A caring Edinburgh mum is organising a Christmas appeal to help the SSPCA and Edinburgh Cat and Dog Home look after the animals in their care.
Linda Lee Thomson, from South Gyle, managed to supply both charities with hundreds of pounds worth of goodies last Christmas and is hoping to do the same this year.
But her appeal has not had the same response this year and she is concerned that the cost of living crisis means that households are unable to part with the funds to help.
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Nonetheless, she is appealing to all animal lovers in the capital to donate pet food, toys, treats, bedding and even unused bed sheets as well as towels so that she can create packages for the two organisations.
“I normally donate to both charities over Christmas time and have done for a number of years”, she said.
“Last year I asked residents in Corstorphine, South Gyle and others in EH12 for any donations that they could spare.
“It is important to me to support these causes because both the SSPCA and cat and dog home have suffered from cut backs in recent years with the closure of some of their stores.
“Last year we were able to give two huge hampers to both organisations with things for cats, dogs, hamsters, reptiles and even birds.
“Although we have just started the appeal this year, we have noticed that there are not as many people able to donate so we wanted to try to reach a wider audience.”
Linda owns two cats, Diesel and Kingsley who is named after one of their favourite Hearts players, as well as King Charles Jasper.
“I really don’t want this to be about myself as it should be about the amazing charities that help these animals”, Linda added.
“Last year, David Lindsay, who is the area manager of Booker Macro at Sighthill, gave us hundreds of pounds worth of goods to give to the shelters which we were so grateful for.
“The SSPCA and ECDH are able to take almost anything and make use of it - especially the SSPCA who care for not only your traditional bets but also reptiles and birds.
“They are very crafty and often use things like loo rolls or left over packaging to make beds that can be used for insulating bedding for small animals.
“If anyone would like to donate and cannot drop anything off themselves then please contact me over Facebook and I can arrange to pick things up.”
You can reach Linda by direct messaging her through her personal Facebook.
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