Housing is going to the dogs.
The Cochrane & Area Humane Society (CAHS) received five new doghouses from the First Girl Guides Cochrane group on April 8.
“This was something the girls decided to take on and I think it is great,” said Jaimie Anton, the society’s fund development officer.
“They called and asked if they could build the houses and I said it would be fantastic.”
The dog houses will be used for the society’s Outreach Support for Animals (OSA) program, where staff and volunteers from the society set up the houses in rural areas as a shelter for stray dogs and feral cats.
The group of nine- to 11-year-olds brainstormed the idea at one of their Girl Guide meetings, asking if the guides could do something to help the animals in town.
“This group really likes animals and they really wanted to do a community project,” said Susan Tomalty, guide leader for the First Girl Guides of Cochrane.
“We called CAHS and they said it would be worthwhile.”
With 20 Girl Guide members and help from the guides, the five doghouses were built at one of the Girl Guide meetings, taking only a couple of hours to build and paint the houses.
A family of one of the girls supplied the lumber that was already pre-cut, making the project a little easier, Tomalty explained.
“It was a really fun project. The girls were really excited, they didn’t realize they would use the houses for cats as well so they were really happy about that,” Tomalty said.
With the big community project coming up, Tomalty said she suspected the girls would choose something “animal-oriented.” The First Girl Guides of Cochrane work together for a big community project every spring/summer and will start brainstorming soon.
The group that built the doghouses is one of four groups within the First Girl Guides of Cochrane. Membership has been increasing over the past couple years but the organization needs more “leaders” before it can expand, Tomalty explained.
Within the Girl Guides of Cochrane, there are four different age levels, including Sparks, Brownies, Guides and Pathfinders.
Registration for the Girl Guides opens soon. For more information on the Cochrane Girl Guides call 403-932-3608.
