Animal Updates
Since my last update on September 26th the following animals were adopted: Poco, Chuckie, Lacey, Zing, Shelby, Poncho, Sassy, Luke, Max, Bobby, Utica, Dixie, Fifi, Cheetah (but she came back), Dudley, Zip, Draco, Tina, Maryann, and the following cats – Sissy, Morgan and Pumpkin.
We took in about 30 dogs that were abandoned in Hurricane Gusatav and we’re taking in 11 more this Saturday. Many of these dogs have heartworm (eight of them!), which costs us $600 EACH to treat. Fifteen of them still need to be spayed and neutered ($150 each). Please consider making a donation to help us treat these dogs for heartworm and get them all vetted. They have surely gone through enough and could use a break.
We have two new senior citizens in residence at Pets Alive. Buddy (who is the pet of the month and featured on our front page) was surrendered to us when his owner entered hospice. Her sons were really devastated at the prospect of losing their mom and then also having to put her elderly dog down. They called everywhere and no one would take an elderly dog with medical issues. We did. Buddy is a sweet dog but very confused here at Pets Alive. We don’t have him in a kennel or a run, we have him instead with Copper (pictures here with Becky) in the office. Copper is a wonderful dog and one of the Hurricane Gustav dogs. We were just planning on boarding Copper here until he could be moved to a safe place but we all fell deeply in love with this really spunky, friendly, generous dog. Copper is really a treasure. We don’t know how he came to be in the position he is – alone and abandoned – and we can’t understand it either. This is a really special dog and I have absolute confidence that he will find a home, as his personality is so warm and he is so easy going and easy to care for that he would be an asset to any home.
Continue to VOTE to win us $10,000!
Pets Alive can win $10,000 with YOUR votes! PLEASE vote and spread to ALL your friends. We are close to the top already (we are 12 from the highest votes!!) & desperately need more votes to put us over the top! Can you ask your kids to put it on their Facebook pages? Send it to THEIR friends? Add it to their MySpace accounts? Please! This is the easiest money we’ll ever make and we’re in the top 12 now! There are over 6000 people on this email list. If everyone voted we would have 3x the amount of votes we needed to win. Please vote for Pets Alive, and ask your friends to help. This is a very easy way for us to raise money! They will not send you spam, and when you vote you can opt out of ANY mailings. Vote for us and send this link to your friends: http://www.care2.com/animalsheltercontest/75578/?refer=1821.09.1222221321.3728
Are you an Educator?
Pets Alive is planning to start an education program. We get lots of requests to bring classes down here or to go to classes to speak about animal care and animal issues. We’d like to start doing that. In the beginning this would amount to maybe once or twice a month and we are looking for a volunteer that could help us teach these classes onsite and in schools. Eventually we will make it a paid position as the demand and the outreach program expands. Are you an educator? Could you help us with a curriculum and class program? We looked over some free material at sharetheworld.com and it had some great starts to what we want to do. Can anyone help us with this? We’d be interested in having someone work up some lesson plans – simple but fun for students (we have students of varying ages though so we’ll need to plan that in) with some hands on at our shelter or with animals we could bring to the schools. Thoughts, input and assistance are welcome.
Thank you!
Special thanks to Tetz and especially Bobby. Some of our dog runs were totally under water every time it rained and we constantly had to shift dogs to drier runs or put them inside the kennel. It’s been a real nightmare. Bobby once again came to Pets Alive rescue, having Tetz deliver 28 TONS of gravel to us at absolutely NO CHARGE. Carmine has been busy spreading it all over the dog runs and the difference is absolutely remarkable. This is the second time that Tetz (and the FABULOUS Bobby!) has come through for us. They are TRUE animal lovers over there and I could just weep with relief every time they help us. PLEASE SUPPORT THE COMPANIES THAT SUPPORT PETS ALIVE. Please use Tetz for all your business needs.
I didn’t have a picture last time of the great job that Sue and Marty did in decorating Pets Alive for Halloween. It’s so much fun, I wanted to share a picture this time with you. It doesn’t cover everything – the inside and the windows are decorated too, and a fake graveyard – it’s really great to look at. Thanks again Sue!
Extra special thanks to Becky, Deb and Deb. We HAD to get the Queens cats out of our kennel as we were in the middle of painting it. Deb was at wits end when I said they had to go as there were still 18 that they were working on placing. Janet came up with the great idea of using the room in the gray house garage that used to house cats! BRILLIANT! It has running water and heat! This would help buy Deb some more time! Uh oh. Problem. The yard sale left over items were packed into that room. I called Becky. She was at work. Could she help? She was already committed to doing something that weekend and here it was a Thursday night. She pulled it off, calling up Deb 1 and Deb 2 and all three showed up in the dark and worked hours clearing out the room. Sunday morning had Becky back with Toni and Cathy, and they (and Dale) moved all the cats into the new room. It was really amazing. Our volunteers are absolutely earth shattering and Becky NEVER EVER lets us down. Whatever the need, she fills it, or finds someone who can. Thanks to everyone who helped with this situation, especially Terry who comes in almost every day after work to do most of their care.
