For the second year, the Humane Society of the Lakes is pairing with The Fireside to host A Wine Tasting Affair for Animals, an event to benefit the shelter.
“There will be three wine purveyors that will be providing wine samplings,” board member Donna Sauvageau said. “And Wade (Fireside chef) and his crew will do appetizers for us.”
The Thursday, Oct. 16, event is from 7 to 10 p.m. and tickets are $40. There will be wine tasting, appetizers, silent auction, wine accessories for sale and music by Mike Holtz.
Sauvageau said it’s a relaxed atmosphere, and those who attend can visit wine stations and try various wines that they maybe wouldn’t have outside the event. It’s a “painless way” to sample wines to see if you like them without having to purchase an entire bottle first, she added.
There will be a variety of prices of wines available for sampling.
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One of the wine vendors will also talk about developing your wine skills.
A silent auction will be a part of the evening as well. The two large items will be an original oil painting of The Fireside created by artist Kim Jore and a wrought iron wine rack filled with wine.
There will be hand-decorated wine glasses and wine cork key chains for sale.
Those who purchase a ticket to the event will automatically be entered in a drawing for a $100 gift certificate to The Fireside.
Money raised from the benefit will go into the general operating budget for items that may come up throughout the year.
“Last year, our heating bills kind of killed us,” Sauvageau said. The building is also seven years old, she added, and has some updating needs.
“It’s an extremely busy shelter. It gets used a lot,” she said.
In the month of September, the shelter had 25 adoptions - both cats and dogs. There have already been seven this month as of Tuesday morning.
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“Adoption numbers have been phenomenal. We must be doing something right,” she said.
The shelter is nearly always at capacity, and volunteer foster homes are tapped into also.
Sauvageau said the humane society has 25 cats at the shelter and another four at Pet Smart in Fargo.
“We partner with them with adoptable pets,” she said. “Twice a month a volunteer will bring one or two dogs for ‘show,’ but they do not have the capacity to house the dogs.”
As of Tuesday, the humane society had 19 dogs on site, but also has a female dog with six babies coming in so they will then be at capacity. They also have 10 foster families who take animals in until either space opens at the shelter or the animals find their forever home.
The Humane Society of the Lakes is a no-kill shelter, meaning that they keep the animals until they are adopted, not put them to sleep after a certain period of time because no one has adopted them.
Sauvageau said she is a strong supporter of spaying or neutering pets.
She started on the shelter board three years ago because “I love dogs. I grew up with dogs all my life. It breaks my heart to see dogs abandoned - even feral cats.”
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While she can’t adopt more dogs because she already has one that’s queen of her domain, Sauvageau said she likes to go to the shelter and spend time with the animals.
“I work a little and get my puppy fix.”
She said the shelter is always looking for volunteers and for foster families. If you are interested, complete the application on the shelter’s website www.hsofthelakes.org .
Tickets to A Wine Tasting Affair for Animals event at The Fireside on Oct. 16, can be purchased at The Fireside, the shelter, from board members or by calling Donna Sauvageau at 218-841-4822.
Follow Pippi Mayfield on Twitter at @PippiMayfield .
