In 2003, a Weatherly man got a special birthday present.

Tommy Reese’s pit bull, Buffett, was born on Reese’s birthday and the two instantly bonded.

“He was born in my kitchen on my birthday and we’ve been inseparable ever since.”

Buffett died earlier this year, and Reese was hit hard. Depression set in, and it wasn’t until he saw a sign, “Be the person your dog thinks you are,” that he decided to do something.

Reese, who works at Eastern Metal Recycling in Hazleton, decided that he wanted to honor his dog’s memory by doing a fundraiser for the Carbon County Animal Shelter in Nesquehoning.

“For the month of May I’m asking all of our customers when they pull on my scale with their scrap if they would like to donate some of their metal to a separate roll-off box. Each time the box gets filled, we weigh it, price it and put it under an account I set up for the Carbon County Animal Shelter,” Reese said. “Plus I’ve been running to people’s houses with my truck to pick up scrap and taking it directly to the animal shelter box as well.”

Some people are making special trips just to donate scrap, and even making monetary donations.

Reese said that everyone he asked was cooperative and supportive so far.

This isn’t the first time Reese and his employer helped local shelters.

“Two years ago our main office in Camden, New Jersey, had an animal shelter supply drive,” Reese said. “I asked if I could participate, but donate to my local shelters. I collected well over $5,000 worth of supplies and I donated to several animal shelters, I think I took eight full truck loads.”

Last year, Reese didn’t participate because Buffett’s health was failing and he wanted to spend as much time with him as he could. After he died he came up with this idea, to see if he could raise some money for more unfortunate animals in the shelter

“My main goal is to make this very successful so maybe our other scrap yards will take notice and do the same thing and help their local shelters,” Reese said.