3 Books That Benefit Shelter Animals

It's pretty obvious that here at Mochas, Mysteries and Meows life revolves around cats and books. What excites us more than anything is when portions of a book's proceeds go towards helping shelter animals, and today we're profiling 3 new books that do exactly that!

Rescued: The Stories of 12 Cats, Through Their Eyes is a project that we've been following for quite awhile now. When the call came out for submissions, I briefly entertained the idea of writing Tara's story, but ended up being a bit intimidated by the amazing writers in the cat community and decided I just wasn't ready yet.

This book of real life rescue cat stories was compiled by Janiss Garza, who writes the Sparkle Cat blog, now featuring the lovely Summer Samba. The special thing about this project is that each author featured in the book has nominated a cat rescue. Each author has been assigned a month to promote the book, with a third of the profits from that month going to the rescue.  (You can read more about the cats and their causes here and here.)

A Pubslush crowdfunding campaign was created to help fund the initial expenses in order to make sure the rescues receive the maximum benefit. Any little bit helps, and you can also receive some really cool rewards by supporting the project. We were very happy to join the funding ourselves, and also look forward to featuring many of these kitties and their amazing stories here on our blog!

In “Sammy Sparrow’s First Flight,” (Guardian Angel Publishing; Dec. 25, 2014; ages 2-8, $9.95) a young sparrow named Sammy quickly learns why parents set rules. He was told not to fly alone at night. His wings are weak and Sammy falls into a bush below. The world looks scary from the ground. A friendly owl flies Sammy back home to sleep under his parents’ wings. It's the 3rd children's book of author Tracy Aherns, and was inspired by her childhood years of rescuing baby sparrows that fell out of a neighbor's multi-room birdhouse high on a pole.

In conjunction with the release of the book, Tracy has created the "Sammy Shelter Project" to help nine Illinois humane organizations with the book sales. By ordering through the project website, $2 from each book purchase will be donated to the organization chosen and noted on the form. To donate to a participating rescue organization, you must use the form available for download from the Sammy Shelter Project website.

Current humane organizations set to benefit from this project are: It's a Pittie Rescue (Peotone, Il.), New Beginnings for Cats (Bourbonnais, Il.), River Valley Animal Rescue (Momence, Il.), Cache Creek Animal Rescue (Anna and Joliet, Il.), Grassroots Animal Rescue (Medinah, Il.), Illinois Horse Rescue of Will County (Beecher, Il.), Iroquois County Animal Rescue (Iroquois, Il.), Kankakee County Humane Foundation (St. Anne, Il.) and Because Animals Really Kount (Kankakee, Il.).

New Beginnings for Cats is a no-kill cageless shelter started by a husband and wife who put all of their money into the facility. Tracy adopted her beautiful cat Forest, on the right, from them when he was 4 months old.

You can also find information about the project on Facebook under Sammy Shelter Project.

The Silas Series: The Adventures of Silas and Opal is a Vermont project from start to finish. The writer, illustrator, graphic designer, editor, web designer, and printer reside in Vermont, my home state.

Author Grannie Snow has written two books that reflect her love for her pets. "Big Ole Striped Silas" takes the reader through the sadness of losing a beloved pet to the joys and comfort of bringing home a new housemate from the shelter. In "Silas Gets a Sister," the search is on for the perfect friend for Silas. "Silas and Opal Meet" should be out in April 2015.

A dollar from each book sold will go to Homeward Bound Animal Welfare Center in Middlebury, Vermont. The books can be purchased at http://thesilasseries.com/the-books/ and when you enter the code  HBAC in the “Instructions From Buyer” section you will be helping to feed and care for shelter animals waiting for their forever home.