Saving lives is a magical thing that doesn’t only change the life you’re saving, but it changes your life. At Paws Cat Shelter, the goal is to never give up on a cat. Whether a cat needs IVs or time to recover, the volunteers are there to help the cats every step of the way. Roughly 900 furry friends are adopted each year at the shelter, and they’ve rescued cats from Hartford, Stratford, and across the state of Connecticut. The volunteers do the best they can do give the cats a great life, and they’re giving new best friends to great families in the community.

Paws Cat Shelter is a non-profit, no-kill, and an entirely volunteer rescue for cats and kittens. The business started in 2011 and was run by someone else. She retired at 74 in 2017 and they formed another 501c3 in November, 2017. The shelter is pretty busy, especially around the holidays, but they find good homes for the cats. Last year was a bad year for the shelter, as they had over 450 cats and kittens. 9 out of 10 of the cats they have at the shelter come in as strays and can come in anywhere from 4 days to 12 years. They have purebreds, declawed cats, and most of them are domestic longhaired or shorthaired cats. And of course, there is an adoption procedure for each cat that gets adopted. First, there is an adoption form that needs to be filled out, someone will do a vet check, and occasionally the people who want to adopt would come in and talk in case of questions. It’s better when people come in because it’s easier to get to know them better, and also lets the volunteer know if the people or person adopting would be a good match for the cat. Since a lot of the cats are strays, they are found in hotel rooms, dropped outside of the door, or even have previously had owners that hadn’t treated them well. This causes trust or anger issues with the cat and it’s good to know that they will be going to a good home in the end. All of the volunteers at the shelter work for the cats’ best interest and always want them to live a happy life, even if they’ve been through the worst.

To visit their website, click here.

Winter has arrived, and with it comes snow, ice skating, warm fuzzy coats, and of course, the Christmas season. You’re probably starting to hang up your stockings, mistletoe, wreaths, and your Christmas tree, with all of it’s bright lights and ornaments. The smell of pine probably wafts throughout your house while you’re sitting on your couch in a warm blanket with a mug of hot cocoa in your hand. All of these things kind of scream Christmas in the way that multicolored leaves scream fall. But in the spirit of Christmas, I visited Allen Hill Farm, a business in Connecticut that is notorious for it’s Christmas trees. I interviewed Charlie, who works at the farm, to learn a little bit more about it and the history.

The Allen Hill Farm Business has been in the family since 1891 and originally started as a dairy farm. But, the people working on the dairy farm didn’t enjoy milking the cows and turned it into a tree farm. The tree farm started in 1980, but they couldn’t sell trees until 1988 because the trees weren’t mature enough to be sold. The trees at Allen Hill Farm are planted as a five year old in the spring and can take anywhere from eight to twelve years to mature, depending on what kind of tree it is. The farm has around seven or eight different kinds of trees that are mostly fur including Douglas fur, Trojan fur, Korean fur, blue spruce, and many others. When growing the trees, they focus on the needle retention, which is how long the needles last on a tree. They try to have the best needle retention possible because the Christmas season is longer than it was a few years ago, and they want the trees to last until the end of the season. Allen Hill Farm sells thousands of trees each year, all different kinds and sizes. It’s a really fun place to visit, and it’s amazing to see all of the trees, but impossible to make a decision!