The Bigbee Humane Society opened its new thrift shop on Saturday at104 S. Walnut Ave. across the street from the Rosenbush Building in Demopolis, and will open in on the first Saturday of the month.

It depends on people donating usable items to the Humane Society to sell. The thrift shop will take furniture, appliances, books and many other items except for clothes.

“It’s going really well,” said Lucille Carpenter of the city’s animal control shelter. “Earlier, Savannah Barkley totaled it up and said we made more than $1,000 within the first three hours.”

Carpenter said there were a lot of people waiting at the door when the shop opened at 8 a.m.

The Bigbee Humane Society provided hot dogs, cookies and drinks, and also brought along some dogs of the four-legged variety in hopes of finding adoptive homes for them.

Carpenter said that people who want to donate items to be sold may bring it to the animal control office at 809 E. Jackson St., and they will store it in one of their buildings and bring it to the thrift shop at a later time.

Carpenter can be contacted at the animal control office at (334) 289-3879.

“If people want to make donations of items for next month, all they have to do is call 289-4557 or 289-4764, and we might be able to arrange to pick it up before then,” said Cindy McDonald, a member of the Bigbee Humane Society board of directors. “They can also bring it to the animal shelter.

“People are bringing us a lot of nice stuff; it’s not what you would expect to see at a thrift shop! We did really well for our first day. Now, if we can just find homes for these dogs as quick as we made sales, we would be doing great! But, that will come.”

The Bigbee Humane Society has also written grants in an effort to raise money to build a permanent shelter and provide food, water and other needs for the animals.

The Bigbee Humane Society is adopting animals from the animal control center, spaying or neutering them and trying to find good homes for them, charging only the cost of spaying or neutering them.

Rosemary Shows is training the dogs to obey simple commands, utilizing the training she got from a school in Texas.

The thrift shop will re-open on Saturday, Aug. 7, from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m.