Art auction featuring pieces created by pets to help support pet rescues

Gabby has been in foster care at Lisa Pearce’s home since last May and is creating art to be auctioned off to raise money for local animal shelters but also to help find her forever home. (Aldona B.)

The Artistic Rescue Tales (ART) auction is an online event that showcases artwork created by adoptable rescue animals.

Hosted by the Rescue Friends Animal Foundation, proceeds from the auction will benefit six local rescue organizations and highlight the need to find long time foster pets a permanent home.

“A lot of the animals that were chosen to submit pieces are animals that have been in care for a long time that needed a little bit more exposure,” said Katie Shannon, president of the Rescue Friends Animal Foundation. “Then some of the other organizations have sanctuary animals that are permanent residents and of course they need sponsorship to maintain their care as well.”

Shannon says this is the first time she’s organized a fundraiser like this with the MEOW Foundation, Saving Grace Animal Society, Pawsitive Match Rescue Foundation, Canadian Animal Task Force and Bear Valley Rescue.

“I just thought it would be a really fun way to do something different,” she said. “This is probably my favorite project to date that we’ve worked on and it’s just really coming together, it’s really cute, it’s really fun and I think all the groups are having a lot of fun with it as well.”

The auction runs from February 14th to the 21st but people who foster animals are already submitting pieces done by their foster pets with video’s of the pets ‘work-in-progress’ posted on the Rescue Friends Animal Foundation YouTube page.

“So Sadie and Willow (two foster cats) did their art pieces last week and then they were actually adopted the same day,” said Shannon.

Lisa Pearce has been fostering animals for five years and says she has a few ‘fails’. That’s a term used when the foster pets can’t find a forever home, so the foster parent adopts them. She’s currently fostering a cat named Gabby.

“Gabby has been with me since the end of May last year so she’s been with me a while now,” said Pearce. “She’s the cutest cat and she’s quiet -- she chirps, she doesn’t meow -- so she’s really playful, loves to cuddle and I think she’s a beautiful cat too, so I’m really surprised that she’s still here.”

Pearce and Gabby have created a few paintings on canvas. First Gabby chooses the paint colours with the help of some strategically placed treats, then the paint is applied in blobs on the canvas and placed into a plastic bag. Then Pearce coaxes the cat to walk or roll on the bag to create an abstract print.

“I am very happy with how (Gabby’s first painting) turned out,” she said. “It has that kind of life of its own and I was looking at it this morning and it looks like there’s a little eye there and maybe a mouth as well so she’s a little bit more creative than I thought she was going to be.”

Calgary artist Dean Stanton is donating some of his art to the fundraiser. He and his partner have two dogs and two cats, but he’s never had them paint anything.

“I have to say it’s pretty neat, I don’t think enough people do art with their animals,” he said. “I think we need to do a lot more because it doesn’t hurt anybody and it looks pretty great so anything I can do for the group of organizations, I’m all there.”

Shannon doesn’t have a fundraising goal in mind but says it’s important for rescue facilities to stick together.

“We really wanted to work together,” she said. “Some of us collaborate anyways but I think in these hard times and how challenging things have been, collaboration is really important and we just wanted to have something new and different and a fun way to work together.”

Learn more about the auction here.