Sanctuary animal updates:
Since our last update on January 31 st, the following dogs were adopted; MINDY!!!!!!, Trendy, Van, Gail, Blitz, Pietra (again), Liberty, Mya, Eddie, Tilly, Diesel, Oscar, TC, Pepper, Lil Bit, Tino, and two kittens – Precious and Tammy.
Intakes
In the past few weeks we took in: Leo, a beautiful, handsome guy from another shelter that was closing (Animal Haven in Flushing, Queens). Leo has some serious guarding issues and would bite when trying to protect his toys. He is being worked with by our staff and in the past two weeks has made TREMENDOUS progress!
We also took in three young rottie/shepherd girls. They are all between 1-2 years old and had some extreme shyness problems. Already one of them is adopted, one is doing much better and is friendly (although still timid at first meeting with people) and the staff is now moving on to work with the third. So far she has been more resistant but she went from having to be removed from the transport with a rabies pole to being free in the kitchen and then being able to walked on a leash. Lots of progress with these poor souls, destined for euthanasia. The dog staff here is just incredible and they had the help of Donnor the doggie ambassador. Donnor has been a great help in calming down frightened dogs and showing them that the staff is not there to hurt them. We put lots of shy dogs with him, or aggressive dogs ,and he seems to soothe them all.
We also took a sweet pitbull from Georgia. We got a plea from a fellow rescuer in Connecticut. This sweet young pit came in to a high kill shelter in Georgia, with his brother. The brother was rescued because he was fawn colored, but since this one (TC) was black he was left behind. The shelter she works for won’t take in pitbulls. So sad. They are such wonderful dogs. How unfair to them. She paid for his vetting and his transport and we took him in. He has already been adopted, and gets along fine with in his new home with a variety of other animals! He was a really special dog and his adopter and rescuer saw that. Thank goodness he didn’t go down. Have a great life TC!
We also took in nine dogs from Tennessee. Phyllis is a rescuer that does amazing work down there in an area that simply doesn’t care about animals. She was recently hit with some serious crises and needed to get out of rescue for a while to tend to her family We took nine of the dogs that she had left in her rescue. Already five of them are spoken for and will be going home this weekend.
We also took in a sweet young beagle. This poor little girl was out in the streets of Sullivan County for over a year. Since October, some kind people had been trying to capture her, and have been leaving some food for her. They asked if we could help. We said “Of course!” and took great pity on this poor dog, because the weather has been absolutely brutal. We lent them a dog trap and explained how to go about capturing her. They caught her the very next day! She is a little sweetheart and she has some minor medical issues (some scrapes and cuts and very thin) but is already putting on weight and coming out of her shell, wagging to see us, and I think very happy to be caught. We plan to get her adopted quickly as she really deserves a loving family. This poor thing has been through so much.
We also took in an elderly dog – Meeko. Meeko is eleven years old and has survived TWO owners. Her latest owner, an elderly man, just died and no one would take Meeko. She was destined for euthanasia even though there is nothing wrong with her. We took her in and now she is the “volunteer lounge dog”. She is the biggest doll! She is so well behaved and cuddly and friendly with dogs, cats, kids, people – there isn’t a single fault to her. She is house trained and well behaved. We can’t say enough about her. Everyone who walks in falls in love with her and no one can believe she is that old. She acts like she is about six or seven. We took her in not thinking there would be a chance for her to go to another home but after getting to know her I believe that we WILL find her a forever home. She is just too amazing to be here long, and either way, she didn’t deserve to die. Come and meet her! (That’s her laughing at the thought of being stuck here for the rest of her life. She finds that hilarious).
We also took in another cat. An FIV cat. Sigh. I know, I know. I always say I will not take in any more cats but I can’t seem to help when they are really in need. This very affectionate cat was just three years old, already spayed and up to date on shots. There was nothing wrong with her but she was being put down because she tested positive for FIV. It was so sad. The vet called us and said the cat was just so wonderful they couldn’t stand to have to do it. I couldn’t say no. This is one more cat than our FIV room should really have, although Dale says this one isn’t over taxing the room yet but we will have to say no to any more than come this way unless someone can adopt one of them. Please consider adopting an FIV cat. You can get your other cats vaccinated (although that is not foolproof) and we can teach you how to introduce them to your current cats. FIV cats can live a very long and happy life. The new FIV kitty is named Ginny.
Animal Updates:
Kingfish is doing MUCH better! Turned out he had a serious abscess under his hoof, very deep, that finally could be diagnosed. The vet had to dig very deeply to get it, but immediately after it was lanced, he offered a huge sigh of relief and was able to move much better. Brittany has been taking excellent care of him, soaking his feet in epsom salts, bandaging and rewrapping him every day and inspecting his wound and now he is almost back to normal. We are all really relieved. He also has not become cast again. Thanks to all your support for this special guy.
We also got to see Old Buddy today! His new family stopped in with him for a visit! He looks great. He is still senile and a little confused, but he is obviously very well cared for and content. (Look at him in his little green sweater, is he not the cutest?) Likewise Hercules stopped in for a visit too. Hilarious. This HUGE dog sitting in the passenger seat of a pickup. It was great to see him again too.
