Woman thinks of pets at holidays

It’s amazing what can be done with a little fabric, a pouch of cat treats, catnip mice and plastic balls with bells inside. Or how about some dog bones and chew toys? Individually, all of these things are fine, albeit uninteresting, but together they can make a little Christmas magic for some very deserving cats and dogs.

Pearl Young, dedicated animal lover and owner of four felines, has been making Christmas stockings for pets for years.

“One year I just started making them,” said Young, 59, who once had a home-based craft business in Eastport. The mere sight of the stockings evoked Christmas spirit, making them a big hit at craft fairs Down East.

Young gave up her craft business, which included such treasures as sea glass jewelry and nautical woodworking, when she moved to Dedham with her husband, Carl, after he accepted a job as Orrington’s town manager.

Yet crafting remained in her blood. When she got wind of the Furry Friends Food Bank, a program that supplies pet food to seniors and the disabled in need, she decided to get back in the game and make stockings for some dogs and cats who might not otherwise have a Christmas. Young is donating approximately 125 stockings to Furry Friends.

“Pearl has done a wonderful thing by making these stockings,” said Gayle Rowe, director of Furry Friends Food Bank. “Our people really love and cherish their pets, but often can’t do any extras. These stockings will brighten the days of not just the pets, but their human companions as well. It is a great feeling to see your pet happy.”

As there are more clients than Christmas stockings, Rowe will be pulling names out of a hat for distribution.

“It really warms the heart that someone, who has four cats of her own to take care of, would go the extra mile like this,” Rowe added. “Furry Friends has wonderful volunteers and I feel blessed not only because I can be a part of helping animals in need, which is a lifelong dream, but also because I have met so many kind and generous people. I am so grateful to them all.”

Young works hard on the stockings, carefully and lovingly stitching each one and then filling them with goodies. However, the actual making of the stockings isn’t really the toughest part. Remember, she is working with catnip and has multiple felines. Enough said. As any cat owner can attest, cats and catnip are like magnets and steel.

And yet it is all worth it.

“I am doing this in honor of my mother who loved her cat, Babe, very much,” said Young. “Her cat was her very best friend and always slept with her, and when she decided to move, she would actually turn down apartments that would not take Babe. My mother [who passed away three years ago] used to get the biggest kick out of my making the Christmas stockings – so this is for her, in her memory.”

Christmas magic at its finest.

Life Times, Eastern Agency on Aging’s Annual Report to the Community, is here. If you did not get your copy in the Bangor Daily News on Wednesday, Dec. 6, call us at 941-2865 and we will send you one. You’ll read all about the wonderful things happening at EAA, and about programs that may be beneficial to you.

Join me for “Senior Talk” at 6:30 a.m. Saturdays on WVOM 103.9, and at 8 a.m. Saturdays and 9 a.m. Sundays on WABI AM 910. It is a half-hour show dedicated to senior issues.

Carol Higgins is director of communications at Eastern Agency on Aging. For information on EAA, call 941-2865, or toll-free (800) 432-7812, visit www.eaaa.org, or e-mail info@eaaa.org. TTY 992-0150.