Have you seen the new kennel? It gorgeous! The guys have been coming in on their days off to get it finished in time for winter. The cages have all been painted a really happy bright yellow and the floors painted with an epoxy. This was a massive job, as first everything had to be pressure washed. Then stripped in two different applications, then pressure washed again, then sanded (thank you United Rentals (Rt. 6 in Middletown) for the deal on the sander!) and then painted. It’s been a lot of work but wait until you see it. It is such a NICE place now.
Additional thanks to Carmine for rerunning all the dog door wires. Carmine bought wire from an online company Fehr Bros. Industries – and included a note at the bottom stating that it was for a non-profit animal sanctuary and could they apply any discounts. He received two replies. The first from Victor Pagan, Account Mgr. It said: “I have reviewed your comment on your order. We at Fehr Bros. have decided to donate the cable to you free of charge. The order will ship today expect it on Monday or Tuesday.” The second comment was from the owner himself:
Thanks for your order thru our webstore for a reel of cable for repairing doors at your animal shelter. Many of us here at Fehr Bros. are devoted pet lovers and want to pass on our thanks for your efforts. As such, I have arranged for the reel to be sent to you at no charge as our small way of supporting your efforts. Best Regards, Fred Couse, President”. Thank you to Fehr brothers. This was a really welcome donation as the paint has run into hundreds of dollars (we could get no company to donate paint or even offer a discount unfortunately and epoxy is expensive!)
Thank you again to Irene – you remember she donated that wonderful printer/copier last month? She came back this month with an additional toner cartridge for it. Tonor cartridges are expensive, so this was quite a bonus for us! Thanks Irene, we’re really loving this new machine. Today we got a hub so we can connect everything to it. Yee-haw….
Thank you to Linda and Pam who have been working on the spots for the benefit. We have a table at the Sidewalk Angels Benefit and they are busy writing up blurbs about the dogs and cats here and taking pictures to go along with them. We’re hoping to get a lot of sponsors that night to help support our monthly costs for the animals here. If you have not sponsored a pet, won’t you consider doing so now? To sponsor a cat it is just $25, a dog, $35 and a horse is $85 a month. The monthly support is so needed and so appreciated. There are still a (very) few tickets left to the Rob Thomas event. More details on our webpage if you wish to attend! Thank you also to Linda, in general for helping out with so many things here at Pets Alive…every day.
Update on the 87 Queens, NY cats (written by Deb Wantauch)
Pets Alive answered our prayers and offered temporary housing for these wonderful creatures. This gave us the time we needed to re-home them. OUR PROFOUND THANKS TO KERRY, MATT, DALE, JANET AND LACE for all that you have done! We brought 52 feral/semi feral cats to Pets Alive. We placed 36 so far (including eight who were brought to a sanctuary in Arizona!). We are working nonstop to get the remaining 16 cats into new homes as well.
Like myself, the people working on this project have exhausted their personal funds and have gone into considerable debt. The costs have exceeded $11,000 and we need a few thousand more to see this through to the placement of the last remaining cat. Our reward has been the incredible joy we experience when we watch these cats frolicking, exploring and lazing about, now that they are in a healthy environment! If you feel inclined to donate, we will gladly accept some help! By clicking on the donate button on this page, your money will be channeled to the support of this particular rescue project. MAJOR THANKS!
We Have Kittens!
I know, I know. We are NOT taking in any cats. We are not, we are NOT. But what do you do when your own staff finds them in the road, emaciated, eyes a mess and sick and bring them in? Sigh. Of course we take them in, vet them, care for them and spay and neuter them…and then do what we do best – find them all good homes. Unfortunately between staff and volunteers bringing us poor abandoned souls we are now up to SEVEN kittens here. HELP! Don’t make me turn these guys away. Help us by adopting them. They are absolutely adorable, if I do say so myself. This is Lynne one of our most dedicated volunteers being thanked by the kittens. Know anyone that is looking for a sweet bundle of fur? Send them to our adoption page to fill out an application, will ya?
This Month’s Special Needs
We have an elderly retired Carriage Horse here named Francis. Francis has chronic foot issues and the vet feels that maybe some biotin supplement might be helpful. We would appreciate a donation of this supplement as it is rather costly. Kerri (our adoption coordinator) also thought it might be helpful to have some of these ADOPT ME vests for when we bring dogs to events. Would anyone consider buying a few of various sizes that we can put on our dogs when we take them to fund raisers or other events? This month we also have a need for Preventic Collars (for our lifers – since they will not be adopted we are looking to get some Preventic Collars on them), duct tape, paper towels, Murphy’s oil soap, Libmann wonder mop mopheads, bleach, blankets (the dogs will be coming in to the kennel soon and we like to put a blanket on each Kuranda bed), and corn oil.
We could also use a donation of a Kuranda bed. The large size or medium is most helpful as we have very few small dogs here and we rarely keep those dogs in kennels.
We have also been INUNDATED with LEAVES! If you want to come and help rake leaves please come any time! You’ll see when you get to the front door of the brick house – we’re buried under yellow and red!
Please consider helping us continue our mission
of finding homes for animals in need!