Little Shelter, a nonprofit animal rescue organization in Huntington, NY (Long Island), recently began using the Internet in its crusade to find new homes for abandoned cats and dogs.

Allison Whitney, a Little Shelter volunteer for nearly five years, created the web site and maintains it on a weekly basis. "At Little Shelter, we believe there's someone looking for the exact cats and dogs we have. We just have to connect them," she says. The Internet is now an important part of that connection process.

The shelter's web site showcases over 80 animals available for adoption, complete with color photographs. There is a Virtual Kennel with over 30 dogs, and a CyberCattery with close to 50 cats. The shelter excludes kittens and puppies from the web site, since new homes for these animals are generally easy to find.

Allison photographs the new animals with her digital camera each Sunday. During the week (when she's not busy as the director of communications for Computer Concepts Corporation), she uploads the pictures and modifies the site if an animal has been adopted.

Allison Whitney with "Baby" in Little Shelter's cattery. Thanks to Little Shelter, "Baby" now has a new home

For over sixty years, Little Shelter has been finding new homes for abandoned animals. Anna Hunninghouse decided to create the shelter when she moved to Huntington, Long Island in 1926. The demolition of two local hotels that year caused numerous cats -- that had been living in the hotels' refuse -- to roam the streets.

Horrified by the conditions suffered by these cats and the many other homeless animals in the community, Hunninghouse spent the next few years raising the necessary money to buy the land and construct the building. She started the fund with small contributions and proceeds from cake sales, concerts, and children's plays, until larger private donations could be secured. When the shelter finally opened in 1930, it was dedicated to God, "For service to his voiceless ones."

Today, the shelter continues to receive funding entirely through donations. Almost all shelter "employees" (including the shelter President and Vice President) work on a volunteer basis without compensation. Last year, these volunteers found new homes for more than 2,000 dogs, cats, kittens and puppies.

Little Shelter provides a temporary home for over 200 animals at any given time. While municipal pounds may be forced to euthanize animals, the shelter does not destroy them unless they are incurably ill. When space at the Little Shelter is available, volunteers can then visit local pounds and rescue animals that might otherwise be euthanized.

The shelter tries to make the animals' stay a happy one. Two kennels at the shelter house about 30 dogs each. Volunteers walk the dogs twice a day, and each stall has an inside and outside section. Puppies and smaller dogs stay in a separate building.

Little Shelter's Cattery

Cats live together (after any necessary tests and inoculations) in an open cattery with shelves, cat trees, and cubbies. During kitten season, a small building serves as "Kitty City" where kittens and adolescent cats also live communally. Several veterinarians provide service to the shelter (at a discounted rate) to ensure that the animals are healthy before they are made available for adoption.

While many of the animals housed at Little Shelter arrive as "rescues" from municipal pounds, others have more tragic stories. A delivery driver saved a small shepherd tied to a telephone pole from kids throwing firecrackers at it.

Four orange tabby kittens left in a box outside the shelter gate during a rainstorm looked like a heaped up wet towel when they were found in the morning. The shelter also rescued two puppies with slash wounds from a box cutter. The shelter found each of these animals a new, more loving, home.

Allison says, "The Internet is really a great medium for an organization such as Little Shelter, with limited funds for advertising. For just the cost of hosting the web site, we can showcase all the cats and dogs available at Little Shelter, with photos and descriptions...It is much less expensive and has so much more potential for good than the classified ads we take out." The web site has directly resulted in adoptions (exactly how many are difficult to determine) and daily e-mail from people interested in learning more about a specific animal, or volunteering at the shelter.

She also believes that the web site provides the shelter with more than just advertising animals for adoptions. "We can get the word out on how important it is to get your cat or dog neutered or spayed," along with other animal care tips, and "therefore keep more animals out of the shelters."

The service information available includes a number of pet care tips and opinions, including Advice for the New Puppy Owner , Tooth & Nail--Overcoming Your Cat's Nasty Habits , When to Call the Vet , and How to Protect Your Pet .

Of interest for people in the Long Island area, there is also information on the shelter's foster care program , upcoming shelter activities , and animal welfare legislature under consideration in New York State .

For more information on how to support the shelter, visit How Can I Help . Note that because Little Shelter has a "return policy" (it will take an animal back if the adopters can no longer care for it), they do not allow for out-of-state adoptions. But if you're a New Yorker who will provide a loving home to a dog or cat, this web site may help you find the perfect addition to your family.