Yesterday you good people stepped up to the heat at our annual Austin Chronicle Hot Sauce Festival to help the Capital Area Food Bank of Texas: Today, the homeless animals of Austin need your help as the Austin Humane Society finds itself in dire need. Their AC has burnt out, and they need homes for their animals now.

First, the hot sauce news. The final tally is in, and here are the numbers:

Money raised: $17,023.55

Total pounds of food: 18,637

That means a total of 14,909 meals will be distributed, and that is an enormous help in these terrible economic times.

Now for the Austin Humane Society. Early on Sunday morning a problem with the city’s power supply meant that three motors on their cooling system burned out. Now they need two things. First, homes for all their animals: All the critters are being cooled with fans and ice today, but to get them out of this heat as fast as possible the society is waving all adoption fees.

Secondly, and this is the biggie, the broken AC will cost $12,000 to fix. If you can help, they are taking donations via their website.

Don’t forget, you can also still make a donation to Capital Area Food Bank at www.austinfoodbank.org.

This article appears in August 26 • 2011.

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The Chronicle's first Culture Desk editor, Richard has reported on Austin's growing film production and appreciation scene for over a decade. A graduate of the universities of York, Stirling, and UT-Austin, a Rotten Tomatoes certified critic, and eight-time Best of Austin winner, he's currently at work on two books and a play.