On another note, Tangerine – a very overweight cat that lives in the Wood Room, broke her leg this week. OUCH. She was rushed to the vet where she had her leg splinted. We think because of her weight she must have jumped and landed wrong and broke the leg that way. Vet checked her out thoroughly and she is in a private room now recovering. We may have a foster mom for her during her recovery though and are waiting to hear back if that will work. Poor Tangerine. At least being isolated this way will help us to work on her weight issue.
Sheba, our kitchen cat, had a lump on her nose that we had removed this week. She is back in the kitchen, looking great and feeling so much better! Becky is really glad as that is her favorite cat (as long as we don’t let the other cats know). We are having the lump tested to make sure there is nothing more ominous at work here, but so far she is doing just great.
Special Needs
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Any of you that have seen our kennel kitchen knows it is just disgusting. Years of rodent, water, and animal damage have caused the cabinets to smell, rot, have chew holes and just be foul and disgusting. We have few doors left on the upper cabinets, the sink barely works and has to be shored up since the legs are rotted and the shelves are mostly falling apart, gone or broken. We need to fix the kitchen. New cabinets, new sink, fresh paint, and John Heads from Avalon Hill Woodworking (Custom cabinets, moldings, carpentry: 845-386-5500) is doing all the work for us for FREE. He is only charging us for material. OK, so here is the begging. Material alone for cabinets in that much space is going to be over $2000, plus a new sink is $500, plus the countertops, $400. Sigh. So we are looking about $3000 which anyone that knows kitchens knows is dirt cheap. We have cut corners everywhere, gotten discounts where we could but it is still a hefty amount. No one should have to work in those conditions though and the kitchen just has to be done over. Staff needs a clean, comfortable, sanitary environment in which to work and prepare the dogs food, clean bowls and eat lunch. Please help us with this expense. We really need you. |
Thank you:
Thank you to Laura and John for the new Pets Alive sign! Yes indeed, we will FINALLY have a sign for outside that says Pets Alive. I am really excited about this. John made the sign up for us for free, as well as some other signage you’ll start see going up soon. Laura and John are also helping to run some fund raisers for us. On April 19th at 7:00 we will be at the Comedy Club on 211 – the whole place is ours for the night with comedians, food and drink and we’re looking forward to a great find raiser and fun event. More information on that soon. Laura is also running a grooming business out of Pets Alive and while we are giving her the space, in return they are donating back 10$ of all proceeds. We’ll let you know more about that soon too. So thank you to Laura and John for all the amazing work you have been doing on behalf of Pets Alive.
Thanks Becky for our new Zazzle store! Becky created this for us where you can buy stamps that say Petsalive.com on the bottom and feature the animals of Pets Alive. So far we have two cat stamps and an air Cam stamp. We’ll be adding more I am sure, so keep your eye on it. What a great way to spread the word about Pets Alive and help raise some funds.
Thank you to Toni who convinced her WONDERFUL friends (Dr. Jeffrey Wallach by way of Courtney Shanley), to donate to us a used horse trailer and a soda machine. The soda machine needs a compressor (anyone know where we can get one?) and I think it will be great to have down at the lounge. The trailer is such a coup for us. We have NO WAY to get the horses to the vet in emergencies. This is a four horse stock trailer and while it needs some oil and some paint, it is in excellent solid condition. Brittany can also start working with the horses to teach them to load properly too. The trailer was such a necessity. We are really grateful to have it. Anyone wanna come down and paint it and oil it up for us? Thank you so much to Toni, Dr. Jeff and Courtney. We are VERY grateful for these great donations.
Special thanks to the Litchult family. they have been coming down here a few times a week and walking all the dogs, they adopted Eddie from us and they also have been running a fund raiser for us by making home made dog biscuits and selling them! So far they have brought us over $60 in doggie biscuit funds! Thanks guys. Always a pleasure to see you all here.
Darrick, our young volunteer, continues to come very week with his mom. This is an amazing kid and he is GREAT with the dogs. He REALLY manages to bring the shyer dogs out of the their shell with patience and love and they really respond to him. It also teaches them not to be afraid of children. He is a real doll and recently he and his mom rescued a kitten that had some serious medical issues. We were unable to take that kitten in and so they are still caring for it as best they can. If anyone would be willing to sponsor that kitties medical care, Pets Alive would be able to help them by maybe taking in this ill kitty.
Carmine continues to be an absolute saint around here. We’ve been having some thermostat issues in the puppy room – it is either 90 degrees or freezing. He’s been working hard to get that issue resolved for us, as our puppies are delicate and need careful temperature control. Pam was singing his praises this week too for hanging a folder basket for her. She says he dropped everything he was doing and put it right up for her. Husbands should only be trained so well, eh?
Last but not least this month we would like to GREATLY thank and appreciate Jeff and Jennifer Clune. They own Deerpark Oil: 845-856-6565. After reading our last newsletter they contacted us to see how they could help. Jeff wound up coming down here, looking over our needs and is servicing our furnace, fixing the incorrect installation aspects of it and they also gave us an absolutely phenomenal deal on our future oil deliveries. They have been FABULOUS. If you’re unhappy with your oil company, or you just want to support the companies that support us – please call them and give them your business. We are really grateful to them for their help.
Please consider helping us continue our mission
of finding homes for animals in need!