Avis A Townsend

Hello:

     Welcome to my website. Things are moving along at the Townsend household.  After five years of meetings, writing, editing, and scanning photos, the Penney biography is about to be released.  For more information on that, click on "Who is Charles Rand Penney" at the lower left.

    Now that the Penney book is complete, I can finish my work on my memoir, "A Lifetime With Pets."  It has been difficult working on that, as I have had many animals in my long life, and writing about some of them has brought tears to my eyes more than once.  I miss them all, but some more than others.  I am hoping to educate people on how to care for pets using the mistakes I have made and seen in my life. Proceeds of that book will go to my charity All For Pets of Western NY (www.all4petswny.org) 

    When that book is completed, I will finish the story of my horse, Brandy, with proceeds going to Horse Rescue and Sanctuary of Western New York.  I guess you can tell I am animal oriented.

     For many years, I wrote fiction under my nickname of Avie Townsend, and then I discovered Arcadia Publishing, compiling five historical town books for them under my real name.  The more I thought of it, the more I decided it was silly to have two names.  Thus, this website and more information for my "fans."

     I am a Baby Boomer, and I live on a "gentlemen's farm" with my husband, possibly 20 cats (some feral), four dogs and nine equines.  The cats are all rescues, eight horses are rescues, and the dogs just sort of appeared into my life.  In addition to my farm family, I have two children, four grandchildren, and two delightful toddler boys that call me Grandma also.  So I tell everyone we have six grandchildren.

     I have always loved animals, and since my retirement from a local school district in 2002, I have become more involved in animal welfare.  I am an advocate of the ASPCA, as well as our local Niagara County (NY) Save-A-Pet organization and Horse Rescue and Sanctuary of Western New York.

     From my association with the members of Horse Rescue, another woman and I have established the above-mentioned non-profit animal/people help charity called A Lifeline for Pets in Western NY.  (www.ALL4PETSWNY.org).  Similar to the national United Animal Nation, this charity provides emergency funding for a well-cared-for animal whose owner cannot provide necessary funds to save its life.  The charity benefits poor, elderly or sick people who love their pets, but because of their limited income will have to euthanize the animal if financial help can't be obtained.

         Read more on the above topics and my other endeavors on the following web pages.

My Goals in Life

I am hoping, by way of my writing, to spread the word and educate people about the plight of the neglected and abused pets of the world, including horses, dogs and cats.

It took years for women to get rights, then children to get them, and now perhaps people will consider the long-suffering dog, tied to a short chain with no water in the summer, or stuck outside in a snowbank in the winter.  And cats that live on farms cannot live on mice alone, they are not "a dime a dozen" as some claim, and letting them breed and die should be a crime.  And finally, horses are not food.

This is me, taken at a friend's wedding reception.  A friend told me I looked like my hair was cut with a bowl on my head, so now my hair is longer and lighter.  I miss those glasses, however.  They were like having no glasses at all.  Why can't manufacturers just keep something when it's good?

 This is my darling Brandy, a mustang captured in Ely, Nevada in 1991 and adopted by me.  We had 13 lucky years together, soulmates 'til the end, until she died of a sinus infection that ate into her brain in October, 2004.

Life just hasn't been the same without her. 

Her story, and many others, will be told on upcoming pages.