By Jay Lutz

Mower County Humane Society

Santa Claus is coming to town. In fact, he is literally flying into town to the Mower County Humane Society shelter on the evening of Wednesday, Dec. 2.

As part of Austin’s annual Christmas in the City, and the new Christmas in the East celebration, the humane society shelter will be hosting Christmas at the Humane Society from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.

Thanks to Austin Aeroflight, Santa will be flying in by plane and arrive just north of the shelter near the Hormel hangar. You can welcome Santa and then accompany him on his trek to the humane society building. There you can have your picture taken with Santa, and receive a framed copy while you wait. And it’s free.

Also there will be door prizes, a small silent auction, a raffle, music by the Austinaires and candy canes for the kids. Silent auction items will include a Steve’s Pizza $50 card, assorted 18-inch doll clothes, a framed picture, and a baby rag quilt and pillow. Raffle tickets are for a beautiful hand crafted queen size quilt and toss pillows.

Thank you to Lisa Belden for all your hard work in planning and preparing for this fun event.

On Nov. 12, the Mower County Humane Society again hosted the Minnesota Spay Neuter Assistance Program (MNSNAP) mobile surgical unit at the shelter. Fifteen cats and 14 dogs were able to receive reduced cost spaying and neutering procedures as well as vaccinations and microchipping. The next visit for the MNSNAP unit at the humane society will be Jan. 7. You can contact MNSNAP directly at mnsnap.org or 612-720-8236 to register and set up an appointment time. Please, please, please spay and neuter your pets.

It continues to be a difficult year at the shelter as we are far over capacity on the number of animals in residence and struggling to find enough volunteers to keep up with their day-to-day care.

If you are interested in a rewarding volunteer opportunity and would like to help, please contact the shelter at 507-437-9262 or visit us at open house on Tuesdays from 4:30 to 6 p.m. or Sundays from 2 to 4 p.m. Also, to help with the crowding, we are offering a special on cat adoptions. While the normal fee is $50, you can adopt a second cat (highly recommended) and the fee for both is still just $50. So please consider opening your heart and your home to one of our great animals.

We would like to gratefully acknowledge the following memorials we have received in memory of: Darrell King, Mary Jane Smith, “Cookie” Sandell, Lynn Webber, Carol Foster, “Wiley” Henry, Donna Nybo, Donna Snyder, Elizabeth Hagen, “Taz” Hueman, Roger Walsh, Dr. R.H. Ramlo, Don Wagner, Shirley Burton, Gordie Kilmer, “Norton” the Shepweiler, Val Pitzen, Ann Pickering, “Tripp” Pickering, Linda Hueman, Gene Roden, Dr. John Nelson, Donald Bertison, Richard “Rich” Prizler, “Zeke” Calhoon, Helen Weber, and Lea Hejl.