale, all in support of client care. Consider volunteering on truck unloading day (that’s December 3) as I’ve done for years, or volunteering to do a few shifts to sell trees up until Christmas.