5-year-old’s birthday wish benefits shelter animals

Emily Personett visits cats at the Brookings SCHS shelter. Photo by Scott Graves

So, for her birthday last spring, she asked her friends and family members to forgo buying her gifts and donate dog and cat food and toys to Brookings’ South Coast Humane Society shelter.

“To see a 5-year-old do something like that ... it was unbelievable,” said Audrey Morris, animal care facilitator for the SCHS shelter. “It shows that people really do care about the animals.”

In return, Audrey asked Emily to be the guest of honor on the Humane Society’s Azalea Festival float on May 23.

During a visit last week to the Brookings shelter – Emily loves to visit the cats and dogs – Emily’s mother, Marcia Personett, said it all started with a Medford-based newscast last winter about how the economic downturn was forcing people to give up their animals.

“The story showed how a family had to give their cat away after someone lost their job,” Marcia said. “Emily wanted to help the animals so I suggested she ask people to donate items to the shelter.”

In the past, Emily and her family have donated toys to a church for needy children, and turkeys to a local mission for Thanksgiving.

“Helping others is something we’ve always tried to teach her,” Marcia said.

The lesson obviously sank in. Last spring, Emily wrote out invitations for her birthday party, asking people to donate food and toys for the shelter animals.

“I just wanted to help,” Emily said quietly.

Volunteers at the SCHS were amazed when Emily and her mother showed up at the shelter with the donated items.

“It was very exciting,” Morris said. “She showed up with a whole bunch of food and toys for the cats and dogs.”

SCHS volunteer Beverly Duncan said,  “It was a very unselfish act – for her birthday she didn’t want any presents from anyone, she wanted to celebrate her life by asking everyone to give to the animals instead of giving to her. So they did, and bought leashes, dishes, collars, toys – everything you could think of.”

The donated food was used as part of the shelter’s program to provide cat and dog food to pet owners who otherwise couldn’t afford it, Morris said.

The leashes and collars were given to dogs who left the shelter with new families, and the toys were given to animals staying at the shelter, she said.

“The toys keep the animals emotionally healthy,” Morris said.

Emily recently adopted a cat from the shelter, but not a kitten, as some might expect.

“She picked a mama cat – one who was really too young to have kittens,” Morris said. “She was extremely malnourished and struggling when we found her.”

Today, that cat is plump and happy in the care of Emily and her mother. The family also owns a dog.

“She wants to be a veterinarian when she grows up,” Marcia said.

That doesn’t surprise Morris and Duncan.

“Emily is a sweet and caring girl,” Morris said.

“We all can learn by her act of kindness and not always think of ourselves,” Duncan said. “For such a little 5-year-old, she has the biggest heart that warms so much around her.”