IGGY Ambassadors collect food for the homeless pets at the Humane Society animal shelter

We had a very fun and festive holiday meetup today, complete with "Secret Santa" iggy gift exchange and a pet food drive to benefit Seattle/King County Humane Society (in Bellevue). It was fun to hear all the jingle bells on so many dogs at once and to see the festive winter outfits. Be sure to check out the Photos in the photo album for the Holiday Meetup at http://itgreyhound.meetup.com/145/photos/

One of our members, Ann, took up a collection to help offset my meetup.com costs. It costs about $180 a year to keep the IGGY Ambassadors site running and utilize all of meetup.com's great features. I have no complaints and happily pay the bill every month but it was nice to see others want to contribute. And I know this is not what Ann intended intended, but I took the $46 she collected from the others and went down to QFC and bought $50 worth of food for the homeless pets at the Humane Society shelter. I hadn't bought my contribution yet and probably would not have spent that much anyway, so it was nice to be guilt-free in spending all that money! I bought a 50 pound bag of dog food, a 22 pound bag of cat food and three dozen cans of Friskies cat food. Sophia lives with three kitties here at home and wanted to be sure the cats didn't get left out.

Everyone brought a great variety in food and treats for the shelter animals. As a volunteer at the Seattle Animal Shelter we are enouraged to bring treats for the animals and use them as training rewards when working with dogs out in the "canine corral". It's nice to be able to support the volunteers by also providing little biscuits and other treats that can used in building good, positive relationships with the dogs staying at the shelter. I assume the Humane Society operates in a similar way and I am sure they will be glad for our donations!

Our group has a lot of fun, and I am always hearing positive comments about how organized and enjoyable our events are. It's nice to be with a group of people who enjoy each other's fellowhsip without any petty politics or other stupid behaviors!

Have a dog of your own? Check out www.meetup.com for your city and dog breed and see if there is a play group for your pooch, too!