A slightly belated Happy and Healthy New Year to all of you. 2007 really looks very promising to all us of at MARL. The new shelter is coming right along. The roof is on and they are now hanging the sheet rock; sidewalks and courtyards have been poured and MY office looks great with its 6 foot walk in closet

ABOVE - Our Walk of Love will be between the posts leading to front door.

We are hoping for a move-in date by the middle of March, with a grand opening shortly thereafter. Of course, the shelter is not going to be as big as we originally intended, as we had to cut some things out and down scale others due to a lack of funding. However, we are going from an 8,000 square foot building to a 14,000 square foot building, so it will still make a tremendous difference. When we get more money we will start Phase Two, which will include the Education Building and pavement for parking. We have come a long way since MARL was founded in 1969. Thanks to you we will celebrate 37 years in October.

One of the things we would like to see happen in the new year is more spays and neuters for pets. Building larger buildings is not the answer to pet overpopulation. Spay/Neuter is. In 2006 we took in over 17,500 animals and we average slightly over 100 adoptions per month and 23 a month being returned to owners. This is not acceptable. We have got to find a way to educate the public on the importance of Spay/Neuter. For those on low incomes, we need them to contact us for a low cost voucher.

Want to remind everyone, if you haven't bought your MARL 2007 calendar/planner, it's not too late. We still have some at the shelter. Here are other places they are being sold: Silverleaf Wines & Spirits, Lady Scott, Great Scott, Annelle Primos & Assoc. Liz Henry, Lemuria Book Store, the Mean Mallard, and S. Noblin furniture in Ridgeland. For further information contact Rebecca Ezell at 601-940-5023.

Please visit our web site for pictures of some of the animals we have up for adoption on Petfinders. Web site is: www.msarl.org. Not on web site is the goat that animal control just brought in. Never a dull moment here.

Our most pressing need is dry Purina or Pedigree adult and puppy chow. And dry kitten chow, NO CAT FOOD - ONLY KITTEN.

If you would like to make a donation, please send donations to: MARL, 5221 Greenway Drive Jackson, MS 39204 or you may go to the web site at www.msarl.org and click on the Guidestar button.

Thank you for all your support!

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