I am about to hit my seven year anniversary of volunteering at a local animal clinic / rescue, The Ohio Alleycat Resource and Spay / Neuter Clinic (OAR). I haven’t stuck with much of anything for that long! Fortunately, I love going there and feeling like I am making a difference and also getting to feed off the positivity and cuteness of all of the cats I work with.

OAR promotes non-lethal control for feral cat colonies and humane methods to reduce the population of feral cats. In particular, they practice Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR). The clinic also offers a low-cost, high-quality spay/neuter service for cats.

I believe all of this is important work and I am proud for the small role I play in it. By giving a few hours each week, I help care for  and socialize animals so they can make it into loving homes. Without that work, those cats could easily end up at a different place where they’d be euthanized. Or, they could remain in dangerous environments where they would die from disease, injury or worse. According to the ASPCA, 3 to 4 million animals are euthanized every year. That is so unnecessary.

While volunteers are a huge reason OAR is able to accomplish everything it does, another is donation. The calendars for $15 and can be bought on eBay. All proceeds from the sale of the calendar will support the OAR Spay/Neuter Clinic to cover the cost of surgeries for families otherwise unable to sterilize their pets or strays.

Even better, yours truly has FOUR pictures in the calendar! Collecting the images was done via a photo contest. I entered several times and had two photos win and two more selected for a back-of-the-calendar collage.

This is my first place winning photo of Newton.
This is my winning photo of Addy.
This photo of my sweet Optimus Prime was chosen for the back-of-the-calendar collage.
The last photo that made the collage was of Lady, a cat that belonged to my sister’s ex-boyfriend. My sister and Lady didn’t get along too well (something about Lady pooping on my sister while she slept) but man was she a looker!

If you’re still looking for a 2012 calendar, want to support a good cause or just want some of my photography hanging in your home, I encourage you to buy one of OAR’s Calendars!

This post originally appeared on Kate’s Point of View. © Kate. All rights reserved.