Two years ago I was approached by our local Humane Society, a wholly volunteer organization supported entirely by donations, to design and set up a web site for them. I agreed, charging them a bare minimum for the work. I would usually charge about a thousand dollars for a site of their magnitude, and I put the site up for less than a third of that. Remember that I am retired and live on a pittance. I have to sell art in order to even pay my utilities each month.

The site was done and I chose GoDaddy.com for the domain name and hosting. They are the rock-bottom cheapest host. The domain name and hosting for a two-year period came to a little over $165.00.

For the two years I maintained their site, taking volumes of photographs, making sure each fund raising event was posted ahead of time and each week I put up a photo of their "Pet of the Week," a dog, cat or other small animal they had for adoption in their many kennels.

The domain name and hosting contract is due to renewal on Saturday, December 5th. I have been in frequent contact with them about getting it done. The renewals for two years would come to about the same amount... $165.

This morning I got an email from the staff asking me to post a notice on the site that due to severe drop off in donations, their Board of Directors has asked that the web site be shut down. They asked me to post a notice to that effect on the site.

I did.

This saddens me to no end. I know that they are not the only organization suffering in these pitiful times. But I feel for the animals. I feel for the loss of this resource on the Internet that allows people to see the work they do at the Humane Society and the pets they have in their care.

I wish that I could do something. I have not charged them for the maintenance I do, but I cannot pay their fare. Jondude can barely pay for his own four cats' maintenance.

So if you want to see their site before the thing gets shut down on Saturday, go to https://www.senecahumane.org Link to site