Overview

The Cat Pack is a group of friends who strive to support the McCook Humane Society w/their mission, i.e. ...rescue abandoned & homeless cats & dogs and find them permanent loving homes. The Cat Pack motto is, "Hands build a house, Paws make it a home."

Tags

  • Nonprofit Organization
  • Community
  • Animal Shelter

Description

How it began:
The Cat Pack began in 2009 with inspiration from a cat named Switch, a very large Tuxedo / Maincoon breed mix who was rescued and adopted from a farm in Kansas.

Switch grew into a flamboyant boy cat ruling the house and roaming the neighborhood north of Kelly Park. He liked driving in cars, climbing rooftops, listening to Elvis, hunted small animals and flying creatures, visited young kids in school show and tell, appeared in parades, and performed daily cat yoga. He was a most unique cat and impressed everyone who met him, with how smart , friendly, and brave he was.

The Beginning of a Comic Story:
With support from the McCook Humane Society and the Daily Gazette, an original comic strip was created by a McCook Central Elementary 5th grader. The comic strip was inspired from Switch's "out of the box" crazy cat life. titled, "Super Switch - The Return of Katnip World." The comic stories were published each Friday for the Whiskers animal shelter section in the McCook Daily Gazette weekend edition..

The comics retold Switches story but embellished him as a super hero like Superman or Batman with super feline powers. Super Switch could fly, had the power of invisibility, super strength and super smell. The adventures of Katnip World told tales of defending the defenseless from bully dogs and scary villains like The Claw, The Hammer, The Guinea Gang, Snapper, and "Fluffy the Furious."

Fighting bad dogs, protecting kittens, serving the Mayor and catnip treats was job one in Katnip World. The comic series ran every weekend for 4.5 years (230+ weekends).

Cat Pack Volunteers Begin:
Switch inspired two sisters who involved their friends to join together to help the shelter by socializing the kittens, and doing community activities to raise awareness and donations for the Humane Society. Over time the name, "The McCook Cat Pack," was formed and it stuck. A humble volunteering cause created by elementary school friends who shared a dream to make a difference for the animals in the community. It started simple with lemonade stands and bake sales. But each year, as new Cat Pack friends showed up and the volunteering grew in numbers, so did the creative crafting ideas, activities, events, and projects.

By 2012, the McCook Humane Society Board of Directors officially adopted The Cat Pack as shelter fundraisers and presented them with a thank you party and recognition plaque for their volunteering results.

The Purpose:
The overall goal is always to "raise awareness" for the value of shelter animals and to "raise funds" for the Humane Society to succeed. Each year, the Cat Pack still hosts seasonal bake sales, lemonade stands, sells new cat and dog 12 month calendars and a variety of cat pack logos merchandise to benefit the local shelter.

Through the Years:
Over time, the Cat Pack tried new and different things. For example: designed a coloring book, created annual calendars, made a custom deck of playing cards, crafted original artwork and posters, designed cat pack logos merchandise: mouse pads, t-shirts, coffee mugs, refrigerator magnets, recycled stuffed animals, and other cat and dog themed merchandise. Today, the founding members of the cat pack have graduated from high school, but a new wave of volunteers are stepping up to continue the vision and effort to support the McCook Humane Society fulfill their mission.

Submit your cat or dog photo:
Each April-July, The Cat Pack and Humane Society host a GoGo online pet photo contest which collects new cat and dog images from the animal loving community. Please get involved by sending us your favorite photo next Spring.

To view the most recent photo contest results and read more of the cat pack volunteering back story, click on the following URL link:.
http://www.gogophotocontest.com/thecatsanddogsofmccook/pages/3077

Contact us:
The Cat Pack continues to support the shelter today and is open to new volunteering minded recruits who want to help w/events, crafts, PR, and special projects. For more info, please contact The Cat Pack via Facebook or email: superswitch@hushmail.com

Please "like us" on Facebook and share our story with your family and friends. Thank you for supporting the McCook Humane Society and shelter animals.

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