Dear Friend of AWS,

As another holiday season is upon us, we wanted to take a moment to share a letter received at AWS this summer.

The letter came in a small envelope from Alexis F., a second grade student. The paper was carefully folded many times. Inside was written, "I like animals so much. I want you to buy food and drinks for them." She had taped three quarters to her letter.

It's the kindness of Alexis and of so many others in our community that makes our success. We simply could not provide the level of care that our best friends deserve without your help, encouragement and trust in our work.

We've had another incredible year improving the lives of our community's homeless and lost animals. Thanks to you, our supporters, we've accomplished a lot this year.

• We had record numbers of cat adoptions during the summer and fall of 2010 - in fact, we've increased the number of cats going to new homes by 33% over last year's same three month period, despite having a 13% increase in cat intakes! That's 581 happy families in just three months!

• Our professional staff has taken part in numerous conferences to expand our learning and our experiences. In fact, one of our shelter managers was asked to be a presenting speaker at a New England regional conference on her cat health evaluation matrix and was featured in Animal Sheltering, a national monthly publication, for AWS' work in communicable disease prevention and sanitation protocol!

• Our pAWS Across America dog transfer program has literally saved the lives of nearly 300 very deserving pups from other over-burdened shelters across the country this year alone - and we've done it without displacing a single local dog that needs our care.

We hope that you'll join with Alexis in continuing to help us to care for the more than 3,300 animals in our community that depend on us with a year-end tax-deductible donation. With your help, we'll keep them fed, medicated, warm, dry and safe from danger. Together, we can change their lives one at a time.

From All of us at AWS, Our best wishes to each of you for a wonderful 2011!

P.S. We encourage you to visit us during our newly expanded hours! We're sure our residents would love a scratch on the head!