An unusual group of trick-or-treaters will hit Wal-Mart this weekend, but they are not begging for candy. These trick-or-treaters are real animals — the four-legged kind from the Emporia Animal Shelter.
Shelter workers and their charges will ‘paws’ from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday in front of both entrances of Wal-Mart with their pumpkin buckets. Shoppers can reach into those buckets and pick out a piece of paper with the name of an item the shelter needs written on it. They can add that item to their shopping list, go in and buy it and drop it off on their way out.
“They can draw as many as they want,” said shelter manager Rachel Parris.
And for a no-calorie treat, check out the ribbon refrigerator magnets available for $3 or two for $5 at the shelter’s tables.
“It’s a big fund raiser for us,” Parris said. “We purchased these magnets over a year ago and I still have an entire box of them.”
The group also will sell tickets this weekend for a drawing at the shelter’s open house on Nov. 4. Tickets will be available for $1 each. The ticketholders will be entered into a drawing for donated gift baskets.
Parris said the shelter really needs the money.
“We currently have a dog in dire medical care,” Parris said.
“Trooper,” a 2-year-old miniature Australian shepherd, was brought into the shelter with an open foot wound. It was later discovered that all the metacarpal bones in that foot were broken. His medical care is getting expensive, Parris said.
Donations are welcome for Trooper’s medical care. A picture of Trooper will be posted during this weekend’s event.
“He’s such a good little dog,” she said. “I want him to get everything that he needs.”