HomeIf you weren’t fortunate enough to make it out to the Bastrop County Animal Shelter on April 4th, you missed quite the event. The shelter and its non-profit support group, Friends of Bastrop County Animal Shelter, hosted the shelter’s inaugural open house and benefit auction. The event featured impressive demonstrations by the Travis County K-9 unit, Tail Town Training, and the Capital of Texas Zoo. There were a variety of activities for children – face painting, lots of games, exploring the Bastrop Volunteer Fire Department trucks, learning about safety from the Bastrop County Sheriff’s Office, and learning about the spay/neuter and animal cruelty prevention.
Travis County K-9 Unit Demonstration
Shelter Manager Erica Baker said, “Everyone had fun – the kids, volunteers and staff, and the exhibitors. It was just a great day all around.” Featuring $10 off all adoptions, the shelter logged a record number of eleven adoptions from the shelter in a single day! The Friends group, by selling hot dogs, cotton candy, and popcorn, and holding both silent and live auctions, raised over $2,100 that will directly benefit the shelter and stray animals within the county. Commissioner Lee Dildy contributed to the event by kissing a piglet for a bid of $101.
The benefit auction featured original art and local recreational opportunities. Revenue from this event will go toward projects and programs to benefit the shelter and the county’s animal population, including the addition of a cattery to the existing shelter facility, developing a discount spay/neuter program to address pet overpopulation, and promoting spay/neuter.
We look forward to seeing you at the “first annual”* shelter open house next spring.
*Fun with grammar: Usage manuals choose not to address this usage, but it is a question asked as often as any other. The logic (if we can call it that) is that something cannot be called “annual” until a year has passed between its inaugural happening and its second manifestation. Therefore, the first event cannot be referred to as the “first annual.” In fact, some people argue that the second event in a series is actually the “first annual” (because it’s the first time that something has happened on an annual basis), which really confuses people. Whether this is foolishness or not, it seems that enough people belong to this faith that it’s probably a good idea to call a first event (even one that is guaranteed to occur every year thereafter) the inaugural or first occasion. On the other hand, virtually everyone knows that the First Annual Fund-Raising Event refers to an event that is happening this year for the first time and that someone is planning and hoping that this event will happen on an annual basis. Our advice then: go ahead and use first annual to describe such an event but know that someone is going to ask what you mean by it. (Capital Community College; Hartford, Connecticut)
