Animal Welfare Efforts in East Tennessee

Every year my better half buys tickets to an animal welfare event designed to raise money to support several group’s efforts on the behalf of feral, abandoned and neglected animals in the community.

This fund raising effort is a ‘soup’ event!  It’s an annual ‘soup cook off’ or amateur competitive soup tasting as a major source of funding.  It’s called a ‘souper challenge’.

The event is held at a second-hand store in Maryville Tennessee named the “4 Chics and a Cat Thrift Shop”.  We bought our tickets from our friend Paula who is with PPAW…”People Promoting Animal Welfare”. 

This is the front of the “4 Chics and a Cat Thrift Shop”.  The store’s mission statement reads as follows:

"4 Chics and a Cat is committed to supporting animal welfare organizations who are working toward reducing pet overpopulation, and caring for the homeless, abandoned, and mistreated animals in Blount County and the surrounding areas."

This store is located at 1116 East Broadway in Maryville.  Phone: 865-233-5666.  They are on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/4ChicsandaCat, and their website is at http://www.4chicsandacat.com/.

To say that this annual event at “4 Chics and a Cat” is a big deal is an understatement.  Every year the parking lot is full and folks just flood into the store!

This a major awareness event and a source of funds for area animal welfare.  In addition to the ‘soup challenge tickets”, I’m also sure that “4 Chics and a Cat”, a non-profit operation, scores more sales than they would on a typical day.  I know that we made a couple of purchases… Of course, in addition to the groups, theses sales help fund ‘4 Chics’ as well, who do have to support a couple of on-site critters…not 1 but rather 2 cats named Gabby and Flo and 2 guinea pigs named Kevin and Kyle.

Not only is there lots of annual publicity about this fund raiser on the area’s social media, but “4 Chics and a Cat also grab attention from the local press.  In this case Maryville’s “Daily Times” newspaper did a full page spread on the “Souper Event”.  

This is the booth set up by the Feral Feline Friends group at the “souper challenge”.  Beyond Feral Feline Friends and PPAW, other groups supported by “4 Chics and a Cat” include the Humane Society of East Tennessee, Smoky Mountain Animal Care Foundation, Pets without Parents and Knoxville Guinea Pig Rescue.

There were folks lined up for soup all over the place!  For only $5.00 each, each person has the opportunity to taste about 25 different soups.  Everyone is asked to vote for their favorite and the winner gets to take home “The Golden Ladle”!

 

Note: We personally tend to vote for a flavorful soup with a touch of heat but there is something for every taste at this event.  

As usual, this was lively event and our ticket purchases and the money from our in-store purchases will be well used.  Did you know that 2 feral cats that haven’t been neutered and their offspring can produce 420,000 kittens in just 7 years!?  Since we bought our tickets to the ‘souper challenge’ from Paula with PPAW, here’s a little bit of information about that organization.

PPAW/People Promoting Animal Welfare is a non-profit organization with the purpose of operating a low-cost spay/neuter clinic for dogs and cats.  They primarily serve Blount, Loudon and Monroe counties in Tennessee.  The organization has sterilized over 80,000 companion animals in the last 20 years.  The goal is to reduce the number of unwanted dogs, cats, kittens and puppies, thereby reducing the number of deaths in area shelters.  This program has greatly benefited lower income families who might not be able to normally afford these services.  PPAW also supports ‘Trap, Neuter and Return’ of feral cats via low or no cost sterilizations.  In honor of Laurie's Mom who's 107th birthday it would of been that day, we donated a nice check to PPAW in her memory and we received a lovely 'thank you note' in return.

To learn more about PPAW and its efforts, just go to their website at http://www.ppawspayneuterclinic.com/.

Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them…

